If Social Security Says You Are Disabled, Is That “The End”?
May 10th, 2008 by Rick London
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.
Then came a myriad of health issues including, but not limited to, 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 and I had only been working less than 20 years.
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.
A top-ranked offbeat cartoon site and twelve stores later in ten years of being disabled I called Social Security. They were kind but patronizing as if I were a child playing in a sandbox. “Still disabled.”
At age 47. I went back to college and even received a scholarship, 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 the scars a label like “disabled” can make. They are deep and they fester. I do not feel disabled. I am a hard and honest worker. I know many others who were also put on the corporate sidelines. That could be why there are now approximately 30 million home office workers in the U.S. and, ironically provide more jobs while major corporations are downsizing.
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.
