Civil Rights – …And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

Why Constitutional Rights Matter

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

Why Constitutional Rights matter to respect basic fundamental rights, including equal justice, human dignity, and bodily security. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is very much important in the Deaf community today and tomorrow. Please visit this link below and look for page 9 in #4 A: ‘Probable Cause Is More Than Suspicion’

QUOTE:

“The first rule is that probable cause for arrest requires more information than suspicion or reason to suspect. 61 Reason to suspect gives an officer a basis for investigation, but he must find more information indicating crime before he has enough to make probable cause for belief of guilt.

The reason behind this rule is the known fact that suspicion so often proves to be unfounded and inaccurate. If any person could be arrested on suspicion only, we would all have an arrest record.”

I stand with Portlanders.

LINK:

Click to access 17401NCJRS.pdf

From Rejection of Deaf People in Hollywood Industry

October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Ah, people has asking me what are my thoughts about the latest movie, “Wonderstruck” from what I understand that there were hearing people who pretended to be Deaf– has shed light on what hearing privileges really mean when they attack Deaf people and steal the image from them as well as free speech, too. I am not writing about the law or the Constitution, I am writing about how hearing actors or actresses hijack the system and using it to amplify oppression as a message. The illustration above was drawn by Brian Selznik.

I continue to be amazed by the unnecessary cruelty of the Hollywood industry, which has again taken aim at the most vulnerable members of the society in the name of language hegemony. Isn’t Hollywood industry was supposed to be the “civil rights and human rights” safeguard to protect Deaf people from unequal treatment? Obviously not. It is not the first time what Julianna Moore has continue to be ignorant about the importance of Deaf Studies in recent memory.

A graphic created by Amber Zion–Deaf person with plenty of talent!

This is the time to think about that there are plenty of Deaf talent can do to stop exploitation of Hollywood to hire hearing actors or actress to act as Deaf. We need to educate them in anti-bias and anti-bullying discourses. Can we educate them with effective tactics that defuse exploitation before they can trigger over time into the kind of systematic oppression?

When Deaf people show the world that they have talent in acting with better eye movements, learns of people with hearing privileges and deceit, they essentially disowns Deaf citizens and implore them to shut up and stay in the cell in order to allow them to beat their appearance up and harm their reputations. Again, when Deaf citizens learn that the oppression in Hollywood have been returned to be practiced, they are suffering in the hands of oppressors. Oh, the sentencing of their fate!

We are tired of the worst oppression over the past year that a well-known Hollywood actress has again stepped over Deaf people just like stamped out Audism! Did Hollywood really acknowledge their errors? No. Instead, in the days since, oppression of Deaf people in Hollywood scenes, they would probably refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. All evidence to the contrary, Hollywood have continued to insist on Julianna Moore’s false version as a Deaf person, ignoring the grief of Deaf community, who are trying to make an attempt to educate the society that there are plenty of Deaf people who can show their talents.

Even a Deaf administrator and moderator for Deaf Talent Guild News wrote, “I do not wish to see any more posts critical of Julianna Moore for taking the deaf adult role nor discussing plans for a boycott of the movie Wonderstruck, which frankly in my opinion would be counter productive. I know some of you may not have fond opinions of her after reading the news of what she did…she may have already realized by now she made a mistake; let her be.”

Umm, excuse me, what about the pain what Deaf community has suffered? Where is the compassion? This is a disgrace. We are talking about the opportunity—no longer in the invisible hand. Isn’t Hollywood supposed to be the land of the opportunity? Deaf people on Mother Earth have a reason–know no life other than America. Can we even recognize Hollywood’s America?

I want to make it clear that this is not hoax or an exaggeration. I have been personally embarrassed by this whole ordeal, but out of continued frustration, I find it now necessary to write about what occurred in Hollywood. I feel that least writing this post could help start healing process. When I had been chosen to as an actor for Deafhood Monologues in Washington, D.C.—I understood the importance of Deaf talent where Julianna Moore has twice oppressed the Deaf community—with the quote below:

You will know you are completely done with something when you give it up and feel freedom instead of loss”.—Emily Maroutain

-JT

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References:

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2012/januaryfebruary/feature/deaf-meets-wonderstruck

Oklahoma Association of the Deaf President’s Statement

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

170921-oklahoma-police-shooting-jhc-0648_40f9f2e81417daac6ed7ed7277875a54.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg

Oklahoma Association of the Deaf (OAD) President Renee Sites issued a statement yesterday. I do not know when, but here’s the statement in relation to a killing of an unharmed Deaf man (picture attached above) in Oklahoma City the other night. What do you think of this statement?

“The Oklahoma Association of the Deaf (OAD) steps forward in recognition that education is needed in our home state and across the nation between deaf and emergency responders. We are sad, but not surprised by this most recent act. Lack of education plays a vital part in many communities. It is our hope to join with police departments in Oklahoma, to provide better advocacy and training to law enforcement personnel. We want to prevent this type of situation from happening in the future. We want the members of our community to be safe. We understand that police are often in difficult situations and might not remember that all individuals can respond to verbal commands.

There are many challenges between the deaf community and law enforcement. We would be willing to partner with agencies in Oklahoma to better serve our communities while breaking down barriers. OAD has discussed providing town halls in different cities in Oklahoma. This is not only for police, but all emergency responders. If you would like to set up a town hall with our deaf community, please feel free to reach out. We are here to advocate, educate and learn together. Oklahoma Association of the Deaf is here to build bridges between the two communities. We would like people to know they can reach out to us.”

“The mission of the Oklahoma Association of the Deaf (OAD) is to promote, protect and preserve the civil rights and quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in Oklahoma.”

Rightful Presence in Justice: Challenging ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 620)

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

I am writing this out of my great concern to respond what Congress wants to pass so-called The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Education and Reform Act of 2017 [H.R. 620] this coming Thursday, September 14^th. From the moment of its passage in 1990, it has quickly reached an unprecedented global scope, overwhelming the human rights formed by Deaf people because of Deaf President Now (DPN) in 1988 to the waves of marginalized people from shore to shore in America upheavals of earlier decades.

ADA became important for everyone including Deaf people and Disabled people. The doors were open. They were left out for generations. It reminds me of a movie called Music Within based on a true story. Richard Pimentel who lost his hearing during war in Vietnam then comes home and became oppressed after that then he became a disability rights advocate. One scene where he and his friend in a wheelchair went into a restaurant in Portland, Oregon and the waitress asked them to leave because they were not “standard” people according to a law called “Ugly Laws” so controversial that made people hate people who had disabilities.

The law continued to practice for almost 100 years from late 1860s until 1970s– several American cities followed the law where people were “unsightly” or “unseemly” to appear in public then it was removed from the law books. ADA of 1990 recognized the growing pain of ugly laws and gave those people with disabilities to have rights. No more hatred. Sandra Fredman in her book, Discrimination Law in 2011, writes:

Individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority who have been faced with restrictions and limitations, subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment, and relegated to a position of political powerlessness in our society, based on characteristics that are beyond the control of such individuals and resulting from stereotypic assumptions not truly indicative of the individual ability of such individuals to participate in, and contribute to, society.

Tyler Ray, Americans Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] Washington Legislative Office and Vania Leveille, Senior Legislative Counsel writes on September 6, 2017:

H.R. 620 would completely change the way in which a business is required to comply with the ADA. Instead of requiring that a business comply proactively, the bill would place the burden on the individual who is being denied access. This bill proposes that after an individual with a disability is denied she must first notify the business owner, with exacting specificity, that her civil rights were violated, and then wait for six months to see if the business will make “substantial progress” toward access, before going to a court to order compliance.

The key word: “would place the burden on the individual who is being denied access”—isn’t that the same thing that applies to so-called Ugly Laws? The civil rights would be violated in the highest sense of oppression. The disabled people are at a higher risk of rejecting in a bias-motivated attitude. Why should Deaf people and disabled people suffer and deal with Eighth Amendment “nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” in the United States Constitution?

As bad as Congress brought the idea about wanting to pass unlawful H.R. 620, we must remind ourselves that the old-school politicians have since the last removal of Ugly Law in 1970s, at least moved in the direction of making strongest effort possible, through the eyes of public policy, to reduce inequality for Deaf and disabled people. We must also be aware of 1964 Civil Rights Act, and ADA that has carried the legacy in our society to keep and protect the rights of all our citizens. No matter what the cost is. The H.R. 620 is unconstitutional and inhumane!

-JT

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References:

Fredman, Sandra (2011). Discrimination Law [2^nd ed.]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 96.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/congress-wants-change-americans-disabilities-act-and-undermine-civil-rights

Let’s Grab Some Popcorn!

May 25, 2017May 25, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Watching Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump is like a set of movies in order or perhaps a sequence. Cutting 9.2 Billion dollars for Education is a big insult to the American people. LBTQA and Black students including Deaf students are America’s future students that should not be demoralized and oppressed!

Stop the Eye of Hate

February 27, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

More Than Just Being Boxed In: Attacking Deaf People is a New Norm

February 25, 2017February 25, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Boxed In. David Call. 2017.

Cochlear implant industries are out of control. When oppressors throws Deaf soul away in the box, that is the face of discipline—I mean, look at that way, think about struggle for our language and culture that we the Deaf have to deal either through or between financial and emotional is unthinkable; That’s exactly the box—punishing Deaf people—for what? IDEA! Let’s box them! Imagine what is next…..

You see, there are evil eyes aka cochlear implant industries and stockholders out there looking for any flaws to stop the truth about Deaf culture and ASL, they develop underground online camps and install blogs about how wonderful cochlear implants are.

Those haters has attempted or thought they would stall the truth. Piece by piece, word-by-word, eyes by eyes, everything ASL have built in the last 50 years that will not accept to be defeated.

Thousands of Deaf people who were trapped in the box, has met and discovered the journey of Deafhood to set up symbolic messages. They walk out of the box and tell the stories that the struggle for the language and culture as their everyday reality and it is happening everywhere in the lens of Deaf Education today and tomorrow.

The cochlear implant industries attempts to constitute an attack on intellectual life of Deaf people, also attempting to denounce them as human beings. Not only that the box represents Deaf people as intellectual inferiority—causing more problems.

It is not the society’s business to determine when being Deaf is the problem or not. Yes, that’s right, none of their business, really. All the survivors who were in the box, are the champions of defeating gross language hegemony and held those oppressors, for example, cochlear implant industries, cued-speech organizations, and oralism practices responsible for attacking their lives. Isn’t it a new norm for them to attack Deaf people? Enough.

They are the reason they are the miscue of resources as corrupt dictators and seek power as well as wealth in batteries and cochlear implant mapping more than the welfare of Deaf people.

I would ask that, in addition to continue and challenge cochlear implant industries, we need to step in to remedy the rampant human and civil rights violations that continue to occur in Deaf America, that it take punitive measures against cochlear implant industries for such a reprehensible breach of human rights violation that has put their lives in jeopardy. Are we all getting sick of being boxed in? Let’s get out of the box!

-JT

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WARNING: Our Civil Rights Are Being Taken Away From Us!

January 21, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

In Honor of Julian Bond: There’s a Solution to Stop Audism. Why Aren’t We Funding It?

August 21, 2015April 8, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Living in a world full of Audism is not the most intellectually stimulating environment, but the dimmest corners of the hearing supremacy system even some Deaf people as well likes to waste and bully Deaf minds—an old school project. Why honesty is not valid anymore today and tomorrow? Honesty is a civil right. Honesty is a human right.

Thomas Paine wrote, “Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by (“common to”) nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.”

I would like to honor Julian Bond—a legendary civil rights leader and former NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chairman, I grabbed the chance to watch Bond give a lecture called “From Civil Rights to Human Rights” at Gallaudet as part of Deaf President Now (DPN) 25th anniversary held at Elstad Auditorium. He looked sharp—his mind, his taste, his aura and his activism.

As Mr. Bond was talking about Civil Rights and Human Rights that day in 2013 on my short break from Deafhood Monologues audition, there have been advanced questions in my mind, whether civil rights and human rights are valid or not in the Deaf community today, let’s begin in the beginning where we are on our own. I am writing this post to you—from my role as an student of severe stigma, I have developed a passion for human rights, how to capitalize into an honesty event. Sometimes it is a storytelling time. At other times it is a lecture. It is up to us to do the work that will lead us to the opportunity. This “work” is a process that needs to be ongoing, always. Funding is missing.

From Civil Rights to Human Rights in Deaf community is something that requires a right time. It necessitates the realization that we are unto ourselves. The sooner we accept and assimilate this concept, to fight and believe in, the sooner three key things will happen to us:

First, people will be made aware of our civil and human rights; Second, we will start looking at civil and human rights as a service we provide to the Deaf community; And third, we will begin to look at promoting the growth of civil and human rights as we would any product we might have created and want to tell more of.

Now, having said here, the important tool we need to implement this civil and human rights is the same critical tool any other activists need in order to succeed: a smart plan. If you agree, we can start to create a personal and objective plan of brainstorming, detailing the steps we will take to launch, or relaunch, and then to maintain ASL and the state of being Deaf is a civil and human right! When you get off that stuff your mind, that is an honest thing to do and it feels good!

So, how come there is not enough funding to stop Audism? There has been plenty of grants, donations, whatever to stop Racism with many other organizations, public pouring money out of their pockets, plenty of help from media, the jellyfish of Internet websites, the list goes on, but what about Audism? Is there fear out in both communities: Hearing and Deaf community? We must think of a cryptic message somewhere out there.

Thank you, Julian Bond for your thought provoking and activism! I was very glad to watch Bond’s lecture in person! Nothing can replace him at all. May Mr. Bond rest in peace!

-JT

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Is American with Disabilities Act [ADA] provocateur for the Deaf people?

July 23, 2015April 26, 2017 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

[Image: Me. American flag ignores my pursuit of happiness. A tattoo that says Audism Negat Surdi in Latin which means Audism looks down Deaf people. The shirt says “Audism is Ancient”.]

So, it is the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] theme this month—25th year anniversary. I have to write as an ADA critic this that it is really making me sick to my stomach and mind right now. The mandatory ADA does not always have an outstanding credentials to make contributions to my life—that has failed my pursuit of happiness and my safety for one, I am a returned citizen all because when I was 12 years old. The days when I was being ignored when I was abused in any form at age of ten years old—and that means I was outnumbered when ADA was supposed to protect my life.

Well, those kind of incidents that happens to Deaf children known as survivors every day in the last 25 years has been swept under the rug even though with the new conduct rules that was supposed to be investigated by authorities whom knows that ADA is the most important tool that could have saved their lives. Yep, you read that right. Guidance. And no, this is not a teaser for an upcoming episode of “Simpsons”.

There are many police agencies, school districts, and sign language interpreters that does not follow the lead of the ADA, which narrows the definition of American Sign Language [ASL] for Deaf survivors today and that is a big, big, big problem! People are out there celebrating 25 years anniversary laughing, cheering, shaking hands, clapping, hugging…. but what about crying? The cries are all over the mountains and valleys by Deaf survivors and the responsible people was supposed to take advantage of the good graces of the ADA to bring protection of Deaf survivors—is being forced to lie through their teeth and haul them around what they see as livestock.

What is more—the same school districts and sign language interpreters I lived through did not exactly administer the 25-years old ADA that the stricter rules did not define what could be legitimately treated as a forgotten survivor. That has been a problem for years and years. The school officials are not the experts and will never understand when a Deaf child is in crisis. The list of pain has strayed into the realm of the far-fetched, which is not healthy for the law’s public image. Is it painful to see the image of ADA 25 years anniversary? I believe that is, but it is a pain I should not complain, a suffering I must learn to sociologize the more I engage in it. American society sets me up to be free of this necessary pain, so I need to turn against the oppression and question why ADA is not practiced enough. It is not an easy route—at all.

I support the great change against the flawed due process and I believe that is what the change is all about, and it has two demands–to have me bow out and the oppression to resume afresh after future returned citizens.

Yes, I am a well-known troublemaker always at a distance for each position I espouse. Just mention my name Jason Tozier to those who have known or read you and me no doubt stir a flurry of controversy. I have amused some and angered others, refusing to be pinned down to silence. Some say I have never grown up, while others are sure I have been a troublemaker since birth. Some say that I have a great gift in knowledge, but I have thrown it to the winds so I could spend more time in forests to feel the wind differently when I was living in Great Pacific Northwest.

As a returned citizen, the traits in ignorance by those people who did not follow ADA properly has prepared me miserably for my life, I am the subject of an intellectual vulnerable in our American society, namely Deaf community. I needed the opportunity with my own space to reclaim and revitalize my human rights to protect my life and allow me to survive and flourish in higher education, so I could advance my future.

ADA was supposed to be the makers of meanings if you catch my drift.

I support the demands: to stop the unusual punishments and mob mentality of Deaf returned citizens. I am seriously not shamed of those demands. I do crave such systems, educational oppression, claims of the past; their words in the meeting inspired me to no end, their conduct of words to encompass human knowledge in their categories that must be corrected. ADA was supposed to be known as an integral to learning and thinking. Does Deaf people know this intuitively? Yet in our own time, ADA and education have parted ways in almost every school systems. ADA, created in 1990, had rejected many certified ASL interpreters worldwide and robbed Deaf children not only their language and culture, but also their citizenry: this is the first step in Audism—a racial term we know that it was coined in 1970s to suggest that it is better to hear and speak than not. My sociological bias makes me sure that such language bigotry is an important reason for the poor state of critical learning and thinking, which I have concerned year after year.

Is it painful to celebrate the most important landmark for Deaf people? People, who laugh, hug, shake hands, smile, mock—all that will keep wink…wink…wink…. I am a prospect of an ADA failure. You see all the images that says “Disability Rights are Civil Rights”—well, Deaf people are not disabled—they are language minority and it is time to see “Language Minority Rights are Civil Rights” or maybe “Deaf Rights are Human Rights”, or “Deaf Rights are Civil Rights”—Deaf people are overwhelmingly different from Disability Rights. Is ADA the provocateur for the Deaf people?

-JT

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