WE BELIEVE IN SOLIDARITY

“I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people.” 
― Eduardo GaleanoI am so humbled by our communities’ demonstrations of solidarity. And it’s a great opportunity to bring awareness to some ideas and political framings that have been unearthed in the last few days.For much of modern history in the US, the majority of depictions of people with disabilities were for one purpose – charity.  Our stories were used, our bodies displayed, pitied, and given money to – as an act of demonstrating that “well, at least I’m not in their shoes”….It’s been very provocative for me to be named as the person needing access support, and to be asking for monetary resources to get that access.  Not only has it raised the historical spectre of a stooped figure crying out for “alms for the poor cripple”, but my own memories of being a poster child for the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Jerry Lewis Telethon and being explicitly spoken about as someone that on-lookers should feel sorry for, to give money toward, as a way of appeasing guilt and (unconsciously) appease fate – not that the funds went to folks with disabilities or our families, mind you.  The money went to the disability charities – to maintain their bureaucracies, to further research, to increase awareness of the “horror” of birthing more “like us”.This Indie GoGo campaign is an opportunity to call out this ableist trope and ask people to move into conscious disruption of ableism. Push back against this ableist stereotype and DEMONSTRATE SOLIDARITY!!   -- Patty Berne, Director

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting our time.

But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine,

then let us work together.”

― Aboriginal activists group, Queensland