Public Discourse Prospectus

I will argue that, in today’s increasingly diverse society, the disabled are often getting overlooked, causing the general public to become ignorant, shallow, and intolerant towards people with disabilities. This issue has a personal connection for me because my brother Andrew suffers from Angelman Syndrome, a genetic disorder causing developmental delays and mental retardation. Too often I see people giving him puzzled looks and scathing stares, wondering why he looks different than we all do. Their body language gives off a condescending image, which severely bothers me because they are basing their (incorrect) judgments only on his unique look and not his personality. They are not seeing him as a real person; rather they only point out his differences instead of highlighting his value. Hopefully this piece will help to dispel some basic preconceptions about people with disabilities, and help the general public to better understand the world they live in. I’ll write this argument and explanation as a blog post in order to reach more people using technology as a middleman. In this situation, the more people that I influence and educate, the better. I plan on targeting primarily the disabled community in order to have it spread to other groups of people who might not be tolerant of people of disabilities. Since the audience is very common and basic, I’ll use a very simple argument and incorporate lots of personal experience (through my brother) which will help to give a specific face to all disabled people. The appeals will be very logical, and will just plain make sense. There’s a large moral perspective associated with this topic, so the “bleeding heart” approach will have a certain degree of effectiveness and will not be too lofty or academic for a common audience. I’ll take information and use specific examples from disability-related websites and blogs to strengthen my argument, mostly by highlighting the struggles people with disabilities face and the extraordinary measures they take in order to overcome those struggles.

Public Discourse

Since my English class will shortly move into the field of public discourse, I thought I'd take some time and jot down a few ideas related to the topic. Before I do that, I have to find out exactly what public discourse is. A professor from the University of South Africa as "public talk, a talk not meant for private purposes, a talk by the people, the members of the public." Hmm. Now what does that mean? A speech? A TV broadcast? Standing on a street corner preaching about the apocalypse? Well, yes. They're all considered public discourse in my mind. Because of this broad definition, I'm now aware of many more examples of public discourse than I used to be. For example, people talking too loudly on their cell phones so those around them can hear or people yelling at other drivers while on the road. Billboards can be called public discourse, because they project a message intended for the general public and are strategically placed to attract the most viewers. Television shows in general are great examples of public discourse, in particular reality television shows. They really don't have a purpose other than to show the masses the ins and outs of another person's daily life. This brings me to another question about public discourses and reality television: why are people so fascinated by other people's lives? Isn't your own life enough to handle, let alone another random person (often spoiled and drug-dependent) miles away? I'd like to examine that question a little bit more in the coming weeks of class and hopefully gain some insight to why people love those shows so much. Going back to the angry drivers point, I'd like to find some answers as to why people often change their personas once they get behind the wheel of a car. It's amazing how many times I've been riding in the car with a mellow friend who turns out to be hell on wheels. Hopefully I'll be able to answer that. Just some thoughts...