Being a mother to a child who is classified as disabled, I find the Paralympics inspirational. I know myself that Jaxon is not disabled. That being said, he has access to services within our community that are there for children with disabilities. Compared to some of the children he attends “classes” with, you can hardly see why Jaxon would be going there. He can walk and talk like any other child, nothing is holding him back. He merely has hurdle’s that other children don’t have.

I am incredibly proud of Jaxon and everything that he achieves on a daily basis. Be it holding something with his “bung” arm, picking up a texta and scribbling on the page with his right hand, or grasping something between his thumb and index finger in his right hand (something he can not do right now, but I know he will) Jaxon overcome’s things on a daily basis that other children don’t even have to think about. It come’s naturally to them, while Jaxon really has to think about it, and be shown how to do it.

So it disappoints me to know that even though people say they don’t discriminate against those of us with disabilities, it still happens. I am speaking of course, of the Paralympics, which if you don’t know, are on right now. (comment please, if you didn’t know they were on)

I say this because of some very major differences in how both the Olympics and ParaOlympics get treated.

The Olympics got 24 hour, 7 day a week coverage from start to finish, and a little beyond. It was played on channel 7, a prime network here in Australia. Compared to the ParaOlympics, which has been delegated to ABC2. If you don’t know, ABC, ABC1 and ABC2 are channel’s that people just don’t watch. They play the Indonesian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, Spanish news, Sesame Street and The Tellytubbies…it’s a Weather channel, or as boring as one at any rate. It’s one of those channel’s that you find when nothing is on the other three channel’s. When you’re bored or just about to go to bed. It’s also only available to those fortunate enough to have a digital set top box. Otherwise, those channel’s don’t exist.

Not only are the Paralympics played on a channel that doesn’t exist to a large majority of Australian’s, but it’s hosted by absolute nobody’s. While our “regular” Olympians had high profile commentator’s and TV personalities presenting their events and award ceremonies, the Paralympian’s get Joe Blow from some far away land that none of us know about. And while the Olympics and the medal’s won were top rated, and considered to be “must know” news (played in the first five minutes) with updates throughout the day, I’ve not seen more than one (if any, I just don’t want to exaggerate and be bullied by my fellow Australian’s who HAVE seen it mentioned on the news..IN that first five minutes BTW, not at the end) mention of the medal’s and world records broken and won by our Paralympian.

While the Olympics were on we were bombarded with advertisements by every day Australian’s, proclaiming their love for Australia and our elite athletes. “We’re Proud” “Behind you all the way” “You can do it” and so on. None of that has been done for our other elite athletes. As far as the media is concerned they just don’t exist. It’s not happening, and it’s not worthy of any of the privileges that our “normal” athletes get.

The young boy that I saw win his gold, had mild cerebral palsy. You could barely tell. And from first glances you can barely tell that Jaxon has a few issues of his own. It got me thinking that that boy is an every day normal person, with proud parent’s just like me. Parent’s that watched him grow and succeed just like I am watching Jaxon grow and succeed. Yet because that boy has a disability his parent’s don’t get to see him run, unless they have a special TV. They don’t get to see his achievements on the news, or mentioned on the radio. He probably wont even get to meet Rove to celebrate his gold. None of his achievements will be celebrated by his fellow Australian’s. That’s sad. Because he is an Australian, and he deserves the same treatment as any other person living here and acting on behalf of his countrymen and woman.

This offends me. Because as I watched him win his gold and break world records I couldn’t help but think that one day THAT could be Jaxon. That could be my son, the one with the bung arm and funny spine. And as Jaxon’s mother, I don’t see that he is any different from you and I. Neither are the Paralympian, yet they clearly don’t get the credit and celebrity that everyone else here get’s for doing a good job and succeeding in their field of choice.

While two weeks ago all over Australia we all held our breaths and cheered on our runner’s and swimmer’s, in a living room somewhere unknown to any of us today, there were two people. Parents. Sitting alone and holding their breath that their son reaches his full potential and acheieves what he set out to acheieve. They couldn’t be more proud of him…but what of Australian’s???