A new job for Joe

“You better work,” is a motto used by the drag queen Rupaul Charles, but many Americans with a disability such as a major mental illness or physical disability are afraid they cannot be productive. They want to work, but they don't know where to begin.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the month to educate the public about the need for active employment. Although those of us as students can't do much, we are the future policy makers. This means that we have the duty to learn and support people like me find meaningful employment.

What about us? How low must our culture go before we stop to help? According to President Bush's New Freedom Commission, about 54 million are disabled, which is about 20 percent of the U.S. population.

The New Freedom Commission's report states that in 1997, more than 33 percent of adults with disabilities lived in a household with an annual income of less than $15,000, compared to 12 percent of those without disabilities. And the unemployment rate for adults with disabilities has been around 70 percent over the last 12 years.

Wouldn't it be better if there was a way to help them, not just sympathize with them and ignore them? Don't most people fi nd their lives are improved by something they do or have to do everyday? Because when you work, there is a sense that one's life serves a higher purpose.

Let's take a look at a hypothetical situation. I call this person “Joe,” and he could be a neighbor of yours. He talks to himself, and may or may not drink a little too much. He is always complaining about the government, or whomever he thinks is trying to harm him. But on good days, he works on the kids' bikes that live down the way. The kids know he isn't employed, and they know that he has a problem.

The point that I am trying to make is that this guy is making his living in the only way that our society will help him. After all, he is that crazy guy that lives down the street who drinks too much. That has become his main job: His job.

Help him find a better job, and you might find that he, on his meds, is not so crazy after all. He might even be smart.

My point is that he does add value to our community. This is what has become my job: I am talking to you about something that I hope you don't ever have to experience. Because think about that guy I was talking about a few years from now. He may no longer be living with his family. In fact, somebody might help him to learn how to work on bikes so well that he could, with the help of social workers, be able to learn how to meet his own needs. He is disabled, but shouldn't he work?

— Joseph Kastner is a NLC journalism student and member of the Journalism Club.