Music Within
Thursday, November 12 2009
As a complement to yesterday’s post, and perhaps a bit of counterpoint, let me recommend a movie called Music Within. I caught the first half of it this morning, which reminded me to write about it.
The film is based on the life story of Richard Pimentel, a talented public speaker who was deafened by injuries he received in Vietnam. His experiences turned him into an advocate for disabled veterans, and he was a driving force in the events that led to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The movie is – inevitably – a bit syrupy, but also has a sharper wit to it than most films in the genre. The depictions of discrimination and prejudice against disabled people are almost surreal, but accurate as far as I can tell. There really were such things as “Ugly Laws“, which made it against the law for people with unsightly disabilities or disfigurement to appear in public.
One of the things I had not considered before I saw the film and read a little more about the story was the extent to which disabled veterans worked to change society in a way that benefited all disabled people. From what I understand, Vietnam produced an unusual number of disabled veterans, compared the previous wars – apparently because previously fatal injuries were made survivable my advances in battlefield medicine. And those disabled vets were returned to a society that had no real use for them.
Richard Pimentel, along with others, helped changed all of that. He made this country a better place – not just for disabled veterans, but for all sick and disabled people.
