A Lot of Things to Think About This Mother's Day

About seven or eight years ago, I wrote about a realization I had during a party.  The party had been at my friend Nina and her parents' house. Their home reminded me so much of the one I'd had the pleasure of growing up in. 

I wondered what had happened to my life, that I had started out from this kind of middle class, well-off family and slid downwards into poverty.  Once I left home and went on ODSP, the descent was fast and inescapable  ODSP had trapped me into poverty.

I remember letting my mother read what I had written, and, much to my surprise, she was very upset by it.  She thought that I had been somehow blaming her for being poor, that she and Dad had failed to provide for me.

My mother was the most kind, loving, giving person I had ever known.  She loved and supported me all through my life, in good times and bad. I certainly did not blame Mom for anything!

ODSP, on the other hand, was, and is, squarely to blame, not only for dragging me into poverty (and keeping me there!) but also for doing the exact same thing to countless other people with disabilities.  Since Harris made drastic cuts to the program in 1993, people with disabilities have been living below the poverty line.  It is truly shameful!

Shameful, that's the word for the treatment of disabled people, not only by our government but by others as well.

When I heard about the British government considering cutting the Independent Living Fund I was horrified! That funding is to assist people with disabilities and their families to hire "carers" (we call them attendants or assistants here.) It would be like me losing my Direct Funding, I couldn't survive without it. As you can imagine, I'm very scared that this might happen here in the future, the way things are going. My imagination runs away with me and I can see all disabled people being placed in institutions. I shudder at the thought! Hopefully it is just my over active imagination....

I'm tired and stressed out tinking about it so I'm going to go to bed and, hopefully, dream about simpiler times like when I had a boo boo and my mom would kiss it all better.

I love you, Mom!