It's all over the disability blogs -- in fact, I learned the news through a disability blogging community to which I belong.
Harriet McBryde Johnson -- lawyer, lady, activist, crip -- has died. From a National Lawyers Guild announcement:
The National Lawyers Guild sadly announces the loss of the co-founder and Treasurer of the Disability Rights Committee of the NLG, a leader of the Disability Liberation Movement, and so much more, our own Harriet McBryde Johnson. She went to work on June 3, 2008, put in a full day at the office, rolled home, and died suddenly, fifty years young. Harriet taught that we all die, but that it is the quality of the life we lead that makes the difference. It is the death she would have chosen, and a life that has left a giant wheelchair print.I wish I had the words right now to describe how sad this makes me, but I only just learned of this half an hour ago. I need time to process my feelings. Hell, I'm in the lab, so I need time to
feel my feelings.
3 comments:
i'm here if you need to talk. such a monumental loss for our community.
I have a feeling just from the writings of hers I read that maybe living on is an act of defiance sometimes. I don't know if this is "the death she would have chosen" - I always thought that was her with her hands wrapped around Jerry Lewis as she pulled them both into the shark tank. I am still processing it.
cripchick -- Thanks. I had been holding out hope that I'd be able to meet her someday. I should have done it sooner. I have SMA also -- I should know better.
Beth -- I know for me living is an act of defiance since all the docs told my folks I'd be lucky to see 21. That's why I make a big deal out of every birthday since I turned 30 -- it's my way of flipping the bird to those docs and everyone else who feels sorry for me.
That Jerry Lewis comment fricking KILLED me! I have to make sure my friends Suzanne and Kim see it.
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