Sunday, August 2, 2015

"Local man launches campaign"

I was on the news again this evening. A local station had a story about the 25th anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act and I was there launching my non profit's first awareness campaign. They only used a few sentences from me this time, but they'll be back on Sunday to do a proper feature on it. Two things I found interesting. Out of all the length of the entire interview that went on for a few minutes and throughout which I felt I was overall pretty eloquent, they'll always find and use a line that I'll say in passing, a throwaway and where look angry or annoyed. No wonder I hate watching myself on TV. And could I be shown from a more awkward angle? But the thing that surprised me the most was the caption. It said "local man launches campaign" or something similar. All of the sudden I'm from here, all of the sudden I'm "local". I used to be the "UF student protesting LSAT" or the "Polish immigrant [who] wants to stay in the US". Last time I was a "Florida lawyer speaking at a Congress in Munich. At what point have I transitioned from being excitingly foreign to somebody from here exactly? At least last time I was a "lawyer". Now I'm just a "man". A local man of all things. Have I gotten so unremarkable that there are no other ways to describe me? I think I used to be so much more. Now I don't seem to deserve any better adjectives except the ones that describe where I live. Other than that, this weekend marks the launch of our Wheelchaired for a day campaign in preparation of which I was pulled away from my blog and most other duties- stay tuned.

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