Dakota: You said: " I have seen a principal of a school fight to keep a beautiful, smart, charming little girl out of his school just because she was on crutches"

Oh, I've seen many people react to people with disabilities in that way. I never understood their reactions or why they felt that way, UNTIL, my friend who is 64 years old, once told me "I can't watch Christopher Reeve on tv, I won't do that to myself". Well, after I picked myself off of the floor, I asked her "why on earth can't you watch a wonderful man who has gone on with his life, his wonderful family, who helps people with spinal disorders, why can't you watch him on tv, what does it have anything to do with you"???

She was quiet and said "I am too sensitive, it gets to me, I don't want stuff to get to me". Then she told me she can't watch any of the stuff on the Disovery Heath channel (where they have dwarfs, giants, people who are disfigured, etc. etc.) because she just can't stand it. She needs perfection around her.

This is the same woman who knows exactly where everything is in her drawers, the socks face a certain way, (she's extremely OCD). As a matter of fact, I found out yesterday that in all her 64 years on this earth, she has never let the shower water go on her face. She cannot wash her hair in the shower. She'll have a panic attack because she thinks she's drowning. She's been washing her hair in the kitchen sink all her life.

So I gather that people like this can't stand things out of their comfort zone. They limit themselves to only see perfection, have things in straight lines, are very stubborn in their approach to life. I can't tell this woman anything. She knows everything. Now sometimes she's right, but not every time.

People like that lack a kind of empathy. They live in their own bubble of their comfort and to say that "I can't watch Christoper Reeve on TV". is the same as saying "I can't watch anybody with a disability, it upsets me".

My answer to her was: "you have to grow up". She's 64 tomorrow. Don't think she's about to change in her thinking.

If we are brought up to think a certain way, well it's very hard to change.

And it absolutely hate principals who can't see other people's viewpoints. Isn't this how we grow and learn in life??? I'm still growing and I'm still learning, and I hope to do so until I leave this planet.

I've learned, that when someone says something hurtful, inappropriate or downright mean to me, well I just look them in the face and say "now why on earth would you say such a thing to me". It works every time. They just stand there with their stupid mouths open. They really don't think before they speak. And I've never been one to idly stand by when someone says an inappropriate thing to another human. I just gently chide that person and say "how would you feel if that were said to you?"

We have to stand up for one another.

Melody