Including Disabled People in Civil Defense


You must assume there will be people with disabilities in any emergency response planning. The hard part is to figure how many and what resources to devote to covering that part of the plan.
For example, my church Safety and Security Committee just ran a fire drill at the end of Mass one Sunday.
We evacuated the church in 3.34 minutes, except for two seniors i the front.
The business manager who was the fire captain for that large room keep yelling at them to leave.
There was only one problem.
Neither heard her or the fire alarm as they were both deaf.
Given that our population is gaining weight and years, you must plan for this fact.
For example, where once it took just two responders to carry one disabled person, now it can require four.
That is just a fact and one you will have to consider in your emergency response plans.

Below is my poem, "Girl in a Wheelchair"  It is another fact you must consider in your emergency response plan but is sometimes forgotten: their humanity.


Girl in a Wheelchair
 
I see a little girl 
In a wheelchair
And, Jesus-like, 
I want to say 
To her gently
“Arise and walk!” 
And disappear
Before she or her family 
Can thank me
 
But I am not Jesus.
I am only a very flawed man
Who has seen enough of life
To know beautiful little girls 
Are confined to wheelchairs
And other beautiful little girls 
Die of cancer
Or in car accidents
And in house fires.
 
Life is like that
Happiness and tenderness 
Leave as the Spring laugh 
But tragedy 
Lurks like terrorists
In the background
Denying too much joy
 
Always remember
The violin also
Plays loud and joyously 
In the background
God’s music in rhythm for you

Appears even in a wheelchair
And children’s cancer wards
Celebrate the child
Recognize the crippled
Or cancer condition.
 
But sing Creation’s praise
Despite the endless drumbeat
Of horror and death
LIFE, LIFE, LIFE continues
 
Repeated 
Like a heartbeat
To the gift of life
And life eternal
A symphony of sound, 
Harmony and flesh
 
Life is here
Life is present
Life demands your time
Because the grave waits 
Quiet and certain
In the distance
 
Little girls in wheelchairs
And in cancer wards
Ask not your pity or praise
But your everyday
Because they have never known
Everyday like you
 
But you
Being you
Being not confined
To a wheelchair
Or cancer ward
Look up
Look up
Look up
 
Even when the pain
Is accidentally present
In every pore
Enjoy the current laughter,
 
The baby newborn’s demands
And the violin concert
That screams to you again
 
You must love
You must give
You must hope 
Jesus-like, and here is the mystery,
Even though you are not Him.