Two Posts from a Medical Blog

So your grandparents passed down one or two genetic vulnerabilities and you have become ill with a genetic disease (maybe arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, or breast cancer). And you know that you did not bring on your condition, you know that it is not your fault, and your doctors and friends know that much, too. Yet all the neurotic busybodies are saying, “It serves you right.”

Well, think of the bright side: the mean-spirited gossips (particularly those living in rainy climates) have once again shown off their ignorance. They live in the dark, like rodents. Because what they have really said is that you are the blame for your grandparents’ genes, that you got what you deserved the day you were born.

What a bunch of arrogant, greedy, thoughtless fools.

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Disability Insurance and Graduate Studies

Back during the 1980s, when I was busy fulfilling the requirements of a Ph.D. degree, I performed quite a bit of dangerous field work. In my line of study, field workers and their associates suffered severe injuries, including decapitation, and died in small plane crashes. Some of them drowned.

The university gave me a temporary position as a graduate research assistant, and the rest of my funding was drawn from research grants and sholarships. But years later I discovered that neither my graduate research assistantship nor my grants provided disability insurance and/or health insurance (never mind life insurance).

Therefore, I am advising all students to refrain from risking their lives and limbs during their course of studies, and I am saying that you must insist that the university provide you with disability and/or health benefits or allow you to use part of your grant money to buy the necessary insurance.

Universities think of themselves as absolutely benevolent, but when all is said and done, you can not trust them, and you must force them to keep up their end of the deal.

Original post by David Ledbetter