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Creating disabled and handicapped people?
Who or what is a “disabled” person? Does a one-legged blind guy who is a chronic diabetic which has resulted in 5 bypasses a qualified “disabled” person? Not so according to the Social Security standards simply because I can and do work at my job and career more than 10 hours a week. So it isn’t a far left-handed move for me to wonder and ponder this question when my wife and I see many folks use a “handicap” ticket to park close to the door of a local shopping store, run in to and out of the store, and obviously display that they are not disabled and/or handicapped? And that is only one issue involved with the question and discernment of who is disabled and/or what is a handicapped person.
I define disabled as something I cannot do. I define handicapped as something I “don’t” want to do. I think there is a big difference. Now let me push that definition a little farther. If being disabled is something that I “cannot” do because of physical limitations, etc. then whose responsibility does it become to provide and take care of me? Because I am disabled due to my diabetes, blindness, amputation, heart bypasses should I expect society to take care of me? Am I supposed to blame society for my unfortunate luck in life? Is there substantial grounds for me to expect that now, since I am unable to see, walk without a prosthetic, etc. that I should quit and expect that others will take care of me, support me, and make sure that I am guaranteed the same standards of and/or quality of life that a person who is not disabled and/or handicapped? I think not!
Allow me to place my disclaimer here at this point… I do know and understand that there are people who suffer tragic adversities in their life of which they have no control and must be attended to because of their needs. They have always been there and they are our responsibilities to care for and see that they can have a reasonable quality and/or standard of life.
I am concerned that we as a society no longer teach our children how to be responsible for them. We also teach them that the lowest possible common denominator is and will always become the standard by which we will judge our quality of life. Society is not rapidly pushing teachers and those who work with children to a place where they cannot criticize, they cannot correct, nor can they challenge children to better themselves by working hard, practicing to perfection, and then learning to adjust to the adverse events that do and will happen. We have already taught them to be “handicapped”.
It frustrates me when I learn of fully capable people mis-using the systems we have in place to make others responsible for their actions and in some cases the unfortunate tragic adversities that happen. When I went blind I did not blame others for my poor choice of diabetic mis-management which caused the retinopathy. Nor did I blame or seek to place responsibility for my cardio-vascular issues and leg amputation on things like certain chemicals used for preparation and preservation in food sources. I realized and understood that my illnesses and consequential issues were things that happened to me and that I, personally, would need to deal with them. I could not nor would not expect society to take care of me.
If and when we teach children that competition is an evil thing: that a child is not suppose to cry, or feel left out; that everyone is suppose to feel good all the time; when we lower the standards of accomplishment so that the poorest worker in the group gets the same acclaim for a task as the one with energy; we have taught them to be disabled and handicapped. Society has taught children by the many role models of people who refused to work, who feel that they deserved to be taken care of by society, that society owes them something because life hasn’t gone exactly as they had thought it would… then we have created disabled and handicapped people. When we demonstrate to our children that we no longer have to worry about any choice, any decision right or wrong, whether we make good or bad decisions; someone else is responsible and someone else will have to pay and someone else will take care of you.
As a disabled person working full time in society I constantly find that it is my responsibility to continue working to raise myself up to the standards of society rather than expecting society to reduce itself to the lowest possible common denominator. It was not society’s fault that I am who I am… it is totally mine! It is my choice to work to improve myself, to better my skills, and to help others realize that the potential of what I accomplish lies within me and is not an expectation that someone is going to give to me. I may be disabled… but I am fully handy-capable!
Think about this and have a great day… especially the next time you see someone park in a “handicapped” spot and go running in to and out of the store?
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