I am a big Amazon user. I shop there, read Kindle e-books, watch movies, listen to Audible audiobooks, and utilize many of the other services available to Prime members.
About a month ago, I saw a new book entitled The Boys of Riverside with a photo on the cover of eight young football players. Immediately, because we have a daughter who is deaf and legally blind, I knew it covered the story that had received international attention about a small group of boys (one lived in a car with his father) at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, who, through their tenacity, toughness, and a strong desire to be winners (for a change), won the state championship in eight-man football.
What made the story even more interesting is that the author, Thomas Fuller, was a full-time writer for the New York Times. He resigned from his position and moved to California to write this fascinating story, along with information about deafness, cochlear implants, and sign language. It was a great buy!
Years ago, I called hearing-impaired people “handicapped” or “disabled.” Then, our daughter, who was attending Gallaudet University in Washington, DC (a federally funded institution for the hearing impaired and deaf), quickly corrected me, “Dad, I am not disabled. I am a woman with different abilities.” I stood corrected.
Think about that. When we see people who are blind, mentally challenged, or autistic, who appear different from us, let’s instead see them as just like you and me: as fellow human beings with different abilities.
For years, I was the director of our church camps in Hawai‘i, and every year, we had camps for children with different abilities. These were some of my fondest camp experiences because many of these children had hardly ever been out of their environment, and here they were, riding horses, sailing boats, camping out overnight, and doing arts and crafts. They blossomed, especially without the overprotection of so many of their parents.
These young men in Fuller’s book blossomed. They had never received so much attention because, for most of their life, they were labeled “less than.”
Being hearing impaired, especially at the more profound ranges, is a much more difficult challenge than most people realize. For a minute, stop and listen to all the sounds you hear and understand. Our daughter has never heard one of those sounds. It was just a jumble of noise. We have no idea how reliant we are on sounds to tell us what is happening in the world. A deaf person misses that.
I could write a whole book on people with different abilities and their parents in the world in which they live because later in my career, I had the opportunity to work with children and families with the dual sensory impairments of being deaf and blind. These children also had a slew of other issues, but they were all human beings with different abilities.
Here’s the bottom line: (1) Mull over the idea that there are many people in our world who appear different but are fellow humans with different abilities. Do you like that idea? (2) The Boys of Riverside is an upper in many ways, and it uplifted me.
PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness
Bil
Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!
P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.
My son is deaf as well, he developed it in his twenties, family gene for the disintegration of the small bones in the middle ear, he wears hearing aids, but still, not easy.
Wonderful uplifting book now if they could get college scholarships.
Many thanks Harvey for your email. I didn’t realie Aaron was an interpreter for the hearing impaired. Quite an acoomplishment! Your email has opened a can of worms as concerns cochlear implants. The deaf world wants nothing to do with them. They have this thing called deaf culture that says if you are born hearing impaired that’s who you are and forget about hearing aids, cocklear implants and the hearing world. It’s totally stupid as is their culture stuff. It’s very nature makes sure that the hearing impaired remain send-class citizens. (Our daughter is a victim of that idiodic culture and she’s now a second class citien.) Then there are hearing parents who don’t have the first clue about the deaf world and unless one is a pushy go-getter, their child will almost always become a second class citien and family member. As soon as a child is diagnosed and it could be at 6 weeks, parents need to be educated about how one raises a child with hearing issues. This hardly ever happens and too many parents fumble thru without a support system. School districts would do themselves a favor if they became proactive with parents at 6 months and gave them the tools to make their hearing child successful and information on cochlear should be part of that. BUt too many school districts do as little as possible for children with disabilities. They cost a lot of money. It would be much less costly in the long run, to give children with disabilities a very strong education. Ophs! I’m on my soapbox. PeaceLoveJoyHopeKndness Bil