Christopher Reeve: 'So many of our dreams at first seem impossible', Democratic National Convention - 1996

26 August 1996, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Thank you very, very much.

Well, I just have to start with a challenge to the President: Sir, I have seen your train go by, and I think I can beat it.

I'll even give you a head start.

And over the last few years we have heard a lot about something called "family values". And like many of you, I have struggled to figure out what that means. And since my accident, I've found a definition that seems to make sense. I think it means that we're all family. And that we all have value.

Now, if that's true, if America really is a family, then we have to recognize that many members of our family are hurting. And just to take one aspect of it, one in five of us has some kind of disability. You may have an aunt with Parkinson's disease, a neighbor with a spinal chord injury, or a brother with AIDS, and if we're really committed to this idea of family, we've got to do something about it.

Now first of all, our nation cannot tolerate discrimination of any kind.

And that's why the Americans with Disabilities Act is so important.

It must be honored everywhere. It is a Civil Rights Law that is tearing down barriers, both in architecture and in attitude.

Its purpose -- its purpose is to give the disabled access not only to buildings but to every opportunity in society.

Now, I strongly believe our nation must give its full support to the caregivers who are helping people with disabilities live independent lives.

Now, of course we have to balance the budget -- and we will. We have to be extremely careful with every dollar we spend. But we've also got to take care of our family -- and not slash programs that people need. We should be enabling and healing and curing.

Now, one of the smartest things we can do about disability is to invest in research that will protect us from diseases and lead to cures.

This country already has a long history of doing it. When we put our minds to a problem, we find solutions. Our scientists can do more. But we've got to give them the chance. And that means more funding for research.

Right now, for example, about a quarter million Americans have a spinal cord injury, and our government spends about 8.7 billion a year just maintaining these members of our family. But we only spend 40 million a year on research, that would actually improve the quality of their lives, and get them off public assistance, or even cure them. We have got to be smarter and do better.

The money we invest in research today is going to determine the quality of life of members of our family tomorrow.

Now, during my rehabilitation, I met a young man named Gregory Patterson. He was innocently driving through Newark, New Jersey, and a stray bullet, from a gang shooting, went through a car window, right into his neck and severed his spinal chord. Five years ago, he might have died. Today, because of research, he's alive.

But merely being alive -- merely being alive is not enough. We have a moral and an economic responsibility to ease his suffering and to prevent others from experiencing such pain.

And to do that, we don't need to raise taxes. We just need to raise our expectations.

Now, America has a tradition that many nations probably envy. We frequently achieve the impossible. That's part of our national character. That's what got us from one coast to another. That's what got us -- that's what got us the largest economy in the world. That's what got us to the moon.

Now, on the wall of my room when I was at rehab, there was a picture of the Space Shuttle blasting off, and it was autographed by every astronaut now at NASA, and on the top of that picture, it says, "We found nothing is impossible."

Now that -- that should be our motto. It's not a Democratic motto, not a Republican motto, it's an American motto. It's not something one Party can do alone. It's something we as a nation have to do together.

So many of our dreams -- so many dreams at first seem impossible. And then they seem improbable. And then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

So if we can conquer outer space, we should be able to conquer inner space, too.

And that's the frontier of the brain, the central nervous system, and all the afflictions of the body that destroy so many lives, and rob our country of so much potential.

Research can provide hope for people who suffer from Alzheimer's. We've already discovered the gene that causes it. Research can provide hope for people like Muhammad Ali and the Reverend Billy Graham, who suffer from Parkinson's. Research can provide hope for the millions of Americans like Kirk Douglas, who suffer from stroke. We can ease the pain of people like Barbara Jordan, who battled multiple sclerosis. We can find treatments for people like Elizabeth Glaser, whom we lost to AIDS. And now that we know that nerves in the spinal cord can regenerate, we are on the way to getting millions of people around the world, millions of people around the world like me, up and out of these wheelchairs.

Now, 56 years ago, F.D.R. dedicated new buildings for the National Institutes of Health. He said that (quote), "The defense this nation seeks involves a great deal more than building airplanes, ships, guns, and bombs. We cannot be a strong nation unless we are a healthy nation."

He could have said that today.

President Roosevelt showed us that a man who could barely lift himself out of a wheelchair could still lift this nation out of despair.

And I believe, and so does this Administration, in the most important principle -- the most important principle that F.D.R. taught us: America does not let its needy citizens fend for themselves.

America -- America is stronger when all of us take care of all of us. Giving new life to that ideal is the challenge before us tonight.

Thank you very much.

Jordon Steele-John: 'The Morrison government let the community down', Response to the pandemic - 2022

8 February 2022, Canberra, Australia

I rise to speak on the motion to suspend standing orders. During this great COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian community—disabled people, older Australians, First Nations peoples, young people—needed their government. They needed their government to listen to them and to act to provide help. And over the last two years this Morrison government, time and time again, have failed. They have let the Australian community down. The Australian community said, 'Let us have vaccinations. Let them get to the people that need them. Let's get it in quick; let's learn from the failures of other jurisdictions around the world as they battled the pandemic,' and the Morrison government let us down. The Australian community said, 'Let us have income supports so that we can focus on getting better, rather than worrying about where our next meal comes from,' and the Morrison government let the community down. The community said, 'Let us access, for everyone, the basics that we need to be safe during the pandemic. Let us access RATs and masks and proper ventilation in our schools to keep our kids safe,' and the Morrison government let the community down. Failure compounded failure, and the outcome was people put at risk and people dying.

Disabled people in this country will never forgive this feckless government for its disgraceful failure to keep that community safe, to keep our community safe. We will never forgive you, nor will the older Australians of this country, nor will the First Nations peoples of this country and nor will the immunocompromised of this country, for propagating the absolute lie, the total misrepresentation, that it is acceptable for our lives to be lost in this pandemic and that anybody with an underlying condition can be and should be written off as collateral damage. You have done so much harm in your time here. So much good work that needed to be done has gone undone. So much time has been squandered. The work of so many dedicated community members during this pandemic, attempting to keep each other safe, has been undermined by the reality that this government sees human lives far more in dollars and cents than it does in inherent human value.

For all these reasons and so much more, this government divided, this government benighted, this government failed and rambling into ruin, must now be swept from this place. A lack of confidence does not nearly cover it. Condemnation and allocation to the dustbin of history is all that you deserve. May you go there and never be thought of nor spoken of again.

Jordon Steele-John - 'Tonight I seek to speak their names', Demand for extension of royal commission into aged care to include people with disabilities - 2018

16 September 2018, Senate chamber, Canberra, Australia

In seeking to extend terms of royal commission into people abused and neglected in aged care, to include people with disabilities, Jordon Steele-John used parliamentary privilege to name Australians with disabilities who have died in institutional care. Speakola does not enjoy same privilege so will only provide initials.

Thank you Madam Acting Deputy President. Tonight our nation is caught within a moment of decision. Before us now is a question. Will justice be done for disabled people? Although we once again miss the opportunity to ensure that those in our nation who are so often made voiceless remain so. Tonight, I'd like to read from a passage from a speech given by my fellow disability activist and advocate Craig Wallace, who in 2015 as part of the White Flower Memorial to commemorate all those who have died institutional and residential care, spoke to the sorrow and pain of our community.

In concluding he said, "I call for those who have left us to be remembered. For their names and stories to be said out loud in the sunlight and amongst the people who love them." Well tonight, I seek to speak their names and through the sun does not shine in this place, I hope that their stories will move the hearts of those who have it within their power to see justice done. The following names are those who have died in the lead up or subsequent to the Royal Commission Inquiry.

The [ascending 00:01:54] inquiry which called for a Royal Commission. S.W. , age 7. Found locked in a room without sunlight surrounded by faeces. S.W. died from starvation and thirst and weighed only nine kilograms, a third of her expected body weight. She had severe autism and was considered to be profoundly disabled.

L.B., seven years old. Found beaten tortured and finally killed by the people meant to care for him. H.D.B., eight, when she was found in 2013 she was starved suffering from pneumonia and her hair was infested with lice and matted with dirt. I.L., nine, died from a combination of internal injuries which paediatricians were said were caused by blunt force to the stomach, such as a fist. J, 11, who was left to freeze to death in a shed and that he had first been hosed in a water after having faeces rubbed in his face.

L.S. and his younger brother, C.S., 17, who was arrested for a minor driving offence and later bashed by another inmate at the [redacted], died in isolation from a massive brain haemorrhage. B.L., suffered severe learning difficulties and was killed by a family member. J.S., 18, died in state funded ACT care from drowning. L.M, , La.M., 20, returned to her parents' care at 19 despite stating that they could not look after her. Nine months before her death authorities were warned that she would die if the situation was not addressed. Two weeks before her death both of her legs were amputated to attempt to stem infection. She died covered in her own faeces and urine in a room infested with cockroaches.

S.H., 22, a disabled young woman who was unable to speak and reported half dragged and half carried herself from a taxi after a shocking incident, allegedly witnessed by community workers. Later died in hospital in 2016 of septesemia.

C.O., 22. N.S., R.L, found with multiple stab wounds in her chest and abdomen in a group care home. J.V.J. age undisclosed, his care plan stated that he should not be left alone with water because he would drink it without stopping. He died after being left alone in the shower.

C.S. died in a group home. She had a seizure at 2:23 AM that was documented by staff and was found dead seven hours later. S.H., 29 died as a result of medical neglect in an institutionalised setting. S.I., 29, a quadriplegic man who made complaint of sexual assault and misconduct by his carers. He was left face down and suffocated to death.

SL., M.C who died in the same hospital under similar circumstances as S.H. B.P., 33, died after being left unsupervised in a bathtub for an extended period of time. His carers were blamed for negligence.

D.K., died in his respite facility as a result of an unexplained incident in which he broke his neck. He was left of the floor for over an hour after his support workers gave up trying to pull him up. Saying that he was being noncompliant.

D.V.,, M.M. 22 and mother of two who was left naked and covered an faeces at [redacted[ Psychiatric Hospital. A.G., 47, who had a required brain injury as a result of attempted suicide and was placed in the [redacted] Psychiatric Care Centre in my home state of WA. She was raped and assaulted 111 times and died as a result of complications used in the medications used to sedate her. The WA coroner believes this to be an underestimation of the number of times that she was raped.

E.F. died when a pressure sore she had received in their care home became septic. The inquest heard about serious issues in the facility that she lived. J.J., a 51-year-old amputee who died a preventable, avoidable death after a private disability support provider withdrew essential supports. S.D., 55, J & R.F, 68 and 50. A family friend of the three people died in a shooting near [redacted] and says it was a mercy killing. C.T, J.M., J.B.C , 81-year-old, from [redacted] charged over his elderly partner’s apparent mercy killing. Described it as a ‘beautiful act of mercy for his wife’.

These are the names that don't get spoken. These are the reasons. These are the human beings. These are the loved ones, the mother, the father, the sons, the partners, who need justice, who demand justice, whose lives are worth living in whose memory I, tonight wear a white flower and whose passing fills me with an iron clad determination. I will not rest until they find the justice that is so desperately owed them.