Mary Mcaleese, one of the former presidents of Ireland, works as a current affairs journalist who truly researches her topic. In fact, she once spent a day in a wheelchair in Dublin, one of the most unfriendly wheelchair cities in the world. She once said, “people with disabilities have abilities too” (Mcaleese). Many people throughout the world develop stereotypes, and those who have disabilities make up a great number of these stereotypes. These people need to understand that their body has limits, but their mind does not. The disabled or crippled have feelings too. Mairsdescribes her feelings towards how other people treat her and her feelings toward herself. These emotions change over time with her experiences, and she details the events in …show more content…
She believes that if people need to describe her condition, they should do so by using the word she chose: crippled. Mairs does not feel people are against her as a result of her disability and that she was not purposely handicapped, which handicapped suggests. She admits, “my god is not a handicapper general” (Mairs). In this alternate society, people are made equal. Diana Moon Glampers, in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, works to purposely make people the same “in order to equalize chances in the great race of life” (Vonnegut). Mairs wants people to live in reality and not disregard her condition. Along with Mairs’ belief that God is not against her, she uses an allusion comparing her condition to another novel character. Throughout Mairs’ essay, she discusses how her feelings shift about her condition. Overtime, Mairs has come to accept herself as a cripple. A part of her acception can be seen through her connection with her daughter. Her daughter helps to keep her feelings in check when they start to change. As a result of her happiness, Mairs says, “one way or another...I wind up feeling like Tiny Tim” (Mairs). Tiny Tim, a young boy in A Christmas Carol