Tres cool!  I also want a UNIX Terrorist T-Shirt!

Kat

----- Original Message -----
From: "Deri James" <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.c-palsy
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 6:47 PM
Subject: Re: butt load of pocket change


> 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.