Disability by J. Shrefi

​Disability, be it manifested physically or mentally is only deemed as such by those who are considered to be normal, healthy, or sane or competent. Disability only plagues those who are uncomfortable by the stark or otherwise blatant differences between those labeled with the term of disabled, and those who are not. For the actual person behind those disabled eyes can often feel the very same emotions as the next “normal” person. He or she holds the same capacity to smile, to laugh.  The same capacity to hurt or to cry. If one does not take the time to consider this, as is the general societal norm, the disabled become outcasts. Enter the judicial system. Here we all sit, garbed in blue, penning our intellectual, insightful thoughts down on paper, not a one of us I feel is disabled. However since we do happen to be garbed in blue, sitting on the other side of these razor wire fences, in the inferior position of inmate. Once we leave this place, we will undoubtedly be stigmatized as disabled. By society, strangers we will encounter in passing and will never meet, even amongst loved ones or those you’ve once held dear. Looked at, considered, but then passed over for job positions like bruised tomatoes in the produce section of the supermarket, set against those who are clean. Because of the stark reality of our records now as much a part of us as our shadows. No longer normal, but disabled.