Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract
by Marta Russell

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Book Reviews of Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract

Book Review: Bridging the gap of despair
Summary: 5 Stars

It is the role of American government, Russell says, to fulfill its social contract to provide a measure of security for all people, from birth to death. Whatever your political persuasion, her passion for social and economic justice will encourage you to help the so-called least among us. "Normal" is a label the powerful use to choose those who should overcome their disabilities. Wrong, Russell explains: It's society's obligation to overcome its prejudice against the disabled by removing physical and psychological barriers.

She argues against "physicalism," or basing an individual's social value on able-bodied standards. We should demand, she adds, that elected officials mend and strengthen "government's contract with its citizenry to promote and not destroy human life and happiness." Russell questions the motives of the right to die movement, sayng the mindset that drives it is akin to pseudo-scientific Social Darvinist policies used by Nazis to sterilize, kill and torture those whom nature selected as inferior. She links capitalism with Social Darwinisn, which marked the beginning of the need for people with disabilities to prove their worth.

Russell points out that Republicans and too many Democrats like Bill Clinton are helping to roll back entitlements such as welfare, job training, disability spending, unemployment benefits, public housing and Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare. These cuts allow more money for more prisons, corporate welfare and increased military spending. Eschewing liberal "incrementalist" reforms, Russell calls for full-throttle democratic reforms. These include universal single-payer health care, national standards for local and state governments, mandatory full employment and living wages, corporate accountability, campaign finance reform, an end to corporate subsidies and excessive wealth, proportional representation instead of a two-party system, environmentally sustainable development instead of unlimited growth, and other reforms.

Though some may be put off by Russell's progressive leanings, it is hard to resist her sincere and fervent passion for a more democratic world that values human needs and dignity above profit and the unfair distribution of wealth.

Summary of Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract

Social Services & Welfare Books

• Nonfiction > Current Events > Poverty
• Government > Social Policy
• Politics > General
• U.S.
• Social Sciences > Sociology > General
• Special Groups > Disabled