Ayn Rand Thinks He's a Parasite, But My Brother Kevin Contributes Greatly to Our Society

Ayn Rand cashed her disability checks

A government that helps the wealthy and powerful over the poor and disabled is a government with no decency.

June 5, 2012

At my father's funeral, the presiding minister, Ebb Munden, was a man who had been one of my dad's closest friends. Ebb talked about how the last time he had gone to see my dad before he lost consciousness, he had been very emotional, but that my dad had comforted him by gripping his hand and telling him it would be all right; that he was at peace and Ebb should be, too. 

The lesson was that even at our physically weakest, we could still help other people and make things better in the world.

I was thinking of that this past weekend when I went to see my brother Kevin back home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Kevin is one of those people whom followers of Ayn Rand's philosophy would call a leech on society. Rand believed that people with disabilities were leeches and parasites on society, and that the “parasites should perish.” Kevin’s birth father broke a chair over his head and gave him brain damage, so he is developmentally disabled and has difficulty speaking clearly.

He came to my family when we were both 11 years old, and has been not only my brother but one of my closest friends ever since. As an adult in recent years, his body has continued to betray him as he is hard of hearing, can't see well, and has muscular dystrophy. Recently, he had to go into the hospitial for major surgery and then developed pneumonia – his muscular dystrophy makes it especially tough to recover from all this.  READ MORE