My sympathy meter is pegged.

We're all affected by the swings in the economy.  I just don't understand how being in a car accident at 17 could ruin all career prospects for the rest of your life.  If car accidents automatically=disability checks, I'd be on disability 4 times over by now.  What may seem the easy way out at 17 is really a huge mistake in the long term.  Why condemn yourself to a life of poverty?  Both of these women could use life coaches, guidance counselors--something.  At 40 it's still not too late to start your life over again.

Excuses are like...

Oh nevermind. You know what I mean!

Man, you could make five normal women out of those two! Look at the daughter! She's only 19???    850 pounds!

"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"

With who? Nobody in the state of Ohio could get that drunk!

Cat, what's with the gray letter stuff? No illegal alien posting is allowed... 

Maybe if they spent their money on inexpensive meat instead of potatoes/pasta they would actually be healthier.  Better yet, become vegetarians for awhile. Potatoes/pasta is NOT the way to eat when you have limited resources. AND walking certainly would not hurt either one of them one bit!

I'm with you cat. I was in an auto accident in 1991 and totally screwed up my lower back. I still worked for the next 16 years at Bak. Cllg. and just retired last year. Disability? NO! Still have problems? You bet! There were times when I had to use 3-4 sick days and get treatments and lay low - but as soon as the ole back was stabilized back to work I went. Car? yes I have one, but my mom didn't! Bus, walk, friends, in emergencies, cab!!!  My mom took a cab from work to Memorial hospt. when I went into labor with my daughter!!

Some people are too eager to jump aboard the disability wagon. Several years ago I was offered $660 a month in SSI for being a drunk (it's considered a disability!). Seeing that my alcoholism was only a disability when I drank, the choice was easy. I knew several others who ran right down and applied, though. Good luck getting a decent-paying job anywhere with that on your record.

$660 a month! I make more than that in two weeks after all of my deductions, and I work less than 30 hours a week! 

Look at the source of the article NPR, American haters-always report the worst!

Haven`t you noticed lately , but America is one of the worst.....

Whiny pessimists never set the world on fire with their ideas. 

Can you imagine?

John Adams:  One tax after another!  When will King George ever let us be?

Thomas Jefferson:  It's better in France.  I'm moving there.

John Adams:  I believe I'll go complain to Franklin, then.  Barkeep, another pint, please!

Ben Franklin:  We're doomed.  We will have to wait a decade or two until King George dies and then perhaps his son will treat us better.  Of course, I'll be dead in a couple of decades, but I'm really too tired and fresh out of ideas to change anything.

John Adams:  Damn King George!  Bon Voyage, Jefferson!

Luckily, instead of sitting around complaining, these men changed history.  Something none of you whiners will ever do.

Weather McCain likes it or not, Gramm was right - we HAVE become a country of whiners.  We have also become a country of "ME FIRST". When someone can fall out of a wheelchair in the middle of the ER waiting room and absolutely nobody pays attention or even TRIES to do anything, we are absolutely headed to hell. That's just wrong. I hope that person's family sues the hell out of the hospital and if any of the staff can be identified - sue them as well. 

I wonder if the city they live in has a public transportation system... Oh! that won't work, she would have to get out of bed a half hour earlier..

Looks like some one hit a nerve????

Somehow I suspect the lack of a car is not what is impeeding their job search. The fact that their culture told the one to have a kid to earn welfare money is quite telling. It is like they are suffering from that psychological condition that makes one live with a miserable condition because one thinks there's no option out even when other people would see several other workable options. That condition is so pervassive that if you told someone suffering it about a workable option, they will either look at you like you've sprouted horns or find some excuse to dismiss it. Once they get to that state, no amount of public transportation or job assistance will help; you need a psychologist to come in and break the mindset.

My guess is the daughter will be pregnant in less than a year. 

Mrlo,  You'd better read up before making broad statements about someone lying.   A few years ago  you could indeed get disability for addiction.  That's changed now but all they have to do is get proof that they have stress and battle the SS until they give in.  And no, not all alcoholics get that way because of low self esteem.  I would hazard a guess that it might be YOUR problem though.  Only insecure people run others down to make themselves look better.

Good call Michele.

The unpleasant truth often has that effect on people, Michele.

Sounds like MrLo is an expert on alternative sexual devices. He certainly doesn't know squat about what SSI considers a disability. Earlier this week someone posted about heroin addicts getting SSI; in 1995 in San Diego a drug and alcohol counselor at the Salvation Army ARC at 1335 Broadway told me about the $660/month and said that it was something that I should consider if I was opposed to staying sober. 

MrLo, my name is in my profile, and I'm listed in the Visalia phone book. Come on over and try to deport me. Please. 

Your old, bitter, LYING butt should get deported back to YOUR country.

I challenged you to back up your words and deport me; 2916 W. Russell Ave. is nowhere near a trailer park. But you - naturally - have an alligator mouth and a hummingbird a**, just like everyone else in your family. Typical.

From now on, I'll call you MrYelLow...

Whoa JBS, are you related to my ex?  He used to tell me that all the time.  He's 6'1 and I'm 5"2.  Alligator/Hummingbird.  ROFL.

LOL at JBS and Nancy.....FUNNY!!!

JohnBurns wrote: "Sounds like MrLo is an expert on alternative sexual devices. He certainly doesn't know squat about what SSI considers a disability. Earlier this week someone posted about heroin addicts getting SSI; in 1995 in San Diego a drug and alcohol counselor at the Salvation Army ARC at 1335 Broadway told me about the $660/month and said that it was something that I should consider if I was opposed to staying sober.

This SSI thing baffles me. When I lost my hearing had a major moral struggle over even applying for SSI, so I decided to just try and fight back and see if I could A) still work and B) find a job.

I found I could work just fine, as long as I didn't have any duties that required the ability to hear (like using the phone or talking to customers or a lot of interaction with fellow employees). So what does that leave?  Door man? Not an option. They have to communicate.  Shepherd? Nope. If a wolf gets in the herd, you won't hear the sheep making noise.

So, the realistic thing for me to do was to take advantage of my education and find a place to work where my skills would give me a chance to succeed.  So I just started applying to places. In the first years I personally hand carried my resume to about 120 business of every imaginable kind seeking adminstrative/secretarial work. That a job I had compiled 13 years experience in and eight of those years were in the Air Force. As an enlisted man, I was selected as the US Air Force Outstanding Adminstration Specialist of the Year in 1976. There a plague in the Pentagon right now with my name on it. In 1977 I was the Strategic Air Command Federal Records Manger of the Year. (The plaque is in my closet). For the first honor I competed against about 12,000 other adminstrator all of whom were enlisted personal. The second honor included competition with both civilian and military adminstrators, around 4,000 people since it was limited to one branch of the Air Force.

In 1978, after going to night school at San Joaquin Delta Community College for almost 3 years, I graduated first in my class, magna cum laude, with a 4.0 grade point average in a class of about 300 people and earned an AA degree in General Studies.

I got out of the Air Force in 1979 and later finished two BAs at Fresno State; one in Early Childhood Education and the other in English with emphasis in creative writing. I did that while working for IBM as a parts administrator and, later, as a secretary.

After my college work, I started teaching school. But I then lost my hearing. I could hear my students and I couldn't go back to school and get more training because I'd have to go to Gallaudet University or Cal State Northidge where they specialize in getting deaf students through college. I wasn't conversation in sign language enough so I could do that, and I had a home in Fresno that i didn't want to leave.

So, I just started handing out the resumes, trying to sell someone on the idea of employing a person who had limited verbal communication ability but extensive writing ability.

Guess how many companies called me back for an interview.

None. I didn't get a letter, a phone call to my house, or anything. In all those application, not one company offered me so much as an interview, much less a job.

I then considered applying for SSI. I go in with my partner (now my husband) and apply. I had to provide a stack of documents from the Los Angles hearing specialists who treated me to prove I was, indeed, profoundly deaf in both ears.

My application was denied.  I don't know how much I would have gotten. The manager at SS said that since I had someone to support me, the view of SS was that they treat that like a marriage.

Well, it wasn't.  There wasn't even domestic partnership at that time, and as you know, no gay person was allowed to marry. So, for all legal purposes, I was just an everyday single person whose relationship was not officially recognized by anyone but our dog. I sat there with my partner and tried to argue that Social Security couldn't legally base their decision on my relationship with my partner because NO civil or federal authority in the country recognized it.

It didn't matter what I said. I was denied.

I though I'd treat tis as an omen form Zeus. So, out the door I go again, spraying the county with resumes. I finally got someone from the employment development department to help; someone who specialized in working with the deaf.

They found me a job bussing table at Fresno State. But I also had a back injury that I always called "kindergarten teacher's back". It the posture that matters. When you teach little kids you are constantly doing if from over their shoulder and you have a crook in your back. Well, I'd injury my back many times, but bussing tables put me in a constant state of bad posture. So I couldn't handle the job and know that that kind of work was about the only thing available to me, I knew I have back spasms my first day if I flipped burgers.

So, what to do.  I thought, maybe if I volunteer at some place, that will get my foot in the door and I'll at least be able to show someone what I can do.

Oh Boy! Non profits LOVE volunteers and I found a good one. I was an organization of deaf people who used sign language all the time. I volunteered there full time for three years. But the could never offer my a paying job.  I did learn to sign pretty good and one great part of working there was that they made me the editor of their newsletter. I bought my own computer and software and learned how to use Aldus Pagemaker 1.0 (it was brand new then) and they left me alone.

The internet appeared and I had a computer so I go aboard. Meantime, I was getting no closer to a job, but I was learing how a non-profit ran, so I decided to launch one of my own. It was Dear Services of Central California (DSCC) and what did it do? "We" as I always referred to it, recycled cardboard and other recyclable materials to pay for English/ASL interpeters for deaf people when the need one to go to the doctor or, really, any situation in which the deaf person might need to speak to someone.  "We", meaning my partner and myself, dived dumpsters and went door to door asking people donate their recyclable stuff to us instead of to the garbage company.

It's hard to make appeals door to door when you don't know if someone is consenting, or telling you to go to hell, so half the time, I probably left a residence who consented, but didn't know it.

I used my back yard initially to store the recycables, but it quickly because a mess, so I was forced to rent a place in an industrial area. I used my pickup and worked seven days a week about ten hours a day. I asked people to volunteer to help me, but while I was welcomed by the deaf as a volunteer, I never got anyone to volunteer to help me. One person can't do this work. You can't make enough money to actually use it for the purpose you intended. I'd spend $500.00 a month on rent and gasoline, and make $300.00 a month selling my stuff. My partner would make up the shortfall. It was a losing proposition.

So, I had to put that dream behind me.

I next put my volunteer foot in the door at Fresno State. I decided that I'd really better try and find work I enjoyed and I was a fanatic softball fan.  Fresno State let me make the first web site for the softball team. It was the first in the nation. I ran a server on my Mac in my own home, bought all the softwared to run the server, plus all the software to create web pages and photographs.

In 1998, I produced the first text-based play-by-play on the internet of an NCAA championship in the history of the NCAA when I worked the Women's College World Series. I did it along, again, because nobody wanted to help. I had a half million visitor during that series and Fresno State one it: the first NCAA title in a team sport in school history. They got so much feedback from my broadcasting, the team gave me my own national championship ring. So, I'm the one boy on a girls team and the only webmaster with a national title under his belt.

No job offers.

I then volunteered to do the same job for the National Fastpitch Coaches Association whose membership includes every college and most high school softball coaches in the USA and in several other countries. When I started with them, the had a 12-page web site.  In two months I had 10,000 pages online and they were getting a million page views a month. The first two years I worked for free, 15 hour days usually, and I could go NOWHERE because I had to babysit the computers that were in my back bedroom.

They then started paying me $400.00 a month.  The going rate for site developers was about $55.00 per hour, but since I was trying to get my foot in the door, I took what I could get.

USA Today needed a columnist to cover the Division I softball stuff and I got the job. It paid $100.00 a week if you got your column in on time. So I was covering 25 conference races, about 250 teams and running sites for the NFCA and Fresno State while make $500.00 per month. I spent about $200.00 per month for my internet hookup and another $75.00 per month to keep my software up to date.

We moved to San Juan Capistrano and I transferred all of this there and was off line only for amount of time it took me to drive from Fresno to Capistrano.

In Orange County, I hooked up with another state rehab agency to see if they could help me get a joy that paid more than $500.00 per month.  We searched for two years and I got NO interview offers. I had a pretty good resume by then. So, with the total work I was doing, combined with the total absence of a job offer, I was ready for suicide (seriously).

I found a psychiatrist instead and he immediately told me to dump the column, the web site development and Fresno State and veg-out for a while. I did. It helped.

We decide to "retire". So at age 50, I moved to Cathedral City. After I got the house put together, I started getting antsy so I checked in with the local Employment Development Dept who had a person who (tell if if you've heard this one) specialized in finding employment for the handicapped.

I bit.

We worked together for six months and she, too, came up with a blank.

I went back to Social Security and reapplied for SSI. I was denied again.

So, now I'm back on the volunteer track. I spent the entire spring running a high school softball team's web site for my niece's team in Texas. I built it from the ground up, wrote game coverage for every game and even went back to Texas to watch them play.

I'd like to earn $660.00 this year.

MrLo-granny goose and old mother hubbard......serioulsy grow up! We all laugh at one another every now and again, some just more than others.  Heck, I laugh at and with OB all the time.  FYI=I'm probably waaayyyy younger than you but wise beyond my years.  Sorry but your childish insult was just that.