Tag: Aristotle
AGBell: Time For Peace With Justice
Where does bigotry and hate begin? Bigotry and hate begins and ends with language. All of us are familiar with hate slurs but fail to recognize the seemingly innocuous misuse of proper nouns when describing ethnic or cultural diversity. Bigotry is the oldest language in the book, for example, in 3rd century B.C., Aristotle, the Greek icon became the first philosopher found the cans to open the sprees of language bigotry of Deaf people.
AGBell, the face of Deaf hate crime, refuses to respect the cultural diversity of Deaf people by referring to Ms. Meredith Sugar’s ideology with a common noun in association literature. AGBell continues to refuse to correct a seemingly innocent misuse of language has escalated into a violation of the public trust. Hate crime has repeatedly refused to reply for Deaf people’s honor numerous requests to correct their misuse of American Sign Language (ASL); thereby, in public’s opinion characterizing Deaf people as the face of hate ideology in America.
You know that to take off, let’s say, 50 pounds and keep them off you must change your life. It may be the hardest thing you ever do. It seems such a trivial thing. This is like attempting to take off bloody moments off from AGBell’s history, which is going to be the hardest and most trivial thing to do. It has upset Deaf people everywhere. What is more ludicrous than perfectly effect AGBell living off the fat of the hatred budget in history? Almost none of the are particularly caring. Bleed these Deaf people; Bleed them as weakest links, losers, and targets. And they did. And that was a mistake.
But the content of AGBell’s quest—its public relations—is the most important thing, is it? If PR says it was a matter of respecting AGBell’s policies, then that would be just a renewal form of entertainment for whatever it is. Oh, yes, remember, it is not the content, but the order. AGBell wants a new order, and if one way of changing the order is to select Ms. Meredith Sugar who announces that only she can lead Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, into the 21st century with a new order of the Deaf—an educated euphemism for “a new order of the AGBell”, well, then give them the big middle finger and remind them.
However, Deaf people got hurt by AGBell’s stunt, with courage than ever. There have been letters pouring into Ms. Sugar’s mailbox, so overloaded that she would have to pay by using her own credit card because AGB “executive” card has been maxed out. Oh, that is a good sign!
Our Deaf brain is a prolific generator of beliefs around the world. ASL plays a very large role, of course, but the challenge will be to discover how our brain brings the products of perception, memory, and reasoning to bear on all of us Deaf individual propositions and magically transforms them into the very substance of the Deaf life.
Advocating for one’s own interests is a fundamental right of all Deaf people. Deaf people believe that using ASL and the right of being Deaf should remember that they are encouraging to stop hate-motivated literature practiced by AGB folks for redress of grievances is a Constitutionally-protected First Amendment right. If you disagree with what AGB has been practicing, then you do not think hate crimes, literature, speech is in America’s interest—you should, likewise, communicate that to your government. That is the way democracy works. Can AGB advocate for them without political and social ostracization that encourages hate? Impossible!
And so, If I may be blunt as Ms. Sugar was, I believe that AGBell has attempted to hijack Deaf people’s legacy, like Nyle DiMarco, for one, for its own purposes. This is not new, of course, or is it unique to the AGBell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing members has long hijacked the legacy of Deaf people in the past and present in order to serve and advance their own special interests.
In 1974, I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had a mother and father who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen by AGBell puppets: Tucker-Maxon Oral School in Portland, Oregon that was in 1976. My very first school in my life, I was a prisoner. I was an object for AGBell practices to use and abuse. I was not allowed to learn ASL and spell my name for two years. I became a student of AGBell’s hate ideologies. Hate begins and ends with language.
On April 13, 2016, I am very proud to spell my name in ASL. My name is Jason “JT” Tozier. I survived. Time to peace with justice! ASL is justice!
-JT
Copyright © 2016 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only including this copyright message.
Bad Cochlea: How Cochlear Implant Corporations Mislead Deaf Children
COCHLEAR IMPLANT= SCIENCE
DEAF= CONCRETE
Cochlear implants has been called the language of miracle deeply “rooted” in Deaf Culture. Wrong! Science means experiment. Concrete constitutes a real thing. We must remind ourselves that our Declaration of Independence makes our country different from any other nation around the world. The Declaration proclaims that Deaf people have inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—being Deaf is the pursuit of happiness. Cochlear implant is a man-made and it is for awareness, not acquisition like a pumping hot balloon for many innocent people, figuratively speaking to target Deaf babies.
Most recently there are several published articles that are showing that cochlear implant causes high risk for developmental delays in memory and higher thinking, etc. is painful to read. The study of higher socialization of Deaf children due to their assimilation into hearing society (cochlear implants)—Deaf populations in America and globally have been stigmatized and discriminated against throughout history.
Deaf implanted babies who have been the highly oppressed group, falling subject to discrimination and in the past, genocide. This oppression is due to the fact that implementing American Sign Language (ASL) and sign languages rears Deaf children to be intellectually equivalent but socially stunted in comparison with their peers.
There are several articles about cochlear implants that state that the higher social acceptance of cochlear implant makers is the result of only having to know how to be hearing. Technological improvements in cochlear implants mean that all children can have plenty of useful residual hearing. It’s a myth. Cochlear implants rely on the individual’s ability to utilize a defective sense of hearing to understand their world.
Aristotle’s first writings on Deaf people laid the foundation of logical fallacies that were followed for centuries later. He believed that being Deaf is synonymous with being intellectually inferior, and thus coined the phrase deaf and dumb. Aristotle had begun it all.
The Deaf are outsiders in the hearing American world. Shany Mow, the author of How do you dance without music? American Deaf culture: An Anthology wrote that each deaf person has experienced “mental isolation” which he describes in detail; “while everyone is talking or laughing, you are as far as a lone Arab on a desert that stretches along every horizon. Everyone and everything are a mirage; you see them but you cannot touch or become a part of them. Your thirst for connection”
Deaf people who are forced and pushed to get cochlear implant is illegal. Deaf people would get mocked if they do not get cochlear implant. Deaf people come from many angles–from the standpoints of economics, politics, history, ideology, and many disciplines and the laundry list can be breed misery among Deaf people for generations to come. Remember the pursuit of happiness above?
The concern is that Deaf American and other Deaf people everywhere, could enact the strategic multilingualism policies to ensure the protection and preservation of our beloved and precious language (ASL, LSF, BSL, and other more) from possibility of linguistic extinction/loss and sociocultural genocide or undermine the existence of minority language usage. Deaf people everywhere ought to call for the non-intervention policy to make our natural language of the Deaf to the protected status to the listing of endangered language usage in the United States and other countries.
Beginning with the work of AGB in the late 19th century, Deaf people have been frequent and prominent targets of the eugenics movement. It is not widely known by the general public that, in addition to his work as an inventor, Bell was also a leading figure in the education of the deaf in the late 19th century and 20th centuries. In order to put this issue into context, it is important to consider Bell and the educational and social programs he promoted.
In a time of great economic, scientific, and technological advancement of cochlear implants, it is a mistake to believe that it is a miracle. Cochlear implant corporations are trying to be “global” in scope. They target Deaf people everyday. Clearly the cochlear implant corporations have shown themselves to be guilty of bigotry and excluding Deaf people from consideration. What bothers me the most is that cochlear implant makers are promoting “rags-to-riches”, “unknown-to-known” and “Deaf person-can-now-hear” hoax. It is not necessarily a privilege to be Deaf, but it is certainly has it benefits. That is why we have ASL and Deafhood. Deaf people are concrete!
-JT
Copyright © 2014 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Gallaudet Pitfall: Deaf People’s Harmony
From one of my previous blogs, someone asked me to show the proof that Aristotle committed suicide; there is no need to criticize my truth. That person had an access to the higher education and can find out from there. It is an easy vocation to do it. Hint: A book that focuses only on Alexander the Great’s life. After Aristotle actually took his life, his work fell into the hands of the Arabic world, Islam, the enemy of the Church. Although the Church was aware of Aristotelian thoughts, they refused to incorporate his work into the intellectual life. Reason: Aristotle did not die naturally. Aristotle’s work became appreciated in the 13th century Spain where Judaism, Christianity and Islam lived in harmony. Aristotle lived in harmony to mock Deaf people’s solemnity.
The copies of Aristotle’s work eventually fell into the hands of Saint Thomas Aquinas who promoted some concepts into the Church in the 14th century. Aristotle lived way after Socrates passed away in 399 B.C.; his thoughts were evolved from the Socratic doctrine that the mutes, who signed in groups, had intelligence. Saint Augustine was the 4th century AD bishop who ordered Saint Jerome to put together and compile the Bible. The same guy, Saint Jerome who wrote EPHPHATHA in the Bible. Much information was deliberately eliminated, but St. Augustine pointed out that the Deaf do have the soul if they are able to talk about the same GOD. The whole point is that EPHPHATHA is very Aristotelian method.
I began to realize that many people are not aware of the governance at Gallaudet University—a system of higher learning management. EPHPHATHA is a governance duty to make sure Deaf people is healed from their ears. Alan Hurwitz could not do anything to make Deaf students better on campus or even to offer an academic course. It is the Board of Trustees (BoT) that is more powerful than Faculty Senate. It is the same truth for all other colleges and universities. If Board of Trustees said no, then we are all struck. For example, if a professor can facilitate a course proposal through the Faculty Senate’s Curriculum Committee, and if the Committee said no, then the professor is stuck. An administrator could not touch the Senate because he is an administrator. The same thing goes to Alan Hurwitz.
In 1988, when there was a Deaf President Now (DPN) protest, the Faculty Senate voted to disassociate itself from the Board Chairperson Janet Spillman for saying that the deaf people were not ready for a higher position at Gallaudet. It was the vote that helps winning the protest. It is time to erase EPHPHATHA from Gallaudet campus and vote no confidence in BoT’s leadership. Also it hurts not only the university but also our Deaf intellectual life—our academic freedom. It must not be over-sighted.
Imagine this, if Deaf people, the Deaf world, populated the world, our beloved earth. What if the world was devoid of hearing people? At very least a Deaf world would be a signing place where everything had a sign name thought of or experienced, for there would be just a signed language. Unfortunately, the world is not Deaf. Indeed, it is thickly populated with people who can hear and speak. In this very world today, I am asking if these hearing people do actually listen to themselves and to speak with the Deaf. Or should I ask whether these hearing people so gullible there exists the medical and scientific arrogances. For instance, the term, EPHPHATHA, the world’s invisible Audism had proposed that Deaf people must be cured. If we manage to get the media to recognize the extent of Audism on Gallaudet campus, then we move them closer to an open mind because Audism is “unheard of”—Aye?
In the 15th century, Martin Luther challenged the Church by publishing the Bible in the German language. In the 16th century, Henry VIII broke up with the Church. In the 17th century, the Puritans became the pilgrims in America. In the 18th century, America revolted against the British Empire. In the 19th century, America had the Civil War. In the 20th century, America saw two World Wars. In the 21st century, the term EPHPHATHA is still around Gallaudet. Why not we the Deaf challenge BoT and remove the term off the seal. It is time for Deaf people to live in harmony. The irony thing is that one of the BoT members holds PhD in Cross Cultural Communication and Language and the same guy who coined Audism has not done enough conscious effort to stop it.
EPHPHATHA is very much the role of culture in attempting to medicalize Deaf suffering and toxic language in cross-cultural discipline and measures. Is it an occupation that many critics are not aware of EPHPHATHA at best, a betrayal at worse? We all ride. Now we can ride as one. The goal of removing the term is to gather thousands and thousands of support, to speak with one powerful “voice” and let policymakers, the media, and BoT know that removing Audism-theme is important and be supported. Also, will Gallaudet University we known ever grow into a reality or see the light of the day?
It is about liberty and democracy. As Deaf citizens of the world, exactly what is our responsibility toward deafness implies—ASL and sign language! Being Deaf does not mean listening and speaking.
Isaiah 29.18: “Is it not a duty that falls to all of us to take up these children and to protect them on behalf of God, to educate them so that, as the prophet tells us, every day the deaf may heard the word of the book”
-JT
Copyright © Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Deaf Mainstream and Suicide
Aristotle known as the Audist Philosopher
“Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say”-Mitch Albom
I have some more to write about my childhood experiences, especially in mainstreaming settings, after I read about Fautso’s death, which I admit, is still haunting me to this date. I realized that I had experienced a plenty of subsequent educational hardships all those years and the likelihood of graduating from high school was difficult after receiving many threats, harassment, bullying, and faced adverse consequences including stigmatization and differential treatment. During my senior year in high school, a month before graduation, I wanted to drop out of high school like everybody in my family did until my father got a phone call from somebody at the school that I was about to drop out, but my father got off work early and drove 30 miles to show up at my high school and caught me in a hallway and begged that I will not give up my education. He said to me, “Son, do not follow my footsteps and you are better than that”. At first, I was disgusted with my father’s appeal because he did not understand what I was going through then I realized that my father was doing the right thing for me. “Be a leader’, he said.
I skipped classes so many times during second semester and partied much and that is where I was couple of credits short from graduating high school. That was where it did not stop me from achieving my goals to graduate from high school. I ended up being in the “fifth” (senior) and skyrocketed my grades by getting five A’s and one B’s during first semester then second semester, almost got perfect grades only because I did not do well in pottery class and ended up getting B for the class. My grandmother said if anyone got perfect grades would receive $50. I really wanted $50 then my grandmother saw what I was going through, she decided to give me $50 for my efforts! In my previous blog, “My Personal Struggles in Mainstreaming America” in which I mentioned the CODA interpreter who interpreted for me in fifth grade until she moved away. We reunited again in my “fifth” year senior. That made a huge difference. Yes, even I got suspended that time for five days after getting in fight with a bully student named Kevin. My brother was there and he was in awe how much I suffered social satire everyday in hallways. He would hear other students’ mocking at me while I walked by. They just did not know that I was his big brother. I had to set an example for my brother at some point. I could not let bullies and bigots fail me and made sure that my brother could not ignore my education’s fundamental premise.
Mainstreamed Deaf students have as much right to seek higher education as non-Deaf students do. There is no secret that mainstreaming system is very much one-sided and the system has alluded Deaf students’ dignity from becoming normal and full Deaf-minded students. Mainstreamed Deaf students should not get characterized by their neglect, I am sure that the stress is so great that affects families as well, too that they experience similar social stigma what they were going through with greater personal isolation.
Is Audism part of conservatism? Definitely yes, Audists know it because they oppose to the idea of radical changes. They play dumb, but they know it! There is so much ignorance in the mainstreaming settings that leaves Deaf people very much invisible what they had been profiled around. Why not Deaf students grow up with a strong mind and ASL? Mainstreaming settings are meant to keep Deaf students from looking at hearing students in their eyes. The problem is that it is not a Deaf cultural thing, but it is a hearing supremacy thing. The Audists are out in force today. Deaf people’s existence causes a cognitive dissonance in their eyes. Many Deaf schools are closed in North America and other parts of countries. The systematic denial of receiving resources for Deaf students in mainstreaming settings still exists.
Aristotle was the one who said Deaf people are incapable of their intelligence. Thanks to Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher and a priest in 12th century, found Aristotle’s work after buried deep somewhere since third B.C. because Aristotle had committed suicide, the Church did not recognize his work. Imagine if Aquinas did not find Aristotle’s work, would the world be different and treat Deaf people with respect and dignity? We need to stand up in the public and continue to reinforce the fact that mainstreaming settings is not the answer. Let’s make an example of the problem.
Denying Intellectual Audism is in a new vogue. How can Deaf people not deal with enormous sense of shame and stigma by being Deaf? They should not felt demoralized at all. Mainstreaming has become a collateral consequence to Deaf people’s lives. Audism makes sure that Deaf people are liable for their consequences for their actions no matter what happened to them in the classroom. Various factors have contributed to many more problems. Remember Paddy Ladd’s research in his book, 80% of Deaf children do not have formal education on the earth. Audists would say that Ladd’s published research findings are false and disagreeable. They need to think that “listening and speaking” is individualistic, like playing some musical instruments.
In the United States, we need to utilize the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to change discriminatory state laws that affect Deaf students in mainstreaming system. In U.K., 96% of Deaf children are mainstreamed and in Canada, high percentage as well, too. We will not become Aristotle’s children. I know that there is high percentage of Deaf children who committed suicide and yet it is invisible in the media world. We need to collect newspaper clippings even if they say “hearing impaired” instead of “Deaf” and other documented information to prove that suicide among Deaf young people exist. Educators of the Deaf today are completely trained under the powerful influence from 1880 Milan Resolution Conference to make sure mainstreamed Deaf children are overlooked and dismissed as nonexistent in the society.
Ladd’s quote, “…parade a single Deaf ‘success’ in order to exemplify the miracle made flesh, and to thus claim all Deaf children were capable of these achievements. That the examples in question were usually drawn from deafened or partially Deaf children was something that was hidden from view” and his other quote, “Isolated from contact with other Deaf people, the experience resulted in ‘academic success’ but was traumatic both socially and emotionally” both quotes were written in 1979.
-JT
Copyright © Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Your Best Activity: Reading
Reading a book is an invisible thread that could change one’s life. It begins with a warning that “a book belongs to a very few”, perhaps to no one yet living. Warnings aside, be begins by sketching the idea of declining vs. ascending life and culture. An animal, a species, or an individual becomes “depraved” or “decadent” when it loses its instincts for that which sustains its life, and “prefers what is harmful to it”.
Life itself presupposes an instinct for growth, for sustenance, for “the will to power”, the striving for some degree of control and mastery of one’s surroundings. Deafhood journey sets itself up in opposition to those instincts, and hence Deafhood is an expression of defending your human right, an evidence of the will to life.
By building a value–indeed, the highest value-its depressive effects thwart those instincts which preserve life, establishing Deaf people as the standard of value. The rejection of Deaf culture and ASL does not proscribe generosity, magnanimity, or benevolence–indeed the latter are mandated for “higher” types what is rejected to allow the ill-constituted to define what is good. Reading a book is a hundred times wiser and more realistic and is the highest and learned class to recognize the instincts of the subjugated and the oppressed groups, for example, Deaf people.
It was the audists who first falsified the inner and outer world with a metaphysically complete anti-world, one in which natural causality plays no role. One might of course object that such a concept of Deaf person considerably predates Aristotle who said Deaf people are dumb. The audists did this out of hatred with a good reason: to belittle and shut out Deaf people out of society. Thus, the audists view the Deaf people as shrewdly inculcating guilt, resentment, and other values hostile to life among their oppressors as a form of ideological germ warefare, taking care not to become fully infected themselves.
The books, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood and many other Deaf books such as When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf by Harlan Lane made a move to retreat into a state of extreme withdrawal from ‘the world’ undisturbed by reality of any kind. Also, to recognize the fear of pain even in infinitely small amounts, and the books itself are standing in opposition to every active virtue and ask yourself how can books like Inside Deaf Culture by Carol Padden have the dignity and accomplishment not feel ashamed to be called a proud Deaf person.
Not only do the audists deprive us of the benefits of Deaf culture, it was a culture from which audists could and should have learned much, it is their loss. So, reading books is the way of revolutionizing everything that crawls upon the ground directly against that which is elevated: the gospel of the lowly makes low. Deaf people are not the gospel of the lowly. Do we are able to forgive or forget what our enemies were the “intelligent ones” persons far more civilized, erudite, and accomplished than themselves, people who they felt more fit to rule and control Deaf people today.
That is why reading books is important to begin count time from the start of growing pain, the writing of Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood then I would now be writing those words in the highest honor that I get the wish to meet Paddy Ladd himself. It is all about self-sacrifice that allows people to continue to believe in their principles. Reading a book can be your best activity.
-JT
Copyright © 2013 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
...And the Truth Shall Set You Free. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.