Yes ofcourse you do, let me apologize for them, those of us with academic issues, are not all 'slower' or less able or so limited as you describe your brother as. And so when people equate the 2 and then try to help us presenting it as an attempt to help many feel like someone is being condesending. It sounds like that was hardly your intent. But still, don't be hurt please, understand that when you are judged for small change instead of who you are your entire life stripped of your humanity and condesended down to... Especially when you are a highly intelligent individual (except in Bill's case. He doesn't have LD, just... delusions. Also he isn't smart. The other voices in his head however atleast seem to maintain an IQ bordering on average. he can spell and formulate words and thoughts, sadly their rationality is rather, errr.... Well lacking in entirity.)
But i suppose this judgement is your first real taste of what it is like to be like me or to be like a Person, that we go through every single day of our lives, many of us. The judgements never end. And the reality is, it hurts us too. Just most catty or icky about it because well that kind of hurt it never goes away especially when it is so frequent and has eaten its way so deep into you.
And yes, often people come here usually parents posting these insulting things. They don't mean to insult ofcourse, but they are scared and reactive they have just been told their kid has this that or the other thing oh no oh no! And they need help they have a thing not a child.... but the fact remains they have a child. A child that needs them to fight and to treat it like normal. A child that is still the child they loved so much and had no real fault with in many cases prior to the labling. Yes your son could end up like me speaking 6 languages fluently multi instrumental working on a grad degree married to a PHD in theoretical physics. Oh no the horror! Please try to understand, it insults everything we are and everything we do and it breaks our hearts over and over and over again to see parents detach just a little... change just a little... etc... towards their kids. We know the day to day struggle with the accademic stuff and the judgements and the cruelties attached. We know the condescension far too well from the kind hearted biggots just trying to be nice. (I am NOT implying you are one of them!) And we make mistakes sometimes when someone tries to help a loved one misinterpreting as we have huge walls up to protect our hearts that are just as delicate as yours or any other normal person's from damage. Sometimes those walls go a bit on the offensive. And then, it seems those like you with a kind heart and good intentions get bit when no biting is really called for or necesary. But please understand for us dealing with.... shit.... is such a way of life... Most of us are tired and we want society to give it a rest.But i think that rest will likely not come any time soon.
Your brother sounds like a sweet man. If i were not married i might have been curious as to what he is like in the real world.... He sounds like, he has alot to offer. So he can't offer literacy or tons of money. He offers his heart. And that is the most valuable thing that anyone can offer anyone else. Sounds he offers promise and effort and good intentions and likely the kindness he has learned being around you. It's not about what he isn't, don't you see? It is about what he *is* *who* he is. I think you do see or you wouldn't be trying to help him with this. You would instead be trying to protect society from him. I admire you for your open minded open hearted honest effort and applaud you in trying help someone with some issue of some sort weather developmental LD or something else to find someone to love and be accepted by. But the way it was presented "lookibng for someone to love my brother IN SPITE OF," when it isn't inspite of at all. Relationships are partnerships. I do math great now but till recently i couldn't do anything beyond algebra 1. I will always hate math and i will always avoid it no matter how good i am at it. I have gone through calculus and beyond. But i don't do math. My husband does. All of our math. I make all phone calls we need to make. He is from Finland, he has an accent, so he worries sometimes about dumb things and being misunderstood or something on the phone though he speaks perfect english. You see, both partners bring to the table unique abilities. Both partners share whatever it is that they have with eachother, and both partners do the best they can to be supportive of eachother in any and all ways that they can. So one's inabilities become a mute point.
You are a wonderful sister and i wish i had one like you as accepting because it would have made life alot easier....
As for best places to meet people... I travel alot. Met my husband years ago in Sweden while i was traveling... But A person seems full of suggestions.
And yes A person is right, many do equate LD and retardation, and in most cases with the odd exception, it is so far from the truth that, we recognize we are being called stupid. "Learning disabled" the term implies unable to learn. Once upon a time ADHD for example was called "broken brain syndrome." These terms coined by experts alledged intellectual scientists are so full of judgement that we do react sometimes and we bite... before we see what exactly we are actually biting... My personal definition of LD is "Learning differenced". I still learn. So does everyone with LD we just have a different way of learning. Your brother too is not limited to who and what he is now working in a grocery store and reading poorly. There are methods that he can use to learn. I was never supposed to read at all. I couldn't spell my own name till i was 10. People grow all through their lives and they change and they reach for the things they aspire to. Those with LD, often don't reach too high because they are always told and judged as unable. and then offered support in not attaining the greatness they are as able to achieve as any other person is. So please try to understand the reaction and hopefully, the offense given has in some small way been explained understood and lessened.
As for what Bill says, he is a lunatic. But, often, those with LD feel as they are labled and told they are different and made to feel different due to predjudiced that many people would rather we were not ummm.... able to sort of co exist as equals in society or anything resembling co existance as free and uncontrolled membersw of society because lets face it we are a society of biggots. And he is right about that. But his conspiracy theories are alot of bull****. So he interpreted your words in a way that isn't consistent with the interpretation a rational mind would have made.
Best of luck to your brother, and hopefully he will find someone as wonderful as my husband.
As for you a Person, that last small bit applies to you too. But let me say that you suck at biting people's heads off. Leave that to me. I do a far better job. (wink wink) i am just teasing. You do an adequate job. but i still have alot to teach you. hahahaha....
