A Voice I Respect

This morn­ing (Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 04, 2010) my NPR alarm radio sta­tion brought me an oral essay from a writer I had not heard before.  His name is Ben Mat­tlin and he is a writer who has a dis­abil­ity known as spinal mus­cu­lar atro­phy. It grad­u­ally and relent­lessly weak­ens muscles.

What impressed me almost right away was how much his expe­ri­ences and opin­ions matched mine and those I have pre­vi­ously heard from sev­eral of my friends and col­leagues with disabilities.

I tracked Ben’s essay down through NPR​.org and dis­cov­ered he was acces­si­ble through Face​book​.com.  I’m glad to say we have since become “friends” through that medium.  I’m look­ing to hear­ing more of him and his view­points in the future.

If you would like to read or lis­ten to Ben’s essay you can do so by fol­low­ing this link:  http://​www​.npr​.org/​t​e​m​p​l​a​t​e​s​/​s​t​o​r​y​/​s​t​o​r​y​.​p​h​p​?​s​t​o​r​y​I​d​=​1​2​2​0​6​6​678 .