Post by E on Aug 8, 2008 12:01:39 GMT -5
It occured to me on a recent trip to the beautiful city of Chicago, Illinois that disability, especially severe disability and its inherent complications, is contagious. Doctors, medical experts, the public, and even the disabled themselves would scoff at such a notion. "How can you catch paralysiys? Cerebral palsy isn't contagious!" But it surely is. If you're not careful, you could catch it before you realize it.
You see, when someone in a wheelchair is around other people, they too become disabled. How is this possible? It's quite simple. When I come upon a flight of stairs in my wheelchair and I'm with someone else, neither of us can now use that route. If we go out to dinner, we cannot sit at a high top or at the bar or in a booth. When traveling, we can't take a regular cab. In the movie theater, we must sit in a specific location. At concerts, we're all banned from sitting in the lawn at cheaper prices. In relationships, we can only use limited sexual positions. If a disability-related problem arises, all the people I'm with are affected. In all these instances, my formerly able-bodied companion(s) has become disabled by being around me. They're restricted where I'm restricted. They're slowed where I'm slowed. They're kept out of places I can't go. And the more involved with the disabled you are, the more disabled you become. If you make the mistake of marrying a cripple, you might as well get a wheelchair for yourself.
The presence of disability in general is a drain upon society. Parents are forced to quit jobs and spend what little they earn to care for their disabled children. Rehabilitation centers, in-home nursing, physical and occupational therapists, government centers, and specialty hospitals waste millions of dollars, endless hours of other people's lives, excessive amounts of energy, and countless personal sacrifices to make a disabled body reach its "maximum potential," whether that potential makes a person productive or not. In Europe, the disabled person's "right to sex" has been the banner advocates of legalized prostitution rally behind -- and the service is often paid for by the local government. Small businesses on tight budgets are nearly bankrupt making their establishments accessible while talented people spend their lives designing better wheelchairs and ramp vans instead of engineering products for the greater good of humanity. Fortures are lost equipping curb cuts in sidewalks, adding unnecessary elevators to restaurants, ramps at ice skating rinks, and handicapped bathrooms in gyms to comply with sacred ADA laws. Medicaid, Medicare, Disability, and Social Security go on forever while nothing is given back. Good-intentioned people donate money to charities that give me a new wheelchair while children starve in Indonesia. Work is not being created by these projects, either. If they weren't tied up in all these disability-related occupations, they'd be doing something else -- something better for everyone. The productivity of this country and the energies of the people involved are sunk into a black hole of helping those who will never get back on their feet, who will forever continue to need more and more as they age and continue to deteriorate. It's a fruitless endeavor without any profitable outcome. The disability is contagious. Society becomes disabled and restricted by the disabled people draining its resources from within it. And people think it's "so nice."
The solution is obvious. It should be automatic. Doctors should perform it immediately upon diagnosis, but they don't. They can't. They're too weak and too moral to grasp the bigger picture. Advocates would protest. Civil rights groups would scream. None of them can stand suffering, the intense short-term grief and mourning despite the long term benefit and relief. They would rather pull off the Band-Aid slowly, hair by hair, than yank it off all at once.
So, we need to do it ourselves since they won't. The disabled need to do what's best for our planet and off ourselves immediately. It's sacrifice, not suicide. The Bible agrees in John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." All of the above would become unnecessary. Parents of crippled children could lead happier, more productive lives. Smart people and intelligent doctors could choose careers helping everyone. Real estate, money, stress, and energy could be used for a million other things. Construction companies would be free to design what's best for everybody without concern for a very small minority. Disability would be cured. No one would be handicapped. The world, especially this country, would be a better place. The only problem is that the solution only works if it's done by almost everyone in a chair... from now on. And, of course, that will never happen. You can tell by their demands for more accessibility, for more rights, for more assistance, for more money that they're blind to the massive negative impact they're having on their environment. So, in a far more limited solution, if you able-bodied, avoid becoming disabled by becoming involved in their lives. Spend your valuable energy on things that are productive and have a return investment for the world. Earth will be a better place for it. I promise.
You see, when someone in a wheelchair is around other people, they too become disabled. How is this possible? It's quite simple. When I come upon a flight of stairs in my wheelchair and I'm with someone else, neither of us can now use that route. If we go out to dinner, we cannot sit at a high top or at the bar or in a booth. When traveling, we can't take a regular cab. In the movie theater, we must sit in a specific location. At concerts, we're all banned from sitting in the lawn at cheaper prices. In relationships, we can only use limited sexual positions. If a disability-related problem arises, all the people I'm with are affected. In all these instances, my formerly able-bodied companion(s) has become disabled by being around me. They're restricted where I'm restricted. They're slowed where I'm slowed. They're kept out of places I can't go. And the more involved with the disabled you are, the more disabled you become. If you make the mistake of marrying a cripple, you might as well get a wheelchair for yourself.
The presence of disability in general is a drain upon society. Parents are forced to quit jobs and spend what little they earn to care for their disabled children. Rehabilitation centers, in-home nursing, physical and occupational therapists, government centers, and specialty hospitals waste millions of dollars, endless hours of other people's lives, excessive amounts of energy, and countless personal sacrifices to make a disabled body reach its "maximum potential," whether that potential makes a person productive or not. In Europe, the disabled person's "right to sex" has been the banner advocates of legalized prostitution rally behind -- and the service is often paid for by the local government. Small businesses on tight budgets are nearly bankrupt making their establishments accessible while talented people spend their lives designing better wheelchairs and ramp vans instead of engineering products for the greater good of humanity. Fortures are lost equipping curb cuts in sidewalks, adding unnecessary elevators to restaurants, ramps at ice skating rinks, and handicapped bathrooms in gyms to comply with sacred ADA laws. Medicaid, Medicare, Disability, and Social Security go on forever while nothing is given back. Good-intentioned people donate money to charities that give me a new wheelchair while children starve in Indonesia. Work is not being created by these projects, either. If they weren't tied up in all these disability-related occupations, they'd be doing something else -- something better for everyone. The productivity of this country and the energies of the people involved are sunk into a black hole of helping those who will never get back on their feet, who will forever continue to need more and more as they age and continue to deteriorate. It's a fruitless endeavor without any profitable outcome. The disability is contagious. Society becomes disabled and restricted by the disabled people draining its resources from within it. And people think it's "so nice."
The solution is obvious. It should be automatic. Doctors should perform it immediately upon diagnosis, but they don't. They can't. They're too weak and too moral to grasp the bigger picture. Advocates would protest. Civil rights groups would scream. None of them can stand suffering, the intense short-term grief and mourning despite the long term benefit and relief. They would rather pull off the Band-Aid slowly, hair by hair, than yank it off all at once.
So, we need to do it ourselves since they won't. The disabled need to do what's best for our planet and off ourselves immediately. It's sacrifice, not suicide. The Bible agrees in John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." All of the above would become unnecessary. Parents of crippled children could lead happier, more productive lives. Smart people and intelligent doctors could choose careers helping everyone. Real estate, money, stress, and energy could be used for a million other things. Construction companies would be free to design what's best for everybody without concern for a very small minority. Disability would be cured. No one would be handicapped. The world, especially this country, would be a better place. The only problem is that the solution only works if it's done by almost everyone in a chair... from now on. And, of course, that will never happen. You can tell by their demands for more accessibility, for more rights, for more assistance, for more money that they're blind to the massive negative impact they're having on their environment. So, in a far more limited solution, if you able-bodied, avoid becoming disabled by becoming involved in their lives. Spend your valuable energy on things that are productive and have a return investment for the world. Earth will be a better place for it. I promise.