On being disabled.

Although I am considered disabled (I am a double leg amputee) I have not yet written about disability issues. The reason is that this blog is about issues rather than about me.

I raise the subject, now, because the way that our society treats too many disabled people is just plain wrong. More importantly, there are many members of the military who are returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hellholes, with wounds that will result in lifelong disabilities. The assumption that, because they are disabled, they can no longer contribute is grotesquely wrong.

The result of our ill treatment of disabled people, too often, is a monumental waste of talent and energy which, to quote Talleyrand, "... is worse than a crime, it is a mistake."

Meanwhile, my readers are entitled to know how I view myself as a person with disabilities.

Being disabled is:

• always hard work,
• usually time consuming,
• often painful, and
• frequently expensive.

The choices are 'get used to it' or 'give up and complain'. With a lot of help from friends - both able-bodied and disabled - I chose the former.

Enough said.