The American Dream. FT. National Women's History Month
Sen. Tammy Duckworth walks across stage at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. She is the first senator to give birth while serving in office.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Written by Paavna Rangarajan
“Sometimes it takes dealing with a disability - the trauma, the relearning, the months of rehabilitation therapy - to uncover our true abilities and how we can put them to work for us in ways we may have never imagined.” - Tammy Duckworth
“The American Dream I believe in, is one that provides everyone willing to work hard with the opportunity to succeed”. Is what Tammy Duckworth believes in. A fifty-three year old badass woman who fought for her country endlessly. She lost her legs when she was deployed in Iraq and lost partial mobility in one of her arms. Tammy dedicated the next following year in recovery (Walter Reed hospital) where she became an advocate for her fellow soldiers. She developed the first ever 24/7 Veterans crisis hotline and “developed innovative programs to improve Veterans’ access to housing and health care.”(1). Not only that, she continued to break history by being the first “female helicopter pilot to lead a combat mission, the first double amputee of the Iraq war and the first Thai-American woman and the first woman with a disability elected to Congress and the first senator to give birth while in office.” The list goes on, might I need to say more?
However, achievements don’t come without failures. Being an amputee isn’t as easy as Tammy makes it seem. When Tammy was deployed in Iraq, she was almost killed, lying unconscious with blood gushing out from her lower body. That is when a fellow member helped her out to safety. During the attack they took in the living, the wounded and tried to retrieve what they thought was Dukworth’s corpse. “I am no hero” The guy who carried me out of there? He’s the hero.” she says.
Politicians who wanted to boost their military profile, would visit Tammy and take pictures with her. The soldiers jokingly referred to it as the “amputee petting zoo.” She was wary of being used, especially since she was seen as good looking. A poster girl is what she was referred to as by those politicians. Like this, there were many occurrences, where her disability denounced her self identity. However she did not let that determine her life. “When I see myself wearing those legs in a mirror, I see loss. But when I see this”—she gestures toward the steel-and-titanium prosthesis attached to her thigh above her right knee—“I see strength. I see a reminder of where I am now. Same thing with her wheelchair.” people always want to hide her in pictures but she says No! She states “I earned this wheelchair. It’s no different from a medal I wear on my chest. Why would I hide it?”
Having a disability does not make one less of a person. If anything it makes you more of a person. Being a human isn’t having limbs, arms, etc. It's about having emotions; being kind, selfish, selfless. All those emotions are what makes us “human.” We all come in different colors, shapes and forms, that doesn’t mean one should be ostracized for it. Our differences are what makes humanity!
