Les generalsekretærens siste helsing til pioner og drivkraft i den europeiske Independent Living-rørsla, Adolf Ratzka.
Independent Living-nestor Adolf Ratzka vart gravlagd ved Hoppets Chapell i Skogskyrkogården i Enskede, Stockholm, mandag 12 august. Ratzka vart 80 år gammal. Han gjekk bort i ei tragisk ulukke 22. juli. Ulobas generalsekretær Vibeke Marøy Melstrøm deltok i gravferda. Hennar siste helsing til Adolf, talen ho heldt for kona og dotter hans, og den svenske og europeiske Independent Living-familien, kan du lese på engelsk, under bileta.
Vibeke Marøy Melstrøms tale til minne om den nordiske Independent Living-bevegelsens far:
Dearest Doro and Katharina (ektefelle og dotter av Ratzka, red. anm), and to our Independent Living family and friends.
Today we bid farewell to a pillar in our European movement, a great intellectual and to those of us who knew him in person, a man with a warm heart.
To me personally as the youngest of the five founders of Uloba – Independent Living Norway, Adolf Ratzka embodied the Independent Living philosophy. He was a major driving force in the development of the scheme we today know as Citizen controlled personal assistance.
Our own Bente Skansgård who passed away in 2013, often referred to Adolf as her guiding star. Their close friendship was a true symbol of what can be achieved when experience, knowledge and fighting spirit is shared.
Adolf taught Bente that in order to achieve a society where disabled people are not hidden away in institutions but treated as equal citizens, we must take responsibility for our own lives and demand the same rights and freedom that all people are owed according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
To Adolf, implementing personal assistance for all disabled people, to help us live independently, meant getting involved in the whole process from legislation, finance and through to implementation.
During Uloba’s Inception Adolf’s vision of disabled people as independent entrepreneurs was invaluable, as was his continued support through the years. His experience as a founder of STIL, the first cooperative on personal assistance in Sweden, turned out crucial to us in Uloba. As a result we are now able to tell a 33-year old story of success and independence.
We do not have to ask anyone else’s permission to lead free and independent lives, and we are not dependent on the charity and good will of others. Rather than only surviving, merely existing, we are now able to live.
Adolf himself many times said, “There is nothing special about me, I have no exceptional gifts or talents”.
Describing himself in this way was not only a reflection of his selfless generosity, but a way of reinforcing the message that disabled people do not ask for or require special treatment, but wish to be viewed and treated as ordinary citizens, consumers and with exactly the same rights, obligations and opportunities.
“We are profoundly ordinary people” – was his motto.
We are profoundly ordinary people
Adolf Ratzka
However, I would like to mention the qualities that I believe, did set Adolf apart from the rest of us. As the leader of a movement, a role model, ally and colleague.
Adolf was able to explain complex matters in speech as well as in writing, in ways that anyone could understand. With simple words, yet with great depth and clarity, he was able to explain the meaning of our Independent Living philosophy in a way no one else could match.
Talen held fram under biletet.
Though he could sometimes seem a little uncompromising and strict, Adolf was a warm and loving person, a caring father, husband and friend who worked tirelessly for a better society for himself and for others.
Adolf’s faith in the power of personal experience and belief that we are the experts in our own lives, never wavered. And like our own Bente Skansgård, he was an avid networker, and a firm believer that we must never become complacent and satisfied with anything less than that which our non-disabled siblings are entitled to.
Adolf often said that he was not proud of his disability. But he felt great pride about belonging to a siblinghood, a movement of people who will not take injustice sitting down and who are prepared to rise up and fight back.
Talen held fram under bileta.
To me personally and to the Scandinavian Independent Living Movement he truly was a guiding star, as he had been to our Bente.
Today I am proud and humbled to belong to the siblinghood Adolf himself took such pride in cultivating. And I am profoundly proud and grateful to have known Adolf, and to have been able to count him not only as a colleague, role model and powerful ally, but as a friend.
Today on the behalf of Uloba, the Norwegian Movement and myself, I say farewell to an Eagle in our Movement, the true Father of the Scandinavian Independent Living Movement and how I would put it; the architect behind our model for Personal Assistance.
With immense gratitude, we will continue Adolf’s legacy in our fight for equal rights and independence. We will continue to forge bonds between disabled people in Europe and use the memory of his own tireless efforts to inspire those who come after us to continue to spread hope to disabled people all over the world.
Proud, Strong and Visible!
Adolf Ratzka, may you Rest in Peace.
Vibeke Marøy Melstrøm, Secretary general in Uloba – Independent Living Norway
Les meir om Adolf Ratzka her.