Ageist as fuck.
Also…not sure how many people today know this but the longest ever serving president was confined to a wheelchair. Unassisted mobility isn’t a requirement to run this country.
I wouldn't say conceal because people knew about his disability. What he did do was not allow himself to be photographed in a wheelchair (only a handful of photos of him in one, I think). Instead, if he had to stand, he used braces and a walking stick. Usually he was on a simple chair though.
There IS disagreement over this. He definitely tried to minimize his disability which can be seen as concealing it. But he did reference to it, used crutches in public, and often had someone helping him. The White House was wheelchair friendly too. So I wouldn't use the word "conceal" for it.
Considering he had to deal with image and appearance fueled Hitler, who‘d mercilessly had mocked „the cr*****“ for laughs and humiliation, that was a smart move.
* a wheelchair user
No one is "confined to a wheelchair" or "wheelchair bound", they're not prisons and we're not chained in. They're mobility aids and they're amazing. People put off using them for far too long because of this kind of language.
The majority of wheelchair users are ambulatory! Also called part time wheelchair users.
We really need the myth that you can't use a wheelchair unless you've completely lost use of your legs to die, because it results in people putting off urgently needed mobility aids, and increased hate crime.
For sure.
I'll probably be back in one again, I shattered my pelvis in a motorcycle crash and once it healed I had to learn to walk again.
It really made me more conscious of people who need them permanently, even those who only need them intermittently.
Yeah, my partner said the same after he had his first DVT and needed to borrow one of my walking sticks. Since the second DVT, he uses it most of the time. He picked a really lovely one, black with gold tendrils, and I'm proud of him for rocking it.
Anyway, best of luck!
As is the current governor of Texas! I’ve got like zero overlap with him on policy issues but his wheelchair’s got nothing to do with his competence (or lack thereof)
To be fair, FDR was in no shape to be President at the end. But it's an interesting comparison, as he only ran for a 3rd and 4th term because he saw the existential threat of WWII and felt the US needed continuity of (his) leadership.
(screenshot from Wikipedia)
Reading that, though, it’s clear that he WAS still doing his job capably enough right to the end of his fourth (!) term. If he was ready to retire before attempting a fifth (!!) term, well, who wouldn’t be?
Four terms and a world war is a pretty dang good record.
Ah, ok, I was unclear on the timeline. Still a good run under the circumstances.
And none of it indicates that being “old” or being mobility impaired had any significant negative effect, it seems like the biggest issue was the kind of heart health issues that can and do affect people of all ages.
Yeah using mobility assistance devices doesn’t mean someone isn’t fit to run the country. If they wanted to make a front page targeting Bidens cognitive abilities, they messed up hard.
You might not know, so I'll just share this: a lot of people consider "confined to a wheelchair" to be ableist as well. A lot of people who use wheelchairs, including FDR, spent plenty of time outside of one, and even people who need them for all mobility still aren't trapped in them.
But how will the leader of the free world charge into battle against the woke army??? How will they brandish Freedom-Claw, a double handed 7 foot long sword passed down from generations, forged with the steel from the very hatchet George Washington used to cut the cherry tree?
