Why Here and Now’s Camp Jabberwocky Story Is Problematic.
When I heard the Camp Jabberwocky story on Here and Now I was angered at the fact that it is part of a troubling narrative surrounding people with disabilities and impairments. Why do we have to die to make other people feel good and charitable? Why can’t we learn about disabled and impaired people who do good things and are very talented people without headlines that say, inspiring, uplifting, feel-good, supportive, and amazing?
The truth is that even people who think they are doing good by telling these stories are making us feel worthless and ashamed of people who live lives and have opportunities we can’t have. This is no different than making homeless people feel ashamed of themselves by showing people living in fancy houses like Betsy Du Vos does and saying, “You can be here too if you work hard and don’t complain!”. I know because as a person with high-functioning Aspergers, I got the genius label all the time yet was still denied services when I needed them most because I’m too independent and high functioning.
People talk about freeing Britany Spears, but there are a lot of people on the spectrum, impaired, and disabled people who are stuck in the guardianship process who are very talented people like me, I want to earn money from my writing and comic r/Struwwelkinder but I and my parent’s hands are tied. I go back and forth between my mother and father because they are divorced and they are both good people in different ways.
Yet there is still a stigma about people who live with their parents in media and real life; we are portrayed as unruly leaches, messy, stupid, and selfish. I have no choice but to live with both of them because independent living for people like me was designed for wealthy people to hide their impaired and disabled children when it could be used so that I don’t feel lonely anymore, I have a place that is safe and supportive, my privacy and emotions are respected, I have transportation to college and community, and I can always be with my parents if I chose to.
Too many camps and community groups focus on the disabled, impaired, and people on the spectrum who want them to be independent like neuro-typical and normal-functioning adults when we need a safety net and a community that supports us and parents who need knowledge or are disabled, impaired, and on the spectrum. Imagine if a parent who also has a child and is disabled got support from parents who like them struggle with normal relationships, navigation of social scenarios, were told that what they had meant weakness, were told that they were not good enough, and got bullied and harassed by people every day and were told to keep it quiet.
A village can never raise a child if the people in the community do not know or are ignorant of the struggles we face every day. We as special needs people need to know our rights, need the technology that can help us, and need to learn the history and people in literature who have written about us and supported us. Instead of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid which is a bully pulpit, we need books and comics that address and embrace different neuro-diversity and have characters with struggles and imagination. Clavin and Hobbs, Peanuts, Der Struwwelpeter, Lio, Harry Potter, and Astro Boy are good ones to start the conversation.
We need children in special ed to stand up to people who violate their rights and help them discover and learn without fear and express their emotions without feeling that they are wrong. One song by Fred Rogers that makes me cry is What You Do with the Mad That You Feel? He also called us special people for a reason, we don’t have to die to teach people a lesson. After all, we want people to be happy that we are alive and want others to feel that their needs and dreams are special too along with us on our journey.
