Can The Government Really Label You Disabled?
A lifetime ago, I was living in Washington, D.C., working in corporate America, waking up at 6 am, rushing with my coffee while I brushed my teeth and put on my pinstripe suit and yellow power tie, and drove to work, arriving before rush hour. Then came more anxiety for rest of the night, usually a sleepless one.
After a major heart attack, a burst appendicitis, a dysfunctional vagus nerve (requiring an implant) and a myriad of other health problems, I was put on the corporate sidelines, and, doctors said I would not be working again. I was only forty years old.
Technically, I was disabled. I did not buy the term. I bought a cheap computer and learned all I could about the Internet. I learned how to be a cartoonist and writer. I learned how to outsource and license the manufacturing of my image products. I became an entrepreneur within a few years, yet big brother insisted I was too sick to work.
Then I built the largest and most visited independent offbeat cartoon site on the Internet with 12 stores.
I applied at several universities and was accepted into one of the best, and even received a scholarship. I completed 3 years but had to drop due to health reasons. It was not an easy college, a small (known to be difficult) private school. I made good grades. Still, I was disabled. I was beginning to realize what a person’s opinion, simply a label, can do to affect someone who is trying to get back into society by working hard.
I let the government know of my activities, yet they simply ignored my suggestion that maybe a disability is not a disability at all. If one really wants to do something, it can be done.
I believe we need to stop and think about labeling others and look within. Just because a person has fallen ill does not mean he/she cannot be a productive member of society. I have since learned many others have gone on to do things I hope one day to be able to do.
Filed under: Internet Business