We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.
Bayard Rustin
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall…
For the times they are a-changin'.
Bob Dylan
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt
Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou
The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.
Oscar Wilde
One must work and dare if one really wants to live.
Vincent Van Gogh
As a child I remember hearing whispered stories about my second cousin. Always whispered. It was only when I was in graduate school that I began to understand the larger story. Monroe had bi-polar disorder. In his later years, he described his experience as complete helplessness and futility with massive anxiety about ever being able to get better. For Monroe, work was a hugely important thread that led him through the “dark nights”.
Social science research shows that work is as natural for human beings as recreation and rest. For too long we have prevented individuals with disabilities from fulfilling this important human need. We put up obstacles that keep folks from working and demand that they must get ready for work despite the typical progression of learning about work by working. As if we are actors in Theatre of the Absurd, we create barriers and frustrations that wear the individual down and then claim, “see they cannot work”.
Well, guess what? Maybe we are at a crossroad of enlightenment, where we see communities and economies are more robust when all working age individuals are engaged. Where communities of economic development are working when individuals with disabilities are not left out.
The stars do seem to be aligning for individuals with disabilities to have a greater role and opportunity to make our community economically sound. AND we are all better together.
Please check out the following on the EFG website, found on the
Resources page:
- Segregated and Exploited: A Call to Action
- Case for Inclusion 2011
- Full Committee Hearing – The Future of Employment for People With the Most Significant Disabilities
- Fair Wages for Workers With Disabilities Act Introduced
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| Our fabulous rooster Roy on the farm during his daily work. |