Reductio ad Fernandesum

Per the posts at the other weblogs and my comments at the DeafDC.com, I have some thoughts on the speculation and discussion of "ism" and "Fernandes isn't Deaf enough".

The truth is, before I came here in America, the concept of racism was thoroughly foreign to me. To construe what I mean, there were racists and racism movement in Europe without any doubt, but racism wasn't a hot button or a cowboy-like quick draw modus operandi in Europe as in it is here in America. It wasn't my intention to offend everyone but I had observed that some politically-enthusiastic people from both sides used racism or maybe, "audism", as a effective weapon to neutralize the opponents' argument before they can turn to their real issues. I'm not arguing that racism or "audism" is a non-issue, it's a real issue and all that, but sometimes, it was just a cowboy-like quick draw modus operandi for them to neutralize the opponents, to silence them. For me, sexism and anti-semitism (I'm a Jew) is more perceptually sensitive than others but I rarely exploited it as a hot button unless someone else tried to use "ism" to invalidate their opponents' arguments. My argument doesn't apply to Kristi Merriweather's exceptional counter-argument but in general. I'll admit that, like some Jews, I have a flaw: the transparent abhorrence of Nazis and pro-Nazism fellows.

Coincidentally, recently Stefanie, my best friend -- unlike me, she reads all Deaf weblogs and comments -- formed a new argument word, "Reductio ad Fernandesum" as to refer to some anti-Gallaudet protest group. The definition of that argument word is: "whoever attempts to initiate the real issues in the argument in reference to Fernandes' paradoxical [or ineffectual as others may say] leadership unhesitatingly would be neutralized or silenced by some opponents by commenting, 'You told us that she isn't Deaf enough! You told us that she didn't learn ASL until her twenties!'". Lately, Reductio ad Fernandesum is a patterned argument or, I daresay, their favorite hot button.

Thank to some webloggers, I've read the old articles on the May and October protest. I understand that there were only a few non-leader bystanders who commented that Fernandes wasn't Deaf enough or she didn't learn ASL until her twenties. Out of nowhere, anti-Gallaudet protest people and media carried on like it was Jesus's holy sermons everywhere. FSSA and various people repeated themselves like a broken record that it wasn't the "Fernandes isn't Deaf enough" issue but some anti-Gallaudet protest groups feverishly chanted on anyway to disperse their opponents' argument.

Can't people from the both sides just sit down, cross-legged, drink some hot coffee or tea and discuss without turning to the "ism" and "Reductio ad Fernandesum" argument for one day or one week?

As Chris, my Deaf friend and ASL tutor from my university, told me today in ASL and on PnP [pen and paper]- "Do you know what's sadder about the anti-Gallaudet protest people? You're a hearing woman and you get it why protesters are fighting for Gallaudet and its fate while some deaf people don't. You're hearing. Hearing without deaf background and yet you get it while other deaf people don't. Please tell me that we're in the Bizarro world." It took him a while to clarify what "Bizarro world" meant and for me to understand what he meant. It was a superman comic reference.

While I enthusiastically care about Deaf culture and Gallaudet for various reasons, I'm aware and realized that I'm a hearing outsider. Thus it's presumptively the best thing for me to leave this discussion whether or not Fernandes is a right or amoral leader for Gallaudet and leave it to d/Deaf to ponder it.

Unity for Gallaudet. Protesters, luv you all.

This post predictably might generate some vilifying comments so the moderation is on. Suitable criticism or acknowledgments will be validated. Other than that, don't bother to leave vicious attacks.

I cannot wait for the lecture to start. It's only a few hours to go (at 8:00pm PST). I'm doing some homework, once I'm done and still have some extra time, I will respond to emails.

A prominent political science professor gives a lecture

I'm under considerable stress thus I want to keep it light. I don't know whether or not you'd care about this post but this Sunday, a prominent political science professor at my university is planning to give an hour and a half lecture about the Gallaudet protests. His pseudonym is Nicholas. The political science professor is renowned for two things: [1] Nicholas gave a meritorious lecture, "Non-communal Capitalism is the End of the Democracy", last spring where 4,300 attendees showed up to hear him out. That's a liberal estimate. I missed his lecture due to the tennis game I had to play. [2] He is reputable for his Hollywoodish looks, men would be in envy of and women would melt their hearts over. I've heard that half of the women took his classes for his appearance alone. Aside from that, he is a CODA [I just learned about "CODA", Children of Deaf Adults from Chris] as far I know, his parents hadn't attend or graduated from Gallaudet.

Anyway, the word around is that there'll be about from 2,000 to 4,000 attendees. Roughly all of them are hearing. There was a planned lecture last Sunday but it was cancelled owing to the crowded room which led it to being shut down by the university security to adhere to the fire safety policies. They relocated the location of the lecture to the amphitheater. Last week, the flyers were distributed at my university and I liked the last part of the announcement that was published on the flyer: "Anti-protest is a dynamism of the un-American" [I think I got it right]. By the way, the title of the flyer is "Freedom from Incompetence on Wet Green".

I'll be there with Chris, my Deaf friend and ASL tutor, and my ASL professor, Joseph. Joseph was invited as a special guest by Nicholas to be there to correct any mistakes he may make in his lecture. For privacy reason, I can't disclose Nicholas's real name where once his name is revealed, some people would be bound to find my dwelling. Given the Facebook's disastrous incident, I couldn't afford another fear-stricken occurrence. But of course, I'll publish a summary of his lecture afterward.

While on the subject, I printed Allison Kaftan's elucidated post and passed down to Nicholas when I met him in his office to make an appointment. I wanted to consult with him to inquire about my political views so it was the perfect time for me to pass Allison's post over to him and urge him gently to read it.

The Hell Weeks of College Life

Given my frantic schedule, this evening was an exceptional free night. I actually had a little time yesterday and I used the only time I had to comment on DeafDC blog which caught my attention with some unapt comments a few anti-Gallaudet protest people made. Naturally, I grabbed the opporunity by weblogging to summarize what happened the past two weeks.

[1] The day after I published a post, I was surrounded by a few friends of mine [Kappa sisters and cheerleaders] to entreat me to substitute for one of three expulsed cheerleaders who got involved in the fire incident. They asked me inasmuch as I joined the cheerleading team for the football games in my freshman year for fun. Because of my freshman year of cheerleading, they hadn't to worry about much about the lack of practice since then. But I had to go over with them on the routines forasmuch as the routines almost never had to be the same every year. It devoured all of the free times I had. I had to cancel the ASL labs [I felt awful about it] and hadn't the time to reply many emails [I felt awful about that too]. Thus my inactivity in my weblog. The NCAA level cheerleading is notably laborious, energy and mentally-demanding. Believe me, it is. Seven games to go plus the Bowl game. (Sigh.) Dear AD readers, I plan to publish a thread. Tonight or tomorrow.

[2] A few days ago, my ASL tutor and Deaf friend, Chris, and I are teaming up to arrange a formal petition to request the Department of Education to change the classification of ASL. Some readers may be aware that at my university, ASL was classified under the "Speech and Hearing Sciences" section. We both wanted to reclassified ASL under the "Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures" section if they refused to consider our first suggestion: "American Sign Language" section. My ASL professor, Joseph, will help us out with specific argumentation on the classification of ASL. Right now, it's on hold until my cheerleading activity is over.

[3] Chris and I also teamed up to establish our first ASL Awareness Week at our university. Fund-raising effort underway for the activities.

[4] Two Mondays ago, I got a bad flu. Owing to social life, activities and homeworks plus cheerleadering, I suffered erratic sleep hours for a few weeks. The bad flu subsequently led to high fever, 38.8 °C [102 °F]. I missed some classes. I showed up when I could bear with the high fever, especially during afternoons and evenings. Even dragged by the high fever and flu, I had to show up at the field and gym for cheerleading routines too. Ugh!

[5] I got two notifications from my professors that my grades are falling behind. Given the 21 units and my frantic schedule, I wasn't surprised. I had to give up some of my social life but for only a semester to pull the grades up!

[6] Lastly, but not leastly, seven Kappa sisters and I [barely joined them] had been formulating our newfangled theory, the "Cinderella theory". They acquired a considerable sum of grant to do some researches. They needed a student with sociological background and experience. And they found me. One day, I'll commit one or two posts on expounding the "Cinderella theory". Another time-consuming activity.

Email subject - what I did with many emails, I'm replying them per se "first come, first serve". Yesterday, before I logged in my gmail account, it was 54 emails. None of them are spams. After last night, it's now 36 emails. I'm terribly sorry about not being able to reply them as my schedule didn't give me enough time to reply all at once some time ago. I felt bad, no, I felt awful about it. Luv you all.

So loud I am deaf

Paraphrased:

Deaf people have the tendency to be louder due to the fact they can't hear their own sounds they create and regulate them.

I have to agree to disagree.

In truth, it's infinitely simple-minded to place the blame on deafness squarely. Plenty of neighbors commonly called the police on young hearing college students or hearing music groups for noise disturbance or noise pollution far more recurringly than someone thought. Even so, at times, the noise or music was brain-numbing blatantly loud that we couldn't hear our own sounds. Some hosts hadn't bother to regulate or supervise them either. I'm a hearing college student. I'm also a ΚΚΓ (Kappa Kappa Gamma) sister, thus the party is part of my life. I acknowledged the similar problems in hearing college parties, nightclubs and local concerts which led to wide complaints from the neighbors.

Conjointly, some country hicks at my university had some tales of discourteous hearing hunters whom were unable to demonstrate their civil manners by hunting some animals proximate to their houses in ungodly hours. The neighbors had called the sheriffs on them now and then.

Thereafter, it's not solely a Deaf-bias problem. We all have to take care of not pursuing the reductio ad absurdum argument. The bottom line is the noise problem adamantly rely on obnoxious people. Deafness incontrovertibly don't own a patent on obnoxiousness. Deafness or hearing has nothing to do with obnoxiousness. It never has. It never will.


On other subject, this afternoon with the professor was expressly spookish. I can't get my brain around the conference I had with the professor. I was all Condi Rice-like ready and challenged him diplomatically and psychologically. The aftermath of our last summer debate weighed heavily on my mind but I held it well.

As I was taught by my father, in every battle or war there's always an unforeseeable flaw or obstacle. Thus, to my astoundment, the professor conceded to me with his own arguments without my sayings in it. Beforehand, I was giddied about making some disagreement but he...just disputed his last Friday remark. Thereafter, he offered me an apology for his discordant remark. When he said that, I had to asked him in playful tone, "Who are you? What did you do to yourself?". I just had to because he wasn't what he was. He chuckled at the comment I made. Still perturbed, I asked him what made him dispute his own statement inasmuch as the way he lashed out at me last Friday. On a logical level, it didn't make sense. He abruptly replied, "Let's just say...that a black cat crossed my path. It made me muse over my juvenile assertion". What the? He is a Sociologly professor and I daresay he's good at it but a superstitious Sociologist? That's phenomenally unheard of. Doubtlessly, something happened, I pondered. Given my persistent character, I asked again, but he cut me off with a word "Shoo" in an barely noticeable annoyed tone. I took it that he was readily annoyed and was going to reconsider his decision of offering me an apology. Needless to say, I left his class with a farewell, "Yes sir. See you tomorrow and have a nice day."

Stunningly, I leaned my back against the wall outside of the classroom and pondered. There was some meaning to that remark, "a black cat crossed my path". At this very moment, I still couldn't decode the riddle in his comment.

A superstitious Sociologist? It's incredible. I'll extend our conference in a new post the next day. I got a feeling that I'm bound to find out. You could say that it's a woman's intuition.

My gmail account is still inaccessible. (Sigh.)

Jean's Drifting Day, ASC and a Deaf boy on PBS

Hi everyone! For your information, I couldn't access my gmail account. It kept kickng me out every time I logged in to check my email. I don't know what technical problem I have. I had to sit it out and wait for my roommate to come home this Tuesday from the field trip she is on right now to fix it. Sorry for the inconvenience. =(

There, altough, is a bright side. The professor of my Sociology class was outwardly in a good mood. No, that wasn't just a good mood, he was in an ecstasy-like mood for a mysterious reason. He challenged us to write a exceedingly short essay with only a few words portraying or synopsizing the most eccentric sociocultural behavior or custom humans performed in the history of humanity. There was a prize for the winner. Some classmates made both off-subject and on-subject humorous synopses: i.e. "Men sweat. Women glow."; "People breathe, anuses fart."

Surprisingly, I won with this synposes: "People were born naked and died clothed." (For me, that's always bizarre to think about)

The prize? Got an "A" grade on the next exam without studying and no need to show up in class to take the exam. Hooyah!


Anyway, two more things; Alternative Solutions Centre is on Blogcritics.org's radar. Here's the full statement-

Then into the classroom, where Alternative Solutions Centre, the blog of a deaf-owned and operated psychotherapy and consulting practice, where three women blog, is a post about girls only being allowed to study female scientists. "She is ... being told, very subtly, that just being a girl is enough to prevent her from getting something she wants." (And should you be able to read American Sign Language, there's a V-log post.)

And the outstanding article about ASL and a Deaf boy on the TV- Spreading the Word: A Deaf Boy Joins the Gang. It's cute!

The credit goes to my ASL classmate, Katie, whom told me about these news. It's almost time for class! Yikes!

Blog Triumphalism

Blog triumphalism was the word my Sociology professor employed to portray the Rathergate and Downing Street memo scandals. As a student of Sociology, as soon as Firefox unfolded the DeafRead list and Jared's post "sociological" title was the first word that caught my eye. Naturally. The truth is, that was a genuinely creepy moment of the day for me because yesterday, my class had a two and half hour expostulating (reasoning earnestly) discussion about "How Sociology Impact on Weblogs and How Weblogs Impact on Sociology" subject. And today, Jared apprised us his brief but thoughtful observation on it.

Pepe's weblog is a good example of blog triumphalism.

I would like to share my experiences with you about how my first weblog turned out. By my former Sociology professor's proposition, the Department of Education (at my university) granted me the weblog account. I was counseled to promote my weblog discussing Interpersonal relationships and an articulated European woman's sociological perspective on American culture for almost 14 months. To my dismay, it was firewalled and could be accessed by my university students solely but periodically commented by them. With my having much noticed, stimulated and cultivated by posters' both corresponded and differentiated contemplations, my views on men, especially American men, have been sustainedly evolved for better over time.

Several months into my first year of attending and residing at the American university; given my looks, free-spirit, good-natured attitude and naïveté, I was approached by many various American men who obviously, strategically, tried to coax me into their beds. After months of bitter experience with their juvenile games, I heretofore erroneously chastised (and generalized) American men wholly as [insert profanity] for mistreating and objectifying women, including me. For your information, I was a teen when I transferred to this university from a non-English European country so everything was unaccustomed and bizarre to me. Note: observing them and socializing with them, it revealed to me that some women are no better either by playing games with men's emotion, mentality and the worst of all, ego. But my lack of American culture was consistently cultivated and progessed by the posters and a few brilliant female university webloggers' contemplations regarding the aspects of relationships. The weblogs and socializing with my Kappa sisters helped me learned how to distinguished the jerks and gentlemen. There were a lot of Sociology-related discussions which debunked various America myths that set upon me, foreign women and contributed ideas to bridge the emotionally intelligent relationship between men and women. One of our female webloggers is planning to write a book about the relationship-wise weblogs.

Which drive the point I want to quote: Blogs democratize ideas. Guess who said that. It was Xeni Jardin, a resourceful female tech culture journalist and a weblogger of the award-winning weblog, Boing Boing. Her weblog was revealed to us by our Sociology professor.

Back to Sociology class, we compared notes. The weblogs exploded everywhere left to right, top to bottom. They have signaled the centralization and internationalization of science, philosophy, art, technology, culture, politics, et alia. It's unquestionably true. The borderline between various countries are actively vanishing and the concept of democracy is crawling wearily but lively on the ground crossing their countries. By capitalizing the internet and the benefits of weblogs, Chinese webloggers are revitalizing the dissent and democratic movement in China to break off from the capitalistic communist Chinese government's iron fist.

The professor put forward the BAS topic. BAS stands for Blog Aggregation System, the innovation technology as Stephen Turcotte (the credit goes to my classmate, Liam for the link and weblog) illustrated, "Blogs will be connected by a blog aggregation system that is a way to feature the most active blogs and also connect the audience to the most relevant conversations." Can you guess which weblog site utilized the BAS idea? DeafRead.

A few seconds after the professor raised the topic, BAS, I quickly raised my arm to notify him of the DeafRead site. While I'm computer illiterate, I tried my best to illustrated the DeafRead site to the class which led us to catapulting and renovating ideas (although, I didn't understand their technobabble, I enjoyed listening anyway). The discussion was all but fascinating until the strike-out question directly pitched at me by the professor: "Do hearing webloggers receive the commensurate treatment in the DeafRead site?" I couldn't lie to him so I answered truthfully by explaining the "Deaf Only" feature. He, then, smirked which I knew it was bad for me and proclaimed to the class, "That's a fine example of an undemocratic idea." That was a hard swipe at me. There was a gulflike rift between us ever since that day I challenged him on the Sociocultural French-related subject which resultingly embarrassed him in his classroom last summer. Thereafter, I learned that it is never a good idea to embarrass the professors, especially in the classrooms. If I talked back or challenged him, I'm liable to be in grade-wise trouble. Therefore, I had to swallow the irritation I felt when the professor swiped at me and let it float away.

Aside from the professor's strikeout ball, the Sociology effect on the weblogs we discussed that Jared briefly illustrated at his weblog was stimulating.

Oh. I overheard the veteran sport male weblogger talking to another guy right after the Sociology class was over. He said, "Use the blog, Luke". If anyone didn't get it, that was a Star Wars reference.

Party time. Buonanotte! [Good night!]

Dissenters of Gallaudet: An email from a reader

I got an email from someone regarding my Dissenters of Gallaudet post and it was the most amusing email that I’ve read. I, personally, wasn't sure if it was just a satire or plain stupidity. Aside from our email addresses and that person's name (and my last name), I left everything untouched.

From: xxxxxxxxx < xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com>
To: Jean xxxxx <(check my profile)@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 22, 2006 3:26 PM
Subject: Dissenters of Gallaudet: Draw thy sword
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Show original | Message text garbled?

WOMEN SHOULDN'T HAVE THE VOTE OR VOICE

Nor should negroes and brown people. Women belong in the home, servicing their men. Your article just proves that the dissent movement in galluadet is a liberal communist conspiracy, promoting the homosexual and feminazi agenda. Woman, get back in the kitchen! You spread your legs when I tell you to. --- The South will rise again.

For further evidence, with my roommate's help, she took a screenie of the email I received. Click the photo for better view.



I'm wholly befuddled why that person appended "The South" remark to their email considering the location Gallaudet is in. Oy. Evidently, our differentiated perspectives make the world go round.

Anyway, I was surprised by Chris when asked if he could join me (he said he was bored and had nothing to do today) while I was getting ready to leave for the Media Department from our ASL session, to cast in the WAG, "TAG" parody commerical. But of course, I responded in ASL, "Yes!". I just came here to change my clothes (and published this post).

A presto! [see you soon!]

Dissenters of Gallaudet: Draw thy sword

"Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win." by Bernadette Devlin

It is certainly true that I never attended Gallaudet nor am I a versed person in Deaf culture. Given my lack of Galladuet or Deaf culture experience, you might be think that I shouldn't make a post about it. You rightly think so but I'd like to share my mother's adage with you: "You can't be neutral on a drifting boat in the river". Sitting on a drifting boat, I can figuratively spot the wave of suppression and intimidation slamming against the DPN dissenters. Was it so necessary for the Administration of Gallaudet to do that to pugnacity students whom stood shoulder-to-shoulder to voice their denouncement against them? The quintessential question is: Why bother to make your own mistakes when you can learn from them?

Anti-dissent group or the Administration of Gallaudet might be bellyaching about the dissent movement in Gallaudet. Heretofore they can criticize the dissenters. There is a story that I never, ever forgot- Magna Carta. The story was my first exposure to politics. It was shared with me by my neighbor, a British philosopher when I was fairly young. My memory is sketchy at best so I paraphrased from Wiki-

Magna Carta (Latin for "Great Charter", literally "Great Paper"), also called Magna Carta Libertatum ("Great Charter of Freedoms"), is an English charter originally issued in 1215. Magna Carta was the most significant early influence on the long historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today. Magna Carta was originally created because of disagreements between Pope Innocent III, King John and his English barons about the rights of the King. Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that the will of the king could be bound by law.

In King John and Pope Innocent III's eyes, English barons are the dissenters. And yet, with the dissenters' rebellion, it revitalized the concept of constitutional law. Give yourself five minutes of silence and ponder about it; if the English barons gave into King John and Pope Innocent III's monarchical powers, what'd happen to the United States Constitution that we know of today?

Oh. Speaking of the Declaration of Independence. Acceded to Great Britain in 1760s and 1770s, Americans were the dissenters (and traitors).

"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself." by Archibald Macleish

The best part about the dissenters, they force us to pause, to take a few breaths and slow down enough to think rationally. If you never or refuse to make a miscalculated choice or decision, how do you know what's right and what's wrong? You have have to make a mistake to learn what's the best for yourself. In the sociopolitical essence, the dissenters are our living and visual conscience. We need them to tell us why we are wrong. I'm not versed in history but I was told by a conservative history professor that the suppression of the dissenters is liable to be major influence on the collapse of societies or civilizations. Like it or not, wrong and right is on the same coin and it always will be.

Again, the same quintessential question here is: Why bother to make your own mistakes when you can learn from them?

"Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience." by James Freeman Clarke

Dear Great Knights of Conscience (Dissenters of Gallaudet), be brave and stand firm.

European mutlicultural, sociocultural values and Deaf culture

Dear Jared, Tayler, Ridor, Moi and "Anonymous",

Check my response in my old post. The eleven people who sent me emails, I responded back! =) I'm terribly sorry about not being able to respond promptly. More about my week's absence in the lowermost comment below.

Anonymous pitched a strike-outable baseball into Europe's sociocultural values which knocked me out of the "America-plugged" climate. Read their comment:

You are somewhat at an advantage being a foreign exchange student. America's sociocultural values might be different than the values of your country, and your country's sociocultural values may be better regarding people who are disabled. I say this from firsthand experience and from the experiences of others who have visited the different European countries and told me this.

While I cannot say for other European countries or regions, Anonymous rightly spotted on the family-oriented affluent locale I grew up in. I was raised in a multicultural family. My papa is an Israeli Jew and my mama is an French Jew. They moved to a non-English european country (that's a secret for now) from Israel when my mama got pregnant with my big brother. My big brat and I grew up in an area where the culture and language differentiate from our already-multicultural cultures and languages. For some years, we, ultimately, learned how to cope and adapt with different languages and cultures. There were some Muslim, visually disabled and handicapped families living proximately next to us and they were way friendlier and more family-oriented than other families. I had considered them as my non-blood relatives. I knew everyone, literally, everyone resided in the locale. I was taught to be tolerant, to be empathetic and to be a receptive person. My papa had an adage, "Don't give someone a stale challah if you don't like to eat a stale challah". That was what I was accustomed to in the whole of my childhood. As a matter-of-fact, my American friends were recurrently dumbfounded by my good-natured cosmopolitan attitude and decorum every once in a while.

A few weeks ago, I was exposed to Deaf culture by this former classmate of mine, Chris, as well as by an interpreter I befriended. In the few first confrontations with Chris, I made some uncultivated mistakes but I've learned subsequently. What I experienced and stimulated culturally in the mutlicultural neighborhood was comparatively different from what I've just learned from Deaf people here and there regarding Deaf culture. Now, Anonymous is right in that I had an advantage over many people in sociocultural value areas. I hadn't had a chance to observe my conditioned stimulus response and behavior in dealing with Deaf people until Anonymous made a strikeout.

In no time, with Moi, Anonymous and others' exegesis of their seasoned (clearly) experiences, I began to comprehend the culture Deaf people grow in. Or as I sanguinely believe. Is my observation legitimate in that Deaf culture is a mutlicultural culture? Given various circumstances: ancestral, Deaf-centered/hearing-centered parental and diversified socially generation including religion and belief, D/deaf people have more identities to cultivate, to habituate and to incorporate? Or Deaf culture prevails all over other cultures?

If not for the comments by DeafRead bloggers, posters or those emails I received, I might have been at a loss with the feelings I had with the Hydrogen Bomb my best friend, Stefanie, bombarded at me. Thank you all with all my heart! Although, I have only one regretful thing about DeafRead: hearing people who are interested in Deaf culture or ASL are not aware of the DeafRead site.


As I said in the comment, I was pledged for casting in my friends' Media project. It's “WAG”, a student-level TAG Body Spray parody commerical. I figured I owed them a favor that I hadn't been able to repay so my free time was snatched by them. It took a bit more than a week of acting to finalize their first take but it isn't over. I'll cast again shortly to finish their other take. Aside from that, it was a lively week for me until last Friday, I got an injury in tennis practice. It was my right wrist. Under the sport therapist's examination, it was revealed that I had a cyst in my right carpals. That was when I found out that I'm human, in a manner of speaking. Figuratively, of course. It's operatable but I was given the limited choices: 1. if I had the operation, I might not be able to play in the games this year; 2. if the operation was postponed the condition might get worse and I would feasibly drop out in the middle of the season, most likely with another sprained wrist too if continued. I'm trying to break my university's record in tennis which is achievable considering the low amount of losses in my record, but if I opt out this year, my record will be expunged (the university record has an average fix on the amounts of games). To my own dismay, for almost 50 hours, I could not use my right hand to type or write (I'm right-handed). Life is such a shit sometimes.

Deafhood: "Wall of Shame"

Jared Evans had some thoughtful elucidation on Deafhood. I had been trying to undertake this contention about Deafhood but I recoiled, inasmuch as I'm hearing; thereupon I wasn't sure if I did have the privilege to divulge my thoughts on it.

[Annotation for people who sent me the emails and LTL's posters, check the lowermost comment below.]

Until Jared's post; in the face of the risk of condemnation, I decisively maintained my courage and threw my thought into the Deafhood debate. The truth is, this post isn't in reference to my thought but in reference to my experience on the precise element of representational argument. As to add it to the confabulation, it's my number one pet peeve; as it did to Jared but differently. What does get my goat is that person[s] was trying to condemn or disperse the substance without meticulously studying, reading or analyzing the "substance" textbook[s]. Not only is it unethical; it's fallacious, unprofessional and untrustworthy.

I'd like to emblematize my university's beyond-expected successful 5 years old "Wall of Shame" chastisement to offer you an illustration and reaffirmation of my reason above. On account of plagiarism and other predicaments, the professors had a full-day meeting, hashed out their solutions on how to solve them. At the end of the day, they agreed upon and formulated the draconian rules and consequences. The simple three elements:

1. plagiarism
2. duplication
3. inconversant animadversion

While inconversant animadversion is on the lowermost bottom, it's the highest and foremost dishonorable crime students could commit at my university. What does it mean? The simplified definition: Condemning, dispersing and criticizing the substance, e.g. Deafhood without studying, reading or analyzing the textbook[s] thoroughly and comprehensively. If a student commits this foremost dishonorable crime in debates or their homework, the professor will post their enlarged picture, full name, email address, box address and the crime s[he] commited on the "Wall of Shame" wall. The student will have to live through the taunts, insults, ridicule and jeering by the students and professors for two weeks before their personal information is taken down. If the student talks back, the prolongation of the punishment will be lengthened into four weeks or suspended for unethical behavior.

The punishment wasn't pretty (some students cried or threw a tantrum in front of the public) but it works effectively. It, although, is a draconian rule but it purposefully taught us to not to put ourselves into a position where we ensuingly compromise our credibility if challenged whether or not if we read and study the textbook[s]. It has a voluminous impact on my attitude of debating with others. At DeafRead, to not fingerpoint but I've noticed one or two persons whom indubitably, incontestably, didn't read the Deafhood textbook while condemning or dispersing it in their posts. The evidence was there; quoted the statements from the poster's comments in lieu of quoting directly from the textbook to disperse it or make their point. In my scholarly, sociological eyes, their argument appears rather uncharacteristically odd and unconventional. Once that person had done that, their credibility indicatively evaporate in my eyes. Similarly, as Jared pointed out, I have no problem with people who disparage the aspects and substances of Deafhood as long as they meticulously read and examined the textbook[s]. It's not a burdensome thing to do. In truth, it's a very elementary thing to do. Be smart, be versed in knowledge [textbooks] and, the most important, be a virtuous person.

As referring to Deafhood, given my Sociology background, I had mulled over about getting a Deafhood textbook for myself and study it. And also to give it to my ASL tutor, Chris too ... truthfully, yes, I'm trying to impress Chris or have him to court me.

Posters and people who sent me emails or posted the comments, I resolve to respond your emails and your comments promptly. I am sorry about the long absence, I'll unfold about it some time. Back to the assignments. Ugh.

Update - Typos corrected.