Handicapped workers need jobs too

To the editor:

I am handicapped. Most businesses will not hire a handicapped person. I'm in a wheelchair and know firsthand it's true. A relative went to a restaurant to apply for a job. After he left, someone popped off that the retarded kid had the guts to put in his application there.

People bellyache about people getting Social Security disability and taking taxpayers' dollars. At the same time they complain when a person who's a slow learner puts in an application to work. A slow learner or any handicapped person is a better worker than most nowadays. We have to live too. Working at the sheltered workshop is OK, but it doesn't pay your rent. People like us need minimum wages in order to keep from living off the taxpayers.

If someplace would hire me, I'd jump for the job. But everyone says a wheelchair person can't do what a regular person can do. Then create jobs that all handicapped people can do so they can get minimum wages.

AMY WILLS, Cape Girardeau