September 22, 1980 was my first day as a “tax paying” American.  My job with the Adventist Health System and with Shawnee Mission Medical Center lasted for 13 years.  When I lost my job because of downsizing, I moved to Collegedale, TN to live with my parents while looking for work. While looking for work, I had a part-time job working as a shipping and receiving clerk.  I joined a sports gym and did step aerobics and weight lifting.  I like to say that this was self physical therapy.  I was asked by someone why I had a speech impediment and a limp and I told them about the accident that I had (see the ‘Testimony’ link).  Another gentleman had overheard me and started up the conversation again.  It ended up that this second gentleman was the head of the physical therapy department at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga.  He invited me out to talk to his students about my disability. Before talking to the students, the professor and I had a private conversation.  He asked me if I thought that I had lost my job in Kansas City because of my disability.  I told him that I was there for 13 years and did not think that my disability was the reason why I lost the job.  He went on and asked me if I thought that I couldn’t find a job now because of my disability to which I said ‘yes’.  He said that I was absolutely right because when I would call a company for a job interview, the first thing they heard was the way I talked and the first thing they saw was the way I walked.  They would put these two things together and come to the conclusion that I must be retarded.  After our discussion, I went in and talked with the students who welcomed me wholeheartedly. A company in Nashville, TN offered me a job as a computer programmer around Thanksgiving of 1996.  My family and I had a lot to be thankful for that year. This job in Nashville lasted 5 years.  A month after the terroist’s attacks of September 11, 2001, the company closed its doors.