You sat across from me as we discussed your disabled son’s employment prospects. Because your son will soon be considered an adult, funding options for his employment training were an issue that we needed to sort out. In the course of our discussion, you repeatedly made reference to the “paltry” thousands of dollars the government—we taxpayers—has given you every month for the last 20 years in the form of Social Security benefits and the like. You rolled your eyes as a sarcastic cue to the rest of us in attendance to sympathize with you, as you blurted something about Washington being “so cheap.” Dear Mrs. Fuckface: Fuck you. The havoc your egg and Mr. Fuckface’s sperm has visited upon you does not entitle you to more of my money and resources, does not entitle you to feel victimized because the tens of thousands of dollars you have already received are less than the thousands more you think you deserve for nothing more than piously squeezing out an autistic child two decades ago. By fucking, you and Mr. Fuckface took a gamble. By carrying your disabled child to term, you lost your gamble. Now you would have me and the state and our world believe that you are entitled to even more of our money and resources, and that we should feel sorry for you because the legislature won’t allocate ever more funds for your disabled child. And don’t get me started on all the homes, boats, and vacations you can’t stop talking about every time we meet, as your sweet but emotionally arrested son recites Dora the Explorer verbatim in the corner while his laptop babysits him. Your son is a good person with a disability who has great challenges ahead of him. You two, Mr. and Mrs. Fuckface, are totally fucking retarded.
—Anonymous
Shame on you for breaching the trust and any sense of professionalism in your position!!! You chastize the parents for not assuming more responsibility for the needs of their child and acting in an entitled way. Check yourself out in the mirror!! YOU obviously are burned out in your job but don’t want to take personal and/or professional responsibility to leave. No…YOU prefer to “serve with contempt” while keeping your inflated salary & benefits that have no basis in merit. You should not be entitled to have the job you have.
There’s nothing funny about autism
Unless the kid says goofy stuff and acts retarded and is googly eyed. Then it’s funny
@47 I can see where it could look that way, let me rephrase to state that they pulled out a wad of bills EVERY time they paid for things. I worked in a grocery store at the time and had repeat customers. Also, my uncles ex-wife actually refused to find a job so she could continue to collect welfare checks.
As I said, I’m all for people who need it having it. I know plenty of those people as well. But for someone to say that everyone who has it does so because they need it is unrealistic. Some people are just that good at playing the system. Such as people who have 5 different foodstamp cards because they’ve got 5 different SSNs. Seen that one too.
Wow, I just found out that my IA was published!! What an honor. As for you dolts who took from this that I believe all autistic kids should be aborted, you are obviously missing the point. The point is that having children is a choice– actually it is a series of choices: The choice to fuck, the choice whether to utilize birth control methods, and the choice to introduce yet another human to the fold which recently hit 7 billion. To pretend that your child just happened to you, or that you are somehow the victim of the universe because the child you had is not the nobel laureate you deluded yourself into believing you deserve is disingenuous. To lash out at the rest of us for not taking care of your child is the height of inconsideration, maybe narcissism, and definitely retardation. No one is saying the child shouldn’t be taken care of–in fact, I am in the line of work I am in because I recognize the epidemic of disastrously unprepared parents giving birth to children, healthy or otherwise. And so I have chosen a profession where I help these parents who have deliberately inflicted upon themselves the heartbreaking task of tending to someone who shits themselves regularly and cannot construct a simple sentence even in adulthood, like many of you. It is ASTONISHING how many of you are out there. And I even have a simple test to help determine whether you are a wretched piece of shit of a parent: If you have ever said out loud or to yourself, “you have no idea how hard it is,” then you have failed. The fact is, we all know how hard it is. In fact, the smarter among us have realized how hard it is by doing a little exercise I like to call “thinking,” and have chosen to get vasectomies. These are covered under most insurance plans. If I deliberately cut my arm off–and producing a child is a deliberate act–I give up my right to bitch about not being able to tie my shoes. I give up my right to whine about how hard it is to bench press. I don’t get to bitch at people for not helping me as much as I think they should, and I don’t get to abuse those people who are compassionate enough to wade into the murky waters of my selfish decision. When you can produce a cogent argument for the necessary proliferation of human beings, when you can prove to me that we absolutely MUST continue to populate the planet at the bogglingly expansive rate that we currently are, then I will acquiesce. I will then agree that because we have a mandate to produce hoards of consumers, the people who heroically oblige this mandate but end up with children who require an inordinate amount of assistance to simply feed themselves or take a piss will thus be entitled to whine about their plight. They can say, “I was just trying to fulfill the mandate, and I got robbed, and so the rest of you need to bend over backwards and give me more.” However, I believe there is no mandate. There is no shortage of people, and so there is no REASON to produce more people. If you choose to produce a person (or many of them), you are also choosing the consequences. When I look up at you with my missing arm and say, “why aren’t you helping me more than you are? Why aren’t you doing more to help me tie my shoes?” You have every right to say, “dude, why the fuck did you cut off your arm?” And then you have every right to be disgusted by me. There is a cure for Autism. Come to think of it, there is a cure for global warming, for food and water shortages, for acid rain, for traffic congestion, for long lines at Bumbershoot, and for that piercing shriek in my ear every time I am in the vicinity of a playground: get a vasectomy.
Wow, I just found out that my IA was published!! What an honor. As for you dolts who took from this that I believe all autistic kids should be aborted, you are obviously missing the point. The point is that having children is a choice– actually it is a series of choices: The choice to fuck, the choice whether to utilize birth control methods, and the choice to introduce yet another human to the fold which recently hit 7 billion. To pretend that your child just happened to you, or that you are somehow the victim of the universe because the child you had is not the nobel laureate you deluded yourself into believing you deserve is disingenuous. To lash out at the rest of us for not taking care of your child is the height of inconsideration, maybe narcissism, and definitely retardation. No one is saying the child shouldn’t be taken care of–in fact, I am in the line of work I am in because I recognize the epidemic of disastrously unprepared parents giving birth to children, healthy or otherwise. And so I have chosen a profession where I help these parents who have deliberately inflicted upon themselves the heartbreaking task of tending to someone who shits themselves regularly and cannot construct a simple sentence even in adulthood, like many of you. It is ASTONISHING how many of you are out there. And I even have a simple test to help determine whether you are a wretched piece of shit of a parent: If you have ever said out loud or to yourself, “you have no idea how hard it is,” then you have failed. The fact is, we all know how hard it is. In fact, the smarter among us have realized how hard it is by doing a little exercise I like to call “thinking,” and have chosen to get vasectomies. These are covered under most insurance plans. If I deliberately cut my arm off–and producing a child is a deliberate act–I give up my right to bitch about not being able to tie my shoes. I give up my right to whine about how hard it is to bench press. I don’t get to bitch at people for not helping me as much as I think they should, and I don’t get to abuse those people who are compassionate enough to wade into the murky waters of my selfish decision. When you can produce a cogent argument for the necessary proliferation of human beings, when you can prove to me that we absolutely MUST continue to populate the planet at the bogglingly expansive rate that we currently are, then I will acquiesce. I will then agree that because we have a mandate to produce hoards of consumers, the people who heroically oblige this mandate but end up with children who require an inordinate amount of assistance to simply feed themselves or take a piss will thus be entitled to whine about their plight. They can say, “I was just trying to fulfill the mandate, and I got robbed, and so the rest of you need to bend over backwards and give me more.” However, I believe there is no mandate. There is no shortage of people, and so there is no REASON to produce more people. If you choose to produce a person (or many of them), you are also choosing the consequences. When I look up at you with my missing arm and say, “why aren’t you helping me more than you are? Why aren’t you doing more to help me tie my shoes?” You have every right to say, “dude, why the fuck did you cut off your arm?” And then you have every right to be disgusted by me. There is a cure for Autism. Come to think of it, there is a cure for global warming, for food and water shortages, for acid rain, for traffic congestion, for long lines at Bumbershoot, and for that piercing shriek in my ear every time I am in the vicinity of a playground: get a vasectomy.
@50 – if you think that giving the child to the state to be taken care of will be less expensive to the taxpayers, you are fooling yourself.
Ok, well then I don’t want to help you with any shit you didn’t prepare for, either.
No pension. No food banks either.
No roads, I don’t use em. I have a mountain bike.
No chemo, I’m not the one who smokes or worked in a chemical plant.
no free grade school or high school, your life chances aren’t my problem.
No free meds if you have schizophrenia, free loader.
Lets close the food banks! and the city pools! and the parks! I hate raccoons and poision ivy!
No foreign aid for any one else, even if we WERE the ones who fucked up their country. They have to deal with it, like our poor have to deal with it.
And actually, not everyone had some of the choices you were talking about. I know several people who became pregnant from rape. So fuck off and die, you selfish bastard.
Wow, this is so depressing. @59, you could have been prevented. But you weren’t, and so the rest of us are required to forever endure the flaccid logic of people like you for whom paying attention is just a bridge too far. I am selfish because I would like parents of ALL children to assume responsibility for their children? Or at least be grateful to those who do? This is not about eliminating entitlements for those in need. This is about my astonishment over those in need believing they are owed something, and their belief that I am the one who owes them. I am not saying that all people in need feel they are owed something, I am saying that the very few who feel they are owed something are incorrect in their logic. Like if I were to say that it would be bad to close food banks because there are so many children of rape victims who need food. I would recommend you start paying attention to that still, small voice you hear during commercials between Jersey Shore episodes, the one that says, “what the fuck am I talking about?”
Um… Technically a person who was raped still has a choice with whether or not to have the child.
And while I feel as though this is beating a dead horse… No one is stating that people who deserve help shouldn’t get it. Just that they shouldn’t feel entitled, or play the system to get more help than they deserve. I do find it unfair that I work full time and can’t afford to eat as well as some people who are on welfare not working. Let me stress again that I am speaking of people that I know personally, so I am not speculating that they could work and don’t, I know. I have actually heard the phrase, “Why should I go to work when the government will pay for it?”. THAT is the type of person that shouldn’t get help.
Whatever – this is exactly *why* I want to pay taxes: to help level the playing field between the have and have-nots, so that everyone can have access to health benefits, education and the like.
Too bad my government doesn’t funnel my monies into appropriate allotments according to my interests! I try to make up what difference I can by charitable contributions, i.e. pissin’ in a well.
I want to believe that most people do care about the quality of life of others … and that even if given the choice, they would help to subsidize it. I think our tax structure is just so fucked up that people don’t realize the true cost of ‘lower’ taxes when it comes to social services and of what I consider the misuse of the funds we do collect.
No, I don’t believe in unicorns.
@Larry1 Your belief system is incompatible with your line of work. Do yourself and the citizens (like me) who pay your salary a favor and find another line of work. Honestly, after reading your rant I feel cheated knowing that my tax dollars pay your salary.
Quite enjoyed IA and especially Larry1’s writings in Posts 56 & 60.
Acerbic? Yes. But tell it like it is brother!
This is a shameful “i anonymous”–as a person with a disability I am offended and feel discriminated against just reading this. Shame on “the stranger” for choosing to publish this.
shame on the stranger for printing this discriminatory drivel–it is not only offensive, it is idiotic. as a human being with a disability i am deeply offended–i’m done reading this publication.
Gee, @60, I sure wish you had been prevented too. It certainly would have made my last 90 seconds more pleasant. I’m sure it would be a relief for those unfortunates who cross your desk too, if they came across someone who actually genuinely gave a shit for the value of community, instead of someone who lives his life doing something he clearly hates in the expectation that others will extensively rim him in humble and beseeching gratitude. Did you miss the list of stuff in @59 that you, too, partake of courtesy of other taxpayers? Where’s your gratitude? You’re a truly poisonous being.
I detect a major case of burn out. It’s time to move to another profession.
what a bunch of cunts!
Unfortunately, this guy (guy?) is right on the mark. I work with people with disabilities, too, and I cannot tell you how thankless a job it is, particularly when we have to deal with parents or other legal guardians who put you in a position to feel like you are their bitch. I agree that IA’s words are direct, but incorrect? Lt me tell you from vast experience that this is by far one of the more insightful and honest pieces the Stranger has had the gonads to publish. Kudos to you, Stranger, for allowing it. And my hat is off to you, IA, for putting into print what so many of us in the field have felt for decades. Please tell me you have a blog I can subscribe to?
Good ole Seattle, where people are too pussy to tell people things to their faces. Lame.
You know what I love *the most* about this IA? It’s inaccuracy! No one gets SS disability benefits until they are an adult. IA, your BS is showing.
If you choose to have kids, you shouldn’t complain! But if you choose to be in a profession dealing with kids and parents, complain as much as you want! We don’t know how hard it is!
These parents might well be douchebags, but IA’s comments prove who the douchiest is of all the bags.
Hey libertarian, guess what?
(to the tune of the “You are Dead” Total Distortion song)
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!
You thought you were cool, but instead you’re a tool!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!
Brought your whole brain to a screeching halt!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!
Your heart is calloused and your soul is cold! You’re such a total BITCH!!
And now for your rudeness you’re getting told! You’re such a total BITCH!!
This revelation, cuts like a knife!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!!!
You’re a pitiful waste of a human life!!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!!
Your heart is calloused and your soul is cold! You’re such a total BITCH!!
And now for your rudeness you’re getting told! You’re such a total BITCH!!
Aww, such a sad sad story
You’re immature with a heart of manure, YOU SUCK!
You’re JUST BAD
How’s it feel to be such a BITCH?
(You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!)
Go die in a fire, you jerk! You SUCK!!
I hope you quit channeling Scrooge
Adios, See you later, Bye Bye
Get a clue!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!!
You’re a BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!!
Agree 110%. For the rest of you who are ripping Anon, I’m willing to guess that you are living off the government teat (my hard work) and are scared that your free money will be cut off, as well. I, too, am tired of paying everyone else’s way and then having to listen to how bad the welfare moms, crackheads, and idiots begging on street corners wearing North Face jackets have it. In terms of this submission, I’m sorry your child didn’t come out perfect – I can sympathize with the amount of work it has taken to this point, as well as the rest of all your lives – but it is not for the rest of society to support you. I am always willing to help someone in need, but you don’t get to complain that I’m not giving enough.
@76 You make some legitimate points. The beggars in Seattle need to be controlled at some point (a street corner can sustain 3 beggars, yes, but what if 3 becomes 10, then 15? Where should the line be drawn?). I feel nothing but compassion for them, but in my opinion they lower the moral of the city. This is where privatized Church organizations are beneficial to society. Even if you don’t believe in a specific denomination, a well organized Church can fellowship, act as a center for those in need, and provide practical morality based teachings to give someone an honest jumpstart. I’m willing to guess, based on “BigOleRightousSOB,” that you are an honest Christian who puts charity first, but who also understands the negative impact on society that enabling someone in the name of feeling good about oneself can have. I’m not particularly religious, but I have contributed my time (not enough of it unfortunately) to food drives that some of the downtown churches have organized over the years. Do know of a “hub” (downtown or Eastside) where a non-religious person can volunteer?
@15
My mom’s friend has a retarded kid. She’s too old and frail to care for him herself. He doesn’t like other retarded people so he can’t live in a group home. His rent is paid. He has a staff- someone comes daily to clean and fix meals, the short bus comes to take him to “work” which is adult daycare, a nurse visits regularly, a social worker to coordinate it all. All paid by the government, that is to say, us.
#78
And it’s far better for the government to pay for that than it is to have it pay for things like the slaughter of Asian and Latino people who disagree with your right-wing economic ideas…you know, the kind of government funding that reactionary selfish jerks like you APPROVE of.
And, idiot, using the “r word” is just as evil as using the “n word”, so DON’T FUCKING USE THAT WORD, OK?
What part of “the government should subsidize life, not death” do reactionaries not get?
My 11 year old brother has a rare condition that leaves him with prominent physical characteristics, renders him with a toddler’s brain in regards to certain behavior, and also results in autism. They didn’t know he was going to be autistic because there are twenty thousand different ways this condition can manifest, and conditions -like Down’s- can actually be symptoms. We knew something was neurologically wrong, we just didn’t know what. This means that while autism may not be detected in the womb, any brain damage that causes it can. My father receives minuscule benefits for my brother because they’re in Kenya, and the cost of care, occupational therapy, and special schooling in a country that has limited special ed resources is extremely high.
That said, l’m with those that are reminding people to be objective and re-read the OP, which neither encourages abortion (but encourages the parents to be prepared if anything is amiss with fetus), nor is it unsympathetic to the child or his plight. The statement that they have money with which to care for their child -yet spend it on their own comforts- clarifies that these people aren’t desperate for the funding they receive, they are simply pissed it cuts into their own spending freedoms. The OP is not addressing the child; it is addressing the entitled attitudes of the parents, who seem to care more about the trip to Tahiti than a child who deserves more than a fucking box and Dora the Explorer to entertain what could possibly be a different but brilliant mind. Despite all the challenges in his way, my kid brother is a SMART fucking kid, and his case is one in only a few hundred in the world. If this child’s parents cared more about their child than their country club membership, they might realize that nurturing his mind might result in genius rather than mediocrity.
Parents who fail to live up to the intellectual and developmental needs of their disabled children -and then complain about the many incomes that support them for healthy and obvious reasons- should be summarily shot and dumped in unmarked graves.
IA author and commenter #81 = tied FTW.
@ 57 “If I deliberately cut my arm off–and producing a child is a deliberate act–I give up my right to bitch about not being able to tie my shoes.”
If you consume food and water—and consuming food and water is a deliberate life sustaining act—you give up your right to bitch about “the epidemic of disastrously unprepared parents giving birth to children, healthy or otherwise.” And unless this epidemic involves parents who make can make a jungle gym appear in the middle of your living room out of thin air, entering into the vicinity of a playground is also a deliberate act.
In spite of your low tolerance for the piercing shrieks, I honestly suggest you seek out a playground and reacquaint yourself with some of the old nursery rhyme wisdom. Start off with something basic like, “The logic on your bus goes ‘round and ‘round, ‘round and ‘round, ‘round and ‘round. The logic and your bus goes ‘round and ‘round, all through The Stranger.”
I’m the father of a disabled son who became that way when he was 17. There was no choice there, he gets less than $600 a month from the government, which about covers his food bill. What I have to say to IA is fuck you for not having enough compassion to realize that any decent society would take care of those less fortunate.
This is the number one reason that the US is fucked up is because of self centered pricks who don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.
@ 57
“And I even have a simple test to help determine whether you are a wretched piece of shit of a parent: If you have ever said out loud or to yourself, ‘you have no idea how hard it is,’ then you have failed. The fact is, we all know how hard it is. In fact, the smarter among us have realized how hard it is by doing a little exercise I like to call “thinking,” and have chosen to get vasectomies.”
Firstly, I want to thank you for suggesting a test that people can perform on themselves by asking one simple question. Many of the tests I’ve worked with in the field of psychology consist of pages of extensive multiple choice questions that require selecting from one of four possible answers (sometimes five when the “none of the above” option is used).
Your question, Larry, reminded me of an experiment my professor at UW conducted during my last semester before I graduated. As part of a field trip, our professor took our class to the top floor of the Columbia Center, selected the student with the highest GPA (me), asked that I drop my trousers, stick my backside out the window, and point it straight at Pike Place Market. As best I could, I pointed my bare behind right at the heart of our fine city’s Farmers Market. My professor then asked, “As accurately as you can, provide the number flying fish that are sent back and forth between any two guys in suspenders over a 90 second span. For a full hour, I dug deep and did my best to produce the most accurate number possible every 90 seconds, only to be rebuked each time by my professor with statements like, “You’re not even close, Mr. Chapped Ass USA.” The class finally ended, and not even once was I able to provide the correct number of flying fish that crossed the threshold of my anus. The students left the building, but my professor stayed with me as I removed my backside from the freezing rain. His course was rigorous, and he was a firm believer in old school discipline, but he was also a man of compassion. He wrapped my mid section in swaddling clothes (in reality it was a scarf he was wearing, one that I knit for him earlier in the semester,), and asked me in a whisper as he held me close, “Why Malcholm, why could you not guess the number of flying fish as I had asked of you?” Humiliated, but with a resolve to answer him with as much integrity and honesty as I knew, I proudly stood up and replied,” Teach, you have no idea how hard it is to count flying fish in the freezing rain by looking through your anus.” He took a step back, removing the aforementioned swaddling scarf as it was still attached to his neck, and asked me to pull a note out of his front pant pocket and read it to him. I followed his request, looked at the note, and found the words, “Teach, you have no idea how hard it is to count flying fish in the freezing rain by looking through your anus.” I looked up, stunned, not realizing yet how profound the lesson I had just learned was, when my professor admonished, “You are a wretched piece of shit student, and most likely will be an even more wretched piece of shit parent. If you want to be counted as one of the smarter ones among us, in other words, if you want an A in this class, you will get a vasectomy this very afternoon. And you will have one of the nurses record the entire procedure with this digital camera and return it to my office tonight before I go home.
I did as he said, and I have never been the same man since. What I learned that day about flying fish and my anus’ inability to count them from great heights in the freezing rain was all I needed to know that had it not been for my vasectomy, this world would certainly have been overpopulated by now with the likes of me, someone who can’t even figure out how to count flying fish in the freezing rain with his own wretched asshole.
#84, did you even bother to READ the I,A’s responses here (under the name Larry), or are you too busy spouting off to notice that you missed the whole point?
#82: Thank you. l know it’s easy for those posting here with handicapped children, siblings, parents or friends to have a kneejerk response to this I,A; l had the same response at first, but (a) l read the whole thing, which provided some clarification, and (b) used a little deductive reasoning to figure out what Larry was actually saying. l get the sensitivity, but objectivity in regards to any single issue that is sensitive needs to be applied, or we’ll constantly make asses of ourselves when we inevitably blow something out of proportion that was never aiming to offend us in the first fucking place.
Larry is clearly a jerk who is ill suited for his profession and should go and retrain to be an investment banker or something. The child’s parents may well be jerks as well, but so what? The amount of money given to people with disabilities in the US is laughable in any case – so it’s no surprise if the recipients bitch about how little they get. Everybody bitches, Larry. No one is satisfied with their lot in life. Just wait until you meet your new colleagues at the investment bank, and you’ll see what I mean!
IA loses major points (and is tuned out by many) when s/he suggests a child who is anything less than genetically blessed should be aborted. That said, as the mother of a child with autism, I can say unequivocally that I am more than willing to go without things that I need (material and otherwise) in order to provide for my son. We have not sought SSI because, frankly, the system is so screwed up I’d rather eat ramen until the end of time than have to deal with those jackasses. Also, we are now in a position where SSI is not necessary, so why take it from people who need it? As far as us terrible, awful parents of children with developmental disabilities lobbying for mainstreaming? Screw you very much. If my kid’s class was graded on a bell curve, he’d be the one everyone hated for throwing it off. Tomorrow is his last day of first grade and he has a fifth grade reading level and a third grade math level. He is not a disciplinary problem and we only mainstreamed him when we knew he could handle it and not be a burden on the other students or his teacher. He’s a damn sight better behaved than many of the little miscreants he goes to school with because his father and I refuse to tolerate less. Disability or not, there is a standard of behavior that we know he understands and can abide by. So my mainstreamed kid with autism sets a better example for how to be a good student and overall decent human being than a lot of the “normal” kids I’ve met whose parents can’t be bothered to actually parent.
Aha. Ha. Ha.
This anonymous writer? HILARIOUS.
Because, see, my benefits, personally, when they’re not all fucked up? $698 a month from the federal government. And about $150 of that gets taken out to pay for my also fucked up Medicare premium (because hey, you know, disabled or retired people, we can SO thoroughly afford to pay a PREMIUM for HEALTH CARE that–in my case–is CONVINCED I live in California, even though I filed the move in OCTOBER, before I even LEFT California for Iowa–and, as a special fun bonus, California is supposed to PAY my premium if I’m receiving benefits there because I’m below the state cutoff, but the state got the memo that I moved while the feds didn’t), leaving me with–what’s that? Is that–is that a HIGHLY GENEROUS $548 a month? To pay for food and rent and utilities? Oh my, taxpayers! How very awesome of you!
I mean, it’s not like my partner couldn’t find a job and we weren’t begging money off friends and her family to cover the bills for MONTHS or anything. Not like my rent alone isn’t $500, or the utility company doesn’t dick you over with deposits or anything like that. Oh no, $548 a month? So very definitely enough for one person to live on and have a roof and power and water and food and meds!
Except…wait.
I challenge you, Anonymous, to live on $548 a month. It has to cover everything. No cheating. You have to use it for all your bills. You have to PAY your bills. If you don’t, services get turned off and then you have to pay a fee PLUS what you owe on the bill. Food is an absolute necessity. So is a roof. So figure that one out, Anonymous. Figure out how a whole hell of a lot of us do it EVERY FUCKING MONTH because we get routinely dicked over. Try it for awhile! See if you’ll SURVIVE.
#48 — If you believe that “wealthy and free-spending parents” are collecting “thousands” in SSI every month, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
If this so-called social worker were doing hir job properly, s/he would not have approved these parents for such a high SSI allowance.
YOU try squeezing a dime out of this government. I am not the only one in these comments trying to tell you it’s well-nigh impossible to do.
This IA is a patent lie. To all of you who have defended this falsehood, aren’t you feeling proud now? Suckers.
@72 – Your ignorance is showing. Developmentally disabled people qualify for SSI from the time they are diagnosed. Their guardians have to apply on their behalf, but (until recently) it was pretty much a given that they’d be approved. Nowadays, you could be a quadriplegic and they’d make you jump through 19 different red tape-bound hoops to prove you’re disabled.
“Nobody owes me anything”
Repeat this into the mirror every morning. You’ll be surprised how liberating and empowering it is.
I agree with the writer of this weeks I, Anonymous. Does he lack sensitivity? – yes but seriously – this is the “I, Anonymous” column, not the Dr Phil show. Being disabled is terrible. It is sad and yes, we have programs that help offset some of the costs HOWEVER, the article referred to a disabled couple who chose to have a child knowing there was a high probability of having a disabled child. They couldn’t afford to care for their child, why should they have even had this child? I tell ya, if I ever ran for office, I would lobby very hard for a “Child License” law. There are too many idiots out there having kids that they “choose” to not care for – and we the taxpayers have to flip the bill.
Wow. You need to get out of that profession. NOW! As your lack of empathy or compassion has you do a disservice to every developmentally disabled individual you meet, as well as their parents, guardians, and caretakers.
Oh, BTW? The PARENTS are not developmentally disabled. If you don’t even know the difference, then you never EVER had any business being in a profession that works with people with developmental disabilities in the first place.
As a clarification, Social Security Disability benefits are NOT “thousands of dollars” every month. Maybe if you put 12 months in a year together, you get “thousands of dollars”, but most people on Social Security Disability get less than $700 per month. If the parents can afford to take vacations and buy boats, that’s great! But that $700 or less they get from Social Security (which they’ve been paying into, by the way, so it’s not like they’re scamming the system in any way) is not buying boats or giving them luxury vacations.
Like I said, get out of that profession NOW. You have no business being in it and feeling the way you do.
I notice that IA says his clients ‘can’t stop talking’ about homes, boats, vacations. I don’t see any evidence these folks actually enjoy such. When you’re without, big talk about how you’d like it to be is common.
I am temporarily on SSI after being ill and somewhat homeless for four years. Let me tell you, that $674 the gov deems I ‘deserve’ doesn’t go very far. After rent and utilities, I have $249 to cover everything else besides food. That’s transportation, clothing and shoes, home and bodycare goods, non-prescript meds, and heaven forbid a used book now and then. And that rent doesn’t get me running water or a toilet on site. For that, I get to hike across the acre to a ‘real’ house.
Is there abuse in the system? Most definitely. Could the system stand a sane overhaul to reach more who need it and weed out the ones who’re scamming? Yes, yes. Is that gonna happen? Politics and stakeholders stand in the way, as always.
So those of you that think we disabled lowlifes don’t ‘deserve’ to share in the standard of living of the wealthiest nation on the planet, don’t know what to say except may you be given the privilege of walking in my shoes someday. May you experience and thus understand what it’s like to be ill, alone and homeless. May the children you bear be especially challenging such that you can learn to view the world from a perspective other than your lily-white, hands-off my slice, privileged one.
@90,
The parents are not necessarily living off several hundred dollars a month unless they’re unemployed. They are collecting SSI for their son, and if there’s some sort of income qualification for the guardians of a developmentally disabled child to collect SSI, it definitely doesn’t kick in until the family is at least comfortably middle class since I know several middle class families who collect SSI on behalf of their disabled children.
Also, I don’t know where you’re getting the condemnation of independent, disabled adults from this I, Anon.
Well, this has all been such a sad realization. While I knew there were many people with certifiable disabilities out there, I really had no idea the ratio of dummies to thinkers. I have been astounded to see that so many of you have filtered my words through your own muddy prisms, and have projected your own irrational biases into what I was sure was a highly banal topic. I have been so surprised at the lazy scrutiny and knee-jerk incredulity, that I now have that much more support for any book I may write about the value of a rigorous, liberal education. A few gems that have given me a case of the “what-the-fucks”:
@97 “Also, I don’t know where you’re getting the condemnation of independent, disabled adults from this I, Anon.”
What? Who said anything about condemning independent disabled adults? I sure did not. I swear, my IA is sooooo much better when you read it with your eyes open.
@96 “I notice that IA says his clients ‘can’t stop talking’ about homes, boats, vacations. I don’t see any evidence these folks actually enjoy such.”
What? Should I have included a photo? You see no evidence of such? Is this how you think smart people talk?
@95 “As a clarification, Social Security Disability benefits are NOT “thousands of dollars” every month.”
As a clarification, nobody said they were. Go ahead and read it all one more time,
@90 Something tells me you are the very person I wrote about in my IA.
@85 “Your question, Larry, reminded me of an experiment my professor at UW conducted during my last semester before I graduated.”
UW is on the Quarter system, you friggin retard.
@83 “If you consume food and water—and consuming food and water is a deliberate life sustaining act—you give up your right to bitch about “the epidemic of disastrously unprepared parents giving birth to children, healthy or otherwise.”
By keeping myself alive I forfeit my right to bitch about inadequate parents? So, if I kill myself I can bitch? You’ve got scrambled feces for brains, which collide as they swim about the emptiness in your skull. As they squish together, they make the shit that you are trying very, very hard to pass off as logic. You are a hack masquerading as someone who knows what the fuck they are talking about. Only you give yourself away when you do that little thing. You know, that thing where you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.
@72 “You know what I love *the most* about this IA? It’s inaccuracy! No one gets SS disability benefits until they are an adult. IA, your BS is showing.”
Sorry, @72, you are correct. Oh, wait, I just did some simple research and it turns out you are actually wrong. Weird. It’s like when Bush said the war was over. Only it wasn’t. How crazy would it be if some of us made our assertions AFTER we knew whether they were correct?
@67 “Did you miss the list of stuff in @59 that you, too, partake of courtesy of other taxpayers? Where’s your gratitude?”
Thank you.
@66 “shame on the stranger for printing this discriminatory drivel–it is not only offensive, it is idiotic. as a human being with a disability i am deeply offended–i’m done reading this publication.”
I am offended that you are offended.
@59 “And actually, not everyone had some of the choices you were talking about. I know several people who became pregnant from rape. So fuck off and die, you selfish bastard.”
Seriously, this is the saddest. So extreme, so voracious. So full of shit.
@52 “As usual I would not wipe my ass with this column. What is not usual is the fact that I would like to stomp on the head of the motherfucker who wrote this trash then it could go on assistance and I could call it’s parents Mr. and Mrs. Fuckface.”
Oh yes, that was cut and pasted exactly as it was written. Corky Thatcher meets Hitler.
@36 “Best IA ever.”
Bingo.
Larry, I loved your letter and thought it was one of the best IAs ever.
I agreed with everything you said. People can’t handle the truth. That’s why every politician hires a spokesperson to lie or spin the truth for them.
Taking care of the less able is awesome when a country is wealthy or has a healthy middle class but entitlement and ingratitude is lame and unsustainable when times get hard.
I just wonder how many people who benefit from entitlement programs – Medicaid, Medicare, ssi etc, also support politicians who allow corporate greed to reign unchecked.
@ AI
“When you can produce a cogent argument for the necessary proliferation of human beings, when you can prove to me that we absolutely MUST continue to populate the planet at the bogglingly expansive rate that we currently are, then I will acquiesce.”
Go online and search world population growth rates for the last century. You will find that every graph indicates a decrease in the world population growth rate over the last forty years. Perhaps from your “Bumbershoot” worldview, where the lines must be getting longer and longer, the growth rate in your mind is “bogglingly expansive,” but in the minds of demographers who have dedicated their entire careers to analyzing population data sets, the rate for some strange reason has been steadily decreasing.
The logical conclusion here is that you are a stupid shit.
Now before you work yourself up about how it’s our responsibly to keep an eye on the human population, climate conditions, and available resources, I want to remind you that you failed world population history 101. Let the fact that the growth rate has been DECREASING for forty years sink in to your skull for a few days before your start recalibrating your doomsday charts.
“I recognize the epidemic of disastrously unprepared parents giving birth to children, healthy or otherwise.”
Oh really? Does this epidemic have a name? Do tell!! Quick! Give it a name. But don’t use “The Bumbershoot Epidemic,” because that’s already been saved for the boggling population growth rate increase we’ve seen over the last 40 years.
“By keeping myself alive I forfeit my right to bitch about inadequate parents?”
No. All of your bitching went into print you stupid fuck. That’s my point. I’m mocking your piece of shit analogy:
“If I deliberately cut my arm off–and producing a child is a deliberate act–I give up my right to bitch about not being able to tie my shoes. I give up my right to whine about how hard it is to bench press. I don’t get to bitch at people for not helping me as much as I think they should, and I don’t get to abuse those people who are compassionate enough to wade into the murky waters of my selfish decision”
Wow! Cutting off your arm in analogous to having a child? And I really like the “murky waters of my selfish decision” part. What exactly is selfish? Cutting of one’s own arm? Having a child? And let’s say I had a child with a disability, and Washington pays only 20% of what it pays now. Would I be able to complain then?
If you should one day turn 80, you’ll need government assistance most likely. Even if you don’t, you’ll need youth to keep the economy going if you want there to be a market to spend your saved dollars on. Hey! Let’s pretend there’s a war and the US is attacked when you’re 85. No youth means no one to defend your ass, which would surely get shot first for being such a whiney old bitch. Would you be “entitled” (in the bitchy sense of the word that you use it) to any of this help or protection as an old man? No. You would just be on the receiving end of a little help via a system that every advanced society in the world has established.
So should we all run out the door and get vasectomies so that we can be counted among the smart group of men? Maybe 85% of us should? Give us a number. C’mon, you’ve got this figured out. What percentage of us should not procreate? There’s got to be equilibrium. That is unless you want to see the human race discontinue. If that’s the case, just say so. Don’t be afraid.
“So, if I kill myself I can bitch?”
You will have to check with Jesus on that one. If he found you attractive enough you could probably bitch your retarded ass all the way to the right hand side of God.
Having a child is a choice? No shit. You create a false argument by repeatedly stating that those who procreate think it’s a mandate. To suggest this, you must accept that keeping yourself alive by eating and drinking is also a mandate.
@100
I said “expansive,” not “expanding.” A dictionary can help you with the extreme challenges of deciphering the difference between these two words. And while the rate may be decreasing, the actual population continues to increase, doesn’t it? You don’t get to 7 billion from 6 billion by subtracting, do you? So the majority of your post is little more than an underscoring of my previous point about people projecting their own misinformed biases onto my IA, isn’t it. Let’s see, you made some other points…Oh yes, the epidemic of unprepared parents I will name “fuck your mother.” What else…Oh, yes. Cutting off your arm is kinda like having a child. Only that Def Leppard guy could play drums without an arm, but I am not sure he could play with a child taped to his lap. And that is what you said, a child taped to the Def Leppard guy’s lap? You you are a dumb guy, aren’t you. For your information, the Def Leppard guy’s lap probably isn’t even BIG ENOUGH to tape a child to! You stupid fuck! And for that matter, even if it were big enough, his legs are moving so fast from hitting that big drum that any child taped to his lap would be BUCKED AROUND FEROCIOUSLY!! YOU STUPID FUCK!! And you mentioned that I “repeatedly (state) that those who procreate think it’s a mandate.” Can you point out where I say this even once? More importantly, YOU are the one creating a false premise by telling everyone at the AM/PM where you work that Bentley told you that he was going to try to three-way with you and Ashley, and that you were going to be responsible for bringing the 64 oz. coca colas and the Doritos!! I know for a fact that you HATE DORITOS!! You obviously failed corn-chip procurement 101, and so the logical conclusion is that you are a stupid shit. Hey, did you read that NY Times article about the evolution of argumentation? Where it says we developed logic not in the pursuit of truth, but simply to win arguments. And so this would explain, for example, why so many thousands of years into our evolution, there are still people who believe–or who desperately wish to be perceived as believing–that there is a magic caucasian in the sky who hates homosexuals, but thinks blacks and women are ok now. The article pointed out that it is not logic per se that has been honed over the centuries, but rather our willingness to accept words arranged in a fashion that would appear to represent logic. Like if you perceived me as authoritative, and I said, “Jesus died for your sins.” And you said, “wait, what?” And then I go, “yes, he died for your sins so that you can have ever lasting life.” And you’d be like, “what the fff…” And then I’d be all, ” YOU HAVE TO HAVE FAITH!! Through faith you are saved, but without it you will catch on fire and will burn like VD and it will never end!!” And then you’d be like, “Well shit! I don’t want to burn like VD!! What do I have to do again?” And I’d be like, “You have to have faith that Jesus died for you, and then you’d have to help me uh, get satellites up in the air to get this message out so others do not burn like VD!!” And you’d be all, “Holy shit? That sounds LOGICAL!! Where do I sign?” And I’d be like, “Oh, yes, you sign right here, at the bottom of your check book–I’ll fill the rest in later.” And you’d be all, “Awesome! That makes total sense.” Charles41, you’re a bitch girl, and you’ve gone too far but you know it don’t matter anyway. You can rely on the old man’s money, you can rely on the old man’s money. Thank you for understanding.
@101
“And while the rate may be decreasing, the actual population continues to increase, doesn’t it?”
Yes it does. And when you divide this increase by a specific period of time, you get “population growth rate.” Now what was your response again to my statement that this rate has been decreasing for the last forty years? A yes, here it is.
“I said ‘expansive,’ not ‘expanding.’ A dictionary can help you with the extreme challenges of deciphering the difference between these two words.”
Allow me to point out that you have not only been the only person in this discussion to entertain deciphering the difference between the words “expansive” and “expanding,” you’ve also been the only person to use them.
Is possible your dictionary prescription is a result of you projecting your own misinformed bias onto yourself?
As someone who was born with a “birth defect”—a mild one (club foot). I know this cost my parents thousands in the 60s to repair. That was their choice.
As I age, I find that although I shine intellectually and in other ways, I work in education and know that I contribute to the enrichment of others lives. Yet I have trouble walking, frequent pain, and know that I’ll never be as strong as others.
So I often wonder if my parent’s investment was worth it. I don’t have such a big ego or have the stupid judeo-christian “every life is sacred” ethic. Creatures and people die everyday! If I died 40 years ago as a result of not having those surgeries, then the world would continue. I know that and appreciate every day I have, but am unafraid of death if the pain becomes to much for me.