Word of the Day on January 24, 2019 by Merriam-Webster:

Adjudicate: to settle judicially or to act as judge

Did Deaf community ask Alexander Graham Bell to adjudicate whether American Sign Language (ASL) is the best language for the Deaf? Think about it. Even today in 2019, AGBell still acts as a judge to divide up ASL for the best interests of Cochlear Implants, Cued Speech, Listening and Speaking, and Oralism.

142 years ago on January 24, 1877: AGBell writes a letter to his father, Alexander Melville Bell:

“We are ready to do something with Visible Speech at once if type could be forthcoming. I propose issuing an introduction to Visible Speech the expenses of which will be paid by its publication in the Annals of the Deaf and Dumb—at least I hope so. Dr. Hill has spoken before the last Convention of Teachers—urging the introduction of Visible Speech into the school-system of Massachusetts.”

That’s where it became so successful that built AGBell headquarters in Washington, D.C. ever since; Remember, AGBell’s father was the pioneer of Visible Speech and he was a teacher of the Deaf and showed that his writing system to help Deaf students to learn spoken language which would be ORALISM. AGBell followed his father’s footsteps and successfully destroyed ASL and Deaf community even today in 2019.

So, Cued Speech would improve English greatly…even some Deaf people are supporting the idea of Visible Speech today. And what does all this have to do with AGBell opposing ASL in Deaf community? Plenty! When evil in AGBell’s words is seen as a temporal human phenomenon, it becomes relatively easy to vilify and make Deaf people as scapegoats of that which one does not understand or which one fears. Most importantly, fear creates powerful stereotypes: make ASL unknown, the misunderstood, the old ways, and give AGBell more power to access and make sure ASL would be destroyed, so AGBell and its followers and its Deaf scapegoats could “live happily ever after.”

With the emotional level—especially the level of evil, AGBell would go unpunished and make ASL get punished instead. That is the perfect source of the power of evil. We need to understand why AGBell behaved the way it did in the past and present tense with the greatest effort to eradicate ASL, the language and culture of the Deaf from the truth. Think about “OR”—that would give them more power to destroy ASL.

-JT

Copyright © 2019 Jason Tozier

This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.

Links:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/calendar

https://www.loc.gov/resource/magbell.00500304/?sp=4

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/visiblespeech.htm