Artistotle – …And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

Deaf Community: Rehabilitation Over Retribution

June 16, 2018 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

Life in Deaf community can be challenging, but it can be particularly harder for Deaf returnees whose bodies and minds are being pushed away by ignorance, bullying, and hatred. Deaf returnees serve the principal purposes of punishment: retribution, and rehabilitation. Whose old bones suffer from exile in Deaf community, who are forgetful, suffering human compassion, mocked, and ignored.

Ignorance does not make society safer. Ignorance hurts Deaf returnees, not dangerous people. Ignorance locks up Deaf returnees who have been convicted of a crime. Ignorance hurts vulnerable community that is known as Deaf returnee community, the world’s smallest human population.

mount-st-helens-from-sauvie-island-4413632e0deed1be.jpg

I lived 30 minutes from Mt. St. Helens, the famous eruption in 1980. I am also a Deaf returnee. I found myself in trouble with the law; I had to face my past. As a teenager in the small town in state of Washington during my junior high days, I suffered and experienced a horrible tragedy.

Now I am 43 years old. The horrible tragedy was 32 years ago. Stories from a time when as a child myself did not learn or taught lessons what was right and wrong who were responsible for my early learning.

A Greek philosopher, Aristotle once wrote, “Memory is the scribe of the soul.”—In this case, writing is the mirror to my soul and the doorway into my existence where I was told that in Deaf community, I do not exist.

I had thought when I traded my life as a dedicated suburbanite for a life in Deaf community I had experienced about as radical a transition as I would ever face. As you read this it is good to realize that empowering Deaf returnees is the highest human compassion. By all reports life behind the fence as Deaf returnee is very different, and is often a much more degrading and dangerous experience.

Malthus who was born in 1766 and died in 1834, he studied at Cambridge and was selected to be a fellow at Jesus College in 1793. Five years later, he published Essay on the Principle of Population in which he argued that population would outrun food supply and would increase population. My point is that Deaf returnees are hungry for circle of support, empowerment, compassion, and higher education in the eyes of human population.

Do they deserve a second chance in Deaf community? Do they deserve being shunned? Rehabilitation should be number one priority over retribution in Deaf community.

-JT

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Paddy Ladd’s Hidden Meaning of His Birthday

February 12, 2018February 11, 2022 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Credit: Limping Chicken

What makes Paddy Ladd a scholar? He might be the world’s coolest Deaf hippy scholar you would meet. I learned that today is his birthday. What makes things more special on the date of February 11^th? Astronomer Tycho Brahe was offered to own an island of Hveen offered by King Frederick of Denmark on this day in 1575.

If you win Powerball ticket worth $600 million dollars, would you buy an island that would be the world’s Deaf-centered covered with a golden knowledge, and one cannot see what is there, beyond, on the powerful eyes? Gain knowledge in Deafhood studies. Look in the mirror and see in your life you see clearly, precisely, consciously and with empowerment. And give Paddy Ladd to profess the master ceremonies that makes the island so unique. Ladd sets the mind to begin your journey and understand your process. Let’s name the island. Anyone want to throw a creative name?

On this day in 1790, Society of Friends made a petition for Congress to abolish slavery.

Can Deaf community set up a petition for Congress to abolish Audism? Ladd writes in his opening introduction of his powerful book, “What is Deaf culture? Why is it of such importance in the Deaf liberation struggle? Does it have anything to offer to majority societies, anything to teach them? And why has the world heard so little about it hitherto?

Deaf communities too might ask these questions. But they would also ask: ‘Why does the burden of proof fall upon us? Why is it we must strive to raise funds in order to accumulate evidence which “proves” that our sign language are bona fide languages, and that the collective lives of Deaf people are bona fide cultures? These questions represent a major challenge, which this book directly addresses, and which, by its close should have come into sharper focus.”

The key statement: Why does the burden of proof fall upon us? The burden of proof falls on Deaf community, there are many fragments of oppression coming from the broken mirror should you see one, this society permitting Audism upon Deaf people and Paddy coined Deafhood to reduce the attitude and the burden of proof falling upon Deaf people, yet there is no wind. There is silence. Above, the search of Deafhood which Deaf people have the strength to say that they are happy and proud to be Deaf!

If you have not gotten a chance to see Paddy Ladd’s trilogy on British Sign Language (BSL) Zone, please do so and watch three parts. Childhood, Manhood, and Deafhood. Ladd gives us the train of thought to believe in yourself and the state of being Deaf, believing definitely with your passion, body and mind hold the pursuit of happiness.

Alexander Graham Bell moved into Washington, D.C. in 1879, couple years later in 1895 today, the name of Georgetown formed being part of Washington, D.C; Since today is Ladd’s birthday, it fits to challenge Alexander Graham Bell’s ideology as Ladd writes in his book, page 214,

Ideology as the site of cultural struggle is important on two levels. The first concerns “external” struggles, in the domains where the Deaf community contests cultural meanings with majority society. The second is “internal” and is crucial for this study. Oppression results in a perception of minority cultures as homogenous entities; yet the reality is that divisions within these cultures may have even greater significance than in majority cultures.”

Exactly and how fitting it is! Majority and minority cultures are continue to struggle in many forms, and I believe Deaf people shall recover strength from being oppressed daily.

Today in 1916, Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control. No Deaf people should be arrested from gaining their knowledge for Deafhood studies where Ladd loved to teach, empower, guide and build them into leadership of the Deaf.

When University of Bristol decided to close down Deaf Studies Centre, Ladd was heart-broken because of his seeds in the program has been impossible to replace. In his skills of being a lecturer on Deafhood studies, we should be happy and empowered with knowledge what Ladd had given us.

As I understand that Ladd enjoys music in his own free time, I would not be surprised if he is a fan of Beatles. Today in 1964, Beatles first live appearance in America, Washington, D.C; Remember REI, the new one right next to Harris Teeter, it is the same place where the Beatles gave their first American concert there. 1960s was a hippie movement. Ladd has very much influenced America.

Oh, this is interesting. In 1978 today, China decides to lift a ban on readings of Aristotle, the same philosopher who started bigotry about Deaf people. “Those who are born deaf all become senseless and incapable of reason.”

Not on Ladd’s watch. The reason Ladd writes a book to lift a ban to let people know that Deaf people are capable of empowering their lives. No question about it. Be grateful that Ladd was born in right time—hippy era with bright minds.

In 1993, President Clinton selects late Janet Reno to be first female United States Attorney General. Is there possible we might see the first Deaf female United States Attorney General in the future? Ladd writes in page 212, “Addressing the questions of how cultural, economic and political divisions and hierarchies are reflected in daily life, and seeking to replace notions of passive absorptions of culture;”

I believe it can happen if Deaf people really believe in themselves and overcome the adversity of how cultural, economic and political divisions and hierarchies are reflected in their every day life to crack the status quo.

Mr. Paddy Ladd, thank you for your wisdom! Happy birthday, mate.

-JT

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References:

http://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/close-up-paddy-ladd-pt-1/

http://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/close-up-paddy-ladd-pt-2/

http://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/close-up-paddy-ladd-pt-3/

https://www.onthisday.com/today/events.php

MY RESPONSE: Teresa Blankmeyer Burke in Defense of Vinton Cerf

May 17, 2015March 20, 2016 The Last Hiccup10 Comments

I am excited to challenge the only Deaf-signing woman in the world that receives PhD in Philosophy. Her name is Teresa Blankmeyer Burke. She was there at the graduation held at Gallaudet University and admitted that Vinton Cerf did talk about technology, but did not “exhort everyone to get implanted.” I am surprised for someone like her holding the highest honors in Philosophy did not exactly read the lines very well. We cannot ignore the hate speech that is already proved scientifically or verified objectively. So, it is important to put a lot of investment in understanding hate speech. The tools we learn is very crucial for everyone with greater perspective about hate speech and bias, so we can forward with healing to pursue the higher truth and value of Deaf people, no matter what conclusions are. The mockery is gone. Long gone.

There are only two words that are people: survivors and hostages. How can Teresa dare to make personification out of civility, integrity, and truth without elaborating or describing them? Try to imagine who civility is, who integrity is, and who truth is. In Burke’s own words, “That is my observation as well after I watched the video. There is nothing in his presentation that gave any hint of exhortation to anyone. I see him as a technophile who is amazed by all the technologies that we currently have and is very excited to see what the future will bring. I copied two small portions of captions of his presentation that I think where some people misunderstood him. Approximately around 2:04:24: “Wearable computers and sensing devices on or embedded in our bodies will be standard practice some already are, such as the insulin pump, cochlear implant, and video cameras you can shallow.” Approximately around 2:04:58: “Stem cell and genetic therapies will almost become commonplace in your lifetimes and it is not inconceivable that we will be able to re-grow damaged parts of our bodies and that may include the reconstruction or organs that help us see or hear.” I could not find anything in his presentation that is even close to the exhortation. The burden is on those who made such claim to provide the accurate source of where he said that. My theory is that they were afraid of what the future would being (in the sense of technophobe, opposite of him) and saw his presentation through their own anti-cochlear implant lens that led to wildly inaccurate claim.”

WOW! WOW! Now I find Burke not as smart as I thought. I will copy several portions of captions of his presentation that I think where people did not see between the lines. Again, English language can be very tricky. My findings below:

“My wife, Sigrid Cerf received her first cochlear implant in 1996 and a second one ten years later. Now in 2015 you are about to graduate into a world that we can only begin to imagine. Notice the word right before this? ‘First cochlear implant…and second one ten years later….into a world that we can only begin to imagine. It means use your best imagination what to hear out there. ONLY WE CAN ONLY BEGIN….
“In my own field, it is reasonable to expect that quantum computers will become real. If not, necessarily in wide spread use. Minimally invasive surgery will be the norm for many conditions and nano-scale devices will be reduced to practice. Some may be autonomous and others guided by skillful hands or even by robots. Some will work inside our bodies. The key is “minimally invasive surgery will be the norm for many conditions.”—Many conditions means to wipe the condition of Deaf world. The second key is that “some will work inside our bodies” suggesting cochlear implant will work inside our ears. Is the ears part of the bodies? You decide.
“The Internet is becoming a reality and it will be the norm for you in your life time. Wearable computers and sensing devices will be standard practice some already are. Such as the insulin pump, cochlear implant, and video cameras you can shallow.” Cochlear implants are the reality that people need to shallow. Sensing devices are the part of encouraging getting cochlear implants.

“It is not inconceivable that we will able to re-grow damaged parts of our bodies and that may include the reconstruction of organs that help us see feel or hear.” It is easy to know what it means when someone says “re-grow damaged parts of our bodies”—re-grow ears are part of the bodies!
“Some of you will discover new physical principles….” Hmmm. That is very tricky. Isn’t physical principle part of eradicating Deaf and learn to be hearing again? Deaf people have principles to protect their constitution rights.

From I had learned through my academic experience, it is best to stop any demonstrating troublesome and potentially harmful behaviors. When people practice any behavior, for example, hate speech, that behavior becomes stronger and harder to get rid of. In our human minds, we see a person of different culture walking past the street, and people sneer at them. They then become invariably disappears. To the human mind, the awareness works. To a slightly anxious people who did not take full responsibility to stop any kind of hate, and to a very anxious person like Alexander Graham Bell, Aristotle, Dimity Dornan, Karl White, William House, Vinton Cerf, many more, this completely reinforces the idea that hate speech makes scary things go away.

The goal is to teach people awareness that people should not be harmful and to substitute other behaviors, such as relaxing (at home), or paying attention to you. It is vital that you manage the environment to prevent this from happening. Do not allow people to spend time with haters unsupervised, where they can see outside, access the door, and criminalize at passersby. We would like to change people’s emotional reaction, as well as their behavior, when they seems different people on the walk. To do this, they must be comfortable—not making hate comments, literature, or speech that can constitute a hate crime. They will have to make judgment calls about which people they think they will react to, but err on the side of caution. We already know what they are more likely to react to people in hoods or carry backpacks.

That is my two cents. Share the truth! It is important to use your knowledge to recognize your civility and the truth wins with the most powerful integrity as possible. Philosophy holds the most noble thinker—try to read the lines better next time. Socrates, the most wisest thinker of all time would drink some red wine celebrating the civility, integrity, and truth that Deaf people do not need cochlear implants.

-JT

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In The Name of Deaf Hate Crime: Time to Stop Silence!

February 15, 2015April 29, 2017 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

Ellen Mansfield’s Art Work. “Deaf Hate Crime” was added to the jigsaw puzzle. Feb 2015.

The unfolding of history of the Deaf points to nothing more clearly than the vast ignorance of our language and culture; While I am fully aware that my message, be it factual or thinking, must be evaluated in terms of history as the uninterrupted welling of Deaf community in a multitude of currents and counter currents formed by our ever-changing society. My belief that our community must be renovated through the principles of happiness, that is deeply rooted in the American doctrine—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“It is our hope” as George Veditz, signed in the film, The Preservation of the Sign Language in 1913. It is very important that we must remember that it is each person’s right to know what being Deaf means. We also need to know that where it comes from as well as the activities and attitudes, which it describes. If we do not know, with confidence, our part in the whole and our place in history, we can become frustrated by what we have to do. If we know what being Deaf means, our self-esteem and self-determination would be much more sure. Today the world remains ignorant of Deaf people and their language and culture. Fact or myth?

I announce that my most important work shall restore Deaf Hate Crime (DHC) back to life. This time, it is in my own right. As an author of DHC, late Carl Schroeder has given me to go ahead and continue this important work before his unexpected death. The history of DHC establishment with Carl was in early 2010; we both realize that it would be very controversial and realized that it was not in right direction.

First of all, Carl wrote me e-mail in 2010 recognizing me as an author of DHC.

“Deaf Hate Crime is novel to me. I am basically a linguistics student, not a sociologist. Everything I learned about hate speech/crime IS from Jason Tozier. He IS my resource. He’s brought to my attention a vast knowledge of hate crime: academics, books and contacts. Jason does not come in any cheap! Deaf Hate Crime is now entertaining respect and attention across the nation and around the world. However, “Deaf Hate Crime” IS Jason Tozier, not me. I very much prefer to discuss languages….”

“…..I am forever in debt to Jason for bringing me to a national and international platform on Deaf Hate Crime, which is not my enterprise. Socrates had Plato; Plato had Aristotle…I have Jason, and I am not going to fail this.”

Back in summer 2010, Carl and I gave a presentation for City of Portland Office of Human Relations and Coalition Against Hate Crimes (CAHC), which has helped the coalition to better understand, how hate crimes affect Deaf people. That presentation led to a meeting with Oregon Attorney General to advocate for the inclusion of “disability” in Oregon’s bias crime statues. In 2011, the Attorney General presented such a bill to the Oregon legislature. That bill was passed and the new expanded hate crime law went into effect on January 1, 2012. That was a direct result of MY commitment to this issue. Oregon Association of the Deaf (OAD) NEVER had any part of it at ALL.

The question you would ask, where is my credentials in this? I signed up for Hate Crimes and Bias, a Sociology credit, in which students have to conduct original research projects and digest some rather dense material along diagram theories. My paper, Negative Perceptions of Deaf Individuals in Relation to Knowledge of American Sign Language was a scholarly paper and gave myself a taste of my commitment to the rights of Deaf people.

The intent of Deaf Hate Crime we need to recognize that has a long history, but it is not officially labeled as such. It is to subordinate and intimidate not only Deaf Hate Crime but also the entire community in which it is used. Deaf Hate Crime is therefore symbolic in that it sends a message to the entire world that Deaf Hate Crime is different and that DHC does not matter because it is socially constructed without self-evident definition.

It means different things to different people. Our challenge to DHC has not been in vogue because the majority of our world society holds that DHC seeks to cease language discrimination, language bigotry, language hegemony, and the layers of Audism.

My goal of DHC is to become a useful tool in the movement to fetch a better future. There are lots of us out there who are frequently silenced. What I am attempting here is to map out how research on DHC might be done. Deaf people cannot be forgotten and silenced.

Again, there were few books that have influenced my important work. For one, Barbara Perry in 2001, wrote:

…. Hate crime is a crime like no other…it is implicated not merely in the relationship between the direct “participants”, but also in the relationship between the different communities to which they belong. The damage involved goes far beyond physical or financial damages. It reaches into the community to create fear, hostility, and suspicion.

The factors that stands in the way of effective DHC as following in a quote by Boeckmann and Turpin-Petrosino in 2002 set the tone by stating that:

There is no consensus among social scientists or lawmakers on definitional element that would constitute a global description of hate crime. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that cultural differences, social norms, and political interests play a large role in defining crime in general, and hate crime in particular.

In Solidarity,

-JT

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Socrates Says YES; Aristotle NO

August 18, 2013February 20, 2017 The Last Hiccup3 Comments

This is one of my personal favorite artworks done by Nancy Rourke. I am a proud owner of this work. In this painting, there are two philosophers, Socrates and Aristotle. Socrates is seen with a sign “YES” and Aristotle’s sign “NO”! According to Plato’s book, Cratylus, Socrates knew that Deaf people have intelligence while Aristotle disagreed. Evidently Aristotle had a lot of issues to be done in order to make it so that the Deaf people are exploited in social media by portraying and seeing the Deaf as unequal to individuals who are not Deaf. Being exposed to falsehoods, Aristotle made the world become aware that even with vast improvements in rights and advantages that the Deaf people entertaining, there is still a negative mentality that has not been eliminated from the Deaf.

Particularly, the belief that is held Deaf people are in some ways broken and need to be either assimilated or overcame with what is “ailing” them. They must be accepted into society by viewing themselves as “normal hearing people.” I have become more and more conscious of this fact that, with the visual nature of the state of being Deaf, it has become too easy for many people to view deafness merely as a puzzle piece that is being put into the world and to think that the puzzle piece shows an entire picture of a whole person. So they are trying to hammer out, to interlock edges of the puzzle of into the picture without considering Deaf people do not fit the puzzle piece for an obvious reason.

Humans tend to view most groups in stereotypes until they get to know them better. Some Deaf people within the groups represent a certain variation in population. Social media about Deaf people serves to introduce to these groups, and more often that not, this introduction perpetuates in an excessive exploitation.

Once we start seeing a Deaf president, a Deaf person dancing, a smart and a successful Deaf corporate executive our views of these groups begin to widen and move beyond the limits of typical. What is simultaneously hard and easy to grasp is that there is more movement to be done. The human consciousness is ready for an expansion and media is calling for it, having been calling it for quite some times.

Socrates knew about Deaf people and acknowledged their sign language. Through Plato, Socrates questioned whether Deaf people have intelligence by using sign language. This culture was strong enough to continue Socrates’ legacy. Socrates served more than just encouraged a politically corrected vocabulary. Aristotle offered no apology for the atrocious acts he had committed against Deaf people’s intelligence. He referred to his integrity and principles and admonished his own peers for reserving judgement about the Deaf. His zealous beliefs had since created.

Nancy Rourke’s painting was a genius interpretation by looking at these two ancient Greek philosophers because the closer you look at it, there is some assuaging their moral outrage with true feelings of courage of Socrates and remorse of Aristotle. There is no real remorse as Aristotle believed that he was committed to a higher cause. In this sense, Plato cautioned his readers about Socrates’ “enlightenment” and revolutionary ideas when the outcome of such transcendence was bloodshed without culpability in the name of the Deaf. Socrates fought, protect and uphold the human rights of using sign language for Deaf people very seriously and also, seek to have Deaf people to proclaim a triumphant “YES” to human prosperity, knowledge, and happiness.

One quote I found was particularly striking written by Socrates:

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

Socrates’s simple quote seems to embody a lot that Deaf people seems to be seeking, which is to be portrayed with a parity that equals the sums of their parts and not in a way that makes them seem lacking or wanting. Socrates is my type of man.

-JT

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“It is not inconceivable that we will able to re-grow damaged parts of our bodies and that may include the reconstruction of organs that help us see feel or hear.” It is easy to know what it means when someone says “re-grow damaged parts of our bodies”—re-grow ears are part of the bodies!

“Some of you will discover new physical principles….” Hmmm. That is very tricky. Isn’t physical principle part of eradicating Deaf and learn to be hearing again? Deaf people have principles to protect their constitution rights.