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Year of the Tongue: Winding 2013 Back in the Mouth

2013 is finally winding down and, I hope, away from our convenient memories forever.  When I think of unlucky 2013 — as I write this article on a blackened Friday, December 13, 2013 — I can’t get images of Miley Cyrus off my mind as I try to reflect on the year that was.

It felt like Miley ruled us all year long with that obnoxious coated tongue — you couldn’t turn around without getting licked! — and I think we’d all prefer to see her wind the white back into her mouth.

Our politics didn’t fare much better than Ms. Cyrus.  The obstructionist Republicans in congress were happily biased against our first Black President — and so we all had to watch the GOP try to bring down the man because of his skin color and not his deeds.

In many ways, Barack Obama is what a true Republican used to be — and watching radical liberals forced into supporting his policies because they loathe the Racist attacks on his character — is something the history books will reek of when cracked opened in a century.

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The Interpreter Impostor at the Mandela Memorial

Mandela’s memorial yesterday has ignited a firestorm today out of the Soweto rain.  No, not Obama’s failed message, or the non-Michelle approved Presidential selfie with other heads of State, but rather the fraud of an impostor posing as an interpreter for the Deaf during the ceremony.

The alleged sign language interpreter was so awful, in fact, that he had to have been in on the cruel joke that he knew nothing about even creating rudimentary signs.

Unfortunately, this sort of “faking it” is actually pretty common in the Deaf Community.  There are a lot of “professional” interpreters who are not well-trained but who are given jobs because they are cheap — even though they are incapable of proper signing.  The Deaf suffer and the incompetence gets a paycheck.

While not many working interpreters are as fraudulent on the level of what happened in Soweto — the end effect is still the same: The Deaf person has no idea what’s being said and has to guess about what’s really happening.

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An Obama Tribute to Mandela that Fell Flat in the Rain

I watched President Obama speaking live on television this morning from the Mandela tribute in the Soweto, South African rain, and I felt for him as he struggled against the weather, a bad public address system, and what seemed like a restless audience hoping for him to move faster through his 30-minute monologue so they could get on with their day:

“To the people of South Africa — people of every race and every walk of life — the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us,” the president said. “His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.”

“It is hard to eulogize any man — to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person — their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul,” Mr. Obama said. “How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.”

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