Dear Mrs. McCullan,
I am a 13 year old girl who uses a wheelchair, and your book Source of Light made me think about what happened to black people and about civil rights. It makes me also consider about how handicapped people are treated in our society even now. Reading about the fight in the south for civil rights reminds me of how people with disabilities had to fight for their rights not very long ago.
Black children couldn’t go to school with everyone else and until recently people like me couldn’t go to regular classes. Just like the civil rights for African Americans there were fights against equal education and access laws for disabled people.
I especially loved reading about Sam and how she went from caring what everyone thought to not caring so much about others, but about doing the right thing. When you’re different because you’re in a wheelchair you have to not worry about what others think about you. They think I’m an idiot before I even talk to them. They think I drool because I’m a baby, not because I have low muscle tone. It makes me mad and it’s just as dumb as thinking someone is less human because their skin is a different color.
Black people have rights because many brave people fought for them. Disabled people had to fight too. They crawled up the capital steps in Washington D.C. to show how important access is. There are still ignorant people who think I don’t deserve a regular education. We still have lots of stories in our town that don’t care that I can’t get in to shop there! Just like Sam realized—separate is not equal.
Thank you for writing this book. I totally get how writing about shadows helps to show the way for the light. Also I can experience what you did growing up in Mississippi even though I am in Alaska in 2012! I feel like I know Sam like a friend, and I am pretty sure I know what she felt like seeing that things weren’t right or fair and wanting to change them! Thank you for your book.