21st Century Deaf and the Prez

I am happy as all hell (and, as we know, hell is just dead jubilant!) to have lost my hearing in a time of closed captioning and text messaging -- this is a day and age when I can find a transcript of President Barack Obama's speech at Nelson Mandela memorial service on the very day he spoke. No waiting! No need to go to the some fluorescent lit, low ceilinged, musty, claustrophobia inspiring basement microfiche reading room.

Nope, I can sit at my home desk, in my tatty robe, surrounded by my herd of cat (with their constant needs for pats, play and tuna), just begun paintings and The Amazing Bob (and his need for me to STOP fussing over him for just one minute, K?) and just fire up the intertubes.

Yes, I’ve bitched that I can’t find closed captioned versions of every last little movie, of not being able to find transcripts of Jon Stewart’s shows or Letterman’s Top Tens. I’ve kvetched about the surreality of the Youtube auto closed caption function (like auto correct on your iPhone only not so funny). But, BUT, things are getting better, the tech is ever evolving.

Last night, Jen asked if I’d read Obama’s speech from Mandela’s memorial service. She said that it was brilliant (of course it was!) and brought to mind Michael Horan’s Sunday post.

In the warmth of home, I found and read our president’s fabulous, eloquent words.

An excerpt:

The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality and universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.

We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

The questions we face today - how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war - do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu. Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows us that is true. South Africa shows us we can change. We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

"Don't mourn, organize!" -- Joe Hill