“More” is her very favorite word: it means more eggs, more book, more music, more dancing with daddy, more throwing rocks in the pond, more feeding the chickens from her hand, more of mama’s crazy driving, more of her grandparents spoiling her, more time with wonderful friends, and so on. And that’s what we want for Li-Li, too: we want her to have more access, to have more opportunities, and to always reach for more.

When I hear her little voice, clear as a bell, call out: “more cheese please” or “more tiger, rooaaar” when looking delightedly at a passerby in an orange and black striped shirt, or when Li-Li excitedly signs ‘man drive stroller’ upon seeing someone mowing a lawn with an unfamiliar piece of equipment, I silently run through a whole looong list of so many people I need to thank for these moments. In addition to all of the wonderful family and friends who give so much joy and support in many forms, there’s a whole list of amazing professionals we’ve come to know, who have devoted long hours to giving Li-Li more. People like Drs. Clark and Roberson, audiologists and CI team members like Jill, Stacey, and Sarah at Children’s Hospital, teachers, caregivers, and other professionals at TLC, both deaf and hearing, like Nancy V, Susan, Carol, Maureen, Mary Jane, Nancy, Jennifer, Karen, Kelly, and Anna, SLPs like Christine at TLC and Laurie at Enable (EI), our deaf advocate Rosalee at the Mass Commission for the Deaf & HOH, and oh gosh, so many more.

But a common element in this list is that these people are able to work with Li-Li because of our amazing healthcare insurance and social services. So, today, while ‘blogging against disablism’ (shouldn’t that actually be ‘blogging against ablism’ or ‘blogging for disablism’?), I want to point out an amazing article posted just last week by Michael Bérubé, Disability and Democracy, and mention how critical our political choices are to the lives of our children, to what opportunities they have: Li-Li would not be speaking nor signing as beautifully as she does today without healthcare, social services, disability services.

I struggle with terminology all the time: Li-Li is profoundly deaf, her cochlear implant provides some hearing ability when on (although only when it’s working, Cochlear Americas: please fix that processor!). To paraphrase I. Jordan King, we know she can do everything a hearing person can do but hear. And we’re working on that ‘but hear’ part. So, does Li-Li have a ‘disability’ or a ‘difference’? My dear friend Brooke says it’s something very special: a ‘diffability.’ I like that! But on a practical level, what are the right words and terms that conjure up the health care, the surgical care, the bionic equipment, the education, the audiologists, the early intervention services, the speech language pathologists, the sign language instructors, the CART services, the interpreters… . I know I’m being greedy, but we want much more for Li-Li than we can provide: more expertise, more technology, more services, more education, more language, more opportunities, more ability. So, which term gives Li-Li more? And which politician provides more for children with disabilities or differences?

I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.” … Which one is Iran : Sunni or Shiite? He thought for a second. “Iran and Hezbollah,” I prompted. “Which are they?” He took a stab: “Sunni.” Wrong. Al Qaeda? “Sunni.” Right.

Full article after the jump.

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? by Jeff Stein, New York Times , Oct 17, 2006For the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?”A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want?After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a remotely similar but far more lethal vein, the 1,400-year Sunni-Shiite rivalry is playing out in the streets of Baghdad, raising the specter of a breakup of Iraq into antagonistic states, one backed by Shiite Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states.A complete collapse in Iraq could provide a haven for Al Qaeda operatives within striking distance of Israel, even Europe. And the nature of the threat from Iran, a potential nuclear power with protégés in the Gulf states, northern Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, is entirely different from that of Al Qaeda. It seems silly to have to argue that officials responsible for counterterrorism should be able to recognize opportunities for pitting these rivals against each other.But so far, most American officials I’ve interviewed don’t have a clue. That includes not just intelligence and law enforcement officials, but also members of Congress who have important roles overseeing our spy agencies. How can they do their jobs without knowing the basics?My curiosity about our policymakers’ grasp of Islam’s two major branches was piqued in 2005, when Jon Stewart and other TV comedians made hash out of depositions, taken in a whistleblower case, in which top F.B.I. officials drew blanks when asked basic questions about Islam. One of the bemused officials was Gary Bald, then the bureau’s counterterrorism chief. Such expertise, Mr. Bald maintained, wasn’t as important as being a good manager.A few months later, I asked the F.B.I.’s spokesman, John Miller, about Mr. Bald’s comments. “A leader needs to drive the organization forward,” Mr. Miller told me. “If he is the executive in a counterterrorism operation in the post-9/11 world, he does not need to memorize the collected statements of Osama bin Laden, or be able to read Urdu to be effective. … Playing ‘Islamic Trivial Pursuit’ was a cheap shot for the lawyers and a cheaper shot for the journalist. It’s just a gimmick.”Of course, I hadn’t asked about reading Urdu or Mr. bin Laden’s writings.A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.”That was a big advance over 2005. So next I asked him if he could tell me the difference. He was flummoxed. “The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following,” he said. “And the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shia and the difference between who they were following.”O.K., I asked, trying to help, what about today? Which one is Iran : Sunni or Shiite? He thought for a second. “Iran and Hezbollah,” I prompted. “Which are they?”He took a stab: “Sunni.”Wrong.Al Qaeda? “Sunni.”Right.AND to his credit, Mr. Hulon, a distinguished agent who is up nights worrying about Al Qaeda while we safely sleep, did at least know that the vicious struggle between Islam’s Abel and Cain was driving Iraq into civil war. But then we pay him to know things like that, the same as some members of Congress.Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.”Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”To his credit, he asked me to explain the differences. I told him briefly about the schism that developed after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and how Iraq and Iran are majority Shiite nations while the rest of the Muslim world is mostly Sunni. “Now that you’ve explained it to me,” he replied, “what occurs to me is that it makes what we’re doing over there extremely difficult, not only in Iraq but that whole area.”Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who heads a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A.’s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information, was similarly dumbfounded when I asked her if she knew the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.”Do I?” she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. “You know, I should.” She took a stab at it: “It’s a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it’s the Sunnis who’re more radical than the Shia.”Did she know which branch Al Qaeda’s leaders follow?”Al Qaeda is the one that’s most radical, so I think they’re Sunni,” she replied. “I may be wrong, but I think that’s right.”Did she think that it was important, I asked, for members of Congress charged with oversight of the intelligence agencies, to know the answer to such questions, so they can cut through officials’ puffery when they came up to the Hill?”Oh, I think it’s very important,” said Ms. Davis, “because Al Qaeda’s whole reason for being is based on their beliefs. And you’ve got to understand, and to know your enemy.”It’s not all so grimly humorous. Some agency officials and members of Congress have easily handled my “gotcha” question. But as I keep asking it around Capitol Hill and the agencies, I get more and more blank stares. Too many officials in charge of the war on terrorism just don’t care to learn much, if anything, about the enemy we’re fighting. And that’s enough to keep anybody up at night.Jeff Stein is the national security editor at Congressional Quarterly.

[from after school snack]

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty, we must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear : one, of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of un-reason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men; not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were : for the moment : unpopular.And so, good night and good luck.~ Edward R. Murrow