[Caption: Health is never a measure of human worth, written over photos of Teddy Roosevelt, RJ Mitte, Miles Davis, Helen Keller, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Michael J. Fox, Stephen Hawking, and Lucille Ball]
- Teddy Roosevelt, former president with epilepsy and asthma
- R.J. Mitte, actor with cerebral palsy
- Miles Davis, jazz musician with sickle cell disease
- Helen Keller, writer and social activist with hearing and visual impairment
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, former president with polio
- Michael J. Fox, actor with Parkinson’s disease
- Stephen Hawking, physicist with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
- Lucille Ball, actress with rheumatoid arthritis
When you use phrases like, “as long as you’re healthy” these are just a few of the people that your language is excluding. No one owes you health. Being healthy does not make you a good person, and being unhealthy does not make you a bad person. The state of a person’s body does not reflect their soul, their mind, or their worth as a human being.