A disabled child learns to assert herself in an uncaring world, and she demands to be treated with respect and dignity by others. She writes to those who torment or tease her, and she lets them know how she REALLY feels inside.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003~
To all who think it is fun to torment me:
You may not like me for who I am, but I am ME, and there is NO way of getting around that. I am a PERSON first, and I am MORE than my handicaps. I have a BRAIN, and I have dreams and hopes, too, just as you all do!
You are going to have to learn to put up with me. You are going to have to learn to accept the fact that I don't walk or get around as well as you do, and because of it, I need extra help, which comes from my wheelchair, leg braces, or my crutches. If I didn't have any of these things, then I would probably be stuck at home, bored out of my gourd, and I wouldn't like to be that way! I am a kid, and I have too many things to do, and I have too many places to go! Sure, you may get mad at me "because I am too slow", or I "may hold up the line", but I can't HELP it, and it is NOT of MY choosing! I didn't ASK to be this way; it just happened, and you are going to have to learn to deal with people like me! I am sorry if I make you "uncomfortable"; but my disabilities are NOT of MY doing, and they are NOT to be made fun of! How would you like it if I picked on YOU? I bet you wouldn't like it; because I sure don't! Think of how it would make you feel if you were in MY shoes, or you had to trade places with me! I bet, if we could, you'd learn a thing or two about what I have to go through day in and day out, and I bet you would learn that it is NOT nice to make fun of handicapped people!
I don't know WHY I am this way, but God made me this way for a reason, and I think it is because that He HAS made me this way that I am a better person. Sure, I don't like being handicapped, but I AM, and I am trying my best to make the best out of a bad situation, and I have been blessed many times over because of what I have had to endure in life. You do not know of ALL of what I have had to endure in my life, but all I have gone through has made me a BETTER and a STRONGER person, and you are NOT to try to tear me down or make me feel bad, because I have news for you! I am NOT a quitter, and you CAN'T tell me WHAT to do or HOW to do it! I am NOT stupid!! And I know when you are being MEAN to me or NOT! So GET OVER IT, and LEAVE ME BE!
Treat me with dignity and RESPECT; if you do, you'll find out that I am more like you than what you may THINK!
Thank you for listening, and thank you for allowing me to get this off my chest!
Love, your friend, Ronee' Le-Anne Reaux, aged 10 years.
(((karen))) if all of us could be accepted as we were, there would be much less trouble in the world...i think hate is really fear, because we fear what we don't know...if we would learn to understand people that are "different" than us, hate could go away...profound, heartwrenching write...(((HUGS))) and love, karla. :(
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