Kennedy Family Member Almost Gets it

According to a new story in the Boston Globe, hundreds of thousands of refugees are not getting the care and oportunities they need for a simple reason: they're disabled.

Jean Kennedy Smith (a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland) does an admirable job of pointing attention to this plight, but she misses something that a lot of people miss. Read this excerpt and see if you notice it too:

We know from witnessing many examples of remarkable people who have overcome the barriers surrounding disabilities that they, too, possess skills, knowledge, and experience that can help them remake their lives and rebuild their communities.

Now, let's not be unfair, because she comes so much farther in her article than many people. Most folks think of people with disabilities as "those people" eligible for little more than pity. Ms. Kennedy Smith apparently knows the reality (that people with disabilities are valuable), because she had an immediate family member with a disability, her sister, Rosemary.

But we're still missing that last little step in realizing the worth of people with disabilities. Ms. Kennedy Smith believes that they are valuable because 'they too, possess skills, knowledge, and experience.' Oh, she comes close. But truth is truth: people with disabilities are not valuable because of the things they can do (nor are we), nor are they valuable just because they're disabled. They are valuable because they reflect the image of God and thereby have an equal and immeasurable capacity to reflect His love and grace, to be living testimonies, just as we are called to be.

But let's not quibble too much, for Ms. Kennedy Smith's got a big head start on most of us. Most folks don't even realize that there's any value at all to the life of someone who's disabled. Not only has Ms. Kennedy Smith realized this truth, she's passed it on to her son William, who started the International Disability Rights Monitor. Not only that, but she herself started a group called VSA Arts. We can learn a lot from the Kennedy family.

Oh, and William's work on the International Disability Rights Monitor reminds me about the UN Treaty on Disabilities. Click here to read about it, and click here to get your legislative representatives to get the United States signed up. We STILL haven't signed on. Let's get this done!