“Ow, ow, OW! On my ear you are!”- Master Yoda

In 1984, the first cochlear implant surgery has been approved, arguing that the sound-oriented is more important than sight-oriented. In 1970, Milton Friedman wrote a famous essay for the New York Times Magazine, pushing that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”

Since 1984, the Friedman point of view prevailed; the job of a corporation is to serve its shareholders. Although what the cochlear implant makers are doing is illegal, Audism, and forced labor persists in many forms around the world. Many cochlear implant corporations are not aware of these facts and enforce codes of conduct at industries around the world through regular monitoring. They did not follow human rights groups, and actively seek to find the root causes of these abuses. There are certain services so vital to the human rights where Deaf people choose to have right to be Deaf in our society that they do not controlled by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is our criminal justice system is perhaps the easiest target on Deaf people.

The largest of cochlear implant companies are privately traded, meaning that ordinary investors, including mutual funds, participate in their growth, vote on governance matters, and generally align themselves with their oppressive long-term success. The vision of Sorenson Language Communication Center (SLCC) at Gallaudet University where they mix with departments in there—with one of the most crucial department that serve Gallaudet very well. It is well-known controversial department on campus: ASL/Deaf Studies Department. There is a cochlear implant center inside the same building—on second floor where they map cochlear implant users—making a lot of money to finance Gallaudet University today. There are plenty of ignorant people who think that it is no use to bear a dead horse because embracing human rights includes deficit thinking. Well, let’s tell them that deficit thinking is not the pursuit of happiness. The toughest part is that the deficit is neither a half full cup nor half empty one and it does not hold water well.

Cochlear implant center inside SLCC—there is no curriculum anywhere that includes objectives and result goals for deficit thinking. There is no educational research that taps into someone’s talent in deficit thinking. Nor is there an university like Gallaudet that bestows an honorary degree upon someone for deficit thinking. You see, it is a fact that deficit thinking is abnormal and it is not a choice. It is all about following the legal obligations to their shareholders and is driven by the pressures of the private markets to increase their profits—they do not care about Deaf people. Period.

Gallaudet University was built in 1864–—16 years before 1880 Milan Resolution, an iron-fisted, anti-sign language proposal passed by the International Congress of Educators of the Deaf. The proclamation went to all government agencies and schools for the Deaf to stop using sign language for Deaf people. The proclamation’s most controversial provisions make it a shame to use ASL in the United States and most Canada that time, and it still does in America. Something obviously is not right within the Deaf world. We are listening to things and could feel the panic. And we know the cause was 1880.

The importance of ASL among people, Deaf Studies department at SLCC and the surge of energy and affirmation that spreads through the Deaf community can be a joy to behold. The thrust that energizes these users of ASL and Deaf Studies opens social consciousness sends thrills to open doors. Aren’t we all going to experience it? Why not? The hardest part is that the innocence and transparency are essentially Deaf virtues—by which we use ASL and realize that we can use it because we are not guilty of fundamental language bigotry. Cochlear implant does not carry information, knowledge, and communication, which is the greatest trait of all. That is an enormous societal problem—at SLCC. These people at SLCC are suffering a lot.

Master Yoda, the wisest Jedi of all, said:

“Hmm In the end, cowards are those who follow the Dark Side.”

-JT

Copyright © 2015 Jason Tozier

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