{"id":14641,"date":"2021-01-28T14:06:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T19:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/?p=14641"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:45:00","slug":"student-poetry-the-504-sit-ins-the-wakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/2021\/student-poetry-the-504-sit-ins-the-wakening\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Poetry – The 504 Sit-ins: The Wakening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Student Poetry – The 504 Sit-ins: The Wakening\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Gagan Dhaliwal is a first-year student majoring in Cognitive Sciences and was taking our DBST1001A course – Intro to Disability Studies. \u201cI took the course on disability studies as an elective and, to be honest, did not think much of it. Many concepts, ideas and definitions were introduced throughout the course, ultimately changing my perspective of the world. Disability studies aims to teach that disability does not lie within individuals. The social consequence of being alienated comes from society disabling an individual – and that is the tip of the iceberg<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the course material and the documentary, Crip Camp, Gagan has written a poem about the important 504 sit-ins where groups of disabled activists occupied government offices across the United States to demand their rights. Their activism led to significant policy and social changes in the country and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 504 Sit-ins: The Wakening<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Gagan Dhaliwal <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The golden sunlit sky is beyond and above me<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the revolt against inequality will swarm the free<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can see the \u2018broken man\u2019 that stares on the other side of shore<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telling me that the line of segregation has been drawn long before<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel numb as if the eyes of that man have stained me<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waken from a dream of unreality and a cold evil sea<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where everything is so absolutely perfect and charming<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world without a disability, or a world where disability<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is not of the people but of society\u2019s mind and attitude<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as you begin to tear through the layers of oppression<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will see that the world has more of an obsession<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be of status quo or hold within the normalcy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And becomes monstrous where the hunger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is only fed of labeling, discriminating those that are \u2018different\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why must a missing arm or having cerebral palsy be of your concern<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences exist when one believes of a \u2018difference\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will I, you and we stand in harmony, knowing that the fault<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is not in you but in the cruel mind of society<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stare back at the \u2018broken man\u2019 on the other side of shore<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telling him that I stand with him and will fight for Section 504<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gagan Dhaliwal is a first-year student majoring in Cognitive Sciences and was taking our DBST1001A course – Intro to Disability Studies. \u201cI took the course on disability studies as an elective and, to be honest, did not think much of it. Many concepts, ideas and definitions were introduced throughout the course, ultimately changing my perspective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[64,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disability-studies-news","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14641"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14644,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14641\/revisions\/14644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}