Friday, January 2, 2009
Outside reading post- independence
In John Hockenberry's Moving Violations, he describes the importance of independence and the shame of accepting help from others. Hockenberry is in a wheelchair because of a car accident when he was nineteen. Ever since then, he's been fighting to keep his independence and escape from the pity and helpfulness of people around him. When he is choosing a college, he immediately rules out wheelchair-friendly colleges. "In my view, any school that would go out of its way to attract crips must have something wrong with it..." (115). He ended up going to the University of Oregon because "no one had suggested it to me" (115). He knows that he won't be able to stand a place that treats him special because of his disability. He wants to get through life by his own accomplishments; not with special priviledges. Before he had a job, Hockenberry was offered to have welfare and food stamps. Since he felt like he didn't need welfare he decided to only accept the food stamps, but even that humiliated him. "...pulling out food stamps in a check-out line was like offering to trade one of your kidneys for a bag of groceries... I felt guilty if I was purchasing anything besides ten-pound bags of grain and powdered milk" (118). Being dependent on food stamps makes Hockenberry feel as if he is a burden on society and he is unable to take care of himself. Finally, when Hockenberry starts to look for a job, he describes the three categories of jobs in the "crip world": jock jobs, crip jobs, and real jobs. Not wanting a job designed for disabled people Hockenberry decides to get a real job saying, "Real jobs are ones that are not crip-designated, that take on humanity at large" (120). He wants to get a job with his own skills and be able to have an impact on society. John Hockenberry feels that nothing is as important to him as independence and the satisfaction of earning his way through the world.
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2 comments:
This sounds like a really interesting book. It seems like Hockenberry must be extremely tough and resistant to be able to continue with his life after such an accident. I agree that keeping one's independence and maintaining your dignity would be important if you were in a crippling car crash. Hockenberry's quote about his reason for going to the University of Oregon seems a little extreme, however--if I were in his shoes, I would want the same amount of advice on colleges as I would get if I hadn't been in the accident. I'm not really in a position to criticize him, though, since I only have a vague idea what living with a disability would be like.
I understand why he would want to keep his independence, but I think he is taking it to an extreme. If you are in a wheelchair, there are some things that you just can't do, no matter how determined you are to do them. There is no way that someone in a wheelchair could do a heavy lifting job, or anything that involves going up and down stairs. And wouldn't going to a non wheelchair friendly college make more work for people who would have to make special arrangment for him? Just a thought.
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