The Microphone

This afternoon we had an assembly at school to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated in 1968. He was a civil rights leader, working tirelessly for the rights of people of all color, particularly blacks in America, to obtain the same rights as the whites. As part of the assembly, our students were invited to participate by coming up to the microphone to say something about what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meant to them. A few students said short responses that made sense and were appropriate to the theme of the assembly. Then one wheelchair-bound student, Ryan, raised his hand and went forward in his motorized wheelchair to the microphone. He faced the student body while one of the teacher's aides held the microphone to his mouth. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. He proceeded to say a few sentences emphatically in his slow, very difficult-to-understand English. I'm not sure if anyone understood what Ryan said, but, when he set his chair in motion back to his seat, everyone clapped and cheered for him. They didn't have to understand what Ryan had said. They were clapping for the effort of a young man with legs that fail to support his weight; for a teen who has spent his whole life confined to a wheelchair, never able to play baseball or soccer; whose arms flail around without control, sometimes embarrassing him by moving uncontrollably at the wrong time; for a person trapped by a mouth and voice that cannot often tell what he wishes to tell because his pronunciation is too difficult to make people understand; but for a young man brave enough to share his thoughts with his friends and schoolmates despite his special needs. What I find most rewarding about my job is to see how the special needs kids in my school support one another. They easily look beyond each others' handicaps. They love unconditionally. They are like the children that Jesus spoke of when He said, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." How beautiful God designed those that are considered "abnormal." We can learn much from them. Next time you see a special needs child, observe him or her carefully. You may just learn how to love from them. Liz