Born in Northern Ireland, Eamonn McGirr began his career not as the lively, captivating performer he is now known as, but as a mathematics professor. I had the opportunity to meet and interview Mr. McGirr while working for the school newspaper. After interviewing Mr. McGirr it is easy to envision him amongst a classroom of young students. Not only is he articulate and engaging, but even more striking is the overwhelming sincerity and compassion he radiated throughout our conversation.
Mr. McGirr has been an active member of the disabled community for some time now. His main motivation to become an active participant has been his daughter Mareena. Mareena has cerebral palsy and Mr. McGirr has worked tirelessly to raise support for individuals living with C.P., as well as other disabilities. It comes with unfortunate irony that he, a bastion of strength for the disabled community, has recently suffered his own physical trauma. It was just over a year ago that Mr. McGirr suffered a spinal injury that has left him in a wheelchair, as well as severely limiting the movement in his hands.
During his six months in the hospital Mr. McGirr felt periods of great discouragement. He feared that his entire life would need reconstruction. There were even moments when the doctors had indicated that there was no hope that he would ever perform again. However, with the support of Mareena and his wife Mary, Mr. McGirr found hope when things seemed hopeless. After receiving a deluge of inspirational letters ranging from Governor Pataki to other individuals suffering their own personal disabilities, Mr. McGirr decided it was time to return home and begin his life again.
His stories were not sugar-coated...
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...e sums of money, every little bit helps. In spreading the word, we can get many small donations that together can make a real difference in the life of one individual.
Prior to our interview, I had only known Eamonn McGirr as the performer who sang tirelessly for 11 days and 20 minutes, breaking his fifth Guinness World Record - all in the name of the Center for the Disabled. However, after our interview, I had respect and admiration for a man who not only devoted himself to a cause, but has done so with a passion and fervor scarcely found. Eamonn McGirr has given himself fully to the disability movement and now, himself living with a disability, continues to work at full throttle. Mr. McGirr stands out as a pivotal and significant figure in the disability movement, and I believe he has set a precedent that will inspire and motivate generations to come.
The Moving Beyond Pity & Inspiration: Disability as a social Justice Issue by Eli Clare took place on April 16, 2014. Thinking about disability before this lecture I feel like I had a general idea of the things Eli spoke about. I attended a school were more than half of the students had a disability. The terms and stereotypes he mentioned I ha heard since sixth grade.
In her essay “On Being a Cripple,” Mairs describes her path of acceptance of her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis by declaring that she is a “cripple” in alternative to the more broadly acceptable terms: disabled or handicapped. Her essay is written with humor, satire, an open heart, and open eyes. Mair’s purpose is to describe her acceptances of her condition by using rhetorical elements and appeals, such as ethos and pathos, in order to allure her audience.
"On Being a Cripple" is an autobiographical essay by Nancy Mairs. The author was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her late twenties, and has since then lost full use of several limbs. Despite the stigma around the use of the word, Mairs refers to herself as a "cripple". With the use of this word she attempts to accept the reality of her situation without feeling sorry for herself. The author also demands the same of her readers and the people that she meets in her life. Mairs writes to those who wish to learn more about what it is like to live with this debilitating disease and how people react to it. She uses this essay to make a point about how society labels people while telling her story in a manner which cites examples from her life. She describes her life through everyday situations that occur when living with MS. Mairs does not have the same physical abilities that most of us don't think twice about, but she carries on with her life without the need for pity or a new vocabulary that attempts to make her condition seem less severe.
Mairs, Nancy. “On Being a Cripple.” Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Readings. 5th ed. Ed. Robert Atawan and Donald McQuade. Boston:Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 183-193. Print
Nancy Mairs, born in 1943, described herself as a radical feminist, pacifist, and cripple. She is crippled because she has multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a chronic disease involving damage to the nerve cells and spinal cord. In her essay Disability, Mairs’ focus is on how disabled people are portrayed, or rather un-portrayed in the media. There is more than one audience that Mairs could have been trying to reach out to with this piece. The less-obvious audience would be disabled people who can connect to her writing because they can relate to it. The more obvious audience would be physically-able people who have yet to notice the lack of disabled people being portrayed by the media. Her purpose is to persuade the audience that disabled people should be shown in the media more often, to help society better cope with and realize the presence of handicapped people. Mairs starts off by saying “For months now I’ve been consciously searching for representation of myself in the media, especially television. I know I’d recognize this self becaus...
A common definition of dreams according to “Patterns for College Writing” is “the symbolic representation of mental states”, but this sparse definition does not begin to encompass the complex mechanisms behind dreams and its effects on human culture around the globe. Dreams have long been the topics of folklore and urban legends. Since human beginnings, people have sought to uncover the origin of dreams. The ancient Greeks believed dreams came from the God Oneiroi. The Chinese believes that dreams happened when the hun or spirit leaves the body for the land of the dead. The Ishi Indians believed that dreams were sacred messages from the Gods. Yet even now, with the current technological and intellectual advancements, scientists and psychoanalysts have still to find the true reasons and meanings of these dreams. Some argue that dreams are the products of overactive subconscious minds while others argue that dreams are solely randomized emotions from the limbic system during sleep. Despite these contrasting theories, the truth of the matter is that the topic of dreams and the reasons behind them remain a mystery.
...beld person as equal and for society to take responsibility for their ignorance and become more open minded and accepting of those who may have less functioning ability or mental awareness of what is going on around themselves. Only recently has the (dis)Abeld community been given the spotlight through television shows such as Bones, or House, Or CSI have those with disabilities been given a platform to push over society’s negative stereotypes of ignorance and shown how despite limitations, those with limitations can indeed live happy and healthy lives. Despite much of the stigma that still exists towards those who are (dis)Abled, much success has been made and continues to be made because of the selfless determination of a select few who are determined not to be restrained by society’s ignorance and to make a difference in the world around them and for others.
In her article “Unspeakable Conversations” author Harriet McBryde Johnson took time to inform and familiarize her readers with the details and limitations placed upon her by her disability. In her article she walked her readers through her morning routine. She told them about the assistance she needs in the morning from transferring from bed to wheelchair, to morning stretches, to bathing, to dressing, to braiding her hair. She does this not to evoke pity but to give her readers a glimpse into her world. She wants her readers to know that the quality of a disabled person’s life relies solely on another’s willingness to assist. Because those with disabilities need assistance they are often viewed as burdens. Therefore, they see themselves as
‘“Now it’s my turn to make it better for generations that come after, which is why I’ve become, involved in disabilities issues”’ (Open University, 2016a).
In 1972, Geraldo Rivera with the help of Dr. Michael Wilkin of Staten Island's Willowbrook State School gained access to the institution and filmed the deplorable conditions the residents were living in. Now 25 years later the documentary reflects on four survivors of Staten Island's Willowbrook State School and their families. The family members give testimonials on how it felt to discover that their child had a disability, leave their loved ones in an institution, and the quality of care and services provided. The film also focuses on the progress made by the members that now live in group homes and the quality of their lives.
Abraham Harold Maslow was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a humanistic psychologist and was best known for “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” (Good Therapy, 2015). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes the following five levels in ascending order: physiological needs at the base, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization at the apex of the pyramid. A person must meet their needs in each level before continuing up the pyramid. Those who reach self-actualization know who they want to become in terms of talents, skills, and abilities (Groff & Terhaar,
It could be said that in modern industrial society, Disability is still widely regarded as tragic individual failing, in which its “victims” require care, sympathy and medical diagnosis. Whilst medical science has served to improve and enhance the quality of life for many it could be argued that it has also led to further segregation and separation of many individuals. This could be caused by its insistence on labelling one as “sick”, “abnormal” or “mental”. Consequently, what this act of labelling and diagnosing has done, is enforce the societal view that a disability is an abnormality that requires treatment and that any of its “victims” should do what is required to be able to function in society as an able bodied individual.
Persons with disabilities encounter countless environmental and societal barriers which affect their daily lives. There is numerous definitions worldwide and in Canada for the term “disability”, and debates about who is considered a person with a disability. Winkler gives an elaborate definition of this term which will be used to define disability throughout this paper. Above and beyond the general definition, Winkler states “Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others” (2009, p. 329). Winkler mentions that in addition
In the essay “Disability,” Nancy Mairs discusses the lack of media attention for the disabled, writing: “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anyone’s life.” An ordinary person has very little exposure to the disabled, and therefore can only draw conclusions from what is seen in the media. As soon as people can picture the disabled as regular people with a debilitating condition, they can begin to respect them and see to their needs without it seeming like an afterthought or a burden. As Mairs wrote: “The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time.” Looking at the issue from this angle, it is easy to see that many disabled people were ordinary people prior to some sort of accident. Mairs develops this po...
Early studies from a physician named Sigmund Freud played a role in psychologists studying dream analysis (Bernstein 149). According to Freud, dreams are wishes that may be unacceptable to the conscious mind and society. He assumed that dreams represented unsatisfied wishes and that they happened during a state of the unconscious (Bernstein 149). According to researcher Judd Marmor, Freud did not obtain the information without help from others. Ancient people studied dreams around 2000 B.C. in Egypt, way before Freud was even born. The “Dreaming and Modern Dream Theory” article goes into great details about the history of dreams. During the Biblical time period, dreams were viewed as communications from God. People regarded dreams seriously and they thought that they had specific meanings (“Dreaming and Modern Dream Theory”). This information proves that dreams were analyzed based on people’s perceptions, and not on pure facts. Each Individual’s perceptions were based solely off of their