Here's the real reason for this blog that I was attempting to get at with my first post. I'm hearing impaired. Hard-of-hearing (HOH). Deaf, basically. I don't like putting that on the web, but whatever. It's there and it's out, and I want this to be real me, real stuff. I'm not going to spill my guts or my life story, but I'm gonna' take risks. So yeah.

Anyhoo. I'm in love with Marlee Matlin. I have been since I saw her in Children of a Lesser God years ago and then as a guest on a very special episode of Extreme Home Makeover. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a link to the episode of Extreme Home Makeover, but it featured two deaf parents with two hearing sons, the younger of whom was blind and autistic. Matlin made an appearance as a deaf celebrity/inspiration. (The episode also featured my favorite charity, the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which provides hearing aids to the deaf and HOH in poor communities who would otherwise never get the opportunity to hear.) Anyways, she gave this awesome speech at Google about advocacy for the deaf and hearing impaired in the age of Internet technology, specifically speaking mostly about captioning for broadband videos. It's amazing and ridiculously inspiring. She's such an amazing woman and she has such courage that I don't think I have yet to speak boldly about her disability. It's just awesome.

THEN I found this amazing video, called Deaf Family, which Matlin is promoting (I think she might have been involved in the production of it too) and hoping to get on TV. The pilot is awesome, and it's something that people need to see-- this is a woman that is doing things for the world and for her community especially. She's advocating for a group that physically oftentimes doesn't have a voice, and that's so commendable in my opinion. Okay. I'm shutting up. Just watch: