community

Community Over Institutions

Turnip Friend2 Comments

“We Can’t Go Back” by Ricardo T. Thornton Sr.

Summary:

This piece begins with speaker Ricardo T. Thornton Sr. stating the statistic that close to 92,000 people still live in institutions and large public and private facilities for people with intellectual disabilities despite their quality of life being so poor as a result of the harmful structure of these facilities. As someone who grew up in an institution, Thornton describes how no one ever attempted to teach the residents anything or all them to make any decisions for themselves. Even as basic information as who they were related to wasn’t something the staff thought they should know, and Thornton describes how he didn’t know he had a brother and sister living at the institution with him. Thornton goes more into depth about his life story, from leaving the institution to marrying his wife who is another person with an intellectual disability. Both him and his wife are important, active, and productive members of their communities and advocate for change, because all people are more able to thrive in community environments where they are supported by others, have a expectations placed on them, and are given opportunities to enjoy their lives in the way they want to and make their presence known to a community audience.

Quotes:

“People need to have high expectations for people with disabilities because then they’ll give them opportunities to learn and grow” (Wong, 87).

“When I was at Forest Haven, I had a chance to go to the cottage that had the people with the most severe disabilities, who mostly stayed in bed all day. Someone at Forest Haven got a grant so that we went in, gave people musical instruments, and played music while they played along. They loved it and never wanted to go back to their beds” (Wong, 88).

Reflection:

The section I most emotionally connected with in this piece is where Thornton describes how those living in the cottage who had the more severe disabilities at Forest Haven were given the opportunity to use musical instruments and engage with each other and others in a fun and expressive way. The fact that they were only able to do this because of a one time grant and afterwards they had to go back to their previous way of life is incredibly disturbing. I think a lot of nondisabled people don’t understand that for people with disabilities, their human desires for entertainment, expression, and connection are not eliminated. People might say that those with severe disabilities are safer and better off staying in bed all day, but refuse to recognize that many may only stay in their beds all day because their environment given them no compelling avenue to interacting with a community, nor the emotional bandwidth to fight against those in charge.

Institutions vs. Community

unsureunderwaterobot1 Comment
  1. The title and author of the source 

Ricardo T. Thornton, “We Can’t Go Back” 

  1. An objective summary of the reading 

Thornton begins by stating their credibility as someone who has lived in institutions and battles the inequitable (nonexistent) support system in the United States. They explain their experience in institutions, specifically Forest Haven. They explain the dangers of living in an isolating environment in which individuals are not encouraged to engage in the community. Thornton explains the transition out of the institution and into group homes, then family living. They explain their involvement with Special Olympics. They use this involvement as an example of just how capable disabled people are. Out in community, Thornton is capable of so much more than when they were at Forest Haven. The chapter is summed up and given agency. The author closes by explaining how essential support and opportunity is for folks (especially mentally disabled folks) to grow.  

  1. 3 or more quotations (with page numbers) 

“When people are given a chance to grow and contribute, they grow and contribute” (Thornton pg. 88). 

“Segregating people is always bad; people never grow in those places and are safer and happier in the community” (Thornton pg. 89). 

“In the institution I didn’t get to think for myself. The staff thought for me and made all my decisions. For a long time, no one expected anything of me” (Thornton pg. 85). 

  1. A personal reflection naming 2 or 3 take-aways from the reading 

I was drawn to the distinction that the author made between “the institution” and “the community.” Thornton makes a strong comparison between living institutionally and freely. I think I take advantage of the ways community comes so easily to me. I am given opportunity after opportunity to grow and contribute, which so many folks are not. I was struck by one of the authors closing remarks, “the only thing that is special about me (in comparison to other people with mental disabilities) is that people believed in me and in my potential to learn in spite of my disability, they took the time to help me learn” (Thornton pg. 89). This quote connects closely with the social model of disability. It is the world around the disabled that makes them that way. 

Communal Success

turtle2 Comments
  1. We Can’t Go Back by Ricardo T. Thornton Sr.
  2. At the beginning of the piece, Thornton recalls growing up in institutions where every decision was made for him. He talks about his sister died in an institution before talking about joining the community outside of it and what the adjustment was like. He met his wife, they had a child, and grandchildren. He goes on to talk about how he advocates for disability rights and is very successful in life because he was given the opportunity to grow.
  3. “Segregating people is always bad; people never grow in those places and are safer and happier in the community.” (89). “When you live in the community you make friends that support you and help in your advocacy.” (87). “I am here representing the ninety-two thousand people who are still living in institutions and large public and private facilities for people with intellectual disabilities” (85).
  4. This reading had a lot of solid takeaways. The main one being that institutions are ineffective and simply a way to segregate and separate people from the community. This was meant to be seen as a solution but it did more damage than good and it’s just a way to push ideas of who should and shouldn’t be involved with the community. I think another big takeaway I gathered was the importance of community when it comes to disability. The support, love, and opportunities are endless and help people live full lives full of the greatest things in this world.

Beyond These Walls

DellFrog1 Comment

“We Can’t Go Back” by Ricardo T. Thornton Sr.

Summary: Thornton begins with introductions and starts his speech with his early history of living in an institution for people with intellectual disabilities. He talks about how knowledge of his family who lived in the same institution were kept from him and the death of his sister. He talks about leaving the institution and society’s perception of him living in a group home, then to how he started his own family. He continues speaking about how people with disabilities deserve opportunities to learn and grow and his family’s work experiences. Thornton talks about the necessity for community and support, and how people with disabilities have great potential when they are supported. Thornton implores his audience to support people with disabilities and help them learn and grow. He concludes by arguing against segregation and institutions, and says that we need to move forward with our communities, not backward.

Quotes:

“People need to have high expectations for people with disabilities because then they’ll give them opportunities to learn and grow” (87).

“I believe that people can do anything if they’re given the opportunity and support” (88).

Reflection:

I think Thornton uses a really concise speech that works well to ask an audience to support and care for people. It is tragic that as a society for so many decades we had (and continue) to segregate people in many different ways. The institution is just one way of segregating the disabled community from the non-disabled community. I was happy to hear Thornton’s story of success but I know that the reality is so many people in institutions don’t get the chances that he did. Society has collectively decided that the best way to “support” people with disabilities is to put them in special places with people who work to support them. And on paper, that sounds great. But in reality, it creates even more barriers to the human experience by making disabled people feel inhuman. Having all choice and opportunity stripped from you because of your ability or lack thereof is inhumane. I agree with Thornton’s plea to end institutional living and instead focus on community support. I think one of the best ways to do that is through education and the sharing of stories. We cannot move forward as a community until we hear the voices of everyone in the community. And it is equally as important for us to work together to create a better opportunity for the people around us, giving them support and breaking down barriers, choosing to lift each other up instead.

Why Crip Camp is Important

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The film Crip Camp is a storytelling showpiece about the roots of disability rights and disability rights activists. While the documentary centers around the story of how the ADA came to be and activism in general, it offers an important theme of community and accessibility embedded in. We begin the film with a nostalgic 70s scene of campers at Camp Jened. Camp Jened is an all-inclusive camp for young teens with a disability. At the camp, the audience gets to see disability in a different light than usual as campers build friendships that stand the test of time as we see later on. As a student who never received education about disabilities or disability rights, this film struck a chord with me. I wish my high school had this built into the curriculum in some way. I believe it could fit really well into a history class and teach students to think deeper into human rights and politics.  

After establishing a community in Camp Jened the film jumps to a different time in campers lives as they’ve grown up and find one another again. The story mainly includes three campers named Judith Heumann, Stephen Hoffman, and Larry Allison that retell their story and how they all became close friends from beginning of camp to later in life. Not only is history important in this film for the obvious reason of laws being passed, but there is first a history of relationships that allowed there to be protests pushing for legislation to be passed. At Camp Jened, it was clear the space the entire time was about helping one another out beyond just physically. To create an atmosphere as such is not a difficult feat, but it is difficult to keep it going outside those safe walls. Authors Susan Burch and Kim E. Nielsen emphasize a social-relational model of disability for historians to refer to in their chapter appropriately titled “History.” With this model disability can be seen as shaped by the environment the person is in (Burch, Nielsen, 96). That is to say that if a person with a disability is around a culture not only inclusive to others like themselves but also a culture that is open for them physically and socially then they will thrive. Unfortunately, America has not been successful with that goal and that is where protests began which ignited the ADA.  

Coming from a small town with small minds, I can see how this might not always execute well when shown to high schoolers. The issue I believe just lies in the belief systems and how strong they are (always have been) surrounding disability. I will promise you that there will always be at least one or two students that will be open minded and that can change a classroom environment entirely. This film is going to be necessary for those environments. Another issue with rhetoric surrounding disability is the fact that most stories told about folks who are disabled are told by able-bodied people. The film can offer aspects of teaching that should and need to be acknowledged when discussing history such as psychological issues, sociological impacts, culture, and intersectionality. As Burch and Nielsen said, “Disability rights movements in all of their manifestations share central themes in history: struggle, citizenship, labor, power, violence, health, representation, and community.” (Burch, Nielsen, 97). In high school I believe it’s important to realize the power that groups create. If teens had more exposure to civil rights knowledge and more specifically how they came to be (like this film) I think it can be easier to see how they themselves can create change in the world when it’s needed.  

Something big I personally took from this film is how the community helped shape every part of action that was taken. I could be wrong, but I feel like if one is almost thrust into the world of politics because it’s demanded it can be exhausting quickly. By that, I mean when your rights are at risk, you feel the need to act because no one else will. However, Judy Heumann our main leader of the protests, had community all the way back from camp helping her. In their adult life they still found one another taking care of each other mentally and physically to better the whole nation.