pls do take the time to call and/or email all of the Indiana house of representative reps and ask they vote NO on HB 1367

see the latest version of the bill that the House of Reps should be voting on Monday

http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2012/HB/HB1367.1.html?tr=y&auid=10213723

this is what i sent them below.  you can copy and paste the email addresses and revise the letter as u see fit and check out the FACTS and talking points

http://www.iadhoosiers.org/category/hb-1367/

if you want me to post up your letter at PotE – just copy and paste it in the comment section and ill make a new post entry for it.  Spread the good stuff folks – we STAND.

———————-

h1@in.gov, h2@in.gov, h3@in.gov, h4@in.gov, h5@in.gov, h6@in.gov, h7@in.gov, h8@in.gov, h9@in.gov, h10@in.gov, h11@in.gov, h12@in.gov, h13@in.gov, h14@in.gov, h15@in.gov, h16@in.gov, h17@in.gov, h18@in.gov, h19@in.gov, h20@in.gov, h21@in.gov, h22@in.gov, h23@in.gov, h24@in.gov, h25@in.gov, h26@in.gov, h27@in.gov, h28@in.gov, h29@in.gov, h30@in.gov, h31@in.gov, h32@in.gov, h33@in.gov, h34@in.gov, h35@in.gov, h36@in.gov, h37@in.gov, h38@in.gov, h39@in.gov, h40@in.gov, h41@in.gov, h42@in.gov, h43@in.gov, h44@in.gov, h45@in.gov, h46@in.gov, h47@in.gov, h48@in.gov, h49@in.gov, h50@in.gov, h51@in.gov, h52@in.gov, h53@in.gov, h54@in.gov, h55@in.gov, h56@in.gov, h57@in.gov, h59@in.gov, h60@in.gov, h61@in.gov, h62@in.gov, h63@in.gov, h64@in.gov, h65@in.gov, h66@in.gov, h67@in.gov, h68@in.gov, h69@in.gov, h70@in.gov, h71@in.gov, h72@in.gov, h73@in.gov, h74@in.gov, h75@in.gov, h76@in.gov, h77@in.gov, h78@in.gov, h79@in.gov, h80@in.gov, h81@in.gov, h82@in.gov, h83@in.gov, h84@in.gov, h85@in.gov, h86@in.gov, h87@in.gov, h88@in.gov, h89@in.gov, h90@in.gov, h91@in.gov, h92@in.gov, h92@in.gov, h93@in.gov, h94@in.gov, h95@in.gov, h96@in.gov, h97@in.gov, h98@in.gov, h99@in.gov, h100@in.gov

Subject: Oppose HB 1367

Sat, Jan 28, 2012

Greetings Indiana Representatives:

I write to you to express my grave concerns at the attempts by pro-oral / aural ONLY entities (ie anti-ASL+English groups) to have just, right, good and sound outreach services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children removed from the Indiana School for the Deaf and put into a NEW center.

This proposed legislation (HB 1367) is wrong for several reasons:
1. the original proposed name of this new center shows a lack of knowledge of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people and should be a red flag that if they cant event get their name right they wont be getting the services right

2. the unjust and wrong assumption is that the Indiana School for the Deaf is biased and the new center will be unbiased.  Hmmm well lets take a look at this.  Hear Indiana and the pro-oral / aural ONLY proponents like St. Joseph outreach actively EXCLUDE American Sign Language and deny a Deaf child the right to a fully accessible and natural language.

Their “expertise” and  exclusionary doctrine is biased and extreme – yielding many adverse effects (socially, emotionally, academically, and cognitively).

These “experts” often have monetary ties to corporations and certification academies that stand to gain substantially from having a Deaf and Hearing Impaired (?) Center that promotes false hopes and falsehoods.

Unbiased – really?

3. While there has been a huge push for mainstreaming Deaf and Hard of Hearing children into public schools and a huge increase in cochlear implantation and auditory verbal therapy / listening and spoken language therapy, there has NOT been a significant and consistent improvement in Deaf and Hard of Hearing children’s literacy rate and graduation rate.

Do the right thing and nip this bad bill in the bud.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this letter.

Peace,

Patti Durr

im over joyed

im just WOW so happy that ya all are STANDING and DEMANDING that our TRUTHS BE TOLD

Julie Rems-Smario has launched a Lies AG Bell Told My Parents campaign

you can see the pictures / text / truths and info in the twitter and facebook accounts – please add yours and when you do in twitter add the hashtag of #liesagbelltoldmyparents and #HB1367  this way none of the good stuff goes missing

INDeafEdCoaltion Facebook http://www.facebook.com/INDeafEdCoalition to upload pix and read / see other text, pix, and video – dont miss wee baby Erika

Thank you Julie for finding a positive and creative solution to the suppression and burying of the truth about the reign of error (oral / aural only) and the 2nd wave tsunami that is trying to hit us all via CI+AVT, LRE mainstreaming mandate and Oral ONLY schools resurgence

Thank you Bert Pickell for starting the Deaf Education Coalition Oppose  HB 1367 Petition http://www.change.org/petitions/oppose-hb-1367

KUDOS and THANK YOU to all the folks in Indiana who are saying NOPE – nothing ABOUT us withOUT us – no way.  and also they be saying YA BASTA to AG Bell and Co (see Hear Indiana and Karl White and Lisa Kovacs and…. we see u)

We aint gonna stand for this again – no way.  And big thanks to Karen Kingrey who is making the trip from Austin, Texas to Houston, Texas today to hand deliver over 2,000 signatures to the hospital that will be experimenting on Deaf newborns and infants.  You go girl!  Pls sign the petition folks and get your family to too.  Karen K aims to send the petition to the US Legislature and Senate and President Obama after February 5th so hurry and sign and circulate.  Say no to eugenics.

Karen we are with you in spirit and indebted to you big time.

http://signon.org/sign/stop-stem-cells-experiment.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=1970141

im in a rush so im just gonna feed ya some important links below but there are MANY more good stuff out there.  many folks have been singing our songs of freedom – THE TRUTH – for a mighty long time folks and now we see a might stream flowing.  this is good and important.  – hopefully soon i can do a blog entry re: some of the important ART that has come out of the movement cuz a picture is worth a thousand words and the role of the artist is to disturb the peace ~ james baldwin (negative peace that is not positive peace – the telling of the truths gets us one step closer to a TRUE and POSITIVE PEACE of which MLK Jr Dreamed and STOOD and WORKED for)

we be jumping at the sun folks.  You are BEAUTIFUL.  keep shining and know you are LOVED!

and oh – AG Bell – yes i know you read me ; )  YA BASTA!

AGBell: The Elephant in the Room by Ella Mae Lentz

Shawn Elfink tells the truth about St Joseph outreach trying to upsurge ISD outreach as she is a survivor of the St Joseph system

Jay Kieger – Geese know something that we dont?

Jeffrey Robert’s AG Bell the Man and the Association

http://theterlinguan.blogspot.com/2012/01/alexander-graham-bell-man-and.html

(cuz some folks like to pretend that AG Bell and co. have reformed their ways when they AIN’T.  Just see the Pepsi letter they wont retract and the membership cards insulting teachers of the Deaf by calling them Hearing specialists and their FALSE PROPHECY motto of “Independence through listening and talking” – the Association was born on the bedrock of AUDISM – the belief that to hear and/or behave as a hearing person is superior to being Deaf and they have maintained that stance up to this VERY day.  just see AG Bell’s components of quality auditory/oral program and their mandate to infiltrate public schools and how Hear Indiana an offspring of AG Bell Association and a devoted disciple of the oral / aural only  any mean means necessary doctrine’s components of a quality auditory/oral program CHECKLIST.  they aint been shy or quiet about it folks.  u can spin, deny, detract, distract, minimize, falsely testify and “debate” all ya want but YA BASTA.  Truths being told and the river is gonna flow.  See ya all in st. louis)

Maisha blog with pix of the truth and Maureen Klusza awesome and famous Greatest Irony cartoon and our ancestor – George W. Veditz famous Preservation of Sign Language film with Dr. Carol Padden’s translation.  I weeped!

http://wheresmaisha.blogspot.com/2012/01/lies-agbell-told-my-parents.html?showComment=1327771030405#c2430135625677559877

good day America!

warning – this is a long one but i hope its worth ur time.

ya hoo – ya all are remembering your roots aint ya

well that is a mighty fine sight to see

(Keystone pipeline dropped, SOPA and PIPA dropped, Iraq war ended (kinda, sorta well…), working to end corporate personhood (our elected officials shall not be bought), and making sure no sneaky new rules mess up the voting rights.

DeMOCKracy – being reclaimed to be a true democracy

come on folks – keep standing cuz it is MAKING a DIFFERENCE! and cuz without it well no plant, mineral, animal, or human stands a fighting chance.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. ~ Tommy J.

(but since that is pretty much what we do now a days, we might as well get the 1% to pay their share since its THEIR ideas we are paying for.  come on even the rich dudes are saying “its a hafta do” – thank u warren buffett u give me hope )

this country, the wittle ole U S of A, was founded on some pretty ole grand principles, which she has been taking her time to realize

I type of the “We hold these TRUTHS to be self-evident….”

and we did a mighty big PUSH under that banner and PROTESTED against taxation without representation

and folks since the bedrock of our country’s principles were right,  just, and good – we grew and we soared but every time we hit the crux of badness, we had trouble and usually the trouble was BLOODY and HORRENDOUS and always due to our straying from that fundamental truism.

in 1776 we proclaimed those mighty words of self-evident TRUTH that we hold so dearly: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.”

fast forward to 1863 (4 score [20 years]  + 7 = 87 – 1863 and you get 1776) and you get honest Abe Lincoln reminding us of our origins and our purpose in the Gettysburg Address:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

and the short and mighty tribute and manifesto concluded with a call to duty – to serve justice JUSTLY.

“…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” ~ Abe L.

fast forward to 1963 (5 score = 5 X 20 years = 100 – 1963 and you get 1863 – Abe’s Gettysburg Address, which tells you to go back 4 score and 7 years ago to 1776 – ya see its all connected to our roots) and you get marvelous Martin standing on those white steps in front of honest Abe trying to awaken the conscience of a NATION.

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.” ~ MLK

Martin goes on to delineate the injustices that African-Americans still experienced in the US of A due to the denial of JUSTICE and dreams despite the abolition of slavery in this country 100 years ago.

Read the WHOLE speech and weep folks.  That speech was delivered nearly 10 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education when the US Supreme Court finally realized that legislatively mandated – separate is not equal nor is it constitutional.  But it took guns to get those kiddies into the schools.

See Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With

http://img.artknowledgenews.com/files2009b/The_Problem_We_All_Live_With_Look.jpg

And it was almost 10 years after the YEAR LONG Montgomery Bus Boycott.

And it was four month after Martin Luther King, Jr had spent some time in a Birmingham jail writing some letters that spoke of positive peace, the spiritual audacity to assert our somebodyness, and the social obligation to stand for that which is just right and true.

And it was before the bloody march on Selma (1965)- the blood being theirs and being spilled by the oppressor called RACISM and paid men with billy clubs and boots

this was probably the turning point of the civil rights movement.  words of dreams without ACTION – without STANDing for that which is just right and good and without DEMANDS are empty and meaningless.

and it was before 1968 when a shot rang out and ended a life that knew would never see full fruition.

I have always believed that Martin came for ALL of us.  not just for African-American folks and not just for ignorant white folks and not just for the 1960s but for you and me and yours and mine and for those to come.  He showed us a way of how peaceful resistance, civil disobedience, and non-cooperation can change the heart and soul of a nation to remember her roots.  We are forever indebted to him and for all the brave everyday people of this nation, who choose to stand for that which is right, just and true.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

He did not stop.

He was persecuted.

He was maligned.

He was set up and falsified by the FBI.

He was afraid but still he STOOD.

Because the truth is bigger than all of us and if we do not STAND by her we are all doomed.

And he was betrayed – he was the golden boy of the Northern liberals because he confronted and challenged the racist south but when Martin took his STAND to his Asian brothers’ plight – their being slaughtered in Vietnam – his liberal backers and financiers told him no, not now, this is not the hour nor the cause.  But Martin knew there is never a wrong time to do the right thing. and he always said and believed “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” -  so he stood.

and many others stood with him.  A sea of people STOOD and were counted.

And this is what it takes for Civil Disobedience to work folks.  Many many many good folks to do the right thing.  and it takes GOOD leaders.  Women and men who believe in the power of truth and who believe in the power of LOVE.

Civil Disobedience is a firm LOVE, a true LOVE, and a self-sacrificing LOVE.

Just ask Mohandas K. Gandhi

It works as long and as well as we do the GOOD work of STANDing.

Just ask Wikipedia, google, and all the other website systems that took a stand against SOPA and PIPA last week and Congress.

Just ask Occupy __________ (fill in a city near you) where folks have been arrested for exercising their first amendment rights to challenge corporate wrongs.  Most of the charges in these arrests have been dropped and/or dismissed.

Whether it be water hose spray or pepper spray – we gonna STAND.

Just ask Bradley Manning and the ending of the Iraq war.

If you do not know who Bradley Manning is – i can not blame you.  I knew of this person but not his name until I joined a march of the Occupy Rochester group from the public market to the Army Recruiting office on Bradley’s birthday.  I did some studying up before hand and after and i weep.  I do not think this young man will ever see a day of freedom but what he did, he did for TRUTH.

We should not be killing others in the name of “democracy” while we are constantly eroding our own and we should not be detaining hundreds, who we know are innocent but we fear what they will do to us once released because of the injustices they have experienced under our iron thumb, we should not be authorizing acts to terrorize our citizens and restrict our fundamental rights and principles and the CORNERSTONE of this country in the interest of corporate greed, individualism, capitalism, and fundamentalism. Our elected representatives need to care more about the people who elected them than their own stock options.

YES WE SEE YOU and you are busted.

The country has turned its back on so many of our core values and reeks of hypocrisy and continues to rape and pillage the soil, air, water and lives of its people that something is gonna give.  It can either be a big ole bad ka boom or two or three or it can be CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

The choice is ours.

STAND folks before they legislate that they can throw you in the slammer indefinitely for having done so.  (or dont and get a few more NDAAs passed)

well i could go on and on about the power of civil disobedience

seriously i could go on and on about it – it is beautiful to behold and so rarely utilized cuz they always try to nip it in the bud very early by intimidation and all that other crap but just STAND folks – u is grand.  be peaceful and u cant go wrong.  Firm with love and forward march.  No death of the spirit folks – cuz living until you are 80 when you compromised everything you believed and and held dear to just so you could live a wittle longer is no life at all and when we stand WITH and FOR justice we all are served in the end.

see 10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of-the-free/2012/01/04/gIQAvcD1wP_story.html

Stand before we have nothing left to stand for and STAND while you can.

They are already roughing up and arresting folks for peacefully dancing at the foot of Thomas Jefferson (ya know the dude who wrote about those TRUTHS that are self-evident and that we hold so dearly)

Its now two score and 9 years since Martin’s five score… and we are still standing for freedom – freedom of speech, assembly, and press and for ECONOMIC JUSTICE and an end to UNJUST WARS.

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” ~ Tommy J

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” ~ Tommy J

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.” ~ Tommy J

“One man with courage is a majority.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Stand and be counted folks – cuz u count!

im awfully glad he was born

this is an entry i did last year in his honor for Merry Martin day

http://handeyes.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/merry-martin-day-as-thy-self/

this year RIT will commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the civil rights movement by having Dr. Cornel West present (i have hung my heart on his “prisoners of hope” essay and many of his writings), Garth Fagan Dance (internationally known dance company that is based in Rochester – Lion King rocks)  and Joshua Bennett who performed a rap poem of regret for not having learned ASL (see bottom video box)

If you’re in Rochester folks and free on January 23, 2012 from 12 pm to 2 pm go to the field house – its gonna be a FULL house.  We r gonna rock the house for Martin and social justice.  For more info go to: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48758

i have hung my heart on many of MLK Jr’s speeches, writings, quotes, and actions and i have aimed to have my feet plod along just a wee bit in the direction of his courage and goodness – extremists of love we aim to be

so here r some MLK jr quotes: (scroll down for one in ASL)

* You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression … If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie, love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until “justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
o Address to the first Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting, at Holt Street Baptist Church (5 December 1955). “Justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream” is a quotation of Amos 5:24 in the Bible.

* True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
o In a 1955 response to an accusation that he was “disturbing the peace” by his activism during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, as quoted in Let the Trumpet Sound : A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr (1982) by Stephen B. Oates

* Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.
o Stride Toward Freedom : the Montgomery Story (1958)

* Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.
o The Measures of Man (1959)

* I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
o Speech in Detroit, Michigan (1963-06-23)

* There are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be maladjusted until the good societies realize — I say very honestly that I never intend to become adjusted to — segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence. But in a day when sputniks and explorers are dashing through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence…
o “Social Justice and the Emerging New Age” address at the Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University, (18 December 1963)

* I must admit that I have gone through those moments when I was greatly disappointed with the church and what it has done in this period of social change. We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this. Now, I’m sure that if the church had taken a stronger stand all along, we wouldn’t have many of the problems that we have. The first way that the church can repent, the first way that it can move out into the arena of social reform is to remove the yoke of segregation from its own body. Now, I’m not saying that society must sit down and wait on a spiritual and moribund church as we’ve so often seen. I think it should have started in the church, but since it didn’t start in the church, our society needed to move on. The church, itself, will stand under the judgement of God. Now that the mistake of the past has been made, I think that the opportunity of the future is to really go out and to transform American society, and where else is there a better place than in the institution that should serve as the moral guardian of the community. The institution that should preach brotherhood and make it a reality within its own body.
o Interview after his “Social Justice and the Emerging New Age” address at the Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University, (18 December 1963)

* A riot is the language of the unheard.
o Address given in Birmingham, Alabama (1963-12-31)

* The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
o ‘Where Do We Go From Here?” as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?” which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence…” An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate…”

* We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
o Speech in St. Louis, March 22, 1964

from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr

Joshua Bennett’s Performance at the White House Poetry jam “Tamara’s Opus” – click CC if not appearing

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTIN – soooooooooooo glad u were born!

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. ~ Gandhi

Karen Kingrey initiated a petition with a few folks that calls for a stop on experimenting on Deaf newborns and infants.

http://signon.org/sign/stop-stem-cells-experiment?source=s.fwd&r_by=1127000

Hope you will take the time to sign this right, just and good petition and then tweet, facebook, and email it to ur friends, neighbors, and relations.  Don’ let them consign being Deaf to history.

The only thing wrong with being Deaf is being subject to audism (the belief that to hear and/or behave as a hearing person is superior to being Deaf).

Folks used to try to FIX gay, lesbian, bi and transgender folks all the time before – even consigned them to that big ole book on psychological abnormalities but they STOOD and said NOPE.  And now look they in the army now and getting married!

Folks used to try to FIX women and say they were the weaker sex and would ruin the work place with temptation and had to act like men to get ahead in the game etc but they STOOD and said NOPE. and they said “we’ll do it our way” and look they be running countries and changing the world.

Folks used to try to FIX African-Americans and say they had diseases and were intellectually inferior but they STOOD and said NOPE.  and said “Say it Loud.  We’re Black and Proud!” and look we have an African-American president and its so cool and hip to be Black that White folks are trying to do it.

And we all know what they done said about Jewish folks and how WRONG that was and how really really BAD THINGS HAPPENED cuz not enuf folks STOOD long enough and firm enough to say

NO!

STOP!

and ¡Ya basta!

sign it folks or don’t and say good by to your signing ways

the “option” is yours – just remember the newborn has no option

Most especially i call upon listening and spoken language specialists LSL / AVT specialists, the Alexander Graham Bell Academy and Association FOR the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and doctors to sign this petition because presently that study has AVT/LSL and doctors as collaborators and PIs and that is NOT cool.  (even they have the same last name – maybe a husband and wife team – sweet NOT)

http://www.multivu.com/mnr/53686-cord-blood-childrens-memorial-hermann-fda-approved-stem-cells-hearing-loss

Your profession should not be engaging in eugenics.

peace

patti

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better. It’s not.

~ The Once-ler

OCCUPY ROCHESTER TRIAL

1. Judge Johnson ruled to dismiss the charges against some of the Occupy Rochester folks who decided to stand in the park after dark for free speech, free assembly, and free press (a RIT college “Reporter magazine” reporter was arrested too)

Some folks arrested had accepted the ACD + 24 hours of community service but most of us decided to fight it

a total of 48 people had been arrested (32 on the first night and 16 a few days later) a few days after that the Mayor of Rochester reached an agreement with the Occupy Rochester folks to let them be there 24/7 and this week they have been celebrating 2 month in the part.  the agreement was to expire today but it is said it will be extended to the spring since the peaceful protestors have been so peaceful.  SWEET.

thanks to all who can and do stand up for our first amendment rights and thank u to all the folks who showed support, gratitude, concern, and love for me during all of this.  really im very moved by how good some folks are

NOTE: (added today 1/13) the Center for Disability Rights (CDR) had a meeting with Chief of Police Sheppard with two other representatives from the Rochester police dept. and invited me to join.  The meeting was great – Chief Sheppard seems very sincere and dedicated to doing right by Deaf folks and made several commitments towards that end.  Thank u to Rochester PD and CDR.

FELIX GARCIA

2. some folks had taken the time and heart to send Christmas cards or a note to Felix Garcia – a Deaf man who has been imprisoned for nearly 30 years for a crime his Hearing brother recently confessed to committing set up Felix to take the blame.  Felix has written back to some people.  i got a nice letter from him expressing gratitude for the card, sharing how hard things are and letting me know im on his prayer list.

I’m on HIS prayer list. this touched me deeply – that someone could be wrongfully incarcerated, experience horrible abuse, and suffer severe communicaSHUN access issues and he puts ME on his prayer list.  WOW.  im just awed by this.  so i hope ya all will take the time to write Felix or sign the various petitions out there.

don’t know who Felix is – you can get the link to the Mother Jones article about his case and see the Governor of Fla office reply to Audism Free America’s letter calling for Felix’s release at: http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/2012/01/fla-gov-scotts-office-reply-to-afa-re.html

Ridor has said that a notable top civil rights lawyer has agreed to take on Felix’s case pro bono so lets hope it goes forward and justice is served.  This doesn’t mean you all can rest easy.  You should still do something if so moved (write Felix, sign the petitions, write to the different groups in the governor’s response etc)

NANCY ROURKE

3. Prolific and powerful De’VIA artist Nancy Rourke has a video up showcasing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvnUW11EJFU&feature=colike)

Solitary Deaf Prison by Nancy Rourke

her works from this past year and has already created several to ring in the new year.  One of her recent works is Solitary Deaf Prison.  I just love how she take contemporary Deaf issues and creates visual testimonies and records of these events and people.

WARREN MILLER & CHUCK BAIRD

Still image from a scene from Switched at Birth program - Warren Miller's "I Love You" artwork in the background

4. Warren Miller’s artwork will be the back drop in a scene from Switched at Birth.  Warren Miller is a great De’VIA artist who some folks at Switched at Birth TV program discovered via Chuck Baird Foundation emerging artists section.  The program has purchased four of Warren’s paintings and he just emailed me that his “I Love You” work will appear in the next episode.  Its cool that the program is so supportive of Deaf actors and artists!

NOTE: keep your prayers and thought on famous and marvelous De’VIA artist – Chuck Baird.  He has had cancer for several years now and it is tough.

clips from a film by Tracey Salaway about Chuck and his art at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPGr9gNf4Y0

We Love YA CHUCK

EUGENICS

5. Stem cell experimentation on Deaf infants ages 6 WEEKS old to 18 month old

http://www.multivu.com/mnr/53686-cord-blood-childrens-memorial-hermann-fda-approved-stem-cells-hearing-loss

im speechless and signless folks.  these are babies!  if these were baby kittens the PETA would be making a stink probably.  How did the FDA approve this?

H O W ????

and Wake the #uck up folks – i have been tired of being the town crier!

do ya believe me now?  coming for a pair of ears near u

peace

patti

We have had a sporadic series going here examining if folks have a right to be Deaf.  See part I, II,III, IV, V if u want to check those earlier ones out.

———-

The Right to be… Deaf part VI

yes yes i know i aint touched this series in a long long long time.

there is a reason for it – i do not like the conclusion that is self-evidence so hence i have been avoiding.

ya see – i began this series with a question…

Do we have the right to be Deaf?

and the answer has come back with a resounding NO

The answer is NO folks

- when they have cochlear implants implanted in babies and controlled by REMOTE – by others

others being specialists, professionals, assistance and parents – not by the person with the implant themselves then no the RIGHT to be DEAF no longer exists.

Yes yes i know folks r still Deaf who have cochlear implants but the right to be as is, as created, or as u might want to be of ur own free accord – nope there is no bodily integrity and there is no autonomy and EVERYBODY i know of who learns of remote controlling kids with cochlear implants goes…

*GASP*

they all do – even the folks who got their cochlear implants as little kids – they all go EW.  and some even say – well that is like treating them like a robot.  (folks with CI say this  – some of them even refer to themselves as cyborgs but we should not use the robot word cuz it has been used to hurt but when folks who have CI use the R word we gotta take notice folks.  its important and it means something)

so the verdict is in and NO we do not have the right to be Deaf.  We do but we don’t cuz the systems DENY this right.  They are sneetching up the babes and chopping down those trulump trees – quicker than u can sigh&sign UNLESS…

Yes – we know that its alright to be Deaf and yes we know we do have the inalienable right to be Deaf  but we also know that folks r denied their inalienable right by the power that be

and we know that a baby really has NO rights when a system is set up nation wide to test their ears fresh out of the oven and condemn them to a life of “Passed” or “Referred” (ie Failed)

and pls dont tell me the whole early detection racket is actually serving the kids – i can totally SEE who it is serving – cha ching cha ching cha ching

hello Center for DISEASE CONTROL (CDC) – geez why dont u just call us a scourge

hello National Institute of Health (NIH) – National Institute on DeafNESS and other Communication DISORDERS (NIDCD)

hello National Center for ASSESSment and MANagement (NCAM)

hello Early HEARing DETECTION and INTERVENTION (EHDI)

i know i know – u say “its for ur own good”

hmmmmm – what good is it really getting Deaf folks except for the 2nd wave of ORALISM/AUDISM getting institutionalized

geez have u noticed how much money the CDC and NIH give out for research re: CI and ear cures and genetics???  and have u noticed how much money the CDC and NIH does NOT give out for ASL+English testing, assessment, intervention, materials, mentoring, services, training etc?

ODD, eh?

in pursuing this question of Do we have the right to be … Deaf – i have made some heartbreaking discoveries that we don’t

that in fact this right is being suppressed, trampled upon, and obliterated by any MEAN means necessary and that there is a depressing discovery

so my friends and my foes (as some of u might wanna see me but i just SEE ya and love ya from afar)

so my friends and neighbors on this planet earth (which we, humanUNkind, are killing mighty fast – see how fracking and earth quacks go hand and hand) i must be honest and tell u – i dont have the heart to imagine any more babes and walk us all through the process of how they are tagged, labeled, drugged, tested, molested, invaded, inoculated, marketed, tooted, etc etc etc cuz we ALL already know these things and if we dont by now its cuz we like eating sand and we “think” if we ignore something we can then pretend that INGORance is bliss and absolves us of any responsibility or complicity

but it dont folks

it certainly does NOT in times of moral crisis and this is what we got so as ive said before – i will say it again Wake the #uck up – and if u continue to do nothing, say nothing, contribute nothing – then u are officially part of the problem and that is not cool

and i am not speaking of poliTICKING – we do not need any more folks telling us how to make ASL pretty so its more attractive.  the language is bloody beautiful and hearing folks all over the planet are gobbling it up.  Meanwhile…. it is forbidden fruit to the very folks who will benefit the most

so you may say – i have survived childhood and my children are hearing so i care not so much for the others.

or you may say – i believe the dog and pony shows -  “look i can hear and speak for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE” (kinda, not really, sorta, well… what i mean is… says Sarah in her near perfect pronunciations)

or you may say – i believe rachel’s rants about how if u all just played nice ud have a job and be off of SSI but because u “DEMAND” so much – u r just a worthless and hopeless people

or you may say – i believe one of those studies with an N of 7 that was financed by MAJOR cochlear implant CORPORATION (ahhh the 1%) espousing the falsehoods that CI babies x 2 will make them on par with their hearing peers.

u may say any and all of the above and to which i will say – NOT COOL

it is not cool to only care about yourself and your won

it is not cool to swallow b.s. and deny the truth when wee lives are attached to those truths

it is not cool to tell folks that they have caused their own misery because they have not worked hard enough to be what they are not

it is not cool to sell the notion that if you play along you will not get played and you will be able to get into positions of power to help those down trodden because its untrue – when u play that game u end up being a token and or banging ur head against a wall trying to make a change

its not cool to protect the corporations over the right to be Deaf

Deaf infants, toddlers, children, youth and adults deserve the right to be Deaf and have access to a fully natural and accessible language in addition to English and u can throw in all those other accessories later if u like but the first and foremost fundalmental right is and shall be – the right to FREE speech – to understand and be understood in a FREE language – not one that comes at an astronomical and unjust price with iffy results except for the CEOs and stock holders (until a recall rolls around then they be singing the blues with you too)

so NOPE the babies do not have right to be Deaf because…

they are DENIED this right and that is not cool!

it is alRIGHT to be Deaf – in fact it is dandy – and that is what the manufacturers, specialists, and educators are bloody petrified of – that u all will realize that its cool and good to be Deaf cuz when we and the greater public discovers that (which they are on the threshold of doing so) the companies, and professionals are not looking so slicky and out of commission as in cha ching – ring a ling ling

(maybe this is why when i asked the director of the cochlear implant program at Gallaudet’s Clerc Center why there was no info on their website about any of the CI recalls the reply i got was – well it would be sticky to share that.  really the truth is sticky?  for whom?  hmmmm – to me the truth would be MIGHTY handy for the parents to hand and most especially for the children but hey what do i know – im just a child of a lesser god (no i aint really – i am woman hear me roar  – i dont care what ur bloody dB is ; )

so if anyone else wants to take us through some walks of life of what happens when a baby is DETECTED to be Deaf and the various INTERVENTIONS – please ohhh please do

me – i aint got the heart to keep doing this cuz the answer is way to clear

2nd wave is hEAR folks

so grateful most of u r waking up and shaking up and creating stuff and ROARING!

say it Loud im Big D and Proud

and audism #uck and mucks things up real bad

and meet me in St. Louis … (or don’t the “option” is all yours)

peace

patti

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.~ Gandhi

just a couple of famous psychosocial development charts for us to consider when examining the unexamined – what happens when a babe is routinely denied the right to a fully natural language and culture and the right to be… Deaf?????

None of the theories below really mention language because language is an automatic given EXCEPT in extreme neglect or abuse cases (ie Genie and the wild boy of Aveyon -  Victor and other feral children cases)  By and large LANGUAGE is an inalienable right and bare necessity afforded to all children ….except for Deaf children who are routinely denied a fully natural and accessible language under the cloak of doing what is “best” for them (dang ole mask of benevolence) – forever made to “work for their words”

yep there are actually folks out there saying – you have to deny your child the right to a fully natural and accessible language in order to HELP her/him function in society (just yesterday someone told me their parents were required to sign a form that they would raise their child oral / aural ONLY or the doctor would not give them a cochlear implant.  – ahh parental choice!)

now just a few hallmark theories in which we should be asking – what happens if language and identity formation are actively devoid or denied?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need:
Click the image and ask yourself what happens to all the higher building blocks when an infant is routinely denied her/his physiological need of language and forever made to work for her/his words?

Erikson’s 8 Stages of Human Psychosocial Development:

You can see how each stage is set as a VS. – a this or a that – a conflict and those stages can and do affect the next and the next and the next etc. But the important notion is one of CHOICE and being equipped and free to make our OWN choices.  Unfortunately that is not always the choice for most Deaf children because they are being denied language to understand and be understood by and because they are having devices implanted in them that are stimulus / response conditioning based and now operated by remote control by others (parents, teachers, aides, speech pathologists, audiologists, – everybody but them and its THEIR body)

Erikson’s 8 Stages and Agents of Socialization that influence and interact with these stages:

And you can see from the charts below that the main agents of socialization help determine which way we go in those stages of conflict – to the light or the darkness.  don’t believe me?  just check out Harlow’s study with monkeys of the terry cloth vs. wire & milk fame  (google Harlow monkey youtube and you will get many clips demonstrating the effect of that experiment had on the wee things throughout their development)

we wont even get into the fact that parents are being pressured to put their kids under to get one implant by 1 years old then a 2nd one before 2 years old.

we wont discuss the psychological impact that has on the baby nor the possibility of placebo effect on the parents.

Nor will we discuss the FDA commissioned Mayo Clinic study that shows an alarming increase in the rate of LEARNING DISABILITIES in kids that had two or more surgerys with anethesia befor the age of 2.

Nor will we discuss the affect of remote controlled cochlear implants on infants and toddlers who might later be found to be autistic – what kind of affect is that constant barage of artificial sound, mapping, testing, proding, and prompting, stimulus-response gonna have on a child of whom auditory stimulation can be VERY disorienting and disturbing.  (note: with the universal newborn screening Deaf babies are detected quick like a bunny where as the signs of autism are usually not noted until 2 – 4 years old when many of them have already been implanted)

Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Theory:

Basically Cooley’s theory is how others see me is how i see myself and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy theory is an extension of that – if folks tell me I’m a looser and I start to see myself as a looser then I start to set myself up for failure and fulfill that prophecy of my looserness (can go the opposite way too – if folks tell me im g-d incarnate, i start to believe im the bomb on crack and doing really bonky things.  this is why its good to have folks around u that will simply tell u the truth – you are beautiful and there is room for improvement ; ) always

There are more theories and experiments that have some bearings on our collective experience – Milgram and Zimbardo’s studies on power, obedience, learned helplessness and abuse come to mind.  Operant condition – OY!  Stereotype threats and social norming also have some application here.  But what we have here now is a pretty good start me think and yes i totally wish someone would create a chart or theory hand tailored to the Deaf experience.  We do have N. Glickman and Maxwell-McCall examination of Deaf identity formation but that is largely borrowed from other minority group models (Cross etc) – and I’ve never seen any drawing or chart.

Pictures – me like pictures.  Feed me Feed me – I’m hungry – smile.  Pictures and chart help us see the big picture and perhaps leap a little higher and better as we jump at da sun.  So we come up with our own theory – not adapted or measured by Dominant societies standards but rather something of, by and for US.

Truth and love always win – think of it always (loosely from Gandhi)

i want to shout out a bit about the dangerous trend going on in our country and internationally

the natives r restless and the SYSTEMS are getting repressive

this is what usually happens in times of economic troubles

and there are troubles folks with a big ole capital T

dont let your banks “free love” bs of a nice ole credit line fool u

dont let the bank of a me i can backing down on the $5 charge make u think its all good now because i got my way on that one time

nope – that aint how it works.  the message now is STAND STRONGER and

See Time Mag - person of the year. if u protested any injustice this year - that is YOU on the cover. take a bow and stand up again and again.

LONGER

(and yes im very aware of the flame war going on about some lack of signing in a gally video and some over abundance of signs for hearing and speech – and NO  it is not an ant hill nor a mole hill.  it is important and folks should take a stand about it.  Right now i think they doing just fine and if they need me they know where to find me so im gonna put me eyes and heart on what is troubling me right now)

NOTE: you totally want to buy an issue of Time Mag. person of the year – cuz its us.  Folks who STAND and protest injustice and the article about the street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, who one year ago today ignited the light of folks taking to the streets for economic and social justice by lighting himself on fire in Tunisia is very important – among many other stories of ordinary people doing out of the ordinary things.

the national defense authorization act NDAA -

u dont know what it is?  well u should cuz it could be coming for u.  It is basically a new bill that Obama is likely to sign that allows for Americans to be picked up and held without trial on charges of terrorism

and who defines terrorism?

and what happened to our mighty and precious Bill of Rights – several of them of which ensure due process and fairness huh huh huh?

See NDAA Bill Aims to Suppress Internet Freedom from the International Business Times (yes i get my news from reputable sources not bloggers)

Is the NDAA virtually empowering the US govt to perform acts of terrorism on its own citizens whom they suspect of terrorism and what of the folks who get caught up in this system unjustly or accidentally? hmmm

Anonymous (the hacker network and not the folks who have no courage to use their own name when leaving stupid comments here and there)pledges to expose Senator Portman (R-Ohio) who introduced this bill and has big money (> $200,000) from various groups that support the NDAA (like all the co. that make stuff for riot control and police gear etc)

The ACLU has out a call for folks to email President Obama and sayVETO this viciousness - its a simple form letter and u just fill in some blanks.  The ACLU is a reputable system or u can scope around for some others that u might like.  Even the tea partyers are not happy with this bill so folks get Obama to remember that Declaration of Independence and US Constitution that he loved so dearly when he came into office.

Bradley Manning -

the young guy who got a bunch of the truths about our unjust wars out to Wikileak is facing military trial.  His lawyer is requesting the chief investigator (judge?) to recuse himself due to conflicts with his prior role with the Dept of Justice but he said no.  Manning has suffered some VERY bad treatment while in the various military prisons.

So we see the reason why the NDAA is not sweet.  Even when u get a trial – it aint always good now imagine when u dont even get one.

And the US charging others for revealing their dirty dealings and  well – its complicated aint it?

Transcript is below the video box

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec11/wikileaks2_12-16.html

Veterans: 7 Facts about our veterans that will shock you

this is a poster out from moveon.org.  if u feel there is nothing u can do today  – i hope at least after u click the link below and read the 7 facts – you will click the twitter and facebook buttons to help these facts get circulated

http://front.moveon.org/7-facts-about-our-veterans-that-will-shock-the-hell-out-of-you/

we gotta get the truth out there

Deaf folks in prison:

im worried folks – im really worried about the “justice” system and Deaf folks.  Just the wee bit of experience i have had “within” the system – be arrested, detained, imprisoned, bailed out, arraigned, pre-trialed, trial (kinda), awaiting trial – i cant help but look around and see who is the average person in the system (not folks in there for exercising their constitutional rights and engaging in civil disobedience to right the wrongs of restricking free speech and assembly) i see that the folks in the system are predominantly disenfranchised folks – usually poor (most have public defenders), from an ethnicity, race, or nationality other than whitebread US of A, some speak other languages, and we gotta ask how did they get here and how r the gonna get out of this vicious cycle cuz there is little correct about the correctional system.  and now i worry – over the top worry about Deaf folks in this system

John T. Williams mural in Seattle, WA. Photo: Creative Commons/zverina.com

if Deaf folks can be shot down and killed on city streets in broad day light by police officers simply because they did not heed the call to stop cuz they couldnt HEAR IT – well i gotta worry.  Shot with bullets and now with stun guns.

Imagine pepper-spray in the eyes of a Deaf person.  This is not cool nor funny folks.

this is SERIOUS

now imagine them handcuffed BEHIND THE BACK and not given an interpreter cuz the law doesnt require it except for interrogation.  yep it is not even REQUIRED for miranda rights and for interrogation it does not have to be a certified interpreter.

Qualified is the buzz word and is defined by “effective communication” and who determines what “effective” is?  hmmm

and gosh forbid u got a family member who wants to get rid of u

this is the 2nd time ive read of a family member falsely accusing an innocent Deaf person and sending them to prison unjustly and unendingly

so not cool (see the castration and incarceration case of junius wilson) and this article in Mother Jones

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/deaf-prisoners-felix-garcia

im a thinking – once my case is all done re: the standing in the park after dark issue – im gonna start pushing and a hollering at our various Deaf legal folks to get the #uck busy about Videophone upgrading in police stations and jails and about Deaf folks defining what effective communication is – NOT the “systems”

unrelated to prison but related to who defines effective communication – i just learned of a case of a teenage Deaf kid in which the school district has decided “reasonable accommodations” for his education are to have an aid sit and when he cant understand the teacher to look at the aid who will then mouth what he missed.

Yep folks yep

it is insane and inane beyond words

so Do something – would ya

i will to – i promise

note: no wonder the govt wants to crack down on the internet – look at all the things i done learned this morning and i aint even had my cup of joe yet.

knowledge IS power

psst – i know this blog has got lots of typos – ill try to come tidy up later but i spent too much time finding images and the woods call.  so off i go.

- at the very least folks – consider joining or renewing ur amnesty international membership – its a gift u can give urself and humanity

Amnesty International POWerful animated short film

much peace

patti