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| One Of Those Days | | | Thursday, April 12, 2007 | | | Some mornings you can just sense trouble. Everything is a little off and you know it’s only going to get worse. Today it started with… let’s see… pouring rain, hitting every red light on my 3 mile drive into work, and (oh, yeah) a really bad hair day.
And it’s not just me. On days like this I take a lot of abuse. There’s something crazy in the air that makes people who call in to WMAL forget that an actual person answers the phone. I’ve been hung up on, cursed at, called bad names (the least offensive of which was, “hey lady…”) and generally treated like crap.
But what callers had to say about me was NOTHING compared to what they had to say about Tatyana McFadden. |
She’s the high school student who is in a wheelchair and wants to fully participate on her school’s track team. I realize this story has been around for a while, since long before I lived or worked here, so maybe that’s why I don’t understand the venomous response to this girl.
Some of the main complaints about McFadden participating on the team include the fact that she reaches speeds of up to 20 miles per hour and could create a safety hazard for her teammates, that her team will dominate meets because she earns points by racing in a wheelchair division unopposed and that her Paralympics career is already substantial enough that this high school team should just not matter that much to her.
But it does matter to her. Enough so that she filed her second lawsuit over it just last month. At 7:40am today, we posed the subject to the listeners:
In March, Tatyana McFadden filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the state of Maryland treat her the same as all athletes at the state track and field championships. Today, she’s profiled in The Washington Post on her struggle to participate equally as a member of her school’s team. When she told her mother that she wanted to file the second suit, Deborah McFadden said, "Aren’t you tired? You know, people are going to hate you." Tatyana responded with, "I'd rather be on the team and be hated than not be on the team at all."
Is she in a fight worth fighting? By filing lawsuits and drawing so much attention to the case – is she more of an asset or a liability for her team?
We took calls live on the air this morning and offered up The Grandy & Andy Comment Line (202-895-2400) for anyone else who had something to say on the subject.
Here, verbatim, is just a sampling of the responses we received:
“This is Jeri. Let her on the team. Let her scores compete. Withdraw her Social Security disability check.” [click]
“Yeah, level the playing field. Let everybody run the race in a wheelchair.” [click]
“Yeah, I just think they should add some small hurdles to the track.” [click]
“I’m wondering when the girl in the wheelchair asks to compete in the hurdles races, are they gonna set up ramps for her?” [click]
“Yeah, I’m calling regarding the lady in the wheelchair who wants to be treated like, uh, all the rest of her athletes at her school. I believe then that if she wants to be treated that way then she has to compete the way they do. Tell her to get out of the wheelchair and compete the way they do, and she’ll be treated the way they do. Thanks.”
“Yeah, uh, I just want to comment about this wheelchair situation. Where is this thing going? To its logical conclusion, someone at some point is going to, uh, start entering the disabled Olympics. People who are not disabled are going to enter these wheelchair games in wheelchairs. And, uh, it’s just crazy. But that, to me, is where this thing is going. And I’d like to hear you guys comment on that. Thank you.”
“In the past 5 years we’ve had 2 athletes that have went up to the Penn Relays, and won their events at the Penn Relays, which is a huge track meet… No mention at all of any of them in the media around here… but you have some chick in a wheelchair that complains, and she’s all over the news. And you wonder why it is, she doing this? They found out that if they cause a stink, they get on the TV news and on the radio. [tsk] There’s a lesson here, somewhere. Bye.”
OK, so what is the lesson?
Is the lesson that a young woman with a disability is not allowed to ask for equality? She may not win the war, but is she not allowed to fight the battle?
Is the lesson that the only people in the world who get to participate in a full array of life’s activities are the ones who look like you and me?
Is the lesson that, when the going gets tough, sometimes we need to make it just a little bit tougher for some people?
Where is the sensitivity? The compassion? The appreciation of her drive, determination and can-do attitude?
Sure, there are a million arguments against letting her compete on the track team or to let her races count toward point totals in track meets, but this story goes far deeper than that in my opinion.
This is a strong, determined young woman who was born with a whole deck stacked against her. She came into this world with spina bifida, was abandoned at birth in Russia and left at an orphanage that had no wheelchairs. By the time she was adopted and brought to the U.S. she was malnourished, didn’t speak any English and got around by scooting on the floor.
And now, apparently, people would like to see Tatyana scoot around on the ground at track meets as well? Or even better, they'll “let” other runners use wheelchairs. Wow, how generous of spirit.
It bothers me in ways I cannot put into words.
I respect this girl’s fight, even more so when I hear comments like the ones I've heard today. Can you imagine what she must hear every day?
It really puts my bad hair day into perspective.
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