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l was browsing Amazon.com for books, both paper and digital since I received a Kindle for Christmas. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the biography of someone affected by Cerebral Palsy. In the excerpt provided by the web site the person was described as a “victim” of Cerebral Palsy. They use out of the word victim to describe this person made me angry enough that I immediately clicked on the next page of book results without bothering to read any of the other information on the book. I dislike being labeled a victim of my disability just as much as I dislike people’s insistence that I “suffer” it. I am not a martyr for any religion, do not use those insipid words as a salve for your smarting consciences.I am not a victim of anything, my disability is merely something I have to live with. I suffer from nothing, save perhaps the unrelenting, ever present pity of absolute strangers who know nothing about my life and therefore make an assumption that I suffer under the irrepressible weight of this awful malady.Yes I do cry, screen, and rail about the unfairness of my life sometimes. I will even admit that it has been more often than usual lately due to the fact that my antidepressants have not been up to snuff for quite a while. Everybody yells at how unfair life has been to them at some point, even if it is only an internal soliloquy,this does not mean that they inherently suffer the entirety of their lives. I am affected by my disability yes, suffer from it,I don’t think so. Am I being a little oversensitive? Probably. Do I sound a little more than defensive? Definitely. I have a question for you though, just one, and I promise to be out of your hair for the rest of the day.How many times have you felt mislabeled, like the lone can of fruit cocktail sitting next to hot cocoa mix in the powdered drink mix aisle of the grocery store?
