Blog

Sound the trumpets — and the trombone

November 5, 201431 CommentsPosted in blindness, careers/jobs for people who are blind, public speaking, Uncategorized, visiting schools

Tomorrow’s the big day. Every year York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois honors a number of distinguished alumni, and six other York alumni will be honored along with me at a ceremony in York High School’s Commons tomorrow night. York is the “home of the Dukes,” so honorees are officially called Dukes of Distinction.

And so, tomorrow night, I get my crown.

Okay, it’s just a plaque. But a girl can dream, can’t she?

The reception begins at 7 p.m., and the program follows at 7:30 p.m. Mike has ordered a Zipcar to get my Seeing Eye dog and me there in time to practice walking on the red carpet. I know, I know. Sounds like a punchline, right? But it’s true! My sister Cheryl lives in Elmhurst and has made multiple trips to the school district office with photos and memorabilia from my York days, two other sisters are coming in from out-of-state, and my eight-year-old great niece Floey will be joining them at the head table along with Mike, Whitney and me. From the District 205 web site:

That evening, seven alumni will be recognized at a celebratory reception followed by a recognition program during which they will speak. The event is free and open to the public (no ticket necessary). The following day, November 7, honorees will present to and interact with York students in large and small group settings.

And wait! There’s more! My brother Doug is coming in from Louisville tomorrow night, too! I’ve written about Doug here before. He’s a professional jazz trombonist, and tomorrow night he’s performing at Fitzgerald’s in nearby Berwyn, Ill. with Petra’s Recession Seven, a Chicago-style early swing/trad jazz band:

Thursday, November 6 Petra’s Recession Seven –
Petra with trumpeter Bob Ojeda, clarinetist Kim Cusack, guitarist Andy Brown, bassist Joe Policastro, drummer Bob Rummage,
and special guest trombonist Doug Finke
7:30-10:30 pm
Fitzgerald’s www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com
6615 Roosevelt Rd. Berwyn, IL 708-788-2118
$10 cover

That’s Doug: Has trombone, will travel.

Flo took my sisters and me along to hear Doug perform with the Original Salty Dogs Jazz Band when we were little, and we all grew up listening to the jazz records he left behind when he embarked on his music career. Louis Armstrong, Hot Five and Hot Seven. King Oliver. Lil Hardin.

Flo went to York High School, and all of my sisters and brothers graduated from York, too. What better way to celebrate my new dukedom than to dance to Doug’s music with Mike and my sisters. Not sure how awake I’ll be when “presenting and interacting” with high school students at York the next morning, though!

Mondays with Mike: Show me the money

November 3, 20149 CommentsPosted in Mike Knezovich, Mondays with Mike, Uncategorized

I don’t know about you, but the election campaigns have me exhausted. Back in 2012 Illinois really wasn’t in play in the presidential election, and there weren’t particularly hot, high-profile races, so we got off easy. Not so this time. The governor’s race is a dead heat, and there are some house races in play.

I don’t even watch that much TV but I’m numb to the campaign ads. The foreboding music straight from a serial killer movie, the concerned voiceovers warning you that candidate A will dissect and eat your children if elected. And then the same thing, immediately after, about candidate B.

Politics are a mess, we’re more polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. And that has at least something to do with campaign money. As in too much of it. The Supreme Court tells us we can’t put limits on campaign spending because it’s a free speech issue. I tend to think of advertising as commerce, not speech, but apart from that, while I can understand the logic to the argument against limiting spending, there’s also an argument that money backed by big money is crowding out other speech. That can’t be healthy, as the marketplace of ideas can’t work if big money can monopolize that market.

It’s a real problem, and even many of the people who argue against any spending limits acknowledge it, but are hard pressed to find solutions. There are ideas out there, and I’ve had a few of my own.

One of them that makes sense to me in terms of direct campaign contributions, I’m not sure why we can’t limit that to individual citizens. No other organizations—corporations, lobbyists, unions, PACs—none, can contribute directly to any candidate’s campaign fund. Only individual citizens. And they have to be reported, as they are now. Limits? I don’t know…maybe, maybe not.

Another related idea is to allow individual citizens to only contribute to campaigns for offices that affect them. That is, I could only contribute to my state and local races, my own state’s senate races, and the presidential elections. I could not send money to other races. This seems like common sense to me, I could well be missing something.

Now, those organizations that still want to support candidates or issues—they still can buy ads arguing their case, but full disclosure of what organizations are funding those adds has to be part of them. If it’s an amalgamation of funders—a trade group spending the money of multiple donors, every one of those orgs has to be named. If we can ask drug companies to list dozens of possible side effects during every Viagra commercial, I think it’s fair to ask for full disclosure.

While we’re at it, corporations incorporate for good reason—they get many of the rights of an individual. So, if a corporation moves its headquarters to another country, well, they can’t contribute anything.

Smarter people than I have more ideas that are smarter than mine. Just not sure how to get them implemented. Of course, money will always find a way, but I don’t think that’s an excuse for how perverted things have become, or for not trying to manage the influence of campaign money.

Meantime, can’t wait to vote tomorrow morning, even if I’ll have to hold my nose for some of the choices.

A rewarding five days in Florida

October 29, 201423 CommentsPosted in blindness, Braille, public speaking, travel, Uncategorized

One woman at the Teaching Children About Blindness session I gave last Friday was a teacher trainer at Head Start in Tampa. That very morning she’d been told that a three-year-old who’d just enrolled is blind. “I have no idea what to tell the teachers to do with him,” she said. “I thought coming to hear you might be a good place to start.”

Another audience member taught sign language at a nursery school that regularly has teenagers who are blind come in as volunteers. She’d come to find out if there was some way to incorporate Braille in her preschool. Another audience member had taught at a school for the blind years ago. “I came just to hear what you have to say,” she said.

And so, here’s what I had to say: screw my presentation. We need to help this Head Start woman!

I'm happy. Baby bbKennedy's happy. Callie, not so much.

I’m happy. Baby Kennedy’s happy. Callie, not so much.

Okay, not really. What I actually said was, “How about we move our chairs and sit in a circle?” Everyone there had the handout I’d put together with lists of resources and ideas to teach children about blindness that they could read on their own when they got home, so instead of talking about that we all shared ideas and resources about how to include a child who is blind into a preschool classroom.

At the end of the hour the Head Start teacher trainer walked out armed with the Braille copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound that I’d brought along, and a list of names and email addresses others in the circle had come up with for her to contact for help. Most importantly, she left with reassurances from people in the room who had dealt with blindness before. “I bet you’ll be surprised at what fun this boy will be at Head Start,” the teacher who had taught at a school for the blind told her as she left. “You’ll all end up learning a lot.”

My reward for a successful session? I got to spend the rest of the weekend wining and dining and swimming and playing and… holding babies!

I have a niece and nephew in Florida, and both had daughters born this past year. My sisters Cheryl and Bev flew down with Whitney and me, and our brother-in-law Rick greeted us in their Orlando home with a very special dinner: Sloppy Joe’s made from Flo’s famous recipe. He even made red Jello with bananas, Flo’s signature dessert! His wife (and our sister) Marilee drove us miles and miles to visit their grandbabies

That's Whitney leaping into the water to chase the ball I just threw.

That’s Whitney leaping into the water to chase the ball I just threw.

Whitney was a trooper for the entire trip, whether squeezing under the seat in front of us on the airplane or curling at my feet in the front passenger seat of Marilee’s car. She didn’t mind sharing my attention with baby Callie and baby Kennedy, either. Her reward? Chasing tennis balls in my niece’s backyard pool.

Po' Boys and Yellowjackets

October 27, 20147 CommentsPosted in Mike Knezovich, Mondays with Mike, Uncategorized

I just got back from New Orleans Friday with sore feet (courtesy of a trade show I attended for work) and a full belly (courtesy of NOLA). I love New Orleans and even though I was busy with work most of the time, I still managed to get out for a sumptuous fried oysters and spinach salad, a perfect fried shrimp po’ boy sandwich (the bread was just right), deep brown gumbo, and a sazerac (it was after the trade show).

More than that, I got to take my favorite walk: Down Royal Street, with countless antique shops and art galleries and street musicians. It’s in the French Quarter but it’s peaceful and civilized (in other words, it’s not Bourbon Street). We had to detour where the street was blocked due to a building collapse. Well, you know, the French Quarter is pretty old. Then it was across Esplanade to the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood.

Beth and I first discovered this place maybe 20 years ago — we’d go to Snug Harbor to hear Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the Marsalis jazz family, play in a trio. It was something of a find back then for us out-of-towners, but it’s been found out big time since. It’s not ruined by success, though, far from it. There is music just everywhere. Stop at one place for a bit, cross the street, hear some more. Repeat. And there are people hanging out on benches, talking all kinds of stuff. And everywhere, it’s funky.

If you like straight lines, plumb walls and doors, smooth sidewalks — probably it’s not your place. It’s just different down there. And if I lived anywhere except Chicago, I think I’d live in New Orleans.

The Yellowjackets' Bob Mintzer takes a solo at Jazz Showcase.

The Yellowjackets’ Bob Mintzer takes a solo at Jazz Showcase.

But I live in Chicago, and I’m not ready to trade Printers Row for any place on earth just yet. It reached an impossible 70+ sunny degrees Saturday and I can’t tell you exactly what I did all day other than find excuses to take walks. (Beth was out of town, so I was on my own.) I did manage to get some groceries. Mostly just soaked up the sun while doing piddly errands. And I treated myself to some top-notch pasta at Sofi, a great little Italian restaurant just downstairs in our building.

Sunday afternoon, after laundry, the gym and other weekend chores, it was a walk down the street to Jazz Showcase. The Showcase has been operating since 1947, the labor of love of Joe Segal, who turned 88 this past spring. The club has moved several times over the years — lost leases, rent increases and the like have chased Joe and the Showcase around. When it landed most recently in our neighborhood in the historic Dearborn Station, Beth and I pinched our selves. Segal still introduces every show, and is dogged and cantankerous in his belief that jazz music is superior to the likes of pop, hip-hop, you name it. (He makes this clear each time he introduces an act.)

This past weekend it was the Yellowjackets, a band that’s been around in one form or another since the 80s. It’s morphed from jazz fusion to smooth jazz and then to jazz-jazz. The players have changed over time, too, and judging by their Sunday matinee performance, I’d say they’re sounding better than ever.

We live in an age when one day you’re walking the funky, uneven, sultry streets of old New Orleans with the sounds of music leaking out everywhere, and the next you’re dodging traffic, El trains roaring, and find yourself at a table in a venerable old jazz club 1,000 miles away from the funky Marigny.

It can be disorienting — and it often is — but when it comes to New Orleans and Chicago, somehow I feel right at home in both.

Teaching children about blindness

October 22, 20143 CommentsPosted in blindness, book tour, Braille, careers/jobs for people who are blind, travel, Uncategorized, visiting schools, Writing for Children

I’ll be showing off my children’s book in Orlando this week.

Tomorrow afternoon Whitney and I head to Orlando to give a presentation about ways to teach children about blindness for the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children. Part of my presentation includes ways to use my book
Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in the classroom, and as long as I’m gathering resources to share at this conference on Friday, what the heck, why not share them with you, too?

An entire lesson plan devoted to Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound is right there for the taking on a web site called Learning to Give. The site suggests “Reading Experiences to Inspire Acts of Kindness,” and features lists and lists of activities for kids who read our book. Example:

During Reading

ASK: How does Hanni keep Beth safe during the day? What senses does Hanni need to use to help Beth?

SHOW: Look at the pictures of Hanni guiding Beth.

CONNECT: How is the way that Hanni takes care of Beth similar to how your parents or friends take care of you, or how you help others? For example, have you ever helped a younger child or elderly person cross a street or perform a task? Imagine what kind of help you would need if you could not see or hear or if you could not move easily.

The site also mentions Braille:

“In addition to having special dogs to help them get places, those with a visual impairment also have a special alphabet that helps them read.”

marthaAnd here’s another idea for you: Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound is one of the books on the Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club list. Martha Speaks is an animated show on PBS, and each book selected for the Martha Speaks Book Club is coordinated with a Martha Speaks episode. For Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound, PBS suggest kids watch an episode where Martha wants to pursue her dream of becoming a real firehouse dog, but then realizes the job is not as easy as it seems.

You can download this episode from the PBS Kids site here.

The Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club resource guide is three pages long so I can’t go into all the details here. It does suggest inviting a special guest to read-aloud sessions, so if any of you teachers or librarians are thinking ahead about special events for the next school year, please know: Hanni has retired, but my current Seeing Eye dog Whitney and I would love to come.

And finally, you can download four lessons at Teachers Pay Teachers to use with Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound at home or in the classroom. The total cost for these four lessons is five dollars, and right now anyone can download the one aimed at third graders free of charge – you don’t have to be attending the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children conference to take advantage of this deal, and you don’t even have to be a teacher! I think you do have to register to download that lesson, but it only takes a minute, kids seem to really like the fun activities suggested in that lesson, and hey, it’s free!

Okay. Enough. I’d better get packing.