Newspaper Page Text
Page 16
Griffin Daily News Thursday, September 19,1974
Family bridges ‘gap’
By MEG FLETCHER
Copley News Service
JOLIET, DI. - At first
glance it seems the boys are
listening to transistor radios.
But the bulge of the battery
packs under their shirts says
that the earpieces that Todd,
5, and Gregg Hlavacek, 3,
wear bring them more than
music and weather.
The slender wires stretch
ing from earpieces to bat
teries are an important life
line for these hearing-im
paired brothers.
The wires tune them in — to
a limited extent — on the
world of their parents and old
er brother whose ears are not
“broken,” as the boys under
stand their handicap.
The Hlavacek family of Jo
liet is dedicated to bridging
the gap between their two dif
ferent worlds, despite the
frustrations and hardships.
In the process, they are in
directly educating insensitive
persons about the lonely
world of those who would con
sider noise pollution a wel
come experience.
Dee Hlavacek was seven
months pregnant with Gregg
when a doctor told her that
Todd was profoundly deaf,
probably as the result of
nerve damage. She and her
husband Don were told there
was a one in a million chance
that their unborn child would
also have a hearing disability,
but Gregg also has severely
impaired hearing.
In the last three years the
boys have made remarkable
progress, according to Dee,
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TUNED IN—Gregg Hlavacek of Joliet, 111., and his
mother wait for big brother Don to bring new batteries to
replace the used ones in the hearing aid that helps him
tune in on the world around him. Born with severely
Impaired hearing, he has been able to speak almost
normally, thanks to the help of the powerful hearing aid.
35. Todd has learned to speak,
but in the gutteral style of the
deaf. Gregg’s speech sounds
almost normal.
“We have been told that my
brothers could never learn to
hear their names — but they
have. We have been told that
strangers would never under-
stand them — but they do. We
have been told never to be
lieve in miracles — but we
do.”
That’s how Don, 13, de
scribed his brothers’ small
but important triumphs to his
classmates at Hufford Junior
High School in an award-win
ning serious reading.
“Wanting to help these little
ones has knitted our family
closer together in a common
bond,” according to Don, 40,
an assistant store manager.
“We are kind of obsessed with
the thought that the boys be
able to talk and communicate
with people.”
Todd and Gregg both attend
special education classes in
public schools. Dee and Don
senior were initially opposed
to the boys’ learning sign lan
guage and lipreading for fear
it would slow their speech.
But the parents accepted it
and are learning it them
selves to prevent the boys
from becoming frustrated in
their efforts to communicate.
Deafness doesn’t seem as
bad a handicap to most per
sons as blindness or mental
retardation “because you
can’t see it,” Dee said.
“To the parent of a child
who is handicapped, don’t tell
me I’m lucky.”
Helen Keller, who was both
deaf and blind, said if she
could have one sense back she
would want her hearing. A
hearing handicap cuts off
communication, Dee ex
plained.
“Without sound, one doesn’t
hear speech; without speech,
one doesn’t learn language;
and without language, one
can’t learn to read,” she said.
One man’s realization of
what deafness can mean to a
child resulted from a memo
rable encounter with Dee and
the younger boys in a food
store about two and a half
years ago.
An elderly man saw Todd
throwing things out of the gro
cery cart in his anger over
Dee refusing to buy him a
plastic candy cane filled with
sweets.
“Little boy, Santa Claus
won’t bring you anything.
Doesn’t that scare you?”
Then he repeated it again,
louder, but Todd — who
wasn’t wearing a hearing aid
— continued to thrash about in
the cart.
“Can’t he hear me?” the
man finally asked Dee.
“No, sir, he can’t,” she
said.
The old gentleman guided
her through the door and
helped her load the bags in the
car. He tried to give the boys
pennies, but Dee stopped him.
When he turned to go, there
were tears streaming down
his face. “I’m so sorry,” he
said, and walked away.
But Dee and Don senior and
junior can’t walk away from
the boys’ problem. It has be
come both a responsibility
and a challenge.
The Hlavacek’s life-style
has been affected by the boys’
impairment. “It is difficult to
find a baby sitter and vaca
tions like camping are out be
cause if Todd and Gregg wan
dered off, we couldn’t call to
them,” he explained. “You
have to watch'them so much
closer."
“It has been hard on Chip
(Don junior),” he said. The
13-year-old takes the boys to
school bus in the morning.
Don junior leaves school early
each afternoon so he can be
there when they return until
Dee gets home from her job as
a math teacher at Washington
Junior High School.
“But I think Chip has ma
tured and this can’t hurt him
in life,” his father said.
“There is no cure,” Dee
said, eyeing the boys, who had
joined us in the living room
with after-school snacks.
“The only cure is overcoming
it.”
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WASHINGTON—H. R. Haldeman, former President
Nixon’s chief of staff, leaves the Watergate Special
Prosecutor’s office after a meeting between prosecution
and defense lawyers on procedural matters for the
Watergate cover-up trail scheduled to get under way.
Haldeman is one of the defendants. (UPI)
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President and Mrs. Ford talk with Secretary of State and
Mrs. Henry Kissinger on the White House lawn after the
four returned from New York City where Ford addressed
Ford backs Kissinger;
checks CIA politics
By HELEN THOMAS
UPI White House Reporter
WASHINGTON (UPI) — President Ford summoned
top level congressional leaders to the White House today to
explore the role of the CIA in conducting covert political
activities abroad.
Ford acknowledged previously published reports of
clandestine operations in Chile at his news conference
Monday night when he disclosed that the United States
poured funds into the country to preserve opposition press
and political parties after the 1970 election of the late
President Salvador Allende.
Ford invited legislative leaders and House and Senate
and chairmen of the Armed Services committees to an
early morning meeting to assess the business of the
“Forty Committee,” which approves covert operations. It
is headed by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.
In an extraordinary gesture at the United Nations
General Assembly in New York Wednesday, Ford
declared that Kissinger has his “full support” and “the
unquestioned backing of the American people” as a
cabinet officer and as head of the National Securty
Council.
Georgia tax people hit
gamblers, drug dealers
ATLANTA (UPl)—Drug deal
ers and gamblers in Georgia
have been hit with tax bills to
taling over $1 million during the
past 18 months, state Deputy
Revenue Commissioner David
Poythress said Wednesday.
Poythress said more than
$200,000 has been collected of
the $1,038,000 billed, with about
70 drug and 40 lottery opera
tions billed for state taxes since
the program began.
“Goods sold in Georgia are
subject to the sales tax whether
they are sold legally or illegal
ly,” said Poythress.
Sales tax bills were presented
for drugs seized in narcotics
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the United Nations. In his speech President Ford made an
extraordinary statement of full support for Kissinger.
(UPI)
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voted to
investigate the Chile affair. Kissinger was to testify
before that committee on another subject—U.S.-Soviet
relations —today.
In another development, Soviet Foreign Minister
Andrei A. Gromyko told newsmen at the United Nations,
he plans to come to Washington to meet with Ford at the
White House on Friday.
Ford’s unusually candid statement Monday that the
United States engaged in such operations “in the best
interests of the people of Chile and certainly in our best
interests” apparently set the stage for a re-evaluation.
The President was seeking the advice of congressional
leaders on whether the mandate to the CIA for cloak and
dagger political operations dating back to 1948 should be
preserved.
Administration officials said an “overwhelming case”
can be made that dropping some of the undercover
operations would “damage national security.”
Critics contend that CIA should be strictly an intelli
gence-gathering agency.
The President has the sole authority to approve CIA
operations and to determine whether U.S. interests are
overriding.
raids, including marijuana, am
phetamines and other illegal
substances.
Georgia is the only state in
the country which levies sales
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on gambling operations, Poy
thress said.