This I Believe

I believe that a legally blind and partially deaf people can raise children by themselves. I believe that slow parents can raise smart children. I believe that a poor community can raise rich children. I believe that an illiterate person can be smart and raise children who can read. I believe love conquers all including disabilities. I believe that people with disabilities are people too, and can raise people like me and you!

My belief in the fact that legally blind and partially deaf people can raise children by themselves is one that comes from my dad, and the fact that he did raise four children by himself! Sure, it was hard, but he overcame the obstacles! Dad didn’t make it through elementary school, but that didn’t stop him from pushing us to do our best and stay in school. I wish I could say that dad had the community’s help, but he did not. They were against him raising us. After all, “A man can’t raise kids by himself and especially not one who can’t see or hear, right?” That was the mentality of our community. Dad’s being blind and deaf didn’t stop me from being able to attend college or being rich in love!

“I am Sam” comes to mind when I think about slow parents raising smart children. I am Sam is a movie with Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning. This movie shows the reality of my life with my dad; his limitations and drive to make sure that I didn’t have those limitations. There are many slow people who raise very intelligent children and they do so because they have a drive that most normal people don’t. Why would they? They don’t know what it is like for someone who can’t read or write. They don’t remember preschool! My dad, just as Sam, knew only too well what it was like not to be able to read or write. It was because he knew the hardship of not learning such simple things as reading and writing, that he was that much more determined for his children not to know the sad reality of it.

A poor community can raise rich children! Being rich in love is much better and more rewarding than being rich in monetary things. Don’t get me wrong, the ideal situation is to be rich in love and monetary things, but that doesn’t happen as much as it should! My dad taught me the riches of love as we really didn’t have much else. The community taught me the riches of monetary things. The community was always uptight and not caring who they stepped on to climb that monetary ladder, while my dad was considerate of others and tried to show them the love he thought he deserved. They say it takes a community to raise a child. Before moving here and slowing things down, I would have told you, “that wasn’t so”, but now that I’m here, I see what our community should have been and that it is true that a community can raise rich children! With each other’s help, someone always has an eye on our children ensuring their safety. With a community like that, there’s bound to be love shown all the time.

People need to understand that disabilities are handicaps, not death traps! A handicap is not the worst thing that can happen to someone, nor is it a curse. Just because a person is disabled doesn’t mean they did something wrong or are less of a person. A lot of disabled people are born that way, just as in my dad’s case. My dad is as normal as me and you, he just has a harder time doing some things and may need someone to read or write for him. None of my dad’s handicaps ever stopped him from doing something he wanted to do, not even trying to learn. Yes, it does slow him down quite a bit, but he’s no quitter! He doesn’t spend every day wishing he was normal: to him, he is normal. Besides reading and writing his own name, he can read and write the names of the people he loves the most (all of his four children). I believe a disability doesn’t define who you are or what you can do, but rather defines what most of the world thinks of you and your limitations.