Tue, 15 May 2001 via email:
Don't believe all you read in popular articles. Einstein was certainly not dyslexic - that myth came from a comment made by a houshold maid. Einstein recieved nothing less than top marks at high school and was a masterly musician at 12.
Bell, like has father, was a teacher of deaf students and experimented with devices to use as aids to people who were deaf. He was also responsible for bringing recognition to a little girl named Hellen Kellor.
As for ancients like da Vinci,who knows - most people in his day had disabilities.
It is important not to overstate!
Rex Newsome,
Brisbane
Read about Rex Newsome can be found here
There is, to this day, some controversy about whether or not Einstein was dyslexic
- an article on Dyslexia in
Wikipedia lists the arguments for and against the assertation that Einstein
may have been dyslexic.
Onto military matters - On Sunday, July 27th 2003 at 11:51:21 AM, the following guest book entry was received from L Richens:
I have just been looking for some articles that would help me prepare for a debate on harrassment, bullying & discrimination in the army and i stumbled on one of your articles about allowing disabled people into the armed forces. Now before you judge me, my own mother is disabled and i am a member of the medical branch, however i find your article an insult to the armed forces. I am sure that there would be certain jobs that disabled people could do, but you are forgetting one thing. We are a fighting ARMY that in todays times in highly manouverable. can you imagine someone as a desk officer in the desert trying to erect his command post in a wheelchair. You people don't think today, your all to much in a hurry to be politicaly correct. An Army's main function is it's war fighting ability. We are not talking about a job down the local DIY shop. Please sit back and listen to what you are saying, and try to imagine the implications it would have on the rest of us.
Reply from the Webmaster:
Well, as a member of the Stop The War Coalition, I can think of a few implications which would be for the better. Anything that would make the Army commanders, and their masters in the government and the capitalist establishment, think about the human implications of going to war, would only be a good thing. Non-disabled people also have weaknesses and are in danger of being killed in a war situation. I agree that no soldier, whether disabled or otherwise, should be put in a position of unreasonable danger - something we have been seeing with monotonous regularity in the 2003 Iraq war, where more UK and US soldiers were killed by so-called "friendly fire" than by the Iraqis.
As for a desk officer in the desert; well, I always thought the role of an army should be for defence, ie defending its own country in case of attack. I never realized Britain had any deserts. We shouldn't be meddling in the affairs of Iraq, Afghanistan or any other foreign country, and the defence of the UK could be served well by the existing command posts (there seems to be an army building in virtually every UK town, nowadays).
Finally, please don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go at every soldier in
the Army. Some do join the army in the genuine belief that they are fighting
for freedom and justice. My anger is directed at the army commanders and the
capitalist Establishment which controls the Army, and sends its (mostly working
class) soldiers off to die for oil.