Handicapped mind   Marijana Ivanova I recall one of my impressions from Prague - after I had got myself together from the beauty of this city, I noticed that many people move about in wheelchairs. The first thought that came to my mind was that there are much more "handicapped" people here than in our country, but I soon realized that they MOVE here, go out, lead a normal life. They can move there easily because the sidewalks are not so high and steep for their wheelchairs to climb them, they can easily approach the means of public transport- the underground and the trams, there are ramps, built or placed at the entrances of shopping centers, museums, hospitals, there are lifts, platforms, crossings. However, most important of all is that there is a good will and understanding for their problem of moving by "those who do not move into wheelchairs". I do not find it strange at all that the "handicapped" people in our country decide to spend their days at home and go out so rarely. I believe that many of them cannot even go out of their building because there is no lift, or a platform at the entrance, and that those two or three stairs that we do not even notice present an unbridgeable barrier for them. Then, they face ruined sidewalks, sharp edges, high stairs in buses, stairs in almost every public facility. I am ashamed that I have to use the word "handicapped", only with the aim of being understood, to refer to people who have a certain physical or mental problem. I am ashamed and I protest in myself that I live in an "elitist" world - it is a world only adjusted to those who have no physical or mental problem. It is a world where a division is made between "normal" and those who can move; those who have no hands; those who have them, but write with the left one and use it better (just think about it, can a left-handed person work as a dentist, or what kind of problems does that person face when driving a car); those who are homosexuals; or drug addicts; or have disabilities.... In fact, I recognize only one division - into normal people and people with handicapped mind - a mind limited by prejudices, blunt by some strange vanity and self-created image of its own grandeur. Unfortunately, too many people see someone else's physical or mental disability as a handicap, and they do not understand that such an understanding of things is the only handicap there is to be. It is the greatest handicap of all, the most serious obstacle that has to be removed in order to have justice and equality among people. It is nobody's merit that he has two hands or legs, nor it is anybody's fault that he cannot move or is intellectually disabled - therefore, there is room here for elitism or divisions. On the other hand, anyone who has a brain is guilty of dividing people on the basis of their physical or mental capacity.   *** Another ugly and misused term is the term "invalid", the term we use to refer to a person with a physical problem. Invalid, means "non valid", like something irregular...It is terrifying that this term is used in such sense by many organizations, institutions, etc. Therefore, we have an "Invalid Center" or "Association of Bodily Invalids" or "Labor Invalids" and so on.