As I picked up today's newspaper, I was greeted with a bold headline "Kid does it all on one leg".  Intrigued, I settled in to read the amazing story of one Adam Bender, in Lexington, Ky.

A seemingly normal 8 year old boy, full of life and a love of sports, he plays baseball, football and soccer.

On ONE leg.  

No prosthesis, no wheelchair.  ONE LEG.....

He even plays catcher for his team, one of the most grueling positions for anyone to play in baseball, even with two legs.  At one point so far in this season, he lead the LEAGUE in put outs at home plate.  On ONE leg.....
Standing his ground while other players are barreling around 3rd base and heading for home, he stands his ground and awaits the sometimes inevitable collisions that result.  He once suffered a mild concussion and yet returned to play in the next game.

Resilent?  YES.   Tough?  Oh, hell yeah.

At 8 years of age, people....

Now, my readers may ask, "what does this have to do with being deaf?"

Simple, this young man is "Thumpa Attitude" personified.  Dennis Jones, Mark Drolsbaugh, and myself have a saying, "Thumpa Attitude".  Simply put, it equates to never stop believing in yourself, never stop advocating, never stop demanding that deaf and HOH children receive equal access to the same education their hearing peers do, and NEVER let anyone tell you it can't be done.

The mother of this young man is quoted in the paper as saying "The more I shelter him, the more he'll think "I'm fragile".  I don't think I'll ever tell him he can't do something".  This is a mother who gets it.

Makes some of our complaints seem trivial, doesn't it?

So the moral of this post is:  Wherever you are, and however you choose to do it daily, continue the good fight, educating the ignorant, advocating for equal education, fighting for open captioned movies, or better certified interpreters.  Never give up....If an 8 year old child can do it, certainly we can.....

The phrase "and a child shall lead them" never seemed more appropriate than it does today, after reading that inspiring story.  So continue the fight, good friends.  As for me, I believe I may just take a trip to watch a certain young 8 year old play baseball with a typical love and abandon.  On ONE leg....Determination and gusto and fearlessness all wrapped into an 8 year old bundle of his mother's joy.  And my kids will go with me, so I can simply point out at him from the stands and say "Everytime you hear me talk about Thumpa Attitude, I'm talking about people like that young man there".

If you would like to read the story in it's entirety, here is the link: http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/420950.html