Disabled System

The fire never dies but it hides

Like a child with stifling, frightful cries

While tyrants and they’re disciples

Silently devise and contrive

Plots and missions of oppression, injustice

And in adopting conscious opposition

You're written off as committing sedition

‘Cause we live in a place

Where people choose not to listen

It gives new meaning

To being hard of hearing or having low-vision…

 

The playing field is even with chips stacked against us

No Child Left Behind is how the government does

And soon enough we lose track of how the children grow up

And like an orgy at Capital Hill

We’ve got a bunch of stupid f***s

Running the country

Cogs in a plot

Pieces of a scheme

Visit your local high school and you’ll see what I mean

Visit the Special Ed Department
And count every record of an IEP “diploma”

See how often people with disabilities get fucked over?

See how we get the s**t-end of the systemic stick?

See how most politicians don’t give a s**t

See Section Three of the ADA

And I will tell how they try to take most of our basic rights away

From transit systems

To government utilities

These things are not accessible to people with disabilities

Typically warehoused in facilities

Treated with minimal civility

Or often hostility

Robbed of the fundamental ability

To control our lives and engage in some sort of upward mobility

 

The fire settles down at times

With the way people act

But enlightenment soon leaves the ignorant blind

And the fire comes back

Like when the sun leaks and suddenly bursts through the blinds

I find some peace of mind

In every preconceived notion I help folks leave behind

I’m not “confined” to a wheelchair

Nor am I wheelchair-bound

I’m already there, if you haven’t noticed by now

I’m not handicapped, man

Save the Mulligan for your wa(i)st(e)

Call me a cripple and get a tire-mark tattooed on your face

 

Before my physical condition I had mental-emotional disabilities

Disabilities don’t necessarily have to register visibly

There is deafness, blindness, psychiatric, spinal, cognitive

Learning disabilities, diabetes, substance abuse, or other health problems

But there’s only one disability for which no equality can exist

And that’s choice to live as a stupid son-of-a-b***h

There is no excuse for idiocy and ignorance

And that’s the disability that afflicts our system

But I have learned there is hope for every struggle in life

so we must take back control and set our system right

Reviews

[Kieran James McGovern]

well thank you! i am a disability advocate, and lately i have been in this mindset of seeing how all things political are connected... it's not my whole life but a big part of it for sure!

Wow this is so strong and powerful. You can tell it is directly from the heart. You bring things that people dont like to think about into the spotlight. Well done on this very close and personal write.