From: Kathryn Aegis (k_aegis@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri Aug 20 1999 - 18:04:39 MDT
Sometimes something happens that moves me into thinking about the fragility
of things. Such as a first look in the Air and Space Museum, where one
feels a jolt of amazement at the cobbled flimsiness of the aircraft that
carried humans into the sky and beyond the atmosphere. Or the whispery
thin inside of a cat's ear, where the most sensitive nerve cells collect
signals far beyond any that can reach a human ear. Or the tiny, tiny stem
cell which holds the blueprint for the most gigantic animal.
Or Dion Johnson, ex-football star, quadrapalegic, popular young reporter
for WJLA-TV here in Washington, DC.
A high school athletic injury did not deter Dion from earning a college
degree and landing a position at a network affiliate. The latest in
technology enabled him to zip around town on a set of wheels, to type out
his stories, to shop and play. No need for a personal assistant when one
can buy so many wonderful products of robotics labs and computer
programmers. Like Stephen Hawkings, he had achieved a cyborgian
relationship with machine and used it to expand his existence. I became
aware of Dion through my work at a disability affairs organization, and he
wanted to tape a story about us.
Yesterday, Dion was seen by his neighbors rolling into a neighborhood park,
just as on many other days. No one saw him after that. No one saw that he
had taken a little shortcut through the park, one that would take him out
of the publicly-traveled areas. No one saw that the wheels of his electric
chair suddenly became mired in a pile of wood chips. No one saw that he
discovered that he had no way to unmire the wheels of his chair, and that
the stifling heat of an August day was bearing down upon him.
I wish that I could say this story ends happily, but Dion was not found by
anyone until later in the day, when it was far too late to save him from
heat stroke. My director and I have been in a sort of shock over the ease
in which a little pile of organic matter so fully defeated the wonders of
the latest in assistive technology, cutting short a promising life.
I suppose one could dredge up a few larger philosophical points here, but
for me it is enough to simply tell the story so that you can draw them on
your own.
Kathryn Aegis
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