You know how sometimes your brain makes connections between things and then stores it in a way that forever and always makes you think about those things together? For me that occurs with the 4th of July and disability. Let me explain. When I was a child, my parents would take me to a social/support group for kids who were missing limbs. It was a group called PALS, and I believe it was hosted by the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, TX. We didn’t attend often enough for me to have close friends there, but we went to several larger events. One summer in the late 1980s we were at a pool party with the group and all the talk was about how several of the members, especially the older teenage boys with missing limbs, had just had the opportunity to be extras in a movie that had been shooting in the area. It was a big deal because the main star was Tom Cruise who at the time was top of the A-list of actors.
The movie was of course, “Born on the Fourth of July,” a war protest film based on a true story about a young man who does his patriotic duty and joins the military to then get shipped off to Vietnam where he is wounded and ends up losing his legs. His disillusionment with the poor medical care he received at VA hospitals, the lack of support after he gave up so much for nothing, and the absurdity of the war in Vietnam to begin with sets him on a path of protest and trying to figure out how to live a life given everything. Or at least that is what I’ve read. I never actually saw the movie, my parents deeming it to mature for my young age, plus anything that questioned or protested any way the US was involved in war was not well regarded in my household growing up.
Nevertheless, that movie (and hence the very concept of the 4th of July) forever became associated with disability in my mind since all I really knew about it was that my friends who had limb differences were in it. As I have grown older and learned more history and seen how poorly our wounded veterans are treated, my sympathies have grown for their plight. The number of homeless vets on the streets who are missing limbs and/or wounded in less visible ways (PTSD, lingering effects of Agent Orange…) is heartbreaking. The supposed care they receive that limits the prosthetics they get to the most basic barely functional ones (often with a 1 prosthetic for life limit) and the wheelchairs they get that are often uncomfortable medical models that are a pain to use is far below the standard of care they should be receiving. For a country that rallies politically around cries to support the troops no matter what, it often fails to do so when it comes to the troops that were wounded in service to the country.
So, disability has been at the forefront of my mind as it is every year at this time, but this year it is even more poignant. With July being Disability Pride Month, I’ve been trying to consider the ways that life could be made better for those of us with disabilities. Yet at the same time the government, the very week of July 4th, is trying to pass the poorly named “Big Beautiful Bill” that promises to take away medical access from 17 million people in this country – most of them disabled and/or elderly. Instead of trying to make life even the tiniest bit better for the disabled, they are signing a death sentence for many of us. Vice President Vance flippantly refers to the 17 million losing their health insurance as immaterial. And other lawmakers ignorantly say that if people want health care, they can just get a job (ignoring the fact that most employers do not offer health insurance at all and that no one is hiring 80-year-old grandmas with Alzheimer’s who can’t walk).
I care about my country. I also care for the people who live here, especially those with disabilities. When you care for something, you want the best for it. True patriotism would involve loving and supporting all the members of a country – especially those that risked life and limb (and lost some) to fight for the country whether those wars were justified or not. It is hard to want to celebrate “freedom” this year when I consider the freedoms to access health care that many are losing. Like my friends who played disabled vets protesting the policies that sent them to a needless war and then discarded them afterwards, we the disabled of the United States raise our voice in protest of laws meant to harm us.
July 4th isn’t always a day of celebration; it is also a remembrance of revolution.
