Sugar-coating Diabetes

Let's frolick through a meadow holding hands singing Kumbaya, while the forest burns behind us.  This is the image I get when people insist on using inclusive, or politically correct language.  I call to mind this image, because I read an article last week in one of the major diabetes magazines that advised against using the term "diabetic" to describe people with diabetes.  The article stated that this type of labeling diminishes a person's individuality, and it can be harmful to his or her self-image.

Folks, I'm here to tell you that this line of thinking is completely off the mark.  It is related to a "modern logic" that is infiltrating our global culture under the guise of inclusion and social justice.  It twists truth ever so slightly, then demands that everyone else do the same. 

However, for the sake of discussion, let's suppose that there is a kernel of truth to the statement.  Let's suppose that calling me a diabetic does indeed offend me.  Why is that so?  Why is it that I look like a duck, walk like a duck, quack like a duck; but you ought not call me a duck, because I may forget that I'm a mallard?

There are several answers that come to mind; but as a diabetic, only one jumps out as a game-changer.  One reason we may be offended at the term "diabetic" is because of the negative public image that it arouses.  I've mentioned before that we don't exactly have the best reputation.  When most people hear that someone they know is diabetic, it is tempting to assume that they must not take care of themselves.  They must not have any discipline or self-control.  That's certainly not a category that I want to be lumped into.

So how did we get this image?..........It comes through a long history of not taking care of ourselves, having no discipline, and having no self-control.  Essentially, we've shown up late to work for the past 50 years, and now we're getting mad at the world for calling us tardy.  There's only one thing we can do to change it now.......start showing up on time.  It's up to a new generation of diabetics to turn this word into respectful terminology.  And if you are reading this post, that means you and me.

The fight is not against the terminology itself.  It's against the meaning of that terminology.  So for those of you who are offended at being called "diabetic", I'm offended that you're offended.  Diabetes has taught me numerous invaluable lessons about life and love, and I am honored to be labeled diabetic.  It puts me in a community of people who are forced to either embrace or reject the struggle daily.  I don't like diabetes, and I don't wish it on my worst enemy.  But I'm here now, and I'm going to make the best of it.

I'd like to end with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt in his speech, "Citizenship in a Republic."  It has become my personal MO in the last couple of years, and I think it goes well with my rant.  Thanks for reading; and let's be less than seven, greater than low!

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."