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on the spot:

FEEDBACK FRIDAY

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Re: Stoffel's Guide to Buffalo Wings

Dear Editors:

Thank you for starting my morning off with a laugh. I've not laughed this hard in a long time. Kudos to Scott Stoffel!

Lucille Blackwell

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Dear Editors:

"Connections" by Susan Hajiani is fascinating. Many aspects are similar to my experiences in public school, etc.

This morning I was out walking in Capitol Hill where I live, and a young woman with a wide baby stroller--the kind that holds twins--wanted to pass me. She was jogging while pushing the stroller. She was forced to go around me, pushing the stroller off the sidewalk, scraping the bushes because I did not give way (and she did not want to interrupt her run!). By the time I noticed her, she had gone by. Without turning to look back at me, she stuck out one arm, palm up, giving it a questioning lift, like she meant to say, "What's wrong with you?"

Susan wrote about always being "off" doing something that did not "fit in."

I wanted to race after that girl and tell her, "Have you not heard of deaf people? There are many around here! If someone doesn't respond when you ask to pass, why not consider that maybe they don't hear you?"

I imagine that girl having tea or coffee with someone later, complaining how rude people are; how they won't yield the sidewalk when she's out jogging with her twins!

And her listener will sympathize. Tut tut. Not one of them will consider that perhaps the gray-haired woman she passed that morning was deaf. While they sip their coffee and contemplate lack of regard for jogging mothers, they won't notice the couple having coffee nearby using ASL . . .

Mary Thornley

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Dear Editors:

Additional items inside the "DeafBlind Interpreter's Purse": Minty breath spray and hand lotion!

Julie Devich

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Dear Editors:

I just wanted to say how wonderful that piece is ["Connections" by susan Hajiani]. It took great courage to share those experiences. My daughter is deaf; she's 11 ears old. I always try to subscribe to these kinds of things so I can get a deaf person's perspective on life. To be able to read about their experiences, I hope, will help me be more considerate of her needs and feelings, to be able to help her to not feel lonely or strange. I'm grateful that she has friends at school that are of different degrees of hearing and signing. She doesn't feel odd with them and I'm grateful they let me in on their world. Thank you for Cler Scar.

Tanya Dennings

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Dear Editors:

Wow! Great story ["Connections" by Susan Hajiani]. Is the author blind or visually impaired as well? She never mentioned it. It's obvious she struggled to accept her deafness growing up, & be a proud person with a capitol "D" deaf. The story reminded me of a different era like back in the 1950s, when technology for the deaf was not that great. It's almost as if she wanted to be hearing. Thank god for technological advances, first the TTY, and later VP, & ASL classes and professional interpreters for deaf & deaf-blind people.

We have come a long way, and have a long way to go into the future. We need to stand united, and be empowered and work together in our struggles and achievments. To be continued!

Rosemary V.

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Dear Editors:

I have known Rich McGann and Michelle and Bob Smithdas for years. I never knew that Rich was the matchmaker for them. What a surprise and what a darling description Rich wrote. Congratulations, Rich!

Ruth Silver

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