There is a coffee shop chain called Bitty & Beau’s that is staffed with entirely disabled individuals, mostly those with Down Syndrome. There is one in Savannah that is a JOY for me to visit. I get weepy seeing our kids valued and given proper places in society rather than being underestimated and tucked away needlessly and to their detriment.
We have a few of their coffee cups in our cabinets, and on the back they say, #NotBroken. It is a beautiful sentiment that is meant to be a lifting up of those who have been treated as if they are “lesser than,” but it is factually incorrect.
The reality is that EVERYONE is broken. There is a functioning difference between those who are described as “neurotypical” as opposed to “neurologically impaired” (insert whatever terms from what ever time period and/or society you choose) that has become confused with a difference in value. It is the phenomenon that Temple Grandin was referencing when she and her mother defiantly declared that she was “different, not less.”
If you have read anything I have written you know that I believe that the single, unifying character trait of all humans is their brokenness. You, Me, Mother Theresa, and Hitler. If I could order wrap around services for all of us, I would do it. But there is no budget for that. Or rather God’s plan was for those services to come from Him and from all of us holding each other up, but humanity has not really embraced that plan as much as I still hope it will.
All of us are broken. It is not that those with Autism or Down Syndrome, or insert diagnosis here need to be “brought up to our level” it is that the rest of us need to face our impairments, walk humbly with them, and understand that our higher functioning in some areas does not put us on any other value level than those with “lower functioning” in those areas.
President Trump certainly is higher functioning in life than my son, but one of these two men has a crippling hubris problem, while the other is quite good at learning humbly. I will leave you to guess which.
Is one of these two men more broken than the other? Is one more valuable than the other?
I got into a discussion today with someone on Twitter, and it was a discussion I have been having with people online since I started my little mommy blog in 2004. That somehow those who are vaccine injured are “less than” those who are not.
In 2007 I wrote a six part series on this called, “Autism in God’s Economy. This article serves as an updated, digest version of the lengthy discussion I wrote there, so feel free to read the original if you are so inclined.
This idea, that, if your “autism” is the result of vaccine injury you are “damaged” but if you are born with it, you are… what… more than? Somehow better off? Has anyone really thought that through? I feel like if more people did, they would reject it outright.
If two 25-year-olds sit next two one another in a day program, both learning the task of making scrambled eggs, one has trisomy 21 and the other was in a massive car accident on the way home from his first day of Harvard Law, which one is of more value? Which one is less than? Which one one is broken? Which one is damaged? Why is this even a discussion?
Are they not two beloved and valuable individuals who need to learn how to cook breakfast? Why is there a distinction?
Will my value be less if one day I become more impaired by any mechanism and need to learn how to cook breakfast again?
I have been blessed with an exceptional mother who has cared for me in a million ways over all my decades (and for anyone who ever entered our home), but she can’t make breakfast for herself anymore. The thought of anyone believing that she is less than makes me very, very angry.
Back in the bad old days one society actually had formal titles for individuals that distinguished “Gentlemen” from “Morons.” We fully recognize how evil that was and we don’t do that any more.
And isn’t every unspoken “less than” judgement made in our hearts just us lying to ourselves that we are somehow “more than?” Better than? Morally and/or functionally superior to? How we do love to be generous with ourselves, pile up our accomplishments and attributes into a tiny mole hill, and stand on it to look down on others in our superiority. It is the true, American past time. Would Twitter be anywhere without our collective narcissism?
So why, if an unvaccinated person with “autism” since birth, is put next to my vaccine injured son, is there a distinction made that the former is somehow in a more desirable state than the latter?
Honestly, it kinda makes me want to fight those who believe my WONDERFUL son is in a lesser state. He is not “lesser than” in any way from anyone else with or without autism, vaccine injury, any other diagnosis, or any other impairment great or small. Or no detectable impairment at all.
My beautiful, joyful son is not “lesser” than anyone alive. He is broken, and so is everyone else.
The Christian worldview, and the American value system based on it, is that EVERYONE matters to the same extent. That everyone is created equal. That a creator God determines our value, that we are all impaired, and that he considers us all bearers of his image.
No one is any more than anyone else, and we are all “less than God.” But God does not care! That he loves us all and died for us all and “stands at the door and knocks” for us ALL!
So I reject any value system that says my son is more “damaged” than anyone else.
You are not your brain functioning.
You are not your sense of smell.
You are not your mitochondrial output.
You are not the quality of your handwriting.
You are not your resume.
You are a soul created and loved by God, who was given a body that is subject to all of the vulnerabilities that individual bodies have in this fallen world.
And EVERY BODY is broken.
The source of your “autism” has nothing to do with your value. Autism causation and the value of individuals with “autism” are as far apart as Los Angeles and Wakanda. They are not even on the same map. One is a matter of science, the other of philosophy.
So let us all collectively reject the Very American Lie that our functioning is our value. IMHO it is a much better lie than ye Olde European Lie that your rank at birth is your value, but it is a lie nonetheless.
It is not, “vaccines cause autism OR those with autism are valuable.”
It is, “vaccines cause autism AND those with autism are valuable.”
Again, I reject any philosophy that equates causation with value. They are two different, mutually-exclusive things, and I am happy to have two separate discussions of each. But they should NEVER be considered together.
Everyone is broken, AND everyone has value.
I can very much relate to this. I coached Special Olympics for 20 years, and even though I was our most experienced volleyball coach I insisted on being the head coach for our level D team which was mostly Downs Syndrome kids and adults. They were delightful, and my all-time favorite team to coach (even though we were not supposed to have favorites...).
I got into Special Olympics through my older brother who was Downs Syndrome, he was the most emotionally healthy person I have ever met.
Beautiful.