"We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

This is possibly one of the most well-known quotations in American society. I assume that almost immediately your mind continued:

"...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Now, there are a few problems with this. Firstly, everybody isn't equal; there exists a great deal of diversity and uniqueness among humankind. Luckily, the purpose of the quote wasn't to say that everybody was identical. Rather, it was meant to portray an idea that no man could be held above another for any reason, as we are all humans together. Another issue is that originally the quote didn't refer to all men, only white property owning males. However, as time has progressed, the minds of people opened and were eventually able to realize that all people, regardless of age, race, gender, social status, religion, or any characteristic or individuality, are all equal to one another. Nobody under this philosophy can be born a slave to anyone else without consent.

I bring this up to precede a more sensitive issue: my job. I work with persons with disabilities. These people are mentally disabled. Most people, upon hearing this, think, "Retarded people," or some variation, and have a stereotype in their head of any sort of idea picked up through peers or the media of what these people are like. However, they are nothing like this. When I first went to my job, I expected a bunch of the same, vegetable like people, with little diversity and little in which to be interested. I soon found that I was greatly mistaken. There is as much diversity within a home of 80 persons with disabilities as there is in any sort of society. These people have personalities. They laugh, they cry, they have fun. They make jokes and play jokes. They get angry, frustrated, and any other emotion. It takes time to get to know them and understand them, but they will be your friend, if given the chance. Going to my workplace and meeting the residents is like meeting anyone else, with or without disabilities. They are people.

Situations at work frustrate me, however. Because of the circumstances of the residents, they have to have people care for them. When I hear of staff members stealing clothes from the residents, I get angry. When workers won't allow the residents to do something fun, like the pool or other activities just because it is extra work for themselves, I am annoyed. When the employees treat the residents as less than people, as just a job, I become upset. When we refuse a resident because of their safety, it is one thing, but when we deny them because we don't feel like putting in the extra effort, it is another entirely.

I want to be a math teacher. One of my professors last semester always said, "Teaching is not for the faint of heart." This is because teaching is a selfless job. Teachers do their jobs to help others learn. It's not for money, fame, or guaranteed success. It is to help others, to open minds and change the world only through this help. Work at the home is similar. You cannot work with these people and agree to care for them if you only wish to do it for yourself, the money, or for an easy job. It is not always easy, nor is it always fun.

"...Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
These are the rights with which our Founding Fathers said all men were endowed, including the residents. We fail if we merely provide a means of existence for these people; rather, our job is to give them a life. They are not blessed with the ability to achieve these rights on their own, so in taking this job we accepted the responsibility of helping them obtain these rights. We agreed to help the residents to live, to have liberty, and to find happiness. Even at the extent of our comfort, our ease, our time or energy, we should help the residents. To put ourselves first at the job and to deny the residents their wishes for the sake of our laziness is to deny them their unalienable rights.

Therefore, we who work with persons with disabilities need to stop thinking of themselves first. We cannot be lazy, selfish, or greedy. We must constantly remember that this job is to help them live, to help them obtain these rights to the best of their abilities, with our assistance. We must never decline their wishes on the sole grounds of our comfort, ease, or desires. We must strive, every day, to remember that our job goes far beyond giving them the necessities of existence; we are called to provide far more.