Yearly Archives: 2017

[A culture of life] starts with our own gentleness, our acceptance of nonviolence, our constant questioning of our own beliefs and actions, our ability to teach companionship…, and then to build communities of caring.” – JOHN MCGEE

Why have I told you these appalling vignettes of past institutional life?  Because the system that created these dehumanizing arrangements is still with us today. – GUNNAR DYBWAD

To live with our retarded children, our handicapped friends, our aging parents does place burdens on us…[T]hese are burdens which cannot be avoided or delegated: to have a decent society we must behave as decent individuals.   – BURTON BLATT

The bottom fell out of human service morality in any number of ways when medicine unequivocally abandoned its moral, philosophical, and theological background. – WOLF WOLFENSBERGER

For those whose ’emptiness’ cannot be filled by human services, the most obvious ‘need’ is the opportunity to express and share their gifts, skills, capacities, and abilities with friends, neighbors, and…citizens in the community. – JOHN MCKNIGHT

When in doubt about what to do, a gentle caregiver looks at any question or situation from this perspective – ‘What will help the person feel safe and loved at this very moment?’ – JOHN MCGEE

Support, not supplant, the natural home. – GUNNAR DYBWAD

[I]mprisonment and segregation can be made more comfortable, but they can never be made into freedom or participation. – BURTON BLATT

Of course, if severely handicapped people will be persecuted, those who stand with them will be subject to the same onslaught. – WOLF WOLFENSBERGER

Much of the positive reputation of the medical profession flows from the ethic that assumes a good doctor, before undertaking any intervention, always asks: ‘Will this initiative help more than hurt?’ – JOHN MCKNIGHT