On Thursday 01 Aug 2002 6:02 pm, Cleveland, Kyle E. wrote:
> Lot's of head-scratching going on right now from the
> powers-that-be.  This gives me a little time to come out from my
> "bumker", dial-in and respond to some emails:

> I've done a lttle research on the topic, though my "sources" are
> not handy right now.  Anyway, the vast majority of CPers are either
> hemis or diplegics, with "mild" CP.  This also translates to most
> CPers working full-time in either mainstream jobs, or jobs
> associated with disabiliies (for example:  all of the office
> workers at my physiatrist's university clinic are disabled with
> some sort of motor disorder, or they are amputees.

> With these stats in mind, I'm not sure how Bobby's remarks could be
> seen as offensive.  Our capitalist system favors brain over brawn.
> If one is the least bit creative, it's not difficult in this
> country to find work.

I don't quite see how a "capitalist system favours brain over brawn"
when you later describe a shoe factory moving from a presumably well
educated US town to a 3rd world country with presumably lower
literacy rate. Unfortunately Capitalism is driven solely by the
pursuit of profit, and it achieves this through maximising
productivity. If two people are capable of doing the same job equally
well, but one requires an adaption (due to a disability), which costs
money, under pure capitalistic principles the disabled person would
not be employed. It is intervention by the State (a good socialist
principle) which levels the playing field with legislation such as
ADA. Anyway I digress.

Bobby's remark was not seen as "offensive" it was labelled "tacky" in
the sense that it failed  to consider the feelings of people on the
list who despite their best endeavours have not found employment.
This is not a question of political correctness. Imagine if the
citrus crop failed in the US so that you couldn't get your morning OJ
for love nor money, I would expect a few grumbles if I posted saying
I had so much fresh delicious OJ in the UK I was bathing in it (bit
sticky that one!!).

> I do think, however, that our's is a "culture of complaint".  I'm
> as prone as anybody to the "victim mentality" so prevalent in our
> culture.  The sad truth for the chronic "victim" is that it's the
> same capitalist system that creates enough largess so that anyone
> can become a victim.
>
> If you want to see true "victimhood", take a trip sometime to South
> East Asia, where hundreds of thousands of Cambodian kids have an
> incredibly bleak future.  Why?  because they've had an arm or leg
> (or both) blown off by a landmine.  Their culture shuns the
> "defective", so they are outcasts in their own country, usually
> living at a below-subsistence level.
>
> I have a friend who has a prosthetics business in Pnom Penh.  He
> trains young people (amputees) to make prostheses and then sends
> them back to their own village to start "cottage industries",
> making prosthetics for others. Many of those kids go on to work for
> the original amputee, thereby growing the business.
>
> They do this with the most rudimentary of tools, often using hand
> tools as they have no electricity in many of the outlying villages.
>  We have so much more than they, yet they still have no sense that
> they are "victims".  It can be pretty humbling.
>
> Back to work...
>
> -Kyle
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SteveWalline [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 4:35 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: butt load of pocket change
>
>
> Kinda tacky to use that term when many people with CP are getting
> by on SSI.Many
> disabled aren't able to work even long enough for SSDI.We all
> admire success,lets remember peoples feelings also.