Dr. J, who died in 1998, was a blind activist, and a long-time leader in the National Federation for the Blind and other organizations. The bit quoted previously was in response to a government memo (Dept of Education): "SUBJECT: Language Reference to Persons with a Disability", which might explain the heightened language in the piece.
Dr. J cites the memo, and then gives a copy of a resolution passed at the NFB convention, which includes this passage:
"... just as an intelligent person is willing to be so designated and does not insist upon being called a person who is intelligent, and a group of bankers are happy to be called bankers and have no concern that they be referred to as persons who are in the banking business, so it is with the blind -- the only difference being that some people (blind and sighted alike) continue to cling to the outmoded notion that blindness (along with everything associated with it) connotes inferiority and lack of status..."
I took his point to be that political correctness only puts its carefully worded labels on persons and things it considers somehow inadequate. As in the charitable "oh, the poor creature...". He's having none of that.
Speaking at a different NFB convention, he said: "We must win true equality in society, but we must not dehumanize ourselves in the process; and we must not forget the graces and amenities, the compassions and courtesies which comprise civilization itself and distinguish people from animals and life from existence."
It is those "graces and amenities" extended to all, not the awkward constraints of political correctness, that line the path to respect.
<< on a more personal note: a close friend of mine, who has a debilitating disease that has finally put her in a wheelchair, says she really hates the way people try to act and speak "correctly" around her... makes her even more uncomfortable and self-conscious. She says she likes being with me because I treat her just as badly as ever! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> >>
