Mayoral Debate

 

  DEAF ANTHOLOGY  thanks Cres Garcia-Campbel (California) of LIVE ACCESS ASL for their services in interpreting the Stamford, Connecticut mayoral debate  between the unaffiliated Bobby Valentine and his Democrat opponent Caroline Simmons last week at the downtown Ferguson Library with the Prometheum Foundation as the host.

Deaf supporters of Bobby Valentine are encourage to register and vote. Politicians are tone-deaf to us Deaf but Bobby supports the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and will listen to our concerns. Bobby accepts the burden to improve access in our city government and services. We hope that Stamford becomes the most accessible city in American under the Bobby Valentine administration. 

Bobby Valentine, former manager of the New York Mets visited my elementary boys dorm at St. John's School for the Deaf in Milwaukee before the game with the Milwaukee Brewers. Bobby and I were childhood friends, we grew up in the same Waterside neighborhood. Our mothers have social every Wednesday afternoons over a cup of coffee. We both graduated from Rippowam High School.  He went off to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers and I went to Gallaudet. Bobby spend all day with us visiting the classrooms, signing autographs and playing with our high school baseball players during lunch break. Bobby at the time was an utility player with the Seattle Mariners, talking about his friend, Bill Buckner of the Chicago Cubs. Bobby even shown our Deaf kids the hand signals of the Minnesota Twins, Stealing second base was obvious. Randy, 8, collects baseball cards and happenstance have his rookie card from the Los Angeles Dodgers that he signed. Randy later was the first Deaf batboy honored during a game with the New York Yankees, the same day Henry Winkler, the Fonz, and the casts of "Happy Days" play against local celebrities. Bobby Valentine gave my dorm 10 box seats near the Mariners dugout but our director wouldn't let them go to the night game on school night because of their ages, 8 - 10. Our classrooms teachers went in their place. On the next days, my Deaf kids are wide awake but the teachers are sleepily  tired behind their desks. Many of our Deaf boys played in the Little League, I was dreaming of St John's School for the Deaf fielding a team and heading to Williamsport, winning the world championship. 

Photo: SJSD* baseball coach John Kaleta, dormitory counselor Gary A. Fitts and Bobby Valentine. 

*St. John's School for the Deaf (SJSD) Milwaukee, Wisconsin