	October 1999

The Arts and Celebrities

by Pete Moore

I bet not many of you know that there are people who write music, paint or draw, perform on stage, screen, television and even sing have disabilities.

Beethoven wrote some of the best music anywhere and one of his works later became the theme music of The Lone Ranger. But when he wrote his music Beethoven was deaf. He was losing his hearing in which nobody knows how or from what kind of illness or disease.

Stevie Wonder is an internationally known singer who has been blind from birth. Same with Tom Sullivan known as a singer and actor seen in "Airport" with Jack Lemon, Brenda Vaccaro and the late Jimmy Stewart. I'm sure most of you have seen the fihn "Children of a Lesser God" the movie Marlee Matlin took home the Oscar for. She has been deaf from birth.

My good friend Kathy Poole is a tremendous illustrator of horses, flowers or just about anything. She has Cerebral Palsy that was caused by a combination of Measles, Chicken Pox, Scarlet Fever and blood clot on the right side of her brain. She has involuntary movement of her arms and hands; but her art work would amaze those that never met or seen her before.

In July of 1967 a young teenager named Joni Erickson and her sister Kathy went to beach for a sw'nn in the Chesapeake Bay. She didn't check to see how deep the water was and dove in. Next thing she remember was being in the hospital in a strange contraption called a Stryker Frame would flip her face down and later face up. She learned the horrible truth that she was completely paralyzed; later to be diagnosed as quadriplegic (unable to move any of her limbs).

Today she is one of the most gifted artists. Using only her teeth to draw or paint pictures and a beloved evangelist with her own radio program on 500 stations across the country.

She's even -written a book on her traumatic episode in which she struggles with her disability and pulls through her experience through her faith in God and Jesus.

Today I write poetry, ghost stories and articles for publication on disability related issues.

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