Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
About This Book: "Every Single One Counts"
Jason: I hope a lot of people will read this book. They will learn that people with Down syndrome can share the same feelings as disabled and nondisabled kids.
And in the time line of history in 1993 it will say: "Jason and Mitchell wrote a book!"
March '91
Jason: But there's a problem about this book here. That some people may not read this book.
Emily: Yes, I certainly wish that everybody would read this book!
Jason: You mean to tell me that the Persian Gulf guys, that Saddam Hussein should read this book?
Emily: I think it would be nice if everybody in the whole world would read this book — but I don't think that's too realistic. I doubt that Saddam Hussein will ever read this book. But that's okay. If a lot of people here in the United States read it, that will make me very happy.
Jason: And the president? And the news?
Emily: That would be nice.
Jason: People would understand more about people like me with Down syndrome who have this problem. I really wish Down syndrome would be on the news. They could tell us news about Down syndrome on television. Like: "And now the news! A Down syndrome is someone who was born with an extra chromosome. A Down syndrome kid can be special in the normal outside world with everybody else. They can live in a regular house and work in a regular school and work in a regular job. 'Cause they're just like everybody else — except different because they have Down syndrome. That's very different because when you have Down syndrome your learning might be slow. That's your disability. Sometimes it's a big disability that they have."
The commercials. The commercials should know about Down syndrome, too. People with Down syndrome and sometimes people without Down syndrome should be in the commercials. And they will read: "The best part of waking up is Down syndrome Folgers in your cup!" "We're all connected — Down syndrome Telephone!" "Buckle up with Down syndrome — it's the law!" "Get Down syndrome — it's the real thing!" "Get Down syndrome — don't leave home without it!"
Mitchell: I think I have a perfect title for this book. I think we should name this book The Successful Story of Having Down Syndrome.
May '92
Mitchell: I want all people to read this book so they can understand the perspectives of two young adults who have Down syndrome ... so that they can understand the same situations that we were involved in.
Jason: I think this book can accomplish by teaching how people with disabilities and people not with disabilities can learn more and be more understanding about us because we also are a part of life. They will understand how it is to be ourselves and how it is to be themselves. To feel a part of this whole life ...
They can change their views when they're thinking about people with disabilities and with Down syndrome. They thought before that we never can be understanding, and they are insulting us that we are not smart than anyone else. Now when they read this book they'll change and they'll think about the good parts of life can lead us into a good happy life.
There are parts of life that you have to deal with. Social life: You have to associate with others like go to parties together, hang around. Lovelife: like you and your girlfriend. Family life is having your family and independence. And fun life is to be joyful and playful. All that is lead up to a big world of life.
And another part of life is your disabled life. Your disabled life is what you see in yourself, what you're accomplishing even though you have a disability and pain. What you're accomplishing by doing the best you could.
Mitchell: And living independently is another part of the success. By living independently away from your parents is important so you could realize the important part of the other life. The other life is living on your own and taking responsibility for yourself. By taking responsibilities for yourself is a new meaning of life to the next stage. You're taking your life farther. Toward the future.
And my future, not only to live independently ... for my future is to live my life the way I want to be instead of being told how I should live my life, either by my parents or by the people I live with. They are not the ones to tell me how should I run my life. Because I feel it is my decision to make. Nobody else's. Because that's another part of the success, by dictating to people the way you want your life. By taking the initiative and the responsibilities yourself instead of people telling you this is your life, this is the way you have to live it. It's not.
Part of life is you deal with situations yourself. Because we put ourself in situations, we have to take ourselves out of situations. Even with the support of family and community and loved ones as well.
Jason: And making decisions is part of your own life, too. Decisions of your disabled life. That means you're deciding the things you're trying to accomplish and doing the best you could.
I could change my disabled life with Down syndrome by doing the best that I can do and to teach people how they would understand because it might be difficult with a disability because you may be very slow.
Down syndrome is a part of your disabled life. Even though you have the pain and you want the pain stopped, you still have it. All you have to do is lift up your anxieties and do all the good parts of your life. ... All you have to do is live with it. Even though you have the pain, but work things out to make it a good one.
I realize from there [that] I really want to have Down syndrome because I would be missing some good things about my disabled life ... about special ed, your parents, how does it affect your girlfriend, your lovelife, and now you want to have this disability. Because you can keep doing a lot of stuff and enjoy the good things to have some fun in your life. Be passionate of your life. Even if you have Down syndrome.
Mitchell: If I cannot change my disability, I would deal with it in any case because I know for sure that nobody can change their disability. It will be a difficult process to do so.
I was born with Down syndrome, and I said to my parents that I have overcome my disability. I believe that I've come so far and that's been very successful. I believe that I did overcome, by being successful, having Down syndrome.
I believe that even though I've succeeded in my life, that I can change my life the way I see to it. In some senses it really doesn't have any more challenges left for me because I feel that I can take any risks or anything that comes to me in any way. ... I can face those tasks with some help, but I can do the most part by myself.
Jason: I didn't overcome it. Because there's some things that I still have to learn that my parents can teach me things. But somehow when I get older I can overcome my disability but right now I have to adjust to it.
I have to do the easy parts and the good parts of this whole life. I'm doing as much as I can, but I still have a way to go but my disability never changes. I have to change my life and somehow my disability automatically can overcome. Somehow, somewhen ... my disability can overcome.
December '92
Mitchell: The important thing about having a disability [is] that you should think about this disability and it can encourage you a lot. It's an encouragement knowing who you are.
You're an individual, an adult with disability, who can handle any issue, tackle any issue. If's part of being an adult, knowing who you are, understanding who you are. Because we are people who understand, knowing about our disability.
People can change, people can realize you are an individual and an identity is important to you, to your family, even to your community. People consider you an individual with rights. People respect you for who you are. Not just your disability. The person who you are makes it. That's what counts. That's why we call this book Count Us In. We are individuals and they are counting us in.
Jason: After people read this book, strangers will become our friends.
Mitchell:Count Us In means that everyone together are helping each other out ... by reaching out, by helping each other, which what it means is we want to be included. Count Us In makes the future better for people with disabilities.
Every single one counts because we are an important asset in the community and they need our voice.
CHAPTER 2
Who We Are: "People Like Me for My Charm"
Fall '90
The following is excerpted from a piece Mitchell wrote for a class assignment. He has added a few additional comments.
On April 10th 1971, the birth of Mitchell Andrew Levitz was at the Peekskill Community Hospital and the parents of the child were Barbara and Jack Levitz. The Doctor told Barbara and Jack that the child had Down syndrome. This changed how they lived. My mother was one of the founders of the Parent Assistance Committee on Down Syndrome and I was one of the first children in Westchester in an Early Intervention Program.
I grew up and lived my entire life in the Peekskill Cortlandt Manor area in Westchester. Both of my parents also grew up here. Most of my family also live in Peekskill/Cortlandt Manor and had held businesses in this area.
Stephanie was born in 1972 and Leah in 1974 and they are both of my sisters. I attended First Hebrew Congregation of Peekskill Nursery School and Hebrew School with Stephanie. I went to a pre-primary class with Cantor Dennis Waldman who was also the Cantor for my Bar Mitzvah.
I attended kindergarten at Our Montessori School for one year and then Woodside Elementary School for two years in a BOCES [Board of Cooperative Educational Services] Special Education Communications Class. After that I went to my local schools in Special Education classes for students with learning disabilities and some mainstream classes also. I went to Lincoln Titus Elementary School up to fifth grade, and I was in cub scouts and Weblos scouts. I got an Arrow of Light award and played soccer with AYSO [American Youth Soccer Organization] on weekends and got a lot of trophies and made friends.
I went to Lakeland Middle School for sixth grade. I skipped seventh grade and went into eighth grade. In middle school I had many teachers for different classes who helped me with many subjects. Some of the courses I took were math, history and sciences, chorus and art, phys. ed. and also speech therapy. I was in a traveling soccer league and played in a tournament at West Point.
When I was fourteen, I got working papers on my birthday to be able to work as a busboy at Colonial Terrace, my family's business, with Aunt Sheila and Uncle Alan and my father Jack. I liked working the parties with the other students from my school that the managers hired, and we became friends by working together. I worked there on weekends all through high school.
I have been at Walter Panas High School since ninth grade. I have took most of the required courses and exams and only have the reading exam left to pass to get a regular diploma. I also have to pass English, phys. ed. and politics/economics, and I am taking theater this year. I am on the Legislative Action Committee for the Board of Education and attend meetings. In Walter Panas I also took mainstream typing and computers, business ownership and management, and work experience in school in the Dean's office and out of school as a volunteer intern in a legislative office. I also played soccer my second years in high school and got a varsity letter.
My two sisters and I went to Camp Mill Run, a day camp, for many years, that my Aunt Fran and Uncle Ed used to own. It was interesting and fun. The other camps I went to were Camp White Oaks, a sleep-away camp ... [and] Camp Ramah, a sleep-away camp in Massachusetts.
... When I was young with both my sisters and my parents and sometimes other people in the family like Barry, Leon, and Annie and sometimes friends, we went camping in the summertime. When we go camping, we went hiking, rowing boats, fishing, swimming, and we also sing songs by the campfire and tell ghost stories and roast marshmallows and take pictures of the scenery and ourselves.
At one time in my life, I felt that I had a memorable moment that was important in my life. It was my Bar Mitzvah. ... Rabbi Josh Hammerman helped me and my two sisters to go through a time of studying and preparation for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and was always there to turn to. ... I learned then to be thirteen is to be between two worlds, the past of childhood and the promise of adulthood. My mother wrote a song to me on my Bar Mitzvah ... called "The Best of Me." It meant a lot to me. ...
People make me feel important in life, especially my family with all of their love and support. I got guidance from my parents being there when I needed them, plus my sisters were the same way. ... Stephanie and Leah have been very helpful, very supportive to me, who gave me a lot of potential. They have shown me what is right and wrong and also let me know how supportive I have been to them.
Some important events happened in my life. I went to a march in New York City for Soviet Jews. I also met Governor Mario Cuomo and his wife at a dinner for the Special Olympics. What they did for the disabled was a wonderful feeling to me. Recently I went to Albany and Assemblyman George Pataki said to the whole entire Assembly and to the speaker,
I would appreciate it if you could welcome to the chamber this afternoon an extraordinary young man from my district. He was born with Down syndrome and often that is something that results in that child being placed away from the mainstream and not involved academically and socially in the usual activities of childhood. And through the extraordinary efforts of his mother and father, Barbara and Jack Levitz, and through his own extraordinary efforts, he has led an exemplary life. He is now a junior at Walter Panas High School in the Town of Cortlandt, working as an intern in my district, coming in and helping me with constituent programs. We expect to see him graduate from high school next year and go on to lead a successful life and run against one of us some year. I wish you would recognize his courage and dedication. Seated behind me, Mitchell Levitz. [Applause and standing ovation]
I felt very warmed and honored. This was another special moment in my life. I am very interested in politics and government.
I was also on television. I was on the "NBC Weekend Show" and "The Morning Show with Regis and Kathie Lee," and on "Sesame Street" for two years. Since I was young, my family and I were in some articles in newspapers such as the New York Times, USA Today, Gannett, and some magazines also. ... One was about the show "Life Goes On" starring Chris Burke who I've known for many years, and I enjoy watching the show a lot. I spoke to one of the writers to help out with a story for the show. ...
I spoke at a parent/professional conference as a keynote speaker along with Senator Nick Spano. Generally I enjoy talking to groups of people. I wasn't nervous when I gave a keynote speech along with Senator Libous for the New York State ARC [Association for Retarded Children] Convention for six hundred people in November [1991], and a speech for the New York State Self-Advocacy Association in September [1991]. My pictures have been in pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, and in a health book. I spoke to many health classes about having Down syndrome.
I have traveled a lot, with a group of young adults who have disabilities, during the summer with Summit Travel. ... I already have gone to California, Hawaii, Canada, and this summer to Colorado with the group. During the rest of the year, they organize City Lights, where we meet our friends in New York City and we go to plays, restaurants, ball games, and a cruise around the city. I also traveled with my family. We went to Israel, Spain, and to Puerto Rico. We always have fun on these trips together.
There are people who I care about and are important to me in my life. These friends are supportive and understanding. One of my friends is the Dean of Students for Walter Panas High School, Mort David. He was there to help me understand the regulations of the school and help me with my problems I had with other students. He made me realize that school is important and to take my classes seriously.
Tom Fedge who lives in Cape Cod is also important to me. When I go to the Cape, I have a fun time. Tom wanted me to ride a bike. ... I tried it out and it was fun. We would also take walks to the beach and talk about events in the world. My father ... and Tom were roommates at Syracuse University. He and his family ... are good friends to me and my family. They come to visit every New Year's and other times. We go places together.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Count Us In"
by .
Copyright © 1994 Jason Kingsley and Mitchell Levitz.
Excerpted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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