ABSTRACT
We must learn to have pride in who we are. I’m very proud of being a disabled person. I didn’t choose it, but I’m proud as hell that I’ve been able to do what I have with my life. And I’m getting prouder all the time as I look out and I see you and thousands of other disabled people joining us and saying, “We are not going to take it, it’s time we got involved and turned this around.” No one else will do it for us. If we have learned one thing from the civil rights movements in the United States it’s that when others speak for you, you lose. When you aren’t powerful or at least perceived as being powerful, you will gain very little success. We are not begging for our rights, we’re demanding our rights. We’re not going to sit out and wait for them; we’re going to sit in the streets if that’s what it takes. 1
