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From: Dave Williams
Date: 08 Oct 2008
Time: 17:19:39 -0500
Remote Name: 71.228.93.115
Walt, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article. As I did so, all sorts of bells kept ringing for me. I reacted to my stuttering in very much the same way as you, and I came to realize the ways in which I let my stuttering interfere with my aspirations and abilities. I never had to read aloud "black frock coat," but when I reported for military induction in June 1942 for the "good war", the examining officer told me, "Because you are college educated (I'd had two years at a local college) you should be an officer, but your stuttering would make you a permanent private because you couldn't give orders. So it wouldn't be FAIR to take you in the army." So they stamped a red 4-F on the back of my hand and sent me home. I felt depressed for maybe an hour, then I cheered up and went out to look for a job. So if my stuttering kept me from getting killed, it could certainly be regarded as a gift. (From another perspective, one might debate the view of stuttering as a gift, since in German the word "Gift" means "poison").