<div style="margin: 0px;">MichaelBradleyJr is sending this message</div><div style="margin: 0px;">----------------------------------</div><div style="margin: 0px;">My home on the Net ::</div><div style="margin: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.michaelsbradleyjr.net/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<font color="#0500ec">http://www.michaelsbradleyjr.net/</font></a></div><br><br><br>Dear friends, it was nearly three years ago when one evening I attended a barbecue and adult fellowship gathering at
<a href="http://www.gracejohnsoncity.org/templates/cusgracefellowship/default.asp?id=27146" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Grace Fellowship</a>
church in Johnson City, TN, with my friend Julia. Shortly after our
arrival, the event coordinator told the group that he wanted to show <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>us
all a special video. It was less than five minutes in length, but
after the video was over and the lights were turned back on, it was
clear that few dry eyes remained among the approx. twenty men and women
present in the room (that is your warning, by the way).
<br><br>This weekend I stumbled across a link to the same video, which can now be watched on-line for free:<br><br><br><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Can<br><br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg
</a><br></div><br><br>It had the same effect on me two days ago as it
did three years ago. It is a poweful testimony to the dignity and
worth of every human life, and the great heights of human achievent to
which love can move us. It is, as the video's author suggests by way
of the musical accompinant, a kind of allegory too with regard to the
triumph of the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07706b.htm" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Incarnation</a> and the awesome love and mercy of God lavished upon us in the work of the
<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12677d.htm" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Redemption</a>.
I hope that all of you will watch it -- I request that you do so, all
the way through -- and I hope that you enjoy it and that it inspires
you to overcome, with and in and through Our Lord, whatever obstacles
you may face in your life. IC XC NIKA
<br><br><br><br>=========================<br>TEAM HOYT<br>=========================<br><br>WATCH THIS VIDEO: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg</a><br><br><span style="font-style: italic;">
Then read the article below</span><br><br><a href="http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml</a><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">
Racing Towards Inclusion</span><br>by David Tereshchuk
<br><br><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete
just about continuously in marathon races. And if they're not in a marathon they are in a
triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2
miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming.
Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735
miles across America.
</font><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">It's a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you
consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed
and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish
lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing.
When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair,
attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly
stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">At Rick's birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his
brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child's
development.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">"It's been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight
months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he'd be a vegetable all his life,
that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able
to see Rick now."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within
five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as
intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to
agree: "Because he couldn't talk they thought he wouldn't be able to understand, but that
wasn't true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick
included in everything," Dick said. "That's why we wanted to get him into public school."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear,
empirical evidence of Rick's comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick
just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build
— using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would
allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage.
Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows
of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch
with the side of his head.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first
"spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick
wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his
family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we
learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he
wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been
paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in
his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night,
Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn't feel handicapped when we were competing."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Rick's realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his
family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the
transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking
out letters of the alphabet:
</font></p><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
</font><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
" What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is
that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same
way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races
some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days
one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat
who. The loser had to hang the winner's number in his bedroom until the next
race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish
me luck."
</font></dir></dir>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2"> </font><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did
begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top
quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">"Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody
wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can't really blame them - people often are not
educated, and they'd never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he
was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had
to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn't been on a
bike since I was six years old."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick's waist as he
swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father's Day 1985.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">"We chuckle to think about that as my Father's Day present from Rick, " said Dick.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they
manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the
way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this
testimony:
</font></p><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
</font><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it
whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into
triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when
he was working."
</font></dir></dir>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2"> </font><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2"> The Hoyts' mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too — many spectators
and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It's
been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of
shape, and they say 'we want to thank you, because we're here because of you'."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:
</font></p><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
</font><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
"Whenever we are passed (usually on the bike) the athlete will say "Go for it!" or
"Rick, help your Dad!" When we pass people (usually on the run) they'll say "Go
Team Hoyt!" or "If not for you, we would not be out here doing this."
</font></dir></dir>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2"> </font><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the
handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">"That's the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other
families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyts. Dick is "still bothered," he
says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while
eating. "In restaurants - and it's only older people mostly - they'll see Rick's food being
pushed out of his mouth and they'll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of
intolerance is gradually being defeated."
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Rick's own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo's continuing athletic success, have
included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993
with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the
Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it:
"On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the
course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations
on your graduation!'"
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Rick now works at Boston College's computer laboratory helping to develop a system
codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered
wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person's eye-movements, when linked-up to a
computer.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Together the Hoyts don't only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking
tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and
non-sporting, across the country.
</font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2">Rick himself is confident that his visibility — and his father's dedication — perform a forceful,
valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple
parting thought:
</font></p><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
</font><dir><font face="ARIAL" size="2">"The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday
life."</font><br><font face="ARIAL" size="2">
</font></dir></dir>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">
</font><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br></span></span></font></p><p><font face="ARIAL" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">
</span>David Tereshchuk is a documentary television producer. He currently works for the
United Nations.</span>
</font></p><a href="http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml</a><br><br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg</a><br><br>