Brothers In Arms
'can't give up'
Kevin Cullen: BURLINGTON - They were brothers, and they grew up in a small, white house, on a small side street, in a section of town the locals call The Flats.
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Mark MacDonald couldn't hear, so his parents and siblings were his ears.
Greg MacDonald learned many things from his big brother, Mark, but if he learned anything it was patience. He saw so much more in the brother whom other people dismissed as handicapped.
The doctors said Mark wouldn't be able to ride a two-wheel bicycle. But Mark sped around the neighborhood on a two-wheeler like everybody else. Mark could read lips, and he could carry on long conversations with those, like his family, who could sign. Mark just wanted to be treated like everybody else.
Mark made Greg see the world differently, and in high school Greg volunteered to teach disabled kids how to swim.
Posted by
ben on 03/31/08 at
15:35
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Re: Brothers In Arms
Ugh.
I really, really love Kevin Cullen's stuff, have for years. But this is just treacly. And it misses a great story.
It's the story of how, 20 years TO THE MONTH after an political explosion on the Gallaudet campus that sparked a nationwide Deaf-rights movement and changed the face of Deaf education, a college-educated Deaf man still can't find a job.
What kind of elementary and high school education did Mark get? Why did he put off college so long? Why does his family seem so protective of him, as if he's not really an adult? His lipreading - how many hours a day did he have to work on that as a kid? What were the real family dynamics here, that the Deaf son can only find the strenght to go to college when the successful hearing son is dead? Is he still living at home? Why on earth is having a job and a family seen as an unattainable goal for a Deaf man in the 21st century?
But Cullen seems to buy into the idea that it's not remarkable for Mark to fail to thrive. He's DEAF after all! It would be remarkable for him to achieve anything! Even riding a bike! In the last paragraph, Cullen makes it seem that speaking without signing is a step forward for Mark. In reality it's probably for the benefit of the hearing reporter who doesn't know any ASL.
It's too bad. There seems to be a much better, and more complex story, hidden away in there.
Posted by:
SI
at March 31,2008 18:03
Re: Brothers In Arms
Seems to me like the story assignment was probably to write about a dead soldier. The reporter did, through an interesting lens about siblings - one weak, one strong.
Is there a story here about a deaf man's upbringing? Maybe. Who knows. My little brother can hear just fine, but he can't seem to finish college or keep a job or move out of my dad's house either.
In this story, one brother is the success and one is not, and maybe the hearing has something to do with it and maybe it doesn't. I guess we're supposed to think it does. I think it just made the reader (and the reporter) pay closer attention.
I thought the story would end with little bro landing a job, and so I was sort of sad, but also relieved that it didn't.
Instead, it returned to the war (which is probably what the assignment was supposed to focus on anyway) and reminded us that it's never really that easy to be a somebody.
I liked it.
I wonder if little bro has job offers now?
Posted by:
Alexa
at March 31,2008 20:28
Re: Brothers In Arms
"One weak, one strong"
Why do you assume that deafness = weak? Also, Mark is the older brother, although his family seem to treat him as still a child in some ways.
If we're "supposed" to think that Mark is unsuccessful because he's deaf, that's a stereotype. It's a little bit as if I wrote that a subject was black, and that was enough to explain why he was poor.
Stereotypes about disabled people are less often recognized as stereotypes, by reporters and readers. There's not a lot of education about this, which is why I'm trying to call attention to it here.
I'm sure the assignment was to write about a soldier's death, but I'm all for throwing out the assignment when you find a better story.
Posted by:
SI
at April 01,2008 16:58
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