Tuesday, October 07, 2008

You Will Visit Sean

I made a post about how we should cheer on the winners. It begat a comment from a guy called Sean. I rarely post comments as stand alone publications, but this one was worth reading. He made a similar post here, but I like the one he made below;

Cap, some years back I was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia and put on permanent disability. This last health calamity came on top of an injured back and a bad heart.

If I had stayed on disability for the rest of my life no one would have blamed me. But I didn't like it. I had always paid my own way and I was determined to keep doing so if I could.

So I self-studied and became an expert on computers. I scrounged old bits from garbage bins and built working systems. I read everything available at the local libraries. I horse traded for used books. I scraped together to find money for new books.

Now I'm a certified computer technician running my own business in a small town in Alberta, Canada. I'm not rich by any means, but we get by. I drive a 20 year old van and my family lives in a *paid for* manufactured home. We have some business expenses on our credit cards, but it's all debt that we can service, even if our business is cut by 2/3.

I'm proud of making it from where I was when I was 23 -- written off by the medical profession -- to being a successful independent business owner 16 years later.

So it angers the hell out of me when I have the candidate for the socialist party here in Canada come into my store and tell me how much he appreciates small business when the leader of his party is busy promising all of my hard-earned $$ to a bunch of welfare suck tits. I told the wanna be politician that he had ten seconds to decide whether he was leaving via the front door or the front window.

Yeah, it would be easier just to sit back and let others pay my way, but there's no way I could live with myself if I did. And let's face it: if someone with my degree of health impairment can earn a living, so can a lot of other "disabled" people.

The reason I like this post (aside from the old school Americanism), is that this hands down shoots out and undermines one of the key arguments socialism relies upon; victimhood.

There are people out there who start off poor, who are disabled, who are of a minority race, and despite these "drawbacks" still manage greatness on par with anybody else. And the reason this is such a threat to socialists is that if people with these "drawbacks" were ever to realize their full potential and what they could achieve, they would drop the democrat/socialist/labor parties forever.

People have requested Sean's place of business so they may send him some. Here you go;

9 comments:

Billy B said...

I nominate Seam for the Captain's "Hero of the Year" award. What a great story.

Anonymous said...

Hold on a sec, Capt'n...I think I have something in my eye...

Anonymous said...

Wahoo! I loved this post! I know a couple of disabled people (one is a quadraplegic). However they would rather live off SSI than work harder (which they are capable of). Both of them have QUIT jobs that were too many hours because that would cut of their SSI money. Never mind the fact that they could make more if they just worked a little more. And you should see how "active" the one person is in her hobbies....

Anonymous said...

How about a link to the guy's site/store so we can collectively further reward his hard work???

Also... CONGRATS on correctly predicting a dow of 10K. I'm going to buy (at some point) and make a killing.... IN THIS ECONOMY!

Ian said...

There are a lot of us out here in Kanuckistan. I was crushed in a rock/ mud slide in the late 60's, damaging my back. No treatment ok'd here, (socialized medicine), I continued working, ended up in the 70's poisoned thanks to the environmental movement, told I had permanent brain damage, hypersensitivity to chemicals at a level that would leave me housebound and unemployable.

Twenty years later I'm still working, recently had surgery for a large two part hernia, and will be going back to work in a week with the same continuous pain as the last few years. I also do hard physical work.

Ian

Anonymous said...

Fantastic post Cap'n - I second billy b's nomination! (if there is such an award :)

Sean McCormick said...

Er, um, well... Thanks for posting the card, but there's only so far I can travel for a service call for a broken computer!

If anyone has money burning a hole in their pocket I'd like to mention that I'm also a photographer and I sell prints of my photographs on this site:

http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/

I promise to be responsible with any money earned through print sales by emitting as much carbon as possible to stave off the next ice age. ;-)

Unknown said...

I work in a hospital and I am all ways wondering why on earth certian people have medicare when they are under the age of 65. I am honestly say most of these jobless slobs tell me their medicare is due to mental illness and depression. I would be depressed too if all I did was sita around on my big fat ass all day.

Hot Sam said...

Sean's bio puts my hard luck, bootstrap story to shame.

I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy.