European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 8, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Georgia Griffith Blind and deaf Don t let Little things like a Handicap get in your Way by Mitch Weiss associated press born bund. Georgia Grill ill of Lancaster Ohio always loved music. Bui the loss of he hearing Al the age of 38 Bent that love in anew direction. Although she gave away her piano a couple o years ago. She s Stilt actively involved in music in a different sort of Way. Griffith the first Blind person to graduate from capital University in Columbus is a proofreader of braille music end leaches other handicapped people for a National computer service. Everyone has a Handicap some show ii. Some Don to says Griffith 55, who lives with her Mother in Lancaster. A City 30 Miles Southeast of Columbus whatever  in Ilia you bum on it you go Forward you Don t let Little hinge Ilka a Handicap get in your  or Lith works in a cramped end cluttered office in her Home surrounded by her computer software and books. She uses a microcomputer keyboard and a versa braille machine which translates typed letters into the matrix on paper that is braille to communicate with her outsiders Type on the keyboard end her machine transcribes it into raffia. Griffith responds orally. Al her desk quit shh expertly moves her fingers across the versa braille Reader. Currently she a proofreading Allol Beethoven s symphonies or the National braille association an organization of More than 2,600 Volunteer worldwide who help the Blind and visually impaired. I wish i had 25 hours eight Days a week to get All at my work  she Saya. There does t seem to be enough  the association has sent her the symphonies stored on a floppy computer disk and a hard copy of braille Sheet music. As Tow Tilsk plays the music into her vef Sarraille machine she ferrets out mistakes with her fingertips. When she finds an error she pulls the corresponding Page of braille music and retype in to make the correction. It s painstaking work. The nine symphonies win cover 4.000 braille pages and win Lake her a year to Complete. The difficulty of the work is compounded by her deafness. Griffith wants to buy a braille Printer which could reduce Iha time she spends correcting copy. She now manually retype an entire Page each time she finds a mistake. A braille Printer she says would mean she could oof reel the mistake an the computer disk and print out the new Page. But a braille Printer costs 15,000, and she can t afford it. Music has always been an important part of Griffith s life. Music wart forced on me in the second Grade she says with a smile i was a fast learner and skipped a few grades at the slate school to Iha Blind. I played in the band at the school All different  growing up was t much different for me than for anyone Elso. I got a lot of support from my family. At the state school i liked to read end study. The teachers Al the school used to make me go outside and play because i was studying so  Griffith graduated from capital University in 1954 As a Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of science in music degree. Since 1971, she has been the Library of Congress Only proofreader of 8raile music. Reduced Federal spending has curtailed Hal work and she has t received an assignment from the Library since last Spring Griffith Elso directs a National computer forum through Compuserve an Independent service for users of personal computers. It allows her to comment Date. With people nationwide by typing menage into b Dat Bank inked to subscribers. I have friends i left to from Al tool the country she says. I talk to them through Tho forums i run. People Don t know i m handicapped unless somebody who knows me blows my  of Rifah West in but 30 when she began losing her hearing. By age 38, she was deaf. Al the Lime she raid she Felt a Little depressed Back when i first started losing my hearing., i thought i could t do anything that Pele , now i know i can do things to help Popw site aaya.1 being deaf was hard. I had to get Busy and do something with my  her Mother Florence says her daughter used to Leach 24 music students before she became deaf. She also said she taught her daughter not to feet sorry for  doctor once told me of Ferenee what a sacrifice you re making with Georgia i told my whal sacrifice she did t ask to be bom. I love her she s my child and you Don t turn your Back on your children " abominations of the English language. A ant Uinn non uni try a Al Yuklun Flat Mil Frum fit contract Roh of it Tai Wrd has to Oll ref Usta of it Uby Jack Smith los Angeles times Hort of War. Whal most foreign nations fear most from America is invasion by our fads and mores. The French especially Are horrified by the inf Sttratton of american to shirts tee Cream sodas and Tevis and such americanisms As to hot dog and to drugstore. Jim Moore former chairman of English literature amount san Antonio College in Walnut. Calrf., East of los angelas has taken a Flat in London Tor a year i and he writes to Point Oul a few of the americanisms he has discovered there. He notes that the English seem to have resolved i our common dilemma Over which pro onto use with such words As everyone and everybody. H ust to a Stan ass we used the Geek  everyone got his  will that women s movement. However this form became  were advised thai we must say. Everyone Bolos. His or her  but to Many this seemed awkward and redundant. Many of us held out for the generic is Mono that it stood for either sex. Others argued for Ifo every or go their hats Poi Nung Oul that everyone Means "All.""everyone. Their is natural. Many literate slip into this usable without Balno a of Rechino your stand on ,1 Moore a plural the agreeing pronoun la always some for of they " of course the English have always made collectives of such nouns As government team and fourth estate. We Are always being informed in the press that the government Are doing this or that or hat a certain team Are in first  this seems sensible to me. Americans prefer a singular government so the fourth estate is always telling us what the government is up to. A even consider such nouns As couple singular though this leads to such absurdities As the couple was married then it want on us  Moore goes on it should make you Happy to observe two More examples of British linguistic sensibility the jettisoning of the irrelevant subjunctive and the refusal to become excited about the to a its ambiguity. In the Wake of chernobyl fruit and vegetables in the markets carry signs like this it is urged that fresh produce is washed Belpre eating Mote the is instead of the be which Only Leach Era formalisms an parliamentarians of certain types could  obviously Moore has not been in England Long. In Modem English usage the sainted . Fowler noted that the form of the subjunctive thai Moore finds missing had Long since fallen into disuse because of its tone of dullness and  i am More alarmed by Moore s report on the English disregard for the distinction Between its and it  the its it s dilemma has been similarly solved. Use the apostrophe All the  it s obvious to  that its is line saturday november 8. 1986 contraction of i is an has no other use an thai us is the impersonal possessive pronoun it indicates Possession the dog ale its Collar and it has no other use. As Tor the invasion of other american institutions Moore sends a column by Peter Freedman. In the guardian reporting on his first Ottil to one of those Multi screen fast cinemas which Are replacing the old theater palaces in England As Well As in the United slates. Freedman said he went not Only to see the future in action bul also to pig Oul to break the Buckinghamshire and Al Comers record for films seen and junk food eaten in b single Day. He expected to see five or six movies and eat enough Golden buttery fresh american Popcorn to double your blood Chole Lefoi level by the Early evening  he gave ii up after three movies and snacks of Popcorn mexican nachos hoi dogs Pecan Vanilla new England ice Cream and a pack of Strawberry Licorie twizzlers. What to Huml but about the experience was that Here weren t any commercials on screen there a Ria some sides la the effect that movies go belter with. Popcorn and thele but there were no moving talking mine consuming commercials Lor , and Tab the Bank Hal tikes to say be i Don t know whether the multiple screen theater comes to England from America or whether they thought ii up for themselves. Either Way it s nothing to be proud of. I consider it one of the worst rails it v americans thai we can l absorb an hour two of., T culture without feeding throughout thu Al Faikis. Is ungulates. As the English might say it s the stars and stripes