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Leaving for Work, Having Met Her Only the Night Before
I loved
you that moment
that you teased my fear at not seeing you soon,
when
you said,
Maybe not, and stared at the balcony steps and then suddenly
slapped my arm
my astonished arm
and said,
I'm
kidding.
I saw
how keenly you already knew my fears
and that the teasing of them
was a
moment of loving me.
I could
have kissed you all day
on that sun-blanched, paint-flaked balcony
and
still not have unraveled that sharp
love that got trapped
in our four
hands there.
Michelle Tracy
Montreal, Quebec
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Fortunately, disability-related organizations are coming to
understand that women with disabilities have special issues separate from
disability issues. Likewise, women's groups have had to recognize that among
their members are women with disabilities. The revelation that gender and
disability co-exist must now be taught to those in mainstream positions of
power. Questions of importance to women with disabilities cannot be confined
only to those women who have disabilities but must be taken up and supported by
both women and people with disabilities as political players.
The experience of participation in the CLFDB has been
instrumental in pointing towards resolutions and pro-active solutions to these
divisions. Individual leaders and organizations involved must make a commitment
to inclusion and equality at all levels, so that the most marginalized in
society are not also the most marginalized in equality-seeking activities and
organizations.
Tanis Doe is living in Victoria, serving as a
resource person to the Reference Group of People with Disabilities. Tanis also
teaches and writes on topics of sexual and physical abuse, education and
employment equity.
- See the article by Shauna
Butterwick in this issue for a list of the Principles for Training.
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