Letter To The Editor – Jan. 5, 2012

To The Editor:
  This is to give anyone who reads the article something to think about seriously. Since my mother and I met few people from this town before we even moved here, but we have learned a good bit about them by just observing and letting ourselves see how these people are towards human beings – like in speech and hearing class that I took when I was younger.
  The class was to help me learn to live with my handicap, but it also taught me something that people without handicaps would not know about. Most of these people who are supposedly well-educated are really dumb when it comes to meeting other people. I learned through the classes I took how to observe in everyday life that normal people are handicapped as well.
  Let me explain. I took speech and hearing classes because of a speech defect and hearing loss. Specialist after specialist told my parents the impairments would get more severe by the time I reached adulthood. So my loving parents agreed with these specialists and enrolled me in these classes  so I could learn to deal with my handicap and to know how to survive around others with or without handicap similar to  mine.
    It’s not like explaining, “I have speech defects and I am also deaf.”  The speech and hearing classes not only helped me with my speech, lip reading, and learning sign language, but the classes also taught me how to use my other senses so that I can live as close to a normal life as possible. To enjoy  music, we use our feeling senses for vibrations that’s in the music. When we go from one place to another, we use our sight sense to be aware of what is going on and to be very alert to get us safely from point “a” to point “b,” then back to point “a.”
  Not only did the class teach us to read lips, it also taught us how to read body language and what we have to do to defend our rights as Americans with disabilities. This  means that people like myself with hearing problems go to someone who tells people that they see a problem with me or that I am a problem.
    People do that like myself with hearing loss, to ask and to discuss it with that person, so that we can get any misunderstanding cleared up – that’s all part of my living with disabilities as best I can. That’s what the only saying from me, for those who are supposed to be well educated seems ignorant to that fact. If someone was talking trash about you, would you not want to understand why they feel that way towards you so that you can clear up the misunderstanding?
    People who don’t have hearing disabilities can pick up the phone, call the person who feels that way toward you in order to get it cleared up. But people, like myself, who have a hearing disability, have to go to someone to confront them face-to-face so that we can read their lips to clear up the misunderstanding, that’s the American way to peace and harmony among us, is it not?
    You can’t have peace and harmony by trying to control people just because they are not what you want them to be. That’s why each one of us are called individuals, we are all unique and different, that makes all of us special!
  My parents taught me never to hate anyone, it’s a sin to hate. Besides it’s not them, it’s how they act that’s disapproved of. I am no different than any of you, I am just an American with disabilities – we all are.
  From my heart to everyone I meet and know, God bless us all and try to be more understanding toward other people’s feelings, because we all are brothers and sisters in the eyes of our Lord. So next time you start to talk bad about someone, take time out, think about that they are people who have feelings and they’re just as human as you are!
  My name is Francis Upchurch. Remember the same God who made you, made everyone else too. None of us are perfect, but we can be more aware about how we treat others, by finding out the whole story about someone before we jump to conclusions about anything or anyone.
  /s/Francis Upchurch
134 Askew Street   
Water Valley, MS 38965