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What’s with the title? Disabilities and Slavery have nothing to do with each other is what you’re thinking at this point. Do I have your attention? I do? Good! Ok I’ll get back to the tile of this post in a few but, for now I ask that you open your mind so that you can think and posses what I’m about to say. First off I want to clarify that I am not an expert when it comes to much and well I don’t think anyone is an expert at any one thing all though I’m not saying someone can’t be very good at something for many people are very good at many things. I also want to clarify that the flowing is from my observation only and therefore is solely my opinion based off of my on observations and experiences. As many of you know that I graduation High School back Jun of 2004 at the age of 19 and now about 6 years later am doing more than many people said I ever would yet, that’s beside the point and rely has nothing to do with what I want totalk about today yet, it does have its relevance as you’ll see in a few minutes. today 6 years after I got out of the hell hole of High School I’m 25 years old and have a BA in Youth Ministry which is raped up with a minor in Spanish from a Christian University in Chicago. Now I’m not trying to blow my own horn yet, its fun to do from time to time rather I’m setting up the foundation to a few points that I’d like to share as well as the based to some of my frustrations with the system of educations as well as how we educate those with needs that are a little bit different then those who somehow fit into the mold of “normal”. Every now and then I get that email or letter from someone who I used to know from my High School days and as much as I enjoy getting such letters / emails as its fun to connected with people and here what they are doing these days it also frustrates me to a level of anger from time to time when I get an email/ letter from an old friend that is not very well written or thought out or in some cases rely is just a mix of words on a page that have little or no meaning as they are scared throughout the written text. Now some of this I know is not the fault of the one who is sending such messages but, yet they are at some fault as they are the ones putting the words on the pages and then sending them to me yet, on the other hand they are not at fault for it is the fault of the system of education that they have been through that is to blame for most of this craziness as the system has in a way not done a good job at providing them with the skill set needed to communicated in written form. However, with some people this is very much the fault of the system or do to the lack of recourses that one had access to when they were in grade school yet, others it’s the fault of the system for other resinous ; rather than lack of access to recourse the person is say labeled with having some kind of disability and therefore the education system makes the assumption that they will not be able to do everything a person without such a label will be able to do and therefore does not invest the same amount of time with the disabled person as they do with the person who is not labeled as having some kind of disability. Now I am not saying that we are all the same or that we are all able to do the same things as that is just not true but, I do believe that the major of things that people can’t do is because they have been told they can’t and therefore as a result believe just that, I realize that this does not apply to everyone and there are some people who truly can’t do something either because of some medical complication or do to an accident that has left them with the lack of the ability to do something or something’s. However, I don’t believe that if one says they can’t they rely can’t do it at all rather right now in this moment it may be hard for them to do or they have yet the skills or training to do it , However, after working on it they will at some point be able to do it. Yet, the sad part is that many people who have some kind of disability our told that they will never ________ (fill in the blank) and therefore becomes of this negativity the belief that they will never ___ becomes true and therefore they will never be able to do it just as they were told. Now I realize that something just will never happen for some people and this realty needs to be part of our lives but, I do believe we can do anything that we set our minds to do. I am one of the lucky ones; I grew up with a number of disabilities and never rely did all that good in school because of them. However, over the years I have been able to overcome many issues and yet, I still have the same disabilities in most cases if you did not ask me about them you would have no idea. Over the years I have been in and out of special education classroom, some not so good and other that should be highlight as how special education should be. Yet, as no one learns that same and no one things the same; How is it that the education system expects children to sit in a classroom with other children and for everyone to learn the same thing. This conformity rely works and in the events that it has some positive outcome there is very little gain in the end. I realize that the public education system is not perfect nor is any education for that matter and that it would cost too much money to education each child differently yet, how much better would children be if such a system was in place?

I feel that many of us who have a disability are in a way a “slave” although we cannot be bought or sold like in the old days this is a new form of “slavery” we become slaves to a system that we don’t understand and that we have little say in what happens with in it and because of our lack of education we also lack an underrating of the system and therefore because of this we also lack power as the power is in the hands of the one who has the education to understand. Although many of the people around us say that they have are best interested in mind ; I ask what do they rely mean and if what they say is true , then I would like to know how much money they are getting to have our best interested in mind. It’s all well and good that we are told we have rights but, if we don’t understand what they are or how to fight for them then they are useless. Knowing is power and just like the slaves of old, the slaves of today our in many ways as they lack the Education they need to fight back and there are lots of people in our big mean world that would like to keep people who have a disability out of the loop as much as possible so that those who don’t can have power over them. Now I’m very blessed and lucky that I grew with one parent who wanted to fight agents that kind of power war and who wanted me to be become all that God had created me to be. On the other had I had one parent who rely did not care that much and all thought, one would think that that would have had a negative impact on me it in true had the opposite effect. From the time I was very young till now I have been fighting for a world where everyone one would be equal in spite of our differences yet, although that will only happen in a perfect world a world I nor yourself will ever see ; I believe we can each do are part to help created such a world. My passion is helping children / youth to become all that God has created them to be and this passion comes from not only my own past but, out of my love for Jesus and a desires to create a little heave here on earth. Now it agrees me to the bottom of my heart when I hear stories of people who have just become a number in a system that is meant for those among us who tartly can’t do daily task because of their medical condition yet would otherwise be able to go on to do great things become more disabled then they rely are simply because of this crazy system of power that over time takes over and the person becomes a slave to the system for lack of a better term. It is my pray that this power can for those who can truly use it will be able to gain back the control and in turn become everything that they have every dreamed of becoming. It is also my pray that those who need some support can get that support without losing their power and control of their life and that the support will be just that and nothing more. Over the years some have told me that I was crazy to not accepted some of the things that I was begin offered yet, although some of these things might have been of some help I always felt that if I were to accepted such offers that I would lose all control of my life and that was something that kept me from accepted such assents and even to this day I am very hesitant to accepted an offer for something until I have learned everything that I can about something before accepted any kind of offer for anything. I have had many people tell me “You can’t …..” and well as much as I would love to tell each of them that they were wrong that is just something that I rely can’t do as it’s just not practical but, I can say this they were wrong.
6 years ago if someone had said that in the year 2010 that I would have graduated from a Christian University with a BA in Youth Ministry and that I would also have a minor in Spanish and that I would be bilingual, that I would be living in Mexico city and that I would be able to thing on a global level. I would have thought you crazy because at 19 I rely did not think that I would be able to get through university and that graduation day would never come yet, at 19 I also had no idea what the Lord had in store for me and that in a few years I would find myself sitting in a classroom in a language school in Costa Rica and then two years later that I would get the opportunity to hang out with Mexico’s youth and be part of a wonderful local church in a wonderful community. What’s next I don’t know this but, I do know that each day is a new day and each day is a day for learning and exploration and until the day when I stop learning I will fight for a better world for the day I stop learning I will be dead and it will be my time to move one to our fathers hours yet, that day is many years away and there is lots of work to be done. So I ask will you join me in any way you can. Don’t worry about how big or small the things you think may seem as everything we do big and small play a major part in changing a corrupt system. Someone told me once that the only way to change a system is by doing little things as if we tried to do big things nothing would every happen yet as we do the little things the big things happen on their own and the changes douse not seem as big as it rely is.

Blessings and Peace

Chris