By TEDDYE SNELL
Some area adults may remember a time during their youth when schoolchildren were trained to use their right hand as the dominant one.
More than a few “lefties” may have had parents who continually tried to correct this “fallacy” in their development by using everything from bribery to corporal punishment.
Well, it’s time for southpaws to relax. Thursday is International Left-Handers’ Day, and according to www.lefthandersday.com, it’s an event celebrated annually worldwide.
There’s even a club – The Left-Handers Club, which once a year votes for a “left-hander of the year.” Last year’s winner was President Barack Obama, who will hold the title until Thursday. Obama was pitted against four other nominees, including Angelina Jolie, Paul McCartney, David Archuleta of “American Idol” fame, and Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal.
The club was founded in 1990 to keep members in touch with developments, make their views known to manufacturers and others, and promote research into left-handedness and development of new left-handed items.
No one quite knows why some people are left-handed, but approximately 13 percent of the world’s population is thus blessed, and it’s thought to be genetic. A July, 2007 report by the BBC indicates an Oxford University team of scientists discovered the first gene – LLRRTM1 – that appears to increase the odds of being left-handed.
Former Daily Press Staff Writer Eddie Glenn is a southpaw, and anyone who’s seen the chicken scratch that passes for his penmanship – written, of course, with an upside-down and backward motion – would wonder if lefties face certain challenges in a world designed for right-handed people.
“There are no challenges in a ‘right-handed’ world, because it isn’t such,” wrote Glenn in an e-mail. “I was told from an early age I’d never be able to successfully drive a stick shift because I [am] left-handed. Wrong! My best hand is on the steering wheel, and it doesn’t take a genius to shift with the subordinate hand, although it might be for a right-hander, since they’re not very skilled at anything, anyway. I’ve never owned a vehicle that didn’t have a stick shift.”
Fans of guitar great Jimi Hendrix – also a southpaw – will remember he use a guitar for right-handed people, yet strung it to be played with the left hand. Today, guitars are made for both left- and right-handed musicians. Glenn, also a musician and songwriter, believes this is a cop-out.
“Left-handed guitars? What a joke,” he said. “Once again, I have my best hand on the fret board on a regular guitar. And, when I pick up what they call a ‘left-hander’ guitar, my right hand can still make the chords, even though those fingers aren’t very callused. Once again, I challenge any righty to do that.”
According to the left-handers’ day website, the brain is “cross-wired” so the left hemisphere controls the right-handed side of the body and vice-versa, and hand dominance is connected with brain dominance on the opposite side. This may be why many say only left-handers are in their right minds.
The left hemisphere, or right hand, controls speech, language, writing, logic, mathematics, and science, or linear thinking modes. The right hemisphere, or left hand, controls music, art, creativity, perception, emotions and genius, or holistic thinking modes. (But don’t tell Eddie about the genius part; he’s hard enough to live with!)
As such, brain dominance makes left-handers more likely to be creative and visual thinkers, which is supported by higher percentages of left-handers than normal in certain jobs and professions, including music and the arts, and media in general.
Local resident Diane Weston isn’t a leftie, but two of her three children are, as is her sister. While Glenn may disagree about lefties being at a disadvantage in some instances, Weston has first-hand experience with one of her children.
“The first experience we had with ‘left-handed disability’ was when my eldest son was in first grade and the timed math fact sheets were made for right-handed people,” said Weston. “Because he was left-handed, he had to move his hand after every answer to view the next problem, which slowed his time down. His teacher eventually created a math facts sheet for left-handed kids, and his time improved.”
Not all the data from left-handed research is positive.
According to a 2005 ABC News report, statistics who left-handed people trend more toward schizophrenia, alcoholism, delinquency and dyslexia; and are more likely to be accident-prone and die young.
“It is, in fact, a left-handed world,” said Glenn. “Right-handed people just fabricate difficulties that they want lefties to experience so they, as the majority, can fell like they’re superior. But ‘majority rules’ doesn’t apply in handedness. Democracy doesn’t matter! You are all our sad, little uncoordinated minions and you might as well get used to it.
“Now what were you saying about schizophrenia?”
