And all my, all my faces are alibis, And me, I’m half the man I wanted to be.
With people with disabilities on the spotlight, I have decided to profile two people whose disabilities could not stop them from performing their profession they love. Those people are David Onley, a former journalist for CityTV and currently Lieutenant Governor of the Canadian province of Ontario, Sam Sullivan, the mayor for the City of Vancouver, British Columbia and Stephen Hawking, a famous physicist known for his research about “black holes”. I know this is a very serious topic, guys but they are many people all across the world who has a disability, either they are seeing/hearing impaired, quadriplegic, austic, aspergers syndrome, A.D.D., P.D.D. and other disabilities not listed on this blog. Many of those people need to deal with the challenges everyday and needed a way on how to overcome those challenges. So onward, I’ll talk about the three famous people with disabilities.
First off. I want to start with David Onley. You people might recognize him long time ago, when he was a journalist for CityTV in Toronto. At some point, you might see him on his electric scooter when he is doing a newscast. Other times, he uses his leg braces and canes to walk, but not that far. He is now the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. From my experience, he is the first and only person with disabilities taking that role. His plan for future is to make places in Ontario accessible for people with disabilities. That means, all physical barriers to all 1.5 Million Ontarians and focus on other issues affecting the disabled and many other things. For his part, I would like to send my thanks to Mr. Onley for the role.
Sam Sullivan, on the other hand is somewhat completely different, to my humble opinion. For those of you who don’t know who Sam Sullivan is, he is the mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia. You might see him waving a big flag that he accepted on behalf of all Canadians, when he appeared at the 2006 closing ceremonies in Turin, Italy (at that time, it was the Winter Olympics). He became quadriplegic at the age of 19, when he broke his neck in a skiing accident. He is a very powerful advocate for the physical disabled. For my part, I believe that Mr. Sullivan has all the willpower to survive for the challenges he faced everyday, like Mr. Onley.
And last but not least, who can no one ever forget, Stephen Hawking. He is known for his role about “black holes”, quantum gravity and cosmology. Using his computer attached to his wheelchair, he can control things all with his body movements. The generous support he received was very overwhelming. Hawking suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or in simple terms, Lou Gherig’s disease. Back then, he was in an accident when he fell down a flight of stairs, hitting head on. Doctors performed a diagnosis when Hawking was 21 years old and feared that he wouldn’t survive. Over time, he lost his ability to use his voice, legs and arms. He is now (almost) paralyzed from the effects. But those effects wouldn’t stop him from doing the research about astronomy and he is very known about his research about the “Black hole”. To my contrary belief, he is very popular.
Overall, that’s my opinion about these people with disabilities. I was planning to cover one more person who has disabilities, but i don’t want to spoil this particular blog posting. I’m talking about Mr. Aaron Solowoniuk, a drummer for the Canadian band, “Billy Talent”. I will cover that on my next blog posting. Anyways, I can imagine if Mr. Onley, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Hawkins were to organize a special summit about people with disabilities, that will raise awareness. Finding out where the summit should take place is anyone’s guess.
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