Thien Han
As we continue to study about God, we visited Warren Park Health & Living Center, which is a place for disabled people to live in. The people in here are disabled, and for some their family doesn’t want to take care of them anymore, or just because they don’t have time for their family members. Most of them are funny and friendly even though they are in a challenging situation.
The workers in there are really nice and friendly to the disabled people. The disabled people are dependent, and some of them even need workers to help them get around, eat, drink, or do personal stuff. There is a guy that even write his own book about life even though he can not walk.
The Blind Beggar in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 10) is so brave and says out loud to call Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” even though everyone around him tells him to be silent. Then Jesus tells them to bring that guy to Him and Jesus tells him, “Go, your faith has saved you.” What I mean in here is we have to care for God’s creations by following what Jesus teaches in the Gospels and avoid acting like the people that tell the Blind Beggar to be silent. Even if we are not helping the disabled, we should not stop them from coming closer to God.
I feel really sad for the people that are being forced to go here or that only want to come here because they seem lonely, but they still can find fun in a lonely place by communicating with others or playing card games. I haven’t been in this situation but I understand how they feel about it, because I have helped and talked to homeless, disabled, and lonely people, and they usually say life is hard but the thing is that do they want to fight against it.
We can help these people by donating to the center, calling for help in the media, or just to come there and play and talk to them. People can survive without food for a little bit, but the going without emotion can kill them instantly.
Henry Skolnick
The people that are involved in this case are those with disabilities and mental/developmental defects that bar them from having a normal/easy life. Often considered more as burdens than people, the impaired suffer resentment and abandonment from those without disabilities who want to push them away for the personal gain of not taking the responsibility to care at all for these people. Of course, such a mindset is widespread throughout the world, not just the United States.
In the sense of people who own and people who decide, it’s once again placed on lawmakers, the rich, and those who are not dependents. Those who are disabled suffer exclusion with the brand of being sub-human, as their noticeable differences cause many to turn these people away. From a historical standpoint, similar exclusion exhibited people who are psychologically and developmentally superior to others with disabilities in the past would treat the disabled even more harshly by employing the belief that the disabled are products of the devil, or monsters, or other forms or superstition which lends another bias to the present day by allowing people to fear the mentally and physically challenged. Furthermore, such fear has given way to an arrogance that prevails in modern culture, a belief that because someone who is cognitively/physically challenged, the person who is not is completely superior and therefore more important than the person who is not.
From a more biblical standpoint, a sufficient example to be followed is when Christ touched and healed the leper (Mark 1:40-44):
A leper came to him [and kneeling down] begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
It is the example from this story that Catholics may use in conjunction with Solidarity and other themes that they may learn not to reject helpless people like the disabled and turn to help them. To further expand on themes of Catholic Social Teaching, other employable themes include preferential option for the poor and marginalized as the disabled are a marginalized group, in addition to rights and responsibilities, as Catholic doctrine instructs followers to be responsible for their community.
How I feel about the exclusion of the disabled is disappointed, yet unsympathetically understanding of those who exclude. There’s much ignorance that permeates through many cultures surrounding the disabled, and sometimes people fall victim to it by believing it. While I don’t feel implicated, I do to some degree identify and sympathize with the disabled, as I suffer from the misfortune of having considerable difficulty in applying and memorizing mathematics to the point of having failed two classes and being sent back and forth to tutoring with little to no effect on my grades or understanding. That being said, I don’t find myself called to respond as my place lies with the dead, but I’m not above voluntarily providing to the disabled. It’s my hope others better understand these people and their plight for survival.
Finally, a solution to address the exclusion of the disabled is to provide more education that dispels myths and misconceptions of them and begin charity events that would go towards research to improve the lives of the afflicted by incorporating the help of like-minded individuals and people who have members of the disabled in their families to dispense more understanding.
How I feel about the exclusion of the disabled is disappointed, yet unsympathetically understanding of those who exclude. There’s much ignorance that permeates through many cultures surrounding the disabled, and sometimes people fall victim to it by believing it. While I don’t feel implicated, I do to some degree identify and sympathize with the disabled, as I suffer from the misfortune of having considerable difficulty in applying and memorizing mathematics to the point of having failed two classes and being sent back and forth to tutoring with little to no effect on my grades or understanding. That being said, I don’t find myself called to respond as my place lies with the dead, but I’m not above voluntarily providing to the disabled. It’s my hope others better understand these people and their plight for survival.
Finally, a solution to address the exclusion of the disabled is to provide more education that dispels myths and misconceptions of them and begin charity events that would go towards research to improve the lives of the afflicted by incorporating the help of like-minded individuals and people who have members of the disabled in their families to dispense more understanding.
Sylvester Trotter
Through my experience at Warren Park Health and Living Center, I came to an understanding that that centers like Warren Park are located everywhere. The mentally disabled are put in centers like Warren Park in order for them to receive the attention they deserve and need. It is good that there are places where they could receive them, especially in cases where the mentally disabled person doesn’t have family members to take care of him/her.
By analyzing my experience through the economic angle, I discovered that centers like Warren Park are very dependent on the government to continue running. The government owns and has the money as the government is what funds public centers for the mentally disabled. Warren Park’s employees and its patients are very dependent on the government. The government has all the power to allow these centers to continue running. Without the government’s assistance, there would not be places where the mentally disabled could go to receive aid and medical help.
Through reflecting my experience at Warren Park, the Bible passage that reminds me of this situation is 1 John 5:4, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world... And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.” The patient from Warren Park who I met is a great example of how anything is possible if we believe and have faith in God. His story served as a lesson to me and my peers. It helped me personally realize that we should never lose faith in God because with that faith everything and anything is possible. God allowed him to wake up from his coma and has been by his side protecting him ever since.
By connecting my faith, my life experiences, and my emotional reaction in the visit to Warren Park, I’m really glad I got to visit Warren Park. I enjoyed every part of it because I got so much out of this experience.
I’m glad Warren Park helps the mentally disabled who cannot take care of themselves or do not have anyone that could take care of them. I believe that what this society could attempt to do is to not isolate them and stop making them believe they are not normal. I understand that they need medical aid from a special center, but I believe we can all attempt to go to centers like Warren Park to educate ourselves about the people who are mentally disabled in order to better understand their needs and to not be scared of their disabilities.
Note: Minor grammar/style edits have been made to each post not affecting the content or perspective of these students.
