I saw something today that enraged me. This was the headline:
Creigh Deeds' Stutter Mocked by Prominent Endorser of GOP Candidate in Virginia Gubernatorial Race
I tend to take this sort of thing personally. Because I stutter.
Watch the video here and join me after the fold.
I turn 42 tomorrow, and I've stuttered all my life. All that time, I've put up with people like Sheila Johnson and those who behave like her: ignorant, insensitive, unthinking, cruel and rude. Among them have been parents, teachers, authority figures and peers.
My father once yelled at me, "If you can't talk right, don't talk at all!" So I didn't. To anyone. For three years.
My senior year in high school, my AP English class had to memorize and recite the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I went to the teacher on my own and asked to recite it to her, one-on-one. I had the assignment memorized; I just preferred not to face again the certain humiliation. She refused. During class, she called my name and I got up in front of the class and began. My classmates stared, giggled, and laughed. It was two more class periods before I finished. Bitch gave me a D. She said I didn't recite it "properly."
I got pulled over once for a bad taillight and the cop thought I might be drunk because I couldn't answer his questions quickly enough. After I passed a breathalyzer test, he decided I must be stoned. He searched my car for nearly an hour.
And I don't think I have to elaborate when I say that kids can be cruel.
I've walked out of job interviews knowing they wouldn't call back. I could see it in their eyes before I even stood up. Never mind my GPA; never mind my accomplishments.
This is what stutterers face every day, especially the young ones. Many even have it worse than I did. And here is Criegh Deeds, who, despite all this, is running for governor of Virginia. I respect the hell out of that.
I have absolutely had it with people who think stutterers are stupid. In fact, they are among the brightest of people. My way of coping was to express my self in writing. Other stutterers do something else I have done: memorize the dictionary, so I always have several homonyms at hand to use in place of a word I can't say at the moment. Thus we may not be well-spoken, but we have unparalleled word power.
Consider this: Not being able to run our mouths at every whim has made us thoughtful. Listening while others run their mouths at every whim has made us insightful. Having to choose our words carefully has made us deliberate. Aren't those the qualities you want in a politician, rather than the mere talent of talking a good game?
There are many famous people who stutter or have had a stutter, among them Tiger Woods, James Earl Jones, Demosthenes, Winston Churchill, Robert Heinlein, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Alan Turing. For an even longer list, look here.
I don't live in Virginia, but I support Creigh Deeds. And so should anyone who has been picked on, put down, ostracized or humiliated for a personal aspect that's beyond one's control. And shame on Sheila Johnson, who should know better. I'm tempted to generalize here and suggest that she is representative of all Republicans, who as a group are like my father, my high school English teacher, that cop and cruel kids everywhere. They are simply incapable of empathy.
And on the way home, I saw this bumper sticker on a Camry: "Barack Obama is not my president." So I displayed another trick I've learned in lieu of talking: meaningful finger gestures.