I'm a lover, not a fighter

As we all know, the civil rights and women’s liberation movements had a tremendous effect on changing attitudes and behavior throughout the 70’s and were influencing other aspects of society like gay rights and the environment as well. By the time I worked at Dumont (1973-76), change was also coming for people with disabilities. I remember at the time that the major players in shaping attitudes about disabled people were organizations like Easter Seals. Though well-meaning, they tended to be quite paternalistic with a ‘we-know-what’s-best’ approach that emphasized charity and sympathy for people with disabilities but little in the way of actually empowering us.
One year, Easter Seals launched its annual fundraising campaign around the slogan “Back A Fighter”, as if disabled people were all engaged in this great struggle with their infirmities. Never mind the fact that most people with disabilities sooner or later come to accept their limitations and just want to get on with life. The real battle was with other people’s attitudes. Anyway, one day this letter arrived at Dumont from Easter Seals with the Back A Fighter logo prominently displayed in the corner. I recall finding it in the incoming mail box and before anyone had a chance to open it, I took a pen and (ever the editor) crossed out the word Fighter and wrote in the word Lover. Then I put it back in the mail box. I think the phrase Back A Lover was (is) much more evocative of the real struggle disabled people face.
I don’t know if anyone else even noticed what I had done; at least no one ever said anything about it. But it was one of those little personal-is-political actions that’s stayed with me over the years and as we all slowly sink into various states of decrepitude I offer it again as a slogan that expresses an eternal truth about the human condition.