This issue of Icarus' Voice is dedicated to the continuation of progress, change and growth....
Dear readership for so long we have had to play the role, no matter how ill fitting, of what agencies and others expected someone with a disability to be like, meaning, helpless, weak and as unreasonable as it is and impossible to do, try to stunt our own growth as human beings and deny our own potential. In essence we were told to deny our human spirit, the parts of ourselves the ancient Greeks have stated strive to not only test our limits but even reach beyond them. Rules were created by various systems but never questioned or changed for decades by these systems and when some place considers us and tries to create change that would better our lives and not stifle us those changes are stalled or are slow to be implemented. It is as if these systems assume that we can wait forever for these changes to come to pass, that our lives can linger in the current status quo forever, but this assumption is wrong. We can't continue this way forever and change must happen! Case in point, there is a bill written and waiting in ways and means with congress that will raise the amount of money people who receive SSI benefits can save from 2,000 dollars for an individual to 10,000 dollars and from 3,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars for a couple. But it has been stalled even though it had been written and presented several months ago. Why may you ask has this very important and meaningful bill been stalled in ways and means? Well, I believe for two very stupid and selfish reasons. One reason could be because the lives of people with disabilities have been weighed as not as important as the convenience that a government agency such as Social Security wants to be able to maintain. So, everything else comes before congress and people with disabilities are thought of less and not as prioritized. A second reason this bill has been stalled could be that to change savings limitation would be to admit that the old tried and true rule no longer works nor reflects the current times and if they admit this they would have to reckon with it and the whole system would have to build a new system from the ground up and Social Security is too comfortable with the way the system is now and has been for years. The savings limitations rule does not affect those who work for Social Security. They never had to live off of less than a thousand dollars a month, but we do. This is why we must speak up about this to our state representatives and have them force this bill to be pushed through the ways and means and passed finally into law. Think of the balance that will be achieved when this bill is passed into law! Think of the weight which will be taken off our shoulders when we no longer have to worry so much about how much we have in our bank accounts! Think of the fear being, if not all together eliminated then greatly relieved of having our finances questioned and monitored by Social Security! Think about what this bill would mean to us all! I have talked to some individuals who have different disabilities and what I heard emanating from them was pure fear and even paranoia which seemed to get passed on from person to person. It would be nice, it would be fantastic if I did not hear so much fear from others with disabilities anymore. It would be wonderful if one day fear and worry were replaced with hope. That is what this savings limitation elimination bill would do once it is passed and we have to make sure it is finally passed into law! I even have found myself thinking of a plan in the case I win prize money in the near future after entering my short story series” Collected things of the world and other meanings” in a fiction contest this month. The winner only will receive $2,500 with more than half of that given to help promote the book and yet I worry about how the prize money will impact my benefits if I win. It would be very nice if I did not have to worry about that as little as it is, it still would go over the 2,000 dollars savings limits. Speaking of the short story series if anyone who reads my newsletter can help me locate publishers for my story series, please let me know. You can email me at tldresser58.gmail.com or Perspective39098.aol.com. We all need to encourage and support one another and not let fear of Social Security paralyze us, keeping us frozen in place. We are living human beings not statues. We are changing even if change frightens us. We all are or can be self-actualized at heart. Thank you.
