{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgS22", "1994-12-20", 103, 2, null, null, "IT'S OK TO BE DIFFERENT", "SENATE", "SENATE", "FRONTMATTER", "S", "S", "[{\"name\": \"Paul Simon\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "140 Cong. Rec. S", "Congressional Record, Volume 140 Issue 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)]\n[Senate]\n[Page S]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n[Congressional Record: December 20, 1994]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]\n\n                        IT'S OK TO BE DIFFERENT\n\n Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, during the recess I read the column\nin Newsweek magazine under the title, ``It's OK To Be Different,''\nwritten by a high school sophomore from Wayzata High School in\nPlymouth, MN. She is Angie Erickson, and the people of Plymouth, MN,\nought to be very proud to have someone like Angie Erickson in their\ncommunity.\n  She writes about living with a disability.\n  I read a booklet written for children about ``being different.'' As\nfine as that booklet is, Angie Erickson's simply relating of what life\nhas been like for her is powerful.\n  I ask that the article be printed in the Record.\n  The article follows:\n\n                     [From Newsweek, Oct. 24, 1994]\n\n                        It's OK To Be Different\n\n                    stop making fun of my disability\n\n                          (By Angie Erickson)\n\n       Why me? I often ask myself, why did I have to be the one?\n     Why did I get picked to be different? Why are people mean to\n     me and always treating me differently? These are the kinds of\n     questions that I used to ask myself. It took more than 10\n     years for me to find answers and realize taht I'm not more\n     different than anyone else.\n       I was born on June 29, 1978. Along with me came my twin\n     sister. Stephanie. She was born with no birth defects, but I\n     was born with cerebral palsy. For me, CP made it so I shake a\n     little; when my sister began to walk, I couldn't. The doctors\n     knew it was a minor case of cerebral palsy. But they didn't\n     know if I'd ever walk straight or do things that other kids\n     my age could do.\n       At first my disability did not bother me, because when\n     you're a toddler, you do things that are really easy. When it\n     took me a little longer to play yard games, because I\n     couldn't run that well, my friends just thought I was slow.\n     My disability was noticed when other children were learning\n     how to write and I couldn't. Kids I thought were my friends\n     started to stay away from me because they said I was\n     different. Classmates began commenting on my speech. They\n     said I talked really weird. Every time someone was mean to\n     me, I would start to cry and I would always blame myself for\n     being different.\n       People thought I was stupid because it was hard for me to\n     write my own name. So when I was the only one in the class to\n     use a typewriter, I began to feel I was different. It got\n     worse when the third graders moved on to fourth grade and I\n     had to stay behind. I got held back because the teachers\n     thought I'd be unable to type fast enough to keep up. Kids\n     told me that was a lie and the reason I got held back was\n     because I was a retard. It really hurt to be teased by those\n     I thought were my friends.\n       After putting up with everyone making fun of me and me\n     crying about it, I started sticking up for myself when I was\n     10, in fourth grade. I realized if I wanted them to stop, I\n     would have to be the person who made them stop. I finally\n     found out who my real friends were, and I tried to ignore the\n     ones who were mean. Instead of constantly thinking about the\n     things I couldn't do, I tried to think about the things I\n     could do, and it helped others, and myself, understand who I\n     really was. When there was something I couldn't do, such as\n     play Pictionary, I sat and I watched or I would go find\n     something else to do. A few people still called me names and\n     made fun of me, but after a while, when they saw they didn't\n     get a reaction, they quit, because it wasn't fun anymore.\n     What they didn't know was that it did still hurt me. It hurt\n     me. It hurt me a lot more than they could ever imagine.\n       When I was 12, my family moved. I kept this fairy tale in\n     my head that, at my next school, no one would be mean to me\n     or would see that I had a disability. I'd always wished I\n     could be someone other than myself. I found out the hard way\n     that I wasn't going to change, that I'd never be able to\n     write and run with no problems. When kids in my new school\n     found out that I couldn't write and my talking and walking\n     were out of the ordinary, they started making fun of me. They\n     never took time to know me.\n       Everything went back to the way it was before. I went back\n     to blaming myself and thinking that, since I was different,\n     I'd never fit in. I would cry all the time, because it was so\n     hard for me to make friends again. I didn't know whether I\n     should trust anyone--I thought that if people knew that I had\n     a disability they would not like me anymore. It took me a\n     long time to understand that I had to return to to not caring\n     about what other people say.\n       People make fun of others because of insecurity. They have\n     to show off to feel better about themselves. When a person\n     made fun of me everyone thought it was just a big joke. After\n     a while I just started laughing along with them or walking\n     away. It really made some kids mad that they weren't getting\n     any reaction out of me. Yeah, it still hurt a lot. I wanted\n     to break down and start crying right then and there, but I\n     knew I didn't want them to get their pleasure out of my hurt\n     feelings. I couldn't cry.\n       I still get really frustrated when I can't do certain\n     things, and I probably always will. I thought I should give\n     people a better chance to get to know me, but I knew that I\n     would probably get hurt. I never thought that anyone would\n     want to be friends with somebody who had cerebral palsy. At\n     times I have trouble dealing with kids making fun of me, but\n     these are people who need help figuring out things in life\n     and need to be treated better themselves. Maybe then they'll\n     treat others the same. They look disappointed when I walk\n     away or laugh when they try to make fun of me. Perhaps\n     they're hurting more than I am.\n       It took a lot of willpower on my part and a lot of love\n     from family and friends to get where I am today. I learned\n     that no one was to blame for my disability. I realize that I\n     can do things and I can do them very well. Some things I\n     can't do, like taking my own notes in class or running in a\n     race, but I will have to live with that. At 16, I believe\n     I've learned more than many people will learn in their whole\n     lives. I have worked out that some people are just mean\n     because they're afraid of being nice. They try to prove to\n     themselves and others that they are cool, but, sooner or\n     later, they're going to wish they hadn't said some of those\n     hurtful things. A lot of people will go through life being\n     mean to those with disabilities because they don't know how\n     to act or what to say to them--they feel awkward with someone\n     who's different.\n       Parents need to teach their children that it's all right to\n     be different and it's all right to be friends with those who\n     are. Some think that the disabled should be treated like\n     little kids for the rest of their lives. They presume we\n     don't need love and friends, but our needs are the same as\n     every other human being's.\n       There are times when I wish I hadn't been born with\n     cerebral palsy, but crying about it isn't going to do me any\n     good. I can only live once, so I want to live the best I can.\n     I am glad I learned who I am and what I am capable of doing.\n     I am happy with who I am. Nobody else could be the Angela\n     Marie Erickson who is writing this. I could never be, or ever\n     want to be, anyone else.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgS22"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 16.170936985872686, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}