Kansas State » KSU Hodges-Bryant Aff

KSU Hodges-Bryant Aff

Last modified by Administrator on 2012/10/17 22:31

Affirmative

An outline usually requires organization.....What follows below is the most recent version of the 1ac I have seen.....Basic thesis - structural ableism sucks in any form - other nations, our democracy assistance policy, our debate community, our personal relations.

Before I start my speech I would like to ask you to flow this round today as if you were listening to four advocates simply talking to each other and trying to come to grips with the best way for them to  achieve a goal. That goal we feel should be how best to overcome the barriers of structural ableism in this room right now. We think you can listen our argument and agree with us that in our community there is definitely a lack of accessibility. We think you can help in alleviating that barrier, open space in our activity to become a more inclusive, and while doing so include folks that have been left behind in this world that prefers the ablest body to hurry up and get things done right now, as soon as possible. So, we would like for you to slow down and join us in our endeavor to gain a bit of acceptance to our thoughts. We have an idea that our opponents may like to make some arguments to you that to them, might seem the correct course to take, but we ask your forbearance when they do. We will try to answer their concerns and at the same time convince them and you that our project here today is truly helpful for us in the room right now and our debate community at large, when the round is complete. We hope you understand that as we ask your help, with your vote for the affirmative, you can assist us in letting the rest of the community know that there are different ways to make yourselves known in rounds and it is acceptable to be different.

 

 

We have really been trying to understand why!

 

I mean by that statement that, we have been trying to come to grips with, how and why we address people with abilities other than our own, for a very long time. I must say we have done a poor job of it.

 

The United States Federal Government, NGO’s, other well meaning entities, and hell, even the United Nations suck at it, that is why things must change and start changing right here, today!

 

When I look around our neighborhoods, our shopping centers, malls, gas stations, and everywhere else I go, we are hurting folks that have done not a thing to us, and are simply the result of mere chance. Then we tell them that it has to be done like that “FOR THEIR OWN GOOD”!!!

 

As we read and try to comprehend various books, journals, and other publications I see where the authors are trying to get us to think through these actions, trying to tell us that we need to treat folks with basic human decency. How we treat people are direct reflections on ourselves and our society as a whole. How we talk to others shape not on their reality but the reality that we are stuck in also.

 

The signs we make speak for us!

 

The billboards we raise speak for us!

 

The t.v., the radio, and the print media, they also speak for us.

 

Yet in our lives we are mostly ignorant of what is being spoken in our stead.

 

Park here, not there.

 

Go here, not there.

 

Up, down, turn around, come this way, not that way.

 

This is “RESERVED” just for you.

 

You don’t do it the way we do, so you have to do it “DIFFERENTLY” than us.

 

You are not going fast enough for us so you can’t participate in our endeavors.

 

Can you see me? She says.

 

Can you hear me? He says.

 

Can you show me the way? They say.

 

We tell ourselves that we are helping them so it doesn’t really matter that they aren’t here in the room with us today. I helped them to cross the street yesterday. I sent my money to the t.v. show the other night. What more do I need do?

 

They can’t keep up with me today but I feel good about myself anyway, for all of the “GOOD” things that I do for them when I am not right here having my fun, ‘cause they can’t keep up with me anyway!

 

It’s not my fault they can’t play disc golf, softball, or basketball with me.

 

Oh hell, it doesn’t matter anyway. they have their own games to play that we gave them. Isn’t that “SPECIAL” of us?

 

Well, my partner and I are here today to tell you that you are not doing enough. NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!

 

George and I are taking our voices back and we will not sit idly by any longer while the so called powers that be, silence us, and then try to speak in our voices.

 

The “STRUCTURES” that we live and play by demand an “ABLE” body and mind and brook no in between. You either can or can’t and there are few exceptions to this rule, that is the guide, and that is wrong!

 

This is where George and I differ from your norms. We insist that you frame this debate to be one of inclusion, not the normal exclusionary status quo that they want to try to place everyone into, regardless of how they think it should be. We say it is time for a change, change those concepts that have been drilled into your heads as to how we have to talk to each other. Open the spaces in your hearts and minds to something that is perhaps scary to you, or different to you, in the same manner that our friends with disabilities have to accept the way things are, different than the way they would prefer to see them, even scary sometimes.

 

My partner can’t talk fast, he likes to converse in an easy manner, he just wants you to talk to him like you were a teacher trying to get a class to grasp a new idea for the first time, or if you prefer, you were trying to convince a jury that your client did not murder those two people, that the prosecutor is trying to convince, that she did! Be an advocate for your position, that is what we are doing.

 

This is not a gift that he is asking you for so you shouldn’t act as if it is . He simply feels that you can do as he requests so he doesn’t feel marginalized here like our friends feel marginalized when you don’t include everyone in your little reindeer games. It’s the right thing to do!

 

Speaking of games, I wonder when the last time you had a step too high that kept you out, or the last time you had to shout for help from a person that ignored you when you were having difficulty navigating your way through the turnstiles at a ball game and could have used a hand.

 

When is the last time anyone in this room couldn’t see their way through the darkness and there was no voice out there to guide you to a safe harbor. Never, I suspect! Just think of how you might react in those circumstances.

 

If you offered aid in those circumstances, what would be your demands in return. Would you be like the government and insist that as long as they want your aid they can only have yours and no others. If they need lights or guidance buoys, they must get them from you, or else your help will not happen? Would you help unconditionally?

 

Would you treat our friends that use wheelchairs right if they needed assistance going to school or would you be like most of the global south governments and give lip service to them while other governments and NGO’s could hear, then ignore their pleas when there is no one watching or listening any longer. It’s not a problem they say to you, then, they won’t be back until the next inspection, anyway!

 

It’s kind of like those promises that are promised year after year. It seems that change might be just around the corner. Then when you aren’t looking they turn the other way and tell you to just hold on,” we will be right back”! And soon too! We promise!

 

After a while you grow weary of those broken promises. Then you hear somebody else making those same old promises. We are different than the last folks that made those promises to you, they say. We “REALLY” promise you that things are a changing! Just when you thought you were calloused enough that it wouldn’t hurt when you were lied to, OOPS I DID IT AGAIN, and it’s the same all b.s.over again. Next time things will really get better. Meanwhile you just go along with the old ways of doing things, just doing what you are able to do!

 

Bullshit we say!

 

Stop right now!

 

Things and times have been changing a very long time for our friends, yet things are still, pretty much the same.

 

Different is different, and it is well past time that we do things differently.

 

If you will not even change the words we use, then how the heck do you think we can change anyone else’s actions! You know what, a pig with lipstick on, is still a pig!

 

A new location is needed here and together we all may be able to find it, however if we stick to the same tried and failed methods that have been done before, we will end up in the same place we are right now. Break-out of the manacles of the oppressor and do things differently today. Help us open the spaces around us in this community to become more of an inclusive one. When we in this room decide it is right and proper to help our friends break free of the ableist methods of oppression that have been in place for ages, we will see the new opportunities that open up for all, and know that we have done the good fight today

 

Change that old tune on the radio and change it right now. Make this a better place for us all to be in. Be the better person who instigates change with us, not the stubborn one that refuses to see things differently simply because that is the way it has always been done.

 

This team will use the structures of the dominators to break their structure. Use their words to show where their words are wrong. Act with their actions so their inaction will no longer be tolerated. Show then the error of their ways and end these ableist structures that have hurt so many.

Negative

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Created by on 2011/11/17 16:56

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