Posts by Patricia Vincent-Piet
In early January 2025 a business leader was quoted anonymously celebrating the ability to use “retarded” again in polite company thanks to Donald Trump’s return to power. At the time, I had a bad feeling, this was a harbinger of things to come.
On the MPTV Will and Joe show, Will Infantine referred to the artists as “the slow ones.” Joe made no effort to correct him. It was clear from this conversation it was not only the art they thought was ugly, but the artists themselves.
Sitting on the White House lawn on July 26, 1990, my husband, Jim Piet, witnessed a Republican make history. President George H.W. Bush proudly proclaimed, “I now lift my pen to sign this Americans with Disabilities Act and say: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down. God bless you all.”
His life is a beautiful, complex tapestry of obstacles and achievements. None of which would be possible without Medicaid providing caregivers to get him out of bed, cleaned, dressed and fed. Intrepid hard workers help him access the community and communicate with people who can’t understand him.
President Trump is referring to an FAA policy, in effect since 2013, meant to rectify the underrepresentation of qualified employees with disabilities. This vilifies all disabled Americans and paints targets on our backs. He is ensuring we will face worse discrimination and possibly violent backlash.
It’s like someone is benefiting from disenfranchising certain voters including the disability community.
If you have a disability and you’re a fan of Chaos and Kindness, consider what you’re supporting. Not people who see you in all your messy, complex, beautiful humanity. They see you as a puppy or small child. Always good, always cute, always sweet always accommodating. You’re an object they can put on the shelf and use when they want to demonstrate their “kindness.”
We are in crisis. It has become nearly impossible to find paid caregivers. Every day people with disabilities and older adults across our state are stuck in their beds or chairs, are left to go hungry or in their own filth because those who might help them just can’t afford to.