Left handers unite!

[imoldernu]

This morning, the frustrations of a lifetime came to the fore, when I cut my thumb, while slicing a summer sausage. The serrated blade of the knife is designed for right handed people... This is a continuation of the plot against the 10% of us who, through no fault of our own, have been denied equality in a nation that presumeably treasures equality for all.

Oh yes... there is a segment of the goods providers who have amassed great fortunes by preying on this oddity of nature. Pay a 10% to 100+% premium to obtain a "specialty" item... just to adapt and pay homage to the 90% majority, who take it as a "given" that the world was made for them. Left handed scissors, knives, musical instruments etc.

Imagine the reverse... a right hander... using a table saw or a chain saw... a pair of scissors with backward handles. A camera with the control buttons on the left, or a mouse, or keyboards, with the calculator on the left. Try playing a guitar made for left handers, or a trumpet or sax with keys on the left.

How about a rifle or a pistol. Just to load, aim and shoot, requres an unnatural learning process.

Remeber going to school?... right handed desks... Even in simple things like filling out forms... questions on the left answers filled in on the right. Means that half the time, a left hander can't see the question.

The list goes on forever. Bias... Discrimination... deliberate roadblocks, put in front of a person, who through no fault of his/her own entered the world at a time honored disadvantage.

One last plea for understanding... As a child... a left handed child... but a child somewhat "gifted" by today's standards. School came easy... except for the bias... I was forced for 2 years to write cursively, with my right hand. It never worked. The school grading was E=excellent, G=good, F=fair and U=unsatifactory. Now, my chief competitor was Merle Taylor... a smart, pretty girl, who was not quite as smart as me, but was right handed. For two years we both got All E's... except for Penmanship... where I received the dreaded "G". Merle was 'student of the year' in first and second grade, a fact that impacted the rest of my life. a sadness that infected the psyche until the third grade, when penmanship was no longer a graded subject.

Who knows... there but for the biases and discrimination that we have had to endure throughout our lives... who knows what great achievements we might have added to this world. How much further along the road to excellence we might be, had we only been accorded some degree of equality.

One in ten... natural left handers. The down trodden minority... relegated to a life where the highest postion might be a left handed relief pitcher with a good curve ball.

We can do better. Together we can attain equality... affect elections, and in time, rule the world. Just imagine... "The Other Ten Percent"!

 

[Sarah in SC]

I just sent this out to a friend the other day.
It’s not easy being left-handed in a right-centric world | Toronto Star

Was pleased to sit down to dinner with friends last night and learn that of the 7 of us, 4 are left-handed. I attribute this to the other three being in their mid-20s, and encouraged to keep their handedness more, rather than the subtle pressure I got to switch, which didn't work.

I, too have adapted to the right handed world of cameras, knives, notebooks, and the like. Still notice whenever a character in a movie or tv is writing left-handed.

 

[Amethyst]

I feel your pain...literally, having had my right wrist in a cast for 4 weeks. Don't know what's to be done about it, though. It's a right-handed world for sure.

OTOH, Wikipedia would tend to suggest that being left-handed can help you get top jobs:

"As of 2014, three out of the last four presidents have been left-handed. Counting as far back as Truman, the number is five (or seven, if the two ambidextrous presidents are included) out of twelve. In the 1992 election, all three major candidates, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, were left-handed.[3] The 1996 election also involved three left-handed candidates: Clinton, Perot, and Bob Dole, who learned to use his left hand after his right hand was paralyzed by a World War II injury. In the 2000 and 2004 Bush, Gore, and Kerry were all right-handed.[9][10] But, both major-party candidates in the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain, were left-handed.[11] And in 2012, Obama beat right handed Mitt Romney.
The percentage of the population who are left-handed is about 10%."

 

[Mulligan]

Being left handed, I never really put any thought into the roadblocks, as it just occurred naturally to deal with. Many things I never even knew. For example I never knew there was such a thing as a left handed bowling ball until a few years ago. I never bowled a lot but my fingers always hurt afterward. I just thought it was normal. But I sure loved writing cursive in pencil and having it smudged all over my hand in school.


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[Big_Hitter]

the only thing that sucks about being a lefty is getting quality golf equipment


I can shoot a pistol accurately with either hand tho and fire a rifle right-handed.

 

[Amethyst]

Besides, that fatty sausage is bad for you.

This morning, the frustrations of a lifetime cme to the fore, when I cut my thumb, while slicing a summer sausage.

 

[easysurfer]

I heard stories when younger that the nuns would come around with a ruler to smack those who used their left hand for writing. Luckily, that practice must have stopped when I went to grade school as I write left handed.

Yes, a lefty in a right handed world. But overall, I've adopted and use both hands for some things and actually in some things favor my right hand (such as with power tools).

Just to name a few, I am:

Lefthanded - writing, eating, using the mouse
Right handed - tools, throwing
baseball (wiffle ball) - originally left sided but turned switch hitter
Right footed - kicking

Oh there was a stint where after fracturing my writing pinky, ended up writing with my right hand for about 6 weeks. That wasn't as difficult as I thought.

 

[Walt34]

I heard stories when younger that the nuns would come around with a ruler to smack those who used their left hand for writing.

My father was left handed and he told of similar events in public school. At the time being left handed was considered almost a character flaw if not a physical defect that had to be corrected lest the poor fellow be handicapped for life with it.

 

[easysurfer]

Lefties are only about 10% of the general population...

Left-handed people are a rare breed—only 10 percent of the general population is a lefty. There isn't a definite scientific explanation of why people are left-handed, and although it might be an inconvenience for some, it's actually an advantage in sports. Legendary lefty athletes include baseball player Babe Ruth and basketball star Larry Bird. They're in good company with a wide variety of famous faces from President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey to composer Wolfgang Mozart and entrepreneur Bill Gates.

Some famous lefties:

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/famous-lefties

 

[unclemick]

The greatest insult was way back at the camp down on the lake a female carpenter(friend) was insulting my Skill saw cuts 'I gonna buy you a left handed skill saw'.

heh heh heh - left handed INTJ ER nanner nanner

 

[MRG]

My father was left handed and he told of similar events in public school. At the time being left handed was considered almost a character flaw if not a physical defect that had to be corrected lest the poor fellow be handicapped for life with it.

My older brother had the same thing happen in public schools. Being forced to attempt to write right handed, eating... He said he'd get rapped on the knuckles with a ruler if he switched to his natural left hand. At some point in time this stopped, good idea.

He never complained about all the other inconveniences. He probably was afraid someone would punish him.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Lefties are only about 10% of the general population...



Some famous lefties:

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/famous-lefties

I think a lot of lefties got turned right when they were little. 100 percent of my grandchildren are lefthanded and they will be allowed to stay that way.

 

[marko]

I'm left handed in everything except swinging a bat/golf club/hockey stick.

My right handed Dad wasn't aware of the differences in these things when he taught me how to swing a bat right handed and now I'm stuck with a weaker swing because of it!

 

[freebird5825]

I was a dominant left hander all of my life but adapted to right handed tools and equipment as a matter of course. When I developed carpal tunnel and had the endoscopic ligament release surgery, I had my left hand done first. While that hand was recovering, I learned to write with my right hand pretty easily once I convinced myself I could do it. Mind over matter.

I consider myself pretty much ambidextrous.

I have clamping action scissors that are made for lefties or righties. I continue to write with my left hand.

 

[txtig]

I grew up as one of eight kids. Four of us are left handed. Never saw it as any big deal.


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[gromit]

As a true leftie, I feel your pain.
The spincast type of fishing reel is the only thing I can recall that is more acclimated to lefties than right handers. Right handed people tend to hold the rod in the right hand to cast, then swap it into the left hand and crank with the right hand. Lefties have an advantage. They tend to always hold the rod in the left hand and then crank with the right hand. I don't know who catches more fish, but without swapping the rod between hands on every cast, the lefties probably drop fewer rods into the lake.

 

[Big_Hitter]

As a true leftie, I feel your pain.
The spincast type of fishing reel is the only thing I can recall that is more acclimated to lefties than right handers. Right handed people tend to hold the rod in the right hand to cast, then swap it into the left hand and crank with the right hand. Lefties have an advantage. They tend to always hold the rod in the left hand, cast, and then crank with the right hand. I don't know who catches more fish, but without swapping the rod between hands on every cast, the lefties probably drop fewer rods into the lake.

that's how I fish

 

[ls99]

It pays to be ambidexterous.

 

[Gumby]

Lefties are a sinister lot.

 

[braumeister]

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

 

[Willers]

I heard stories when younger that the nuns would come around with a ruler to smack those who used their left hand for writing. Luckily, that practice must have stopped when I went to grade school as I write left handed.

I was a lefty until Catholic School. The ruler took care of that. Do most things righty now, but oddly I still am left-handed in dreams.


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[W2R]

My big brother was a leftie and had a lot of problems due to that. So when I came along and was also a leftie, my parents would have none of it. I wasn't allowed to favor my left hand, and they talked to the school so I wasn't allowed to write with my left hand or do anything left handed. I had a pencil or other tool removed from my left hand (along with a swat and scolding by parent or teacher) about, oh, 30498576270 times in early life.

I learned to choose my right hand for everything, but oddly I was still quite ambidextrous. That helped me tremendously in playing piano as a child and teen. For a while I used both hands in tennis instead of relying on backhand (like a famous tennis player back then whose name I have forgotten), but my family did not take to that and so I had to learn to use my right hand only.

When I was in my late 20's I incurred substantial nerve damage in my left arm and hand, so now I am genuinely right handed and never encounter anti-leftie bias any more. But for a while there I was truly ambidextrous and it was great.

 

[redduck]

For a while I used both hands in tennis instead of relying on backhand (like a famous tennis player back then whose name I have forgotten), but my family did not take to that and so I had to learn to use my right hand only.

Chris Evert?

 

[redduck]

The ruler took care of that.
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I'm left-handed. I remember nuns whacking me with a ruler every time I used my left-hand to write. Odd thing though, I never went to Catholic school.

 

[Asher Aion]

Another lefty. An aunt was forced to use her right in the old country, but I never had any those issues.
My parents bought me a right handed baseball glove when I was young. Not that it helped.