“Be careful what you wish for.”

Dear Editor,

I had an incident a couple of weeks that disturbed me enough that I am urged to vent about it. In the checkout line at a grocery store in town, the cashier was telling a fellow employee that he just couldn’t wait to go on disability so he would never have to work again.

This particularly disturbs me because I have a son who is disabled as a quadriplegic, and I understand what he goes through. Our neighbor is also disabled, having lost a leg. Both cases were the result of accidents, and I know both men would rather work than endure the multiple hospitalizations, the complications that accompany a disability, the limitations it puts on them.

Granted disabilities can vary a great deal from person to person in severity. Surely this young man doesn’t want to have someone else bathe him, help him to the bathroom, dress him or feed him. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be THAT disabled…just enough to get paid and not have to work. Does that mean that he is planning a disability, one that wouldn’t really inconvenience him or make his life hard? How else can he guarantee it is not a BAD disability, just enough to get paid? It boils down to “Be careful what you wish for.”

So I wonder what is so hard about scanning barcodes, anyway? Maybe he should try farming, firefighting, construction, or any number of really taxing jobs.

Judy Erwin