Michelle Obama Supports Inclusion of Deaflympics-???
"Today is a reminder that we've got to do the work not just to enact policies that reflect our values of equity and fairness, but to truly make those values real in all of our schools, workplaces, and neighborhood," cried Michelle Obama on Jun 29, 2023, in her response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the affirmative action policies.
Did you see her mentioning "equity"?
Her name echoes me and most cultured deaf people over the USA because Michelle knows most basic sign language words, as her fingers spell her name well.
As a high school student, Michelle Robinson took an American Sign Language (ASL) class as a foreign language course at Whitney Young High School (renamed Whitney Young Magnet High School) in Chicago.
Her high school has a specialized services program for the deaf and hard of hearing, so it produced at least three Deaflympians: Student Shawn Stringfellow (1985 and 1993), Teacher and Basketball Coach Scott Morrison (1993), and Brenton Holliday (1997) who contributed in helping their USA basketball teams to win Gold Medals in the Deaflympics in these years.
Interestingly, Morrison's wife, Deeadra, was Michelle's ASL teacher. Deeadra emailed me, "Michelle was studious and smart."
Watch the video showing Michelle signing.
Fast forward to the Obama Administration time, Michelle had a deaf press assistant and research associate named Leah Katz-Hernandez, who then got promoted to the first deaf Receptionist in the United States for Michelle's husband, Barrack.
Watch the NBC News interview with Katz-Hernandez.
At the 2015 Special Olympics Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles, First Lady Michelle Obama said:
“[The Special Olympics] show us that we’re all in this together—that we can lift up our friends and neighbors and that we can bring out the best in each other to reach even higher heights.”
However, our USA Deaflympicans have yet to reach the highest level, thanks to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee for failing to recognize us.
It would be nice if you would ask the First Lady if Congress must amend the Deaflympics to the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.
(NOTE: You might not know that before she married Calvin Coolidge in 1905, Grace Coolidge was a teacher at Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech. The education of deaf children remained her lifelong passion.)
