Gettin Along With the \"Normals\"

Since I got my diagnosis nine years ago, I have been puzzled by the attitudes people have toward ME, or CFS as the doctor called it. I tried to think of how I reacted to chronically ill patients when I was living in spells of relatively good health.  I can't really say when I came down with ME, because I have had the symptoms since childhood.  I just accepted the fact that I was sickly as a child. I don't ever remember having a self-righteous attitude toward people with health problems.  Maybe it was my upbringing, or my own health problems, but I never had any impulses to put people down because they were sick, blame their illness on bad attitudes or negative thinking on their part, question whether they were really sick, or do any of the other outrageous things we have to deal with on a regular basis.  What puzzles me is where does this twisted thinking originate?  Does it come from modern culture, this habit of persecuting ill people, or is it just a sign of moral decay in individuals?  There can be no doubt that doctors, medical staff of various kinds, government bureaucrats, people we deal with socially, etc. are persecuting us, but what is their motive?  Do they just perceive us as weak and fair game because they assume we can't fight back, or is this some part of modern culture?  Or is it simple human cowardice? My best guess is that this is a failure of a whole culture to accept the infirm and disabled as part of society.  Culture tends to glorify the strong and powerful and despise the weak.  If that is what causes our persecution, then we will get nowhere appealing for a charitable response from governments and the medical community.  It seems to me they generally respond to political pressure, not pleas for help.  So what we need is not sad stories to tell, but strength in our numbers and a willingness to stand up to unfairness in our treatment and the lack of funding for research on ME.  We need to start pushing back.