The Disability Hustle

When we see someone who is disabled, we usually see someone who is outwardly disabled.  They may be on crutches or in a wheelchair...or walk on a cane.  Or maybe they wear some sort of other outward apparatus that denotes they are physically disabled.

We have broadened our understanding of disability to include all mental or emotional, perhaps physiological disorders, and also recovery from various ailments, diseases or addictions of some kind.

There was a time when the disabled were grossly abused and neglected.  Then the ADA (American Disabilities Act) came on the scene and changed everything.  Enacted in 1990, it is a fairly new law -- only 14 years old -- that protects the rights of the disabled.  It also was set in place to ensure that disabled people would have equal access to transportation, buildings, accommodations for telecommunications, job and educational opportunities, etc.

(Hang in there:  there is a reason why I'm giving the little history lesson!)

What is known as Social Security disability benefits was started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 under the Social Security Act during the Great Depression as a form of 'social insurance.'  It was to serve as supplemental income for elderly individuals only - who were at an obvious disadvantage to care for themselves.  

In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower amended the SSA to include giving social security benefits to the disabled.  It was originally for WORKERS between the ages of 50-65 who were deemed somehow disabled. (I want you to catch that....elderly people between the ages of 50-65 WHO HELD A JOB were the only ones who initially qualified for disability benefits!)

It was later amended over the years to include disabled people of all ages and mental disorders and recovering addicts.

NOW.....

With THAT being said, I want you all to think about the 'disabled' folks that YOU know. The ones who get a disability check every month.  I don't care WHO they are, how much you like or love them.  

We ALL know someone who get a 'check' EVERY month, and even if you have NEVER asked them outright 'HOW ARE YOU GETTING A CHECK?  YOU AREN'T DISABLED?'  You have surely thought it!

BE HONEST!

The disabled folks - the ones who get a check - that I know -for the most part - are not truly disabled.  

They milk the system for a substantial amount of money.  They 'act' crazy, or get the doctor to make up an illness or something wrong with them.  They have learned to milk the system.  

And they are living LARGE off the hard work of the people in this country who DO clock in to work everyday and pay taxes.  Who do have to work two and three jobs just to make ends meet.  

(I still don't get how a drug addict who CHOSE to put the needle in their arms can qualify for a check anyways!)

I have to say:  most disabled (not all) folks are some of the most DECEPTIVE, MANIPULATIVE, SNEAKY, NARCISSISTIC, BITTER, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE, WHINY people I know!

I know what you're saying...

"Wenona!  How can  you say such a thing?  They are disabled!  They didn't ask to be disabled; it just happened to them..."

Let me tell you something...

Most of what the SSA has deemed a disability today are disabilities that - for the most part - disorders and ailments that recipients could have PREVENTED.

And mental disabilities?  Those aren't forever.  Just because you may have a mental disability at one point in your life does not deem you unable to work forever!

I look at kids with Down's Syndrome who got jobs and are some of the hardest workers, the happiest ones on the job...I look at people with one leg run a race in the Special Olympics...and win!....I look at blind people who work in tech support from home....

And I KNOW that a disability is NOT the end of the world!!!!!!

The problem with many in this country is we hear a sob story and we immediately wanna throw money and a check at the issue instead of dealing with THE REAL ISSUES.

If you TELL a disabled person that they cannot do something because they are disabled, sooner or later that message will sink in and they will start to actually believe that they can't!

And some folks on disability are just plain evil.  YES, I SAID IT!

They see a way out, and will opt for the easy route ANYDAY.  

And they will use WHOMEVER will allow them to use them to get what they want.  That includes family, friends, church people, the government...

It's really disgusting!

I know so-called disabled folks who pastor churches -and collect tithes and offerings!  I know some who collect a check who are living large, they've been able to go on vacations with their disability checks, they deal drugs, they pimp...the whole nine!

I call it "THE DISABILITY HUSTLE!"

I'm not at all against someone who is really disabled to go get help.  All I'm saying is it is DEAD wrong to keep using people, to keep playing 'the victim and cray cray' just because you're too lazy or too scared to go and GET A JOB and take care of yourself.

Let me share something about myself...when I was 5 years old, my Kindergarten teacher said I would have to be in special educational classes for the rest of my life.  When I was born, I was so premature that the doctors said I would be disabled.

My dad, a teacher - a special education teacher - did not allow what doctors and teachers said about me to pre-determine how he would treat me.  

He treated me like a normal kid.  I went to normal classes.  Not ONE time did my dad allow them to label me.  He didn't go looking for a reason to go and collect a check for me.

I ended up graduating in the Top Ten percent of my graduation class in High School.  AND I won a FULL TUITION SCHOLARSHIP to college!

I work from home and I am an author.  I have raised kids pretty much on my own and now am a grandma.  

I am a functional, tax paying, employed woman.  YES, I could have went and got a 'crazy check.'  But I didn't!

I have been sick at times.  Hospitalized.  I could have signed up for disability many a day....but I didn't.

Why?

Because I KNEW that I could do it.

I could take care of myself...and my kids, too!

You see, something happens to disability check recipients when they become dependent on the system or on others to take care of them...they actually become 'disabled' from being able to BELIEVE that they TRULY CAN TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES!

It becomes a mind thing.  

And that is why folks on disability can be hustlers and run game on folks and use folks...they feel like they can and that they are entitled.  They are angry that whatever happened to them to disable them happened, and so now the entire world around them has to pay for it.

And the loved ones who keep acqueiscing and enabling the disabled folks around them...all they are doing is DISABLING them from making QUALITY decisions in their lives.  For taking responsibility for their own lives.  For allowing them to become responsible, productive members of society.

I dare you to CUT THE APRON STRINGS to any disabled person you know.  You know deep down inside that they've been using you, manipulating you, conning you, deceiving you for YEARS.  

But because you love them, you keep allowing them to do it.  

It is the ultimate act of love and very empowering if you would just CUT THE APRON STRINGS now.  

Make them have to do it for themselves!  Make them responsible for their own lives.  

Stop enabling them.  Stop lying for them, covering for them, giving them your money.  

IF they are on disability, challenge them.  Challenge them to make opportunities for themselves to take care of themselves!  There is no shame in being on disability.  

The shame is on STAYING on disability...and doing the DISABILITY HUSTLE!