Observations From Below: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

Maybe I was naïve, but I remember thinking that people with disabilities would never be targeted in a mass murder before the attack in San Bernardino. I thought that most moral codes in religion would prevent people from targeting people with disabilities, because we are often physically weaker than the people who be attacking. Unfortunately, it seems that I might have been wrong. Firstly, the San Bernardino attack occurred at a place where people with disabilities went to get help. Now there has been a second attack in Japan targeting even more people with disabilities, happening in a more violent manner in my opinion.

On July 26^th around 2am local time, a former employer at a center to help people with developmental disabilities broke in by busting out a window, tying up two employees and proceeded to go on a stabbing rampage. He killed at least 19 patients and wounded at least 26 more, all who were disabled. After the melee, which took about an hour, he gave himself up to the local police. It’s the worst mass murder in Japan since the end of World War II.

He worked at the center from 2012 until this recent February, when he was fired for expressing hateful opinions towards the disabled. He then was committed to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation after penning what appeared to be a manifesto outlining his plan and his motivation to carry out his attacks. He hand-delivered the letter to the Chairman of the Lower House of parliament. In the letter he wrote, “My aim is a world where people with multiple disabilities who have extreme difficulty living at home or being active in society can be euthanized with the consent of their guardians.” He was then let go from the hospital in March because he was not deemed to be a threat to society.

News reports suggest that the country is in shock, but I think the whole world should be in more shock than it is. It did make the news here, but with everything happening, the news cycle moved on very quickly. I think this event is worth mentioning. The attack bothers me for reasons other than the obvious violence. If I could, I would ask him how he determined who was physically unable to participate in the way he described. His definition would knock out some great individuals from our society. Stephen Hawking has a very severe disability, so does this attacker really believe that his condition invalidates his contributions to science? How about president Roosevelt? He had severe polio but still led this great nation to win World War II, and lifted us out of the Great Depression. How about the leaders of the disability rights movement like Ed Roberts, Judy Human and many others? Their disabilities didn’t stop them from eventually getting civil rights protections for all people with disabilities. I have a blog accessible anywhere in the world, and my cerebral palsy doesn’t stop me from writing my thoughts that I hope open many people’s eyes.

Although it’s far easier to kill many people with a gun, I believe knife attacks are intimately worse because you have to get closer to the victim, and more work is involved. One insidious problem is that it’s not just this one guy in Japan, but that his beliefs are antiquated and pervasive in the thoughts of people throughout the world. Ancient philosophers advocated for similar “treatments” and eugenics was a worldwide belief at one time. Some current movies (Million Dollar Baby, Me Before You) portray the same idea that death is better than letting a person live with a disability, and some modern day philosophers, such as Peter Singer still advocate for the use of euthanasia for disabled infants.

On several occasions, I’ve advocated for community education around disability by enforcing history laws like NC Senate Bill 753, which calls for disability history to be taught in all public schools in the month of October. The two attacks mentioned earlier only makes the need more urgent. We have a lot to do in our society to change ancient beliefs, and make the world a better and safer place for all of us. I urge you once again to advocate for disability history education for all of our children. Without education, history is really doomed to repeat itself.

That’s history rolls……