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The
life of someone with Tourette's syndrome, or any other
condition, is determined not only by the condition
itself, but, equally powerfully, by other people's
reaction to it. Children with Tourette's are often
bullied or picked on or misunderstood by their teachers,
and adults with Tourette's may be shunned or treated
with disrespect or even anger. This is unfair and
cruel - not deliberately cruel, but cruel because
people don't know any better and they don't think.
The
antidote to all this is kindness and a generosity
of spirit which sees the plight of people with a disability,
sees the individual behind it, and makes a deliberate
effort of understanding, sympathy, fairness and imagination.
This is what I understand by "kindness"
-- the kindness of friends and family and especially
of strangers. And since kindness is a gift, a grace,
it is always returned; kindness brings out kindness,
and one act of kindness spreads, and contributes to
what all of us so desperately need -- a kinder world.
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