Stereotype or reality?

I can accept that having a certain disability might, by isolating you from others who don't, and by the shared experiences of others who do, give rise to a "culture."

I can accept that people of certain cultures can have common characteristics. Some cultures might value education; others feats of bravado. Thus, persons who have these characteristics would tend to thrive and multiply in this culture, as opposed to people who don't.

But I felt very uncomfortable and something in me raised a red flag when a certain person recently gave me some advice.

Sweetie and I have befriended a Woman who is hearing-impaired. Hearing impaired persons definitely have their own language, their own culture. Like any culture, it has its controversial elements, such as, in some members, resentment towards other members who use lip reading and speak instead of sticking totally to sign language.

Sweetie and I are taking this hearing-impaired person grocery shopping tonight, since She doesn't drive.

The advice that I was given was to beware because if "you give a hearing-impaired person an inch, they will take a mile." In other words, we should expect to be asked to do much more for Her than an occassional grocery trip.

No.

I refuse to believe that being hearing-impaired has any connection to a person acting that way, anymore than if they were Swedish, Baptist or Canadian.

What my Sister knew

When I was a kid, the family took a trip to Disneyland and my Sister annoyed me for weeks afterward singing "It's a Small World After All."

She got Her musical ammo from a ride there in which little mannequins dressed like people from all over the world sang that song and danced.

Tonight I attended the 75th birthday party of a family friend who lives out here, all done in a German theme, as that is his favorite country from all the ones that he has visited.

My belly is full of saurbraten, schnitzel and red cabbage; my head still full of the feisty dance music. Maybe I will learn some German this week.

And I am thinking it truly is a small world after all and it is a damned shame that we spend so much time hating each other, brandishing weapons, building walls.

I, an American, should be able to walk the streets of Tehran without fear and buy a bag of dates from a market stall. I should be able to feel the cold breeze whip against my jacket in Pyongyang and invite a new friend there to come visit me in my east coast home sometime.

Shiite, Sunni, Orthodox Christian, Jew, agnostic, Bushman, Pakistani, Australian, Han Chinese, black, white, brown, male, female -- we are all part of the human family. Disease and poverty should be the only enemy we have left to face, not each other.