Lehman Student Receives ADA Award

Román Sierra
Bronx Journal Staff

After a competitive nomination process and extensive review by expert judges, United Cerebral Palsy of New York City, Inc. (UCP/NYC) and its partnering organizations announced the 2000 NYC Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Achievement Awards.

For the ADA Award in Media, first place was awarded to Lehman student Lawrence Seiler, a Multilingual Journalism major, host of “Special People, Special Issues,” a Bronxnet television program. Seiler was recognized for his positive and enlightened focus on the lives of people with disabilities.

The Executive Director of NYC/ADA 2000, Edward R, Mathews, told Seiler “You were chosen to receive this award by three prominent individuals in the field of media. Our judges for his category were Mr. Chris O’Donahue, a former Channel 9 news reporter and himself a man with a disability, Mr. Carl Hartman of Young & Rubicam, and Mr. Charles Riley, Editor-in-Chief of WE Magazine.”

“I am delighted that Lawrence’s work has been recognized by this prestigious organization,” said James Carney, Executive Director of Bronxnet, an early supporter of Larry.

“As a community media outlet chartered to serve the entire Bronx community, we think it’s important that Bronxnet is open to all the citizens of the borough,” said to the Bronx Times, Mr. Carney, “It’s only appropriate that we have a disabled host creating a show that speaks to the needs and interests of the disabled in the Bronx. It’s exciting that it has developed into one of our most cutting edge programs.”

“We are proud of Larry”, said Orlando Lorca, Media Production Coordinator of the Multilingual Media Program ate Lehman College. “He has been a loyal student of our program and a valued member of 168 Horas, the Spanish-language television program.”

J.J. Gonzalez, former CBS reporter, and Larry’s mentor at Bronxnet, said Larry is “one of the hardest working journalists at Bronxnet, He initiates most of his own stories. Since he first started he’s grown by quantum leaps. The secret of his development as a journalist is that we believed in him; it’s as simple as that.”

In receiving his award, Mr. Seiler said:

“Thank you ladies and gentlemen, friends, distinguished judges, UCP.

Before I begin my acceptance speech I would like to begin with two famous quotes from two famous people in history:

Without struggle there is no progress

Frederick Douglas.

And by any means necessary

Malcom X

In my opinion these quotes relate to people with disability who struggle with just everyday living but regardless of the challenges they face in life they have the spirit of perseverance.

Just one of the reasons that Special People Special Issues was created was to shoe that people with disabilities can make a difference and make great contributions to our communities.

I would like the following individuals for their love and support:

My beautiful and lovely producer Maggie Nieves who equally shares this honor with me and has shown her love and utmost dedication in raising awareness and advocating in the field of disabilities. In addition, she has given me constant guidance and support in producing Special People Special Issues.

On a personal note, Ms. Nieves is not only an excellent producer but a stupendous friend.

I would also like to thank former Channel 2 newsman J.J. Gonzalez who gave me my first start at being a reporter for News 67, which led to hosting Special People Special Issues.

Thank you Jim Carney, Executive Director of Bronxnet, for all your support in every sense of the word and for believing in me and my cause to advocate for the disabled.

Thank you John Driver for your professionalism, creativity and assistance in producing segments of the program.

To Luis Torres, who lends himself in assisting and consulting us on the program. Thank you for your your kind and generous efforts. To the Multilingual Journalism Program of Lehman College, and to all my co-workers at Bronxnet who work hard in helping us produce our show.

To my mother and stepfather who have taught me that I could accomplish anything in life in spite of my disability. Thank you and I love you so much with all my heart.

In addition, I would like to dedicate this award to my father, the late Albert Sidney Seiler.Once again, thank you and congratulations to all the winners of the ADA 2000 Achievement Award.

Bridge: How a loser got lost

Julian Laderman

When a bridge player has to make an opening lead he is elated to find a suit in which he holds both the ace and the king. Leading either the ace or king of that suit is considered one of the most desirable leads. It will rarely hurt the defense. Even though all bridge books endorse leading the suit, there are differing opinions as whether to lead the ace or the king. The standard lead from this holding is still considered to be the king, but many duplicate bridge partnerships have switched over to leading the ace. The difficulty with leading the king from this holding is that the king would also be led if the opening leader held both the king and queen but not the ace. Therefore, in some cases when the king is led, the partner of the opening leader may not be able to tell which holding is held by the leader. The difficulty with leading the ace occurs on occasions when the opening leader leads the ace even though he does not have the king. When this occurs, the partner of the opening leader may be misled as to who hold the king.

On the illustrated hand the ace was led from the ace-king combination. This hand is a rare situation where this lead was unfortunate for the defense. Of course, whatever is unfortunate for the defense is good for the declarer. Declarer is looking at four losers: one club, one diamond and two hearts. Suppose the defense shifts to a heart after winning the club ace. Declarer can win the heart, play two rounds of trump ending in dummy and play the queen of clubs. Even though it is reasonably clear from the opening lead that West holds the club king, declarer should not ruff, but instead, discard the heart 3. Eventually declarer will get to dummy and play the club jack in order to discard the diamond 2. Therefore he will not lose any diamonds, and the 4S contract will succeed.

When a losing card is played from both declarer and dummy (in this case dummy’s club queen and declarer’s heart 3) it is called a “loser on loser” play. On this trick a heart loser was converted into a club loser. No obvious gain. An indirect gain is obtained by promoting a club winner, the jack on which to throw the diamond loser.

If the opening leader had chosen to lead the heart queen, instead of the club ace, this loser on loser play would not have been possible since when declarer loses the first round of clubs the defense can already grab two heart tricks. In principle, the actual lead is normally a desirable and safe lead so the defense should not be too frustrated that the lead turned out so unfortunately. They will probably be busy discussing how one of the declarer’s losers disappeared.

Several articles in The Bronx Journal have appeared where a loser on loser play saved a trick for completely different reasons. It is a very versatile play. The fun is to recognize and execute it. Don’t lose out by missing loser on loser plays.

Solution to Puzzle