I guess I'll just have to consider myself an intermittent blogger. Guess that's one reason why I have so few followers, though I'm thrilled to have those of you who do follow me! I wanted to use this tool as a means to journal, a place to record good times and not so good, and a means to write about things that are important to me. Well, daily life and all its distractions seem to get the better of me more often than not.
I did feel compelled, though, to write a post about an article I saw on a link from http://mdbeau.blogspot.com, or Michelle's Big Blueberry Eyes blog about her beautiful daughter with Down syndrome. Michelle's post brought attention to the news that Denmark wants to be a "Down syndrome free perfect society." I say the road to that mission is the road to becoming heartless and soul-less. I left a comment on the original article saying that I would take any person with Down syndrome I have ever met, and there are many, (and I'll go further and say any person with DS I've "met" through reading so many blogs and seeing so many lovely faces out there on the Internet), over any person who believes they do not have a place in society. Our innermost being is reflected in how we see others. If we devalue others just because we feel they are less than, or not "perfect," what does that make us? To say it is a character flaw to deem oneself above others is an understatement.
Life is not perfect. None of us mere humans are perfect either. And when a group of people believe they can create a "perfect" society, they prove themselves to be truly less than, for they have lost the ability to perceive beyond what they see or what they assume to be. They have lost the ability to know what it is to truly love for love's sake. To look into the eyes of someone and see the face of God. They have lost their own humanity in the process of trying to eradicate people with Down syndrome, and it is a sad and slippery slope downward once that line has been crossed.
Of course, the fallacy in all this as well is that as hard as they may try, they will never have a "perfect" society. I put quotes around perfect, because I'm perplexed in this instance by wondering what that is supposed to mean. People will still fall victim to disease, to poverty, to loneliness and despair. We cannot predict and have no say over our own future, but we all share suffering in common, even if it comes in different forms. People with Down syndrome do not "suffer" from it. What they suffer from is having to live in a world in which they are often misunderstood, too readily judged and underestimated, and not even allowed to see the light of day all too often in countries that should be advanced enough to know better, and this of course includes our own.
I cry at the thought of a world without Down syndrome, or without people with other types of disabilities. They are part of our human experience, and add so much to our lives. They deserve to be in the world for the world would be so much more bleak and imperfect without them.
