i am still working on the answer to Katie’s question. The truth is, that even though I see the use of such language as, in a way, counterproductive inasmuch as it sets up rhetorical divisions, I still enjoy the irony in referring to myself as a cripple. I love how people react; I love the sense of power it gives me. I suppose too that I need to remember the history of disabled people, and how, by using such language, we right the wrongs of the past. This brings one back to that paradox, which I’m still uneasy about. Part of me wants to embrace it, but part of me thinks that to try to have our cake and to eat it politically stymies us.

I need to think more on this.