WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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My name is Steven, I\'m
48-years-old and I\'m a dwarf.

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[sil.]

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In 1967, there were films taken
at a children\'s hospital.

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I was a subject in a study of
abnormal growth and posture.

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It was my very first starring
role in a motion picture.

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[music]

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There I was, a nine-year-old kid
in a dingy hospital basement.

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Even as the camera was rolling, I could imagine
what those invasive little movies would look like,

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almost dirty. I feel like I\'d been under the spotlight ever
since. So many things were set in motion for me that day

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as if the curtain opened and something was revealed, a
brief glimpse of the mystery of how a physical difference

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can mark a person for life. Me,
I\'m still looking for clues.

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[sil.]

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Baby, although I chose this lonely
life It seems it\'s strangling me now

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All the wild men with big cigars

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and gigantic cars They\'re
all laughing at me now

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No thanks, bad luck, pity I am a midget.
Oh I\'ve been used, used

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I\'ve been taken for a fool, oh what a fool

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I broke all the rules,

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rules, yeah But I won\'t let the show go.

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[music]

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Now this has to do with the small people.
Yeah, with little people,

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say, sometimes call themselves. Then your
family members are small, aren\'t they?

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No, they are not. It\'s just one of those
things where one gene just trips.

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Oh, is that it? Yeah. I\'ve never asked you
before. I\'m always been interested to know why.

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Yeah. It\'s an experience for me.

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Well, I\'ve got to tell you it is for me as well. Oh
really? Well, you had back to Boston to your own family.

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Yeah.

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You are listening to the Saturday Morning Greenhouse.
Now the talk of the bay, AM 1340 WNBH New Bedford.

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And now you follow it
to the boxing matches.

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Yeah? Yeah, really, those
are boxing matches.

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Did he know I was coming? You
came, you already had arrived.

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Oh, anyone anyway. Yes, yes, that was okay.
Either way, don\'t know be that much.

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[music]

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Jimmy Carter was fighting in the size
and field the day you were born.

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He was fighting a guy with an Irish name
but he was really a Greek from Loughglinn.

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And your father came up the aisle and he says it\'s
a boy and I said well, good because I just had

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a boy myself in March. When did
somebody notice that something was up?

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That night, that night Dr.
Collins, the paediatrician came in

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and they didn\'t really know what the situation
was. What were the indicators? You were not

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as long as the average child.
They had suspected Something.

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Do you remember when I was born?
I remember and there

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were a lot of tears. I don\'t think anybody
really knew what it meant at first,

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what exactly was going to happen, and what kind of issues
you would have. Were they getting good information?

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I don\'t think so. I think back then they
had a lot of information. I don\'t think

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that they really knew what it meant.

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Your mother was a typical
mother\'s female reaction

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which was not easy to cope with.
She had a difficult time,

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but your father because he was there and his attitude I
think had a big influence and a big help on keeping her

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on a stable path. Well, it wasn\'t
setting but we had to cope with it

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and eventually come to terms with it.

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As time went on, we\'d talk and visit

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I knew there was a lot of
concerns started taking you

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to people up in Boston. We
were just back and forth,

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back and forth to Boston to Dr. Griffin. Do you remember
Dr. Griffin? Yes. Wonderful, wonderful man, wonderful man.

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He was the one wo did your first operation

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on your hips. Do you remember your hips?
I got a vague recollection.

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So they wind you altogether, all
the bones, they wind you up again,

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and you were in that body
cast for several months.

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Where we put you, your dad put you,
that was your state from that day.

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Did you ever meet any other families with

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dwarf children? No. They did have
some at the hospital, but we never …

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many people were standoffish and
didn\'t like to discuss anything.

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Anything that annoyed you over that course?
There are several times.

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Such as? They left you as cousin.
What was he doing?

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Taunting you and yes.

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And I remember dad telling you if he does anything
more to you pick up the crutch and hid them,

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but that was good because he never did
it again. I do remember one tough day

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that you had when you
were in parochial school

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and the kids were picking on you in the parking lot and your
mom came home after dropping you off and she was upset.

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You never felt sorry for yourself.
I saw no sadness in you,

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maybe twice growing up, I saw
you sitting with your dog

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on the top step after a hard day and thought
I was the only one who knew you were sad.

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[music]

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Dad encouraged you to try anything that you wanted to
do and if you couldn\'t do it you couldn\'t do it but

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you were exposed to a lot of
things; all kinds of ball games,

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hockey, do you remember playing hockey? Remember you were the goalie? Yeah,
I do. And when you had eye trouble, they stopped you from doing that

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and stopped you from riding the bicycle.

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I remember bursting into tears
when they told me. The goals were

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all set up by the medical people.
You had limits

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and he wanted you to whatever
that limit was to do it

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and maybe a little more in what you did.
That\'s right. I agree.

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And sometimes a little more than that. He\'s awesome.
Yeah, I agree. I bet you have incredible memories.

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Yeah, I do. The one I\'d like to
tell people this thing that my dad

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and Mr. Brittle O\'Built, which was
effectively an old baby carriage

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with a piece of plywood on top, so they
bought me down on that and pushed me

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around the boulevard. And
that\'s the best thing

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that they ever did for me. It was sort

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of like you know here we are;
in the cold winter days,

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anytime just to get me out.

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I truly never met another
person like me until I was,

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let\'s say, 35.

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So that\'s meaningful that really is.
I pretended not to notice people

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pretending not to notice me, and I
pretended not to care when they did.

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I avoided mirrors and having my picture
taken or defining myself as any

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one thing or another until now.

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Now it\'s become necessary to seek out people,
people who were more comfortable on camera

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and with whom I might share
a little common ground.

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When I was six-years-old,

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this kid that was in my kindergarten class, who continued
to harass me up to the point where I graduated

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punched me in the stomach and
he said, you\'re a midget

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and you\'re never going to be any taller than you
are right now which of course was not true.

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So I went home and I said to
my parents, what\'s a midget.

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I think any parent of a little
person is special in some way,

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even if they don\'t want to be, you know just the tough
love, the lack of pampering and not being overprotective.

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I believe when I learned how to swim,
I had a body cast on at the time.

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My dad would go get the big glad trash
bags and duct tape it around my waist

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and throw me in the pool with me kicking and
screaming, dad, don\'t do it, don\'t do it,

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had the whole time. And it was then he would jump in
and pull us up because I was sinking like an anchor.

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Well, I guess that didn\'t work too good.
Okie-dokie. I think I\'m ready.

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I come from a family of seven. There\'re five kids, mom
and dad. They treated me just as normal as possible;

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he\'ll do it. We lived in town, but we
had farms. I did a lot of tractor work.

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There was nothing I really couldn\'t do.
If you say, I would do it a different way

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than the normal person but I would get it done. Nobody waiting
on me. If I wanted it, man, you got to get in and get with it.

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I\'ve always been encouraged. I think that
helps. If you have good teachers along the line

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in your education, if you have at least one good
teacher from elementary high school or college

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that helps a lot.

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People that really sort of
don\'t see your size being

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that it\'s going to hinder you.
I think if somebody

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ever said that to me, fuck you,

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I mean why are you discouraging me.
Positive self-esteem

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comes pretty easily in the first four or five
years when you don\'t care about such things

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and all you want is a fire
engine for Christmas.

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Self-image ultimately has to do with other
people and it\'s hardest to control.

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Some way down the line you notice the people who
are looking at you is if you\'re some kind of freak

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and they tend to want to fix that.

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Think about going to a relatively preppy school like
Providence College and adopting buttoned-down Oxford shirts,

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my new uniform as if putting on
a buttoned-down Oxford shirt

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is going to turn it all around and I\'m
going to be hanging out with the crowd

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and be well-liked and dating every night. When I
look back on it, it strikes me as almost ludicrous,

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and it didn\'t work. whoever
said the clothes made the man

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never shopped for his in
the boy\'s department.

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Everybody when they are young have a bit

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of a the-world-doesn\'t-understand-me.
But I think

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it\'s a little bit, maybe
it runs a little deeper

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if you\'re a dwarf.

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Perhaps I don\'t know, I am not going to compare my
paint to anybody else\'s because we all have scars,

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but there\'s a bit of anger. I don\'t think
I talked to my parents for like a year.

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Growing up short definitely
has its challenges.

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It took me way too long to accept that.
First step,

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learn what makes a dwarf a dwarf.

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We are here in Children\'s Hospital in
Denver where there is a genetics clinic.

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Got it. Thanks again. What we\'re looking
to find is an official diagnosis.

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I\'m in my 40s and I still don\'t know
what form of dwarfism I really have.

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If you\'re a freak it\'s advantageous
to know what kind of freak you are.

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So for that reason, the doctors going to
size me up and do some genetic testing

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and find out what made
me the dwarf I am today.

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The clinical diagnosis
I think fits very well

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with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia. We presume
since your parents were average stature

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that this was what we called a sporadic
mutation. The machinery isn\'t perfect

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and actually it\'s not perfect for a reason
because that\'s what drives evolution.

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Mother Nature is always kind of tinkering, sometimes things
work out better, sometimes things work out not as good.

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When I started out as a
geneticist, I saw your condition

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as a disease and the more I do this

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I realized it\'s not a disease; it\'s just
different. It\'s like a piece of music

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and you can take a piece of music and you can give it to two
different people and hear two completely different things.

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That\'s I think a good way to look at
genetics too. We\'re given our score of music

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and maybe having dwarfism puts you
in a different key. We all know

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that it\'s difficult to play music when you\'re starting
out if it\'s got five sharps or five flats in it,

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but that can be some of the most
beautiful music that\'s been written.

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Dr. Bellus\' musical analogy is
very apropos because the sequence

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of genes can be compared to notes on a musical scale.
I\'ve had a composer arranged my mutated DNA code

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into a theme for this movie soundtrack;
the music you\'re listening to now.

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[music]

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With my DNA theme song
bouncing around in my head,

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I hit the pavement. On the lookout
for all things dwarf related,

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what better place to start
than my local record store.

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There is a relative treasure
trove of dwarf material;

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Midgets of Metal, Midget Handjob,

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The Dwarfs, Elf Power.

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And really all isles and
little people pop inevitably

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to a 1977 classic.

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[music]

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I\'ve done a lot of waiting in my life.

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Here I am waiting to see the man who wrote the only top
ten song that will go down in short people infamy.

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Because it probably looked like I was
waiting in ambush, I was routinely told:

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Don\'t want no short people to live

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You know why I am here to talk about – I am going to be
your Charlton Heston like Michael Moore. You know what?

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Actually yeah, I mean yes and no. I mean I\'m
sure it\'ll turn up much better than that.

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But I\'m glad, I thought you probably had
something to do with improving the situation

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for little people in this country. I hope so.
Galvanizing something. Because attention should be paid

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to problems that any minority has.
Was there a backlash when?

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There was, it wasn\'t gigantic,

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but I never thought it would be as
popular as it was nor did I think

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that anyone would misconstrue
that it was entirely satirical.

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It was about someone who was a lunatic, there\'s no
one that harbours feelings like the guy in the song.

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If you can show me someone
I would be astounded.

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My I had been so nervous that I have been… Oh Steve,
that\'s a great pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you very much.

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Good talking you. It\'s good to talk to you. If you
want to cut it and make me look like Charles Manson.

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[music]

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Are the stars bright in America, Terry?
But the starts are bright.

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Hey, Frankie, there are more stars…
In 1986, I met Frankie Starlight.

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Frankie was the first dwarf I could
relate to in any way and ironically,

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I would only meet him in a movie.
Are the dwarfs in America, Terry?

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Sure.

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I guess. There are dwarfs
everywhere I guess.

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How many conferences have you all attended?

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This is our third, we are sisters. These are
your sisters. My seventh. This is my second.

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Boy, this is my first.

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You know there was one year when the
Little People of America Conference

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was quite literally blocks away from
where I worked and I chose not to go.

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Friends of mine were asking
why, why don\'t you go,

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and I had no good answer for that.
It\'s never drawn me in

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and it\'s not that I\'m like, well, no way, I\'m
not hanging out with those little tiny people.

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No, I\'m just going to like you
know it\'s not that. It\'s like

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I don\'t know what it is. It\'s just
because you have dwarfism in common,

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it\'s sort of expected you are going to have
a lot in common. There are an estimated

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50,000 dwarfs in the US and
hundreds of types of dwarfism.

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The most common such as achondroplasia
involve genetic mutations

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that make bones grow at uneven rates. Others, the
folks who I referred to at least in slang as midgets

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have pituitary glands that just don\'t
produce enough growth hormone.

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People of uncommon stature comes
in lots of shapes and sizes.

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Me, for instance, my headsets on my
shoulders are like some pants dispenser,

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a broad forehead you could post
advertising on it, a barrel chest,

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clubbed foot, greyed teeth. As you all know
that my name is Matt, this is my wife, Amy.

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I am the president of the… It\'s common experience of little
people, they might see another little person here and there

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and I think I\'m not one of those, I don\'t look
like that and then they would come to a conference

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and they would go down the lobby, see all these
little people, and they come back up to the room,

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look in the mirror, and look at their back, and go, oh my
god, I do look like them. I never gone to a convention,

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I\'d never been to a regional, I\'d never
been to even a tiny district meeting.

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So I dragged my mother with me and
we went to a national convention

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and there were about 2000 little people in that
lobby when I walked in and I turned around

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
and I walked out. I flipped out. That was the
first time I\'d ever seen another little person.

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
The experience of the Little People
of America Conference was for me

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
one of recognizing that it\'s benefited so
many people. They offer medical resources

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
and information about all kinds
of inventions and contraptions.

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
Things like tools to get your socks
on if your arms are too short

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
or mobility aids that can actually be
road-tested. Remember speed kills.

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
It\'s not uncommon for people
to find their roommates there

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
and it\'s not uncommon to find that special someone
you might spend the rest of your life with.

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
If I had learned about LPA earlier

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
in my life, maybe I would have found
someone too, but that didn\'t happen.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:38.000
[music]

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
Ladies and gentlemen and children
of all ages, we\'re going to present

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
for your approval a novelty picture with an all-midget
cast. The first of its kind ever to be produced,

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
and it\'s called The Terror of Tiny
Town, but I must caution you,

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
not to take it too seriously.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
You mean, it is serious? Serious serious.
I am the hero.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
After this picture is up, I\'ll be the
biggest accomplished star in Hollywood.

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
Not is the time for this. If
you don\'t give me the map,

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
my son will be cutting
you into little pieces.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
If you think of how few of us
little people they really are,

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
the odds are that most people have never met
a dwarf face-to-face, dwarfs you do meet

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
typically in Hollywood movies, come across
as either cuddly or simply uncouth.

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:48.000
[music]

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
To me like somebody ain\'t very friendly.
I\'d seen little people

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
in films like The Wizard of Oz and Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs, but I never really identified

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
with any of those characters just
because of their relative size. For me

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
Dopey was a guy named Dopey, a Munchkin
was a Munchkin, nothing to do with me.

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
Certainly I never considered
it as a career choice.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
For whatever reason little people are

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
tend to be in entertainment business.
They are funny

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
to look at, people enjoy watching their movements
and their motions for again for whatever reason

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
that\'s the case. They end up getting
those kinds of opportunities.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
So it sounds like we\'ve maybe done some of it ourselves.
We may be set societies with expectation of us

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
or perception of us in our own rank and
file, but I personally cannot control

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
if somebody has somebody chooses to be a clown, for
example, who make their living to put food on their table

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
who am I to say you can\'t
make a living doing that.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:33.000
[music]

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
I started out in show business when I was
15-years-old yeah in comedy, it was comical roles,

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
just slapstick type of humour. People in LPA
get a little upset about that kind of stuff,

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
all that\'s stupidity, why would
they do that. Well, it\'s basically

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
what the director wanted and you know it\'s a living and I have a
family to raise, I\'m just trying to make a living off of my size.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
I do have limits. I wouldn\'t ever do
nothing to really hurt my people.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
I have been unfortunately exposed

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
to scripts that were insulting, that
I would never be a part of ever.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
Other little people have called me crazy for
that and said why would you not take that role.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
They\'ve been paying you, right? You\'re going
to get money for it, do it. Well, no.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
I think that

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
writers need to be more creative in their
roles that they\'re giving to little people

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
and the little people need to be more
discriminating in what they will agree to take.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
[music]

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
With the Station Agent, I didn\'t set out to make
a movie about a dwarf or addressing dwarfism.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
I was much more concerned
with themes of isolation

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
and connection and disconnection. I thought
it would be a visual cue for the audience

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
for someone who is automatically an
outsider. The part of Finbar McBride

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
isn\'t limited by the fact that Peter\'s a
dwarf; it\'s just a part of that role.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
It\'s not the essence of the role.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
I can relate to some of these
things in my character\'s life

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
like how children react to me. I wouldn\'t really have to tell
Tom. Tom and I would walk down. He lives in New York as do I.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
We walked down the streets of New York
together and he would see how children

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
react to somebody our size,
sort of that curiosity

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
and wonder and does such comes always from such a
great place with kids. Are you a kid? Are you a guy?

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
I am confused. Responses
have been so amazing.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Everything from people saying after an interview, I\'ll
be honest, I always had a thing about little people.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
They kind of freak me out and this
totally changed my idea. I said well,

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
have you ever known anyone? No, no.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
What grade are you in? I\'m
finished with school.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Are you a midget? No.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
It made me realize what it was like to try to make a
film in the 50s or 60s with an African-American actor.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
People were so isolated that
they didn\'t know a black person

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
and when they came into contact, they were
responding to the few glimpses they\'d had in

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
film and TV, right. Do
you people take checks?

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
Say that again. Do we people take checks?
You mean a black man?

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
No. God! No, I mean your company. Don\'t
give me that backtracking bullshit,

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
that was a racist slur! No, it wasn\'t, really. I would
never … I Tell you what, I\'ll make it real easy for you.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
Why don\'t you just pay me in cotton?
Or a cart load of watermelons?

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
Or how\'s about a couple of them buckets of fried chicken? \'Cause
you know how we black people, we just love fried chicken.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
Hey, no, come on now. Settle down. I think… This cat
don\'t believe a nigger knows how to cash a check.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
Charlie, I don\'t want to ever hear you
use the N word in this house. What?

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
I didn\'t say anything remotely racist. Oh,
so it\'s the little people thing then.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
No. No. I don\'t know if you\'ve
ever had this before but

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
if someone comes up to you and says
you are so and so or I know you,

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
it seems like every small person
someone sees, you\'re that same person.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
They don\'t see you, they don\'t see what colour
your hair is; they just see your shortness

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
and they think you\'re that person.
I\'m chained to the wall

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
I\'m nothing at all

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
and my eyes look into the sunset thinking
of better things to do like a monkey

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
in a zoo the days go so slow I like to think
and I\'ve gotten used to people staring at me

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
when I walk down the street, but I have
to say sometimes it used to piss me off.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
It\'s a kind of imposed celebrity status
that dwarfs don\'t ask for, but lately,

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
I\'ve decided to enjoy it.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
Out of the corner of your eyes,
you see somebody sort of

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
regarding you like some painting
on a wall or some well,

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
I apologize for this, but like some animal in a
zoo. They are just trying to figure you out,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
trying to figure me out. I
feel this responsibility

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
to be polite, to be funny, to
be worthy of that attention.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
Then sometimes you resent
that responsibility.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
For me it\'s like this I\'d
have body experience,

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
I think that it\'s like I can
imagine what I look like

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
from inside somebody else\'s head and
I think that most little people

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
can relate to this experience,
feeling that you are separate,

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
like you are in your own movie. Blending in

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
as a dwarf is difficult. I wouldn\'t say
it\'s impossible but it\'s difficult.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
With your baseball hat and
sunglasses and just walk through

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
a movie theatre and not being recognized, I want
to think the people maybe look at me because

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
they like my hair or the
shoes that I have on,

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
not that I am 4\'3 \" but more often than not
I have a feeling it\'s because I\'m 4\'3\"

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
and I get offensive over that. And when I was younger
and I\'ve just should\'ve gotten my ass kicked

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
so many times because I would challenge everything, every
time I heard something from somebody on the street,

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
I would just challenge it like get on their
face. It\'s probably because of my size

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
I didn\'t get my ass kicked, I am sorry I\'m swearing,
all the time because they\'re like oh no, okay, sorry.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
But it gets a little bitter, but not now.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
I\'m so …

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
It\'s either a skill or it\'s a curse, that\'s a talent
you develop, waiting to catch people staring at you.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
You\'ve been walking down the
street and some kids come in,

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
they want to cross over and to avoid some interaction but if you
can\'t, you just keep walking and walking, walking and waiting

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
and waiting and then they spot you.
Hey, excuse me.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
I asked you, do you mind sitting. No, I
will sit here with you for two minutes.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
Hey guess what, I just need a half. Now
guess what, first of all, you got it on?

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
I\'ve had people kissed me in bars, I\'ve
had people kissed me on a shuttle bus.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
I\'ve had people want to pick
me up, want to hold me,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
and it goes on from there.
You don\'t like me?

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
That\'s what I knew. Did I respect you?
No. I called you what?

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
Man. Man! I have a story for you. 6

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
:00 AM on a cold, cold Boston winter morning
I took the subway to South Station.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
The big dig had pretty much just commenced and
there was a lot of construction going on.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
I was going to take the elevator from
the subway station to the street level

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
and the elevator laid at the dead end of
this passageway, a sort of concrete hallway

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
which meant that it bucked some people in.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
There was a woman there who had huge gym
bags and duffle bags slung her shoulders

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
and she had big wide
glasses on, big wide eyes.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
She was kind of bent over when she\'s spotted me blocking her exit
as if she had to bolt the elevators didn\'t come anytime soon.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
So she started screaming. Chucky!
Chucky! Get away, Chucky!

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
And I am thinking, no, wait, get away, stop.
And she kept coming at me and she kicked me,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
kicked me in the shirts. Now I\'ve
been mistaken for other little people

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:45.000
but never homicidal puppet.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
People don\'t believe when I am telling them, it was little
weird because your husband is a little person too? I mean,

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
no, well he is six feet tall. It\'s
great because he is not so over me.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
I deal with a lot of people\'s questions in act. You
get goofy questions like were you always that size?

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
It\'s like yeah, I came out of the womb 3\'7\" for
my mother to handle. I\'ve had people shout at me.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
They think that I\'m hearing impaired because
I\'m small, I\'ve had people sign language

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
and I mean it just it\'s amazing what people
come up with. People have actually asked

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
me if dwarfism is contagious.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
I just wish people would be more,

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
I don\'t know the word for it, just
more informed and not so obvious.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
They have to stare… If they have to get out of
curiosity, it would be nice for just come up and say hey

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
I\'ve got some question.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
If you\'re curious, those questions
could be answered. What can you do?

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
People are going to look, people are
going to do whatever their reaction is.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
You can\'t stop that.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
We are in the spotlight whether
we are entertaining or just being

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
normal people and there is a standard that we have
to uphold. I mean no matter what size you are

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
or anything like that, your life goes on, you
have certain responsibilities in society

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
that you have to fulfil and you can either
make it a positive gift or a negative one.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
[music]

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
We\'re on our way to Lafayette,

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
have ways to go as a matter
of fact to see Bushwick Bill,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
hardcore rapper. I think I just saw a sign

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
that said Lafayette 67 miles.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
The sun has pretty much gone down.
Note to the editor:

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
Cut to a shot of this.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
It\'s where we\'re on the lookout
for the elusive Bushwick Bill.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
We are here at the restaurant
of his manager and they haven\'t

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
picked him for a day-and-a-half, two days. We were
supposed to meet with him at five o\'clock this afternoon.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
That gives us about five hours to find him and he\'s
supposed to perform tonight at midnight. Steve!

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
Bill, how are you? I am all right.
Thank you. Oh, okay, here\'s an idea.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
Hey Bill, what\'s the deal,
when are we going to see you?

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
No, I want to talk to you before that.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
I want to talk to you as soon as – You never
see people like Bushwick Bill and shows

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
that have been done about people with
dwarfism. Some of the programs that I\'ve seen

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
they introduce us to people with dwarfism
who have overcome obstacles in their lives

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
and have families now and are
people just like you and me.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
That bores the hack out of me.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
I realized size ain\'t shit.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Before being popular

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
I met very few people of my size.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
They were standing up for themselves and I said,
whatever motherfuckers told me do they did,

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
I\'ll be damned. I mean they
used to tell me not to hang out

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
at the side because would make fun of me. I mean
I didn\'t give a fuck about that to be honest

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
with you because they were protecting me but I wanted
to be a part of this great big world that we live in.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
If I had the except ridicule
because that then f**k it.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
That\'s what I got to accept, that\'s what I got to deal
with, that\'s what I am going to do. I ain\'t tripping, man.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
It\'s like everybody is going to be themselves. I appreciate people
for what they do, but that extra bulls**t that comes through,

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
I\'m not concerned. If you are going
to keep it real, keep it real,

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
but don\'t try to use your brain on me when I\'ve been showed
all my life and that\'s all I had to use what\'s on my mind.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
You probably use this s**t socially.
I had to use mine minds

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
as a weapon.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
[music]

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
It should be clear by now that I\'m drawn
to the more extreme images of dwarfs

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
and director, Werner Herzog,
has his own radical ideas.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
The performers in his films
are no fairy-tale creatures.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
Searching for what constitutes
us as human beings,

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
you have to go to certain extremes.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
It\'s like when you try as a scientist
to understand the very structure,

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
the innermost structure of some matter unknown
to you, you have to put it under extreme heat

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
and extreme pressure and all of
a sudden you will understand

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
what the latter is all about. The
midgets in Even Dwarfs Started Small

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
what was the common denominator is that
they have a radical human dignity.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
Something went wrong in their world

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
and the world of human beings
and it is the world of objects.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
It\'s not the human beings who are
out of proportions; it\'s a world

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
that human beings have created. Mr. Herzog\'s
film is about how we\'ve created a world

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
that just doesn\'t accommodate everyone.
That\'s an interesting point

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
and I\'ve begun to reconsider the universe around me. For
starters, I have a whole new relationship with chairs.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
After looking at

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
countless photos of dwarfs and people who
become famous because they are dwarfs,

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
I\'ve have noticed that in virtually every photo
they are posed next to a chair. It\'s a photographic

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
invention I find significant or maybe
even funny. When it comes to furnishings,

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
there really is something
discomforting about being a dwarf.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
The midgets scamper up the ladder
to disappear inside the bomber.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
The drill are buck rivets as they call it and do
other things in respective spaces inaccessible

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
to normal-sized workmen. Our
genius has been called the ability

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
to convert an embarrassment into an advantage.
In the last, say, 50 years we\'ve come a long way

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
in terms of what opportunities are
opening up, but I think height prejudice

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
is as probably as prevalent as any other
kind of prejudices that are out there.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
Being of non-common stature

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
has never really entered,
I mean it enters my mind

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
but only when people stick
it in your face. I\'m sure

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
opportunities have been limited
because of it even though

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
I might not have ever realized that.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
Entry: Midget, function:
noun, definition: dwarf,

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
synonyms: bantum, dusty butt, gone,

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half-pint, knee high,
lillipution, little person,

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pee wee, pygmy, runt,

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shorty, shrimp, squirt. The
evolution of what people call you

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because you are visually
different is probably parallels,

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similar things that black
people have gone through

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or Asian or every generation
has something else.

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Right at the moment, short stature seems to work
for me. I don\'t really recognize the word, dwarf,

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or any of the other ones,
I just never have.

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Short stature seems to fit the bill.
The term, little people,

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in some regards it\'s a little
demeaner, it\'s too protective,

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it\'s too cautious. I don\'t
know, I don\'t respect

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that sort of behaviour. I\'m sure
if I heard the word midget,

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it\'s sort of like weirdness,
it\'s like the N word.

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A lot of people in this country still don\'t
realize that the word midget is unacceptable

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and insulting and degrading.
They don\'t realize it.

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So you were pretty steady or was
it more the bachelor party…

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One of the first roles that I ever did was
on NYPD Blue and I always remind that people

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to this day remember. It\'s a midget too?
It\'s little person, a**hole.

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Look, I\'m supposed to know that. Some people call themselves
little people, some people call themselves dwarfs,

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some people call other people midgets not
knowing whether they are a midget or not.

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There\'s midget baseball, there are
midget cars, the word\'s a valid word,

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but it\'s just not hurled at you from across the
street. So it\'s the tongue that doesn\'t work.

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There are just three things
in this laugh I can\'t stand;

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hatred, bigotry, midgets. I am sorry,

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I just don\'t want them. Do you ever want to
spray a midget with ray to see (inaudible)

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you know, make it wiggle a little bit.

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Looking for more midget humour,

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I was perversely delighted to find that some of
it\'s actually funny and politically incorrect,

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but you don\'t have to look too far to see that lately we
little people have redeemed our prominence in pop culture at

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the most mainstream media.
We are everywhere you look;

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there\'s Daytown TV. Welcome back everybody!
The guests on today\'s show,

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you know they are little people.
They barely stand three feet tall.

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[sil.]

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We are having fun today, helping
lovelorn little people finding them.

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Did she choose for you?

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No way. Until I started watching,

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I hadn\'t fully understood the
reality of our numbers on TV.

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We are legion. 44 little people are going
tow to tow with an Asian elephant.

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The elephant looks very explosive to
the lead and the elephant has won.

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And I wasn\'t in the habit
of looking at pornography

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on the internet either.
Yes, indeed, there we are.

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Dwarfs and sex

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is a common curiosity.

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He\'s Frankie Starlight all grown up.

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You are the bloke who wrote
the book, aren\'t you?

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Yeah. Do you guys f**k? Pardon me?
Do you guys f**k?

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Dwarfs or writers? Obviously, sexuality
is an enormous part of what it

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means to be human and it would be
impossible to imagine any character I think

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without in some way addressing and
understanding their sexuality.

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Frank\'s sexually as I understood
was complicated by his stature

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but it certainly didn\'t change his sexuality itself.
Well, I haven\'t had much experience with women.

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Do you often feel sorry for yourself?
I felt that when I read your book.

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It\'s true. I don\'t really like myself very
much. He has an important encounter with the

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beautiful female interviewer who reaches out to him,
but whom he asked that very demanding question,

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but could you love someone like me.

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There you go. I\'ll get your card.

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Your first name is Finbar?

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Yes. My name is Emily. Hi.

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Hi.

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You have a nice chin. After
a lot of conversations,

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people will say almost in a hush voice,
and he\'s so sexy. But they will,

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I\'m like, well, say that. You don\'t hesitate to say
George Clooney is sexy in the middle of an interview.

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You know you\'ll say I\'d sleep with George
Clooney, but with Peter, it\'s still interesting.

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There\'s still a barrier to be crossed there.
At the moment, my sex life is non-existent.

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I won\'t tell you how many dates I\'ve had in my
lifetime but I\'ve only had one with a little person.

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I hope she doesn\'t see this, because
I don\'t think it went very well.

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Look at me, side-by-side comparison,

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I think little people take most
congeniality in the beauty pageant of life.

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I look pretty good in that shot.

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[music]

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We are examining the idea

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of what is beautiful

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and what is not.

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I am asking Nicholas too make me
as beautiful as he possibly can.

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We are also referencing things
like this, (inaudible) painting,

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the portrait of Sebastian Morra.

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Do I look anything like him?
It\'s spitting image.

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Thank you for that.

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My wife and I really knew nothing about
dwarfism until our daughter Rebecca

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was born in 1992. We
were given some pictures

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of kids with achondroplasia. We were
offered psychological counselling

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which we turned down and we were offered a
chance to have an appointment with a geneticist

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which we took. She reconfirmed the diagnosis,
pointed to some other kind of subtle signs

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and she told us I want to assure
you that there was nothing

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you could have done. We kind of sat there and
weren\'t really quite sure what she meant

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and then eventually I think it
dawned on one of us at least

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that what she meant was this couldn\'t have been picked
up in utero and you couldn\'t have chosen abortion.

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If you had known earlier
than the night I was born,

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there was a problem and that my life might
have been more difficult because of it,

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would you have considered terminating the
pregnancy as they say? No, not at all.

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Is it for religious beliefs?

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No, because you have to
give you a chance at life,

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such it would be, but so far it\'s been very
good for you. So I don\'t regret that, no.

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When look at it this way the
medical problems that may come up,

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there\'s no guarantee they will, but
they can and in some cases, they do,

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that can happen to any normal couple. You see
Down Syndrome children and so on and so forth

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all the time and these happened to
supposedly normal people. Having children

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is kind of like a gamble. I would
like to think that if we were given

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complete information we would have
chosen to go ahead with the pregnancy,

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but would we have been given complete information,
is it in the interest of insurance companies

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and the medical establishment
to present a full picture

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or is it more in the interest
to present a picture of

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these are all the things that can go
wrong and in fact, plenty went wrong

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for us in the first few
years, but we got through it.

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There were some people who believe that in
not that many years certainly affluent,

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well-educated people will look at
sex in purely recreational terms,

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but when it\'s time to have a child,
you\'re going to want to go in vitro

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so that you can scan the embryos and make
sure that you were implanting an embryo

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that will grow into the
so-called perfect child.

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That random element

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that\'s in nature is important for evolution,
evolution couldn\'t work without it.

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So in nature it\'s neither good nor bad.

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The universe that I know as a
scientist is not just, unjust,

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loving or unloving, beautiful
or ugly; it just is,

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those concepts are concepts that we invent
to find our own place in the universe

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and make sense out of the universe. I think
it\'s going to be a lot easier for my kids

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and their generation than it was for ours.
Kids in my kids class now

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in kindergarten, they\'re being
taught a whole new way.

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There\'s models of inclusion where it\'s
like a good thing to include people

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with difference in social activities
to the best of their ability.

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Kids of our generation weren\'t taught that.
There\'s so many average people in the world

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and I\'m not one of them. So I think

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that\'s kind of cool. I mean people look at me and
I\'m at the point where I\'m like yeah, come on,

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look at me. Why not, I think it\'s
different. I can be in a different way,

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maybe not the glamorous side, but I may eye
candy in interesting curious kind of world.

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We live in a society where
image is so important.

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We get magazines and then we see movies and
you know you want to look like Tom Cruise.

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You want to have the perfect
body and all that and I think

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part of maturation in growing up in wisdom
is realizing that that\'s not important.

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And I think people with genetic challenges

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realize that sooner than other people do.

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The older I get, the different joints and
parts of my body be hurting is not arthritis;

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it just has to do with
the frame that I\'m in,

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in this life that I got to do it. I\'m
not disappointed or discouraged.

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It takes strength to maintain anything we
do. So I am always going to take strength

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to keep and drive my life and I got
more than a separate tank for that

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Step up, get your ticket,

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alive and inside, a full grown
human being, only 29 inches tall.

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She speaks, breathes and feeds
just like everybody else.

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Like general this pint-sized princess

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is no bigger than a minute.

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I like these photographs by Bruce Davidson.
He took them in New Jersey

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about the time I was born, 1958.
I think they\'re beautiful,

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but despite their beauty, it represents the
notion that it\'s inherently sad being a dwarf.

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Is it? No.

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In fact, a small revolution has happened over
the course of my lifetime. Whether my parents

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knew it or not, we were part of it.

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[music]

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So this is where I find myself,
my place in the universe.

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I\'m still a guy who sdoesn\'t like the sight of his
own reflection or the sound of his own voice.

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Now I\'ve gone and made a spectacle
of myself. Yes, things have changed,

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things are changing. I wonder if in another
50 years, dwarfs might not be something

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of an endangered species,
but for now, here I am.

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All of you average people got to know a dwarf a
little better even if it was only in a movie.

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The next time you know what to call me,

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Steven. And now I have a question for
you; what do you think you\'re looking at.

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Chucky! Chucky! Get away, Chucky!