Holding Up The Sky Together

Even As Kindness Toward Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities Has Increased, Encountering An Individual And His Or Her Family Whose Lives Revolve Around The Daily Challenges That Come With Them Is Atypical, Or Is Experienced And Narrated As Such, Particularly By The MediaEven When There Is Progress, Making Such ALeap Provides Rhetorical Cover, Or At Least ADistraction, While Intolerance RegroupsAnd For Some, It Becomes Less About Showing Love And Compassion Than About Being Able To Pat Oneself On The Back When An Interaction With APerson Like Our Son Neil Is OverBut It,s Why They Don,t Know, Or Are Curious But Reluctant To Engage, Or Just Flat Out Lack Empathy, That Compelled Us To Write This BookContributing To Their Misimpressions And Misanthropy Are Portrayals Of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities In The Mass Media, Scant Though They AreWe Should Always Be Skeptical Of Those In My Line Of Work Who Argue That The Onslaught Of Information We Take In From AWidened Array Of Sources Can Magically Change Our Behavior The Socalled 'hypodermic Needle' Theory Of Media EffectsBut These Messages Do Help Us Craft Our Realities And Develop And Share Our Own Narratives About Folks With Intellectual DisabilitiesHolding Up The Sky Together Is Admittedly AHybrid: Part Memoir, Part Academic Analysisa Professor With More Than Published Articles And Four Books, All Of Which Revolve Around Media Analysis, Looks InwardBut Our Fervent Hope Is To Inject ABit More Realism Into The National Dialogue About Intellectual DisabilitiesWe Are Grateful For Increased Awareness And Tolerance, For Special Olympics, And For Shows Like Born This WayBut There Is So Much More To Be Done.
'