In “Down syndrome Isn’t ” I talked about how October is Down syndrome Awareness month. This year the Down syndrome community is celebrating its 30th year of bringing awareness. I’ve read through a variety of posts throughout the day, lots of great ones out there! But, what I began seeing more and more as I read through these is a sense of dissatisfaction.
It’s not just enough anymore that we bring awareness, that ship has been sailing for 30 years. It’s time that we bring about acceptance. Meriah Nichols could be described in two words, amazing and courageous. She offered up a very specific challenge today in the form of a blog post:
“Let’s try to put our awareness into action and actively accept people with Down syndrome. Let’s try and move two steps past our comfort zone, whatever that might be.”
Not only has she challenged the public to transform their perceptions of what were celebrating in October, but she offers ideas on how to personally show that acceptance. The final words on her post are “Move past the awareness. Open your arms to acceptance“.
So here I am, nodding my head in agreement. I think it’s a great idea. When I take my children out, I don’t want people around him to only be aware that my son has Down syndrome, I want them to accept him for the incredible individual that he is. I want society to accept that chromosomes don’t determine worth or ability.
If you’ve watched tv today, I’m sure that you have seen pink everywhere. Do not misunderstand me, this is an important month for Breast Cancer awareness and the thousands of warriors out there. However, I’d like to see some yellow and blue too. Our community is beyond just bringing awareness, we require acceptance and want to be celebrated this month too. We’ve come so far in just these few years, lets see how far we can get in just 30 more days. I’d like to encourage you to include #BlueNYellow in your comments, posts and status updates related and unrelated to down syndrome. You can #BlueNYellow anywhere that you deem fit. Let see if we can move past awareness to acceptance and even acknowledgement!
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