LETTER: Casual Facebook joke not so funny after all
By Contributor
This is for everyone who feels a need to share this photo (the one attached to this story). As someone on assistance, this is very hurtful.
I do not choose to be disabled. But it most certainly does not define me as a human being, nor does it diminish my worth. I have done thousands of hours of volunteer work and have saton many committees. Many of us on assistance give back to community in more ways than you might realize, caring for grandchildren and often filling gaps in services by volunteering. How much were the hundreds of hours I spent as a trained crisis line worker worth? Or the thousands of hours I have spent teaching and working for free within my limitations?
Less than two per cent of your tax dollars go to social service payments (which you could be in need of someday yourself one day). Eleven cents of every tax dollar goes to bureaucrats. Twenty-two per cent of your tax dollars go towards paying off a national debt that would be zero if our politicians borrowed interest-free from Canada’s National Bank instead of borrowing from private banks at high compound interest. (Look at how many politicians end their careers early to become bank CEOs)
As a tax payer, wouldn’t you be more concerned with the $3.1 BILLION that this government can’t account for, or the recent senate scandal? There have been many scandals that have misappropriated your tax dollars. The list is long. And yet you choose to pick on those least able to defend themselves.
I might add, all welfare rates in Canada are well below the poverty line. It is no picnic living in chronic pain and having to worry about having enough for food, rent, bills, medicines and procedures that aren’t covered (such as the $120 for eye surgery that came out of my food money. I lived on rice and quinoa that month because it was a choice between that or losing vision). And it is certainly no picnic having to look at posts from people complaining about two cents of their tax dollar going to support valuable, loving, giving people who unfortunately struggle with a disability.
So for those smugly and self-righteously posting this, please stop and think about where your tax dollars are really going, and who you might be hurting. This could be directed at you one day. Would you like to be on the receiving end of this? How would it make you feel?
I realize people post things like this aren’t necessarily out to harm anyone. And that this rant might seem a bit over the top for a simple thoughtless post. But this was posted by a friend. That simple post has forever altered how I feel about them.
We are all interdependent on one another, and every one of us is here with purpose. Let’s start honoring one another, instead of putting others down to make ourselves feel better. The world would be a better place.
Sincerely, (name withheld)
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