Special Needs

There is something in me which makes me feels strongly (perhaps too strongly) at the way people with 'special needs' are treated. It is something akin to fire, it is so strong, it just transforms me into a puppy one minute and a fierce tiger the next. Because people who have not been exactly treated well by life at least deserve to be treated like royalty by us. Sadly it doesn't always work that way. And you'd think all the awareness campaigns would have got to us by now. Again, sadly not. They are treated as a joke. Not kidding, not blowing it up and out of proportion. I met this kind of thing yesterday. And I'm still hurting. I decided to go against my book of rules and go to a festa, just because it was important for a friend of mine, and because he is a one of a kind and has been a friend to me in the very very bad times. Also in the good times, and we share a biblical history of laughter. So, I made the sacrifice, in the flipping heat among people who reeked of onions. I'm glad I made it there, and I'm glad for my friend. But I wasn't too glad by what I saw. Scenario, a young man, perhaps 25 years old suffering from Down's Syndrome. And somehow people thought he was the village clown. And it made me so angry, some idiot decided it would be very funny to tear down his pants zipper and leave him with his underwear showing. How I'd love to get my claws on whoever did that. That is sinning against human dignity and punishable by torture. And this poor young man, didn't think twice about telling and demonstrating his grievance to three of us ladies. People laughed, I didn't. Not because I'm a good girl or because I'm canvassing for my canonisation. Far from it, I'm probably never even going to make a Pearly Gate sighting. But the instant this young man was next to me, my first instinct was to protect him, I told him, please please lower down your t-shirt. Not because it wasn't a pretty sight. I was instantly transformed into the girl who tries to protect the little people at school. Ok so this was a young man, but he still needed to be shielded. I guess I wanted to stop him from making himself the laughing stock. But he didn't get it, his child-like innocence betraying him and kept demonstrating. And I suddenly got very angry. Where was his mom? Where was his dad? How the hell did they think it was all right to leave him running around? Why were people laughing so hard, urging him on? Why did so many people think it was so funny, that he came to air his grievance with three ladies? Did they really think we'd find it sexy? Far from it. It was sad. Very sad. And this is where I also get at loggerheads with God. Didn't he see the disgusting party? Couldn't He have done something? Well He didn't. If I were God I would have turned them into people with Down's Syndrome, ripped their pants, and then we'd see if they thought it funny. I wanted to spit fire, people with Down's Syndrome have it hard enough. And we talk about being civilised in 2009. The sad truth is, we're worse than animals. Animals don't do it. Yet we do. And we call ourselves human beings who sin against the dignity of their own human race. People like yesterday's young man are people with special needs, and that makes them all the more special. That also means we should treat them with more love and respect. But we don't get it do we?