ABSTRACT
The values and beliefs that inspire that vision—the suppression of women, death for those who disagree, the dismissal of peace, the rejection of democracy and human rights—are a threat to those who seek a world of justice and care. Ultimately, if religion and politics are to remake the world, they both require a kind of hope. A war veteran in the world’s richest country, Kovic did not suffer from the poverty that afflicts paralysis victims throughout most of the world. Yet he had clearly internalized the generalized social meaning of disability: that it creates a useless life; that along with the ability to get an erection, it destroys manhood; that it ends the possibility of love. In a heart-wrenching narrative, Kovic overcomes his depression and is eventually propelled toward political activism against the war.
