Politics Affect Your Life!

Deaf are not political? MM is right. He raised a few interesting points in his blog, At The Rim. I agree that deaf people like us should get involved in politics. My observation is that many deaf people at general, whether in the United States or Britain or other countries, tend not to be interested in politics. Many of them I know tend to be either interested only in sports or other things. Politics does not have to be a major interest in your life, but do you not know that politics affect your life? Do you not know that a single vote on a single issue can make a big difference? Do you not know that there are little people (not of physical height but stature), everyday ordinary people, who make decisions that do affect the lives of millions of people in your country? Your country relies not on famous or prominent politicians like President Obama or Senator John McCain or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi but little people like you to make changes effective in your own country. Let me give you an example.

I come from a political family. Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers made their careers in politics. My paternal grandfather, the Honorable Robert McClintock, was a career diplomat, State Department official and U.S. Ambassador (to four countries - Lebanon, Cambodia, Argentina and Venezuela). My maternal grandfather, Attorney-in-Law Stewart French, was a congressional lawyer and one time Attorney to the Interior in Congress. Both gentlemen were modest, relatively little-known people who regarded themselves humbly as servants to our American people. Yet they participated in helping make part of U.S. history. by their actions in the democratic process of governing and law-making. I remember very well one time when I was 12 years old, I rode with my maternal grandfather (whom I call Grandpa) in his car in Washington, D.C. This was after he had retired in 1976, a couple of years before I enrolled at MSSD in 1978.

We'd just passed the White House. Right near the U.S. Capitol was the Russell Senate Office Building. Pointing to the building, Grandpa turned to me and said,"That's where I worked." He added with a chuckle,"We call it the S.O.B." (Get it? A play on the word S.O.B.?)

The s.o.b.s Grandpa worked with were many prominent Senators and Congressmen he had befriended - Senator Edwards Kennedy, Senator Strom Thurmond, Senator Robert Byrd, Senator Daniel Inouye and many others. One of Grandpa's most important achievements in his political career was his involvement as lead counsel on the legislation team for Alaska-Hawaii statehood in 1959. His job was to make sure the language in the statehood act was in accordance with the U.S. Constitution. This is one of the things for which my family is proud of Grandpa. Alaska and Hawaii in the Union gave our country the United States very important strategic points for the reason of their geographic locations: they provide key powerful buffer zones against invasion by other countries such as Russia and Japan. It was not the Senators nor the Congressmen nor President Eisenhower nor my own grandfather but the little people of Alaska and Hawaii who made this possible with their votes, who approved absorption of their territories into the Union.

Grandpa, by the way, was a lifelong loyal Democrat...but his participation in this important history-making act was nonpartisan, as was of many other lawyers on his team and in Congress.

My other grandfather, the Honorable Robert McClintock, had served 7 Presidents from FDR to Ford. I do not think he had any political affiliation, despite the fact that he grew up with my great-grandfather, a lawyer who was a Republican, and my great-aunt, his sister, who was a fundraiser for the G.O.P. I think he probably voted only once, for FDR as President. After that, he probably abstained from the voting process as a diplomat because in the U.S. a President appoints an Ambassador, regardless of political affiliation. Grandfather (as I call him) had the honor of working with both Republican and Democrat Presidents, including Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. He once wrote an essay for the U.S. Naval Institute on national strategy that has since been kept as top secret at the State Department. (See this old article, Bob McClintock was A "Dandy" Diplomat.) He also guided peaceful intervention of the U.S. Marines in the first civil war of Lebanon, that allowed American citizens of Beirut to evacuate safely. He was a perfect example of little people, everyday ordinary people, who helped to make the U.S the most powerful nation and the great naval power today.

You, too, can make a difference for the country you are serving. Whether it be as a politician or a housewife or a laborer or an unemployed person surviving on welfare. It would be grand to see a deaf Senator or a deaf President...but one does not have to be a politician. Just one single act of marking a ballot can do a greater good for making a change in the history of your country. If you are not registered, I encourage you to register soon, so you can vote and be one of the little people doing a great service for your country!