Socrates – …And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

Beating the Online Bully: How To Take Action

October 17, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

The Twitter account “Deaf Access to Justice” operated and moderated by a Deaf returning citizen, Maria Nicole Dollhopf has a strange message of her own—an “obsession” and that is not healthy. It is harmful. It does not mean she is qualified enough to make expert label about my life and claimed that I have “mental issues”. Is she qualified enough to be a doctor, psychologist, or psychiatrist? As cool Hollywood star, Will Smith, makes a strong message:

Never underestimate the pain of a person, because in all honesty, everyone is struggling. Just some people are better at hiding it than others.”

Judging and labeling people indicate that we are not doing enough to protect the basic right to life enshrined in our Constitution. There is also the problem of stigma associated to mental issues, and there is not even enough serious attempt to recognize this issue.

To understand the full “hate” terminology, it is not going to be easy. With her hatred, goals were launched on a grand scale to rip into pieces. The chunk of anger very much visible, the civilization of hatred is more powerful, and the fundamental problem of the hatred also help to avoid guilty by destroying the evidence of my life and stop my success story by turning my life around. Is an obsession a form of mental issue? When a Deaf returning citizen attacks a Deaf returning citizen is the reason why it leads the path of ignorance.

My life struggles are not a mental issue. It is a human struggle. It is a huge difference. Who started the “war” in the first place?

As I had written in older blog posts, the word, “war” is derived from the Old English, “wyrre” which means, “to bring into confusion“–and that is the problem that leads to a psychological process under-minding my truth. When a Deaf returning citizen personally attacks my Deaf friends and tells them not to be supportive of my character and my hard-working to change my life around.

Obsession brings into confusion often that triggers for a war. The extension of compassion, Maria has lacked in this area. Her practice of hate remains of the past and present, triggered by anger must be seen, written, and examined. Continuing to do personal attacks against my character shows the weakness on her part and add more fuel to stigma by posting mugshot of me and leaving it there to have me suffer humiliation and pain by using my full birth name. It does not have to work that way.

Mental issues addresses one of the critical missing links identified by thousands of health advocates. I strongly believe the human ingredient for people with mental issues can lead productive lives by getting rid of hate. The success will be the best tool for human compassion. Maria has no right to say that my mental issues needs to be verified and stay away and protect for the sake. Hate is not cool. My energy is forwarding towards positive steps instead of living in negative environment. The first step is awareness, stand up, and acknowledge constructive and beneficial to stop the cycle of hate.

I wish to leave in peace and harmony. Sure, mental issues for Deaf returning citizens may not enough adequate, Deaf community struggle for more Deaf-centered mental health professionals, although the system is not funded or resourced accordingly. I leave the thought of the day below.

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-JT

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AGBell: Master Manipulators

October 12, 2016February 14, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

It is no secret that AGBell manipulate parents of Deaf children today and tomorrow. In many bullying tactics, including that particularly large swath of lies that involve someone’s monetary profit and someone else’s loss, can it be said that it is democracy or not? We all know that, by dint of constant repetition, Deaf CANNOT made to appear HEARING, good can get transformed into evil, and myth may take the place of reality, cochlear implants are all about bullying, some can be severe bullying, some can be extreme bullying, the degree of bullying is all the same.

This month, October is to bring awareness about Anti-Bullying and this is perfect friction of the territory of this planet, seems to engage a totally disproportionate attention of the print and broadcast media of the world what AGBell has done to thousands and thousands of survivors including parents as survivors. Unfortunately, much of what the media tell us—in editorializing in published articles are endlessly repeated myths what AGBell has manipulated many of us.

As two evenings ago, I finished reading a book written by Laura Mauldin, Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children really blew my mind away. This book needs to be discussed in all of classrooms—and outside of classrooms in this matter, too. Let me summarize why people should read this book: it is about serious global downturn of the modern era of globalization—cochlear implant marketing failed to do what they should have done to encourage serious damage on Deaf people.

Sociology holds dearly to my heart, I wish the book would add few important terms such as “intelligence explosion”—a term coined by British Mathematician, I.J. Good in 1965—the same year American Sign Language (ASL) was coined by William Stokoe, Jr.—is what exactly cochlear implant industries are attempting to destroy ASL.

Singularity: (noun) The moment when technological change becomes so rapid and profound, it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. For example, computers are getting faster, everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster faster— that is the rate at which they are attempting to make cochlear implants growing and yet, it is an epic failure.

When Deaf children are born, they are what they are called Prima Facie, a Latin expression meaning at first sight or first face. Who decides who gets to be immortal when it comes to cochlear implant companies and…AGBell? By removing “DEAF”, will we have lost our essential humanity? Mauldin writes in the book that strikes me hard the most when Linda, the principal of the school who observed the implanted children in classrooms, “We think that deafness is going to be a thing of the past someday in the future”—making it so easy to have word DEAF disappeared from the Mother Earth is really a HATE SPEECH. No, really, it is!

AGBell- sponsored dinners manipulating parents and people with lies and encouraging language bigotry. Mauldin also writes, “When advocates for sign said that sign was the “natural” language of the deaf”, Linda looked over at Nancy and angrily told her that English was her natural language, not sign. “Culture evolve, and with technology it evolves faster.” That is exactly a good example of intelligence explosion or in better terms, artificial intelligence.

Strivright, a strong ORAL school in New York, look at the word, very clever word: Striv=STRIVE—RIGHT. COCHLEAR IMPLANT: STRIVE RIGHT! Like AGBell freaks must strive against using ASL—that is a perfect bigotry. Strivright’s Philosophy: “focuses on teaching children to speak and hear, not relying upon compensatory skills such as sign language or lip reading”—reminds me of Tucker-Maxon Oral School (TMOS), Oregon’s worst language bigotry against Deaf children.

Socrates once said, “What is the point,” he asked, “of walls and warships and glittering statues if the men who build them are not happy?” What is the reason for living life, other than to love it?” Is that why AGBell building walls and warships to remove Deaf children’s pursuit of happiness for their greed?

Socrates was nominated one of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his nickname “The Source”. Therefore, in my opinion, Deafhood is about Seven Pillars of Wisdom, too. Please read this book, Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children and share with your friends, instructors, teachers, professors, whoever.

-JT

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Hearing Privileges and Hate Crime

October 3, 2016February 28, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Since Alexander Graham Bell (AGBell), America’s Master Spymaster in Deaf Community declared in his words that Deaf people are no longer they are Deaf—appeared to close match as it had opened—with sprees of human violence directed against Deaf people. It is perfectly good example of hearing privileges. The bigotry of American Sign Language (ASL) all stand as reminders that hate crime that kills are much more than an unfortunate chapter in American history—forgotten history. To date, hate crime has tended to be very secretive in its focus—making sure Deaf people are forgotten is exactly what AGBell wanted.

The wave of hearing privileges has been all over with the hashtags—#hearingprivilege is what we need to continue to challenge against AGBell’s lies. A great many of us the Deaf are disappointed by Deaf education which states too pathological these days because it is all about hearing privileges. Poor flexibility and excessive laxity within Deaf Education today that is failing Deaf people today, for example, lack of proficient ASL skills among administrators, educators and interpreters, can all contribute to the overall educational mediocre among Deaf people—wait, hearing privileges, hmm?

Do Deaf people today even with struggle to crave such systems, educational oppression, claims of the past, their words in the meeting inspired them to no end, their conduct of words to encompass human knowledge in their categories that must be corrected—all because of hearing privileges they have to deal with this everyday?

Socrates: the same holds true of written words: you might ask them what they mean by anything they simply return the same answer over and over again.

It is incredible that Deaf people are fighting to preserve ASL and Deaf culture today—overcoming hearing privileges. We need to appreciate the wisdom of Deaf people who enjoyed thousands of years in a land subsistent culture, in harmony with nature. Deaf culture flourished, because they took what they needed and no more, and gave back to the Mother Earth, replanted, replenished, and left enough for the other inhabitants of the Earth. Deaf culture also had been flourished until Western industrialization, capitalism, and poor environmental knowledge resulted in practices that forever harmed and changed their landscape, and subsequently, their lives—thanks to AGBell.

Yet, these land-based informants are the perfect “informal” teachers that can assist Westerners in understanding relationships between Deaf people and their planet. These Deaf people are wealthy in knowledge, and they are a rich educational resource that is devalued and under-utilized. Our future depends on the ability to understand these relationships, to learn to live in a way that does not deplete or make poor or inefficient use of limited resources, to live in harmony and maintain a rich quality of life that supports our local economies.

Just as I have evolved in my understanding to sense of moral responsibility, I believe that ASL can bridge the disconnect that people feel with nature and develop a sense of stewardship to protect and preserve our Deaf culture, ASL, our air, our trees, and the list goes on. Probably the most direct impact that environmental learning has had on me is its effect in learning about my interconnections with the Earth, its inhabitants and ASL.

AGBell is piece of shit. Hearing privileges is nothing now.

-JT

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Gallaudet Students’ Pitfall and Administration Pitfalls

December 10, 2015March 12, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

“In human hands, our intelligence has enabled us to overcome the restrictions of our biological heritage and to change ourselves in the process. We are the only species that does that.”- Ray Kuzweil, How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed.

Today is the last day (December 10th) of Clerc-Gallaudet week. Next year, it will be 200 years in celebration of their arrival from France for America. It is forever legendary! It means that there shall be a huge change in the face of Gallaudet University starting on January 1, 2016. Within new president-elect coming in, Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano already has been visiting Gallaudet campus and listen to the changes. 59 out of 180 faculty members showed up for a productive meeting along with Bobbi in the audience last Monday, December 7th afternoon that they are not happy with the administration that holds 90 people. 11 people in President’s cabinet. They voted for a change of administration. They are tired of status quo. They really are.

They say only the administration sit on their hands, happy with the status quo. With that in mind, they want to see Gallaudet change with the positive vision. No more bullshit. No more gimmicks. They do not want to have another president in line for another major hardships for Deaf students, but all that has changed now with Bobbi in the mix. I just hope she keeps it gone long enough to get out the vote. The administration is the worst I had ever seen.

As a Gallaudet alumnus, I have some questions I would like to put to some people in the administration who agrees with Donald Trump’s hate-speech policies. How do you think Deaf returning citizens will treat when they are students at the university? Do you think they will be rounded up and put on reservations that lack proper well being for Deaf returning citizens? Do you think Deaf returning citizens will be profiled around? Do you think Deaf returning citizens will be looked upon not being good enough to earn a higher education degree—whatever that means these days?

Why—we might ask—do the administration think they are qualified to belittle Deaf returning citizens whenever they are walking around? Do they, for example, train and tell professors how to perform oppression against them? They apply that reasoning to the teaching profession. The administration needs to stop hiding lies—they do not ever respectfully listen—all of us—to what the administration say about their profession and its many needs. Do they call it and continuing education at Gallaudet? That is why it needs a new blood in the administration.

To paraphrase Socrates in Plato’s Republic, Gallaudet University we have known can never grow into a reality or see the light of day. At Gallaudet, possibilities must be limitless. Deaf returning citizens who are strive to be students are limited. The research has shown that the returning citizens, who have turned their life around for the better, are the best students, because they value the opportunity.

Without an education, the path toward rehabilitation and economic security is far more challenging—they do not need cruel punishment anymore. This sort of action in support for Deaf returning citizens would provide education—adding their intellectual, experiential, and cultural diversity within the student body.

-JT

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Time for Chris Wagner to Resign Gracefully from National Association of the Deaf

November 10, 2015February 27, 2017 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

Plato wrote in Phaedrus (Around 370 B.C.),

SOCRATES: I can tell you what I’ve heard the ancients said, though they alone know the truth. However, if we could discover that ourselves, would we still care about the speculations of other people?

PHAEDRUS: That’s silly question. Still, tell me what you say you’ve heard.

I do not know what to type this right now—yes; I was shocked when Christopher Wagner, National Association of the Deaf (NAD) president represents the heart of Deaf community. There is a reason why I refuse to be part of NAD. When Wagner as candidate for NAD president in 2012, he wrote,

“I am a candidate for the office of President of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). I believe I am qualified to lead the NAD as its next President….I am in no way comparing myself to any of these great advocates, but I do share in their vision for a better Deaf America. I believe strongly in the NAD – its mission, vision, values and commitment to diversity….. do not take the NAD Presidency lightly. You may ask why would I want to take on anything more, especially after six years’ service as Vice President. The answer is simple. There is always more work that needs to be done. The NAD needs a leader…..” The key word is leader.

In light of integrity as in honesty, Deaf community can no longer pretend that inaction is appropriate or acceptable. It is time for NAD president to come forward and be integrity to this great national problem. It is time for Chris Wagner to use the platform and position to begin a long overdue national conversation about integrity.

In 2014, I wrote an e-mail to Chris if he remembers me from Tucker-Maxon Oral School (TMOS) in Portland, Oregon–and he immediately knew what TMOS stands for—as “O” for Oral—funny how it turns out long before he wrote that to me. In 2012, he wrote in NADmag, Fall 2012, Vol. 12, Issue 2 in the section called “Interview with the New President” in page 26, “….. Raised in Portland, Ore; where I attended Tucker Maxon School for the Deaf. ” I mean, it was written in NAD magazine that sends to 7000 members–and that was not very honest of him to write something like this.

Let’s focus on the timeline, shall we? Tucker-Maxon ORAL School was founded in 1947—and it was NEVER been Deaf school. Never. Wagner was a student from 1967-1980. That’s plenty of time to know that it was ORAL school. Wagner knew it was NEVER Deaf school. That’s a difference. Like I said, he replied to my e-mail in 2014, he wrote “TMOS” and he never typed “Tucker Maxon School for the Deaf”–that was only two years “young” when he wrote in 2012, “Tucker-Maxon School for the Deaf”–hmmm.

Now in 2015, after discovering that Wagner wrote that in 2012, he said that it was his error to say something like that. How come Lizzie Sorkin, the editor of NADmag failed to do her homework? That is BIG “F” on her editorship. In recent video under NADVlogs, “Share: NAD President Asks Community to Become Unified” that was published on November 2, 2015, he signs, “This is probably one of the most difficult messages that I have ever had to give…We all know that these schools are the heart of the deaf and hard of hearing community. Though I didn’t go to a deaf school myself”

How come Wagner wrote in NADmag that he went to Deaf school? Not only Tucker-Maxon, but also St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, too. I’m confused. He said that he did not go to a Deaf school—but he wrote that to 7000 NAD members that was supposed to build trust. What’s the catch? This is not just honesty in the presidential slogan, but it is a movement. All across the country, thousands of Deaf students who are in Deaf schools does not deserve a honest leadership from Wagner that they want him to build a political revolution.

Time for Wagner to tell the most difficult message he has ever had to give: Apologize. Do not be like George W. Bush with all his lies in wars for his own political benefit. “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” written by Greg Palast is exactly what is missing with the best democracy money can buy in NAD that reeks of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation.

Now I remember when he was running for NAD president candidate, TMOS, Alexander Graham Bell Association, and Hands and Voice of Oregon helped him elected as president that was later removed from Wagner’s webpage after he was in office. Interesting, huh? It was shame of him to support Donald E. Rhoten from Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Wagner did not follow George Veditz’s mission. What a shame! The same TMOS we attended with the mission that TMOS did not allow anyone to talk about George Veditz. He was bought from AGB’s mission.

-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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Tucker-Maxon Oral School Teachers Are Blameless

February 3, 2014March 20, 2016 The Last Hiccup3 Comments

That’s me. 1978. Tucker-Maxon School Playground.

My mother was only 18 years old and my father was 20 years old when I was born in the same year President Nixon had resigned. The majority of my relatives are hearing. Almost all except one person who could communicate with me in sign language with me was my younger brother. At age two, I was placed into my very first school, Tucker-Maxon Oral School in Portland, Oregon. The school was not cheap! I was a product of an oral school where their school philosophy that does not promote sign language on the ground which makes my education accessibility harder.

They were trying to make me to act like a prize horse with having my own audiologists, teachers, and speech therapists policing me around and learn how to use my voice and not to use sign language and lose my dignity. That is where I became myself as “another” and loses my sense as an individual. I was only two years old that time!

I can remember my first teacher, Chris (Wolf) Soland who told my parents that everything will be all right. What a big lie! Chris Soland and Alice Davis lied through their yellow teeth and tried very hard to make me successful. Their plan did not work at all. I was glad that I was a rebel kid. A friend of mine told me a story last year that a student also went to Tucker-Maxon, for the take-home final, he wrote “I do have good hearing friends but somehow, I try to make myself act normal and that I wasn’t deaf”–it broke my heart! He was taught about “hearing” people but they were not taught how to be “hearing”. Can you see the difference? It is so unfair!

I was thankful that I was asked to read a book called Cratylus where Plato had Socrates question whether signs by the Deaf are equated with spoken and written names or words. The answer is aye. About 2,500 years ago, in and around the area we now call Greece, a philosopher who may have called himself Plato began an experiment in writing that would shape the world of human intelligence. Embarrassed and heartbroken by the death of his mentor Socrates, Plato left Athens and went to live in Alexandria in Egypt for 20 years. Upon his return to Greece, Plato founded The Academy–the prototype of today’s colleges and universities.

Plato had inherited writing from the Egyptians who were always mindful of the fate of Thoth, the name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god of writing and knowledge–of intelligence, reason, and logical–associated with learning, language, and literature. After Thoth presented his invention in the court of Pharaoh, he was removed from the chamber so his masterpiece could be examined and deliberated. It was decided that Thoth should be punished to die because written words cannot be questioned for the answers to Pharaoh’s quest for truth. Although the written words are keys to doors leading to truth, the doors are not opened and the truth beyond the doors are not perceptible to Pharaoh’s eye, which means no prior knowledge.

The whole point is that Tucker-Maxon Oral School knows that Oralism is not even part of intelligence, reason, and logical–again, associated with learning, language, and literature. Tucker-Maxon teachers are too stupid to know that sign language is very much part of intellectual discourse, while Oralism has NO knowledge and is not perceptible in our eyes! Also, cochlear implant companies as well as late Mr. William House, the father of Cochlear Implant, heavily appropriated Tucker-Maxon. In fact, Tucker-Maxon was the first oral school in America to offer cochlear implant program. Oregon is the home of the cochlear implanted. I will not name William House as Dr. William House, I will call him Mr. William House instead because he does not deserve the title of Doctor. He said, “Deafness is a such a horrible thing”, he told an audience at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1997. “If a person can hear in their last years of life, I think it is worth it. I recently put an implant in a 95 years old man. He got married after that” What a gelding! His wife was exploiting his life insurance. That was the bottom line. By the way, Karl White was his huge supporter.

Even my Individual Education Plan (IEP) reports said that I couldn’t be successful student if I did not learn Oralism right. Ha ha ha! Tucker-Maxon needs to be shut down for good because there are thousands of violations with no sanctions for the teachers with weapons in their hands. The fact is for the oligarchy and their servants, there is no law against teachers who cannot be blameless as well as their money donors and media trolls to suggest that the society should lynch Deaf children’s hands and be judged by a jury of Audists. Póg Mo Éireannach Thóin! (Kiss My Irish Ass!)

-JT

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References:

Plato, by Reeve, C.D.C. 1998. Cratylus. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-me-william-house-20121212,0,271457.story

http://www.hei.org/stories/articles/william_house.html

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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