Please Support Jeannette Johnson’s Cause – MSU Deaf Ed
By egbertpress | December 10, 2009
Jeannette Johnson’s blog, http://deafpundit.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/msus-rationale-for-closing-deaf-ed-program/ , asking us to write letters and spread the word about MSU’s closure of the Deaf Education program.
Deaf Bilingual Coalition fully supports this and urge you all to write or copy this letter with some changes and email to those at MSU. The email addresses are in Jeannette’s blog and please click the blog url above.
Thank you,
John Egbert
Deaf Bilingual Coalition
December 10, 2009
To the Michigan State University Board of Trustees,
The Deaf Bilingual Coalition (http://www.dbcusa.org/) would like to take this opportunity to strongly encourage Michigan State University to reconsider and maintain its Deaf Education Program and American Sign Language classes. Deaf Education programs around the nation that include bilingual, i.e., ASL and English, teacher training programs are a critical component of ensuring high quality education for Deaf children and their families. Without these training programs, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is significantly breached in the area of continuum of educational programming which a state offers its citizens.
Deaf children are significantly at risk of developmental delays when they do not have access to curricula in their visual language of American Sign Language from a teacher who is fluent in ASL. Currently, there are thousands of children placed in schools across Michigan and the U.S. who are not being educated through their primary language. The long-term consequences of the lack of quality training programs for teachers can create unnecessary academic delays for Deaf children and even cause educational failure. The potential consequences of a lack of ASL/English bilingual offerings for Deaf children are significant, ranging from developmental delays, unemployment, and social and emotional problems.
For these reasons, colleges and universities which have Deaf Education Programs and offer ASL classes that acknowledge the importance of bilingual education, such as MSU, are extremely important to Deaf children and their families.
The Deaf Bilingual Coalition has seen the positive outcomes of quality Deaf Education Teacher Training programs. This letter is, therefore, written today to strongly encourage you to reconsider the previously announced intention of closing the program and to direct that it remain open and operating for the sake of Deaf children and their families in the state of Michigan and across the nation.
Sincerely,
John Egbert
Founder of DBC
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Message From John Egbert
By egbertpress | October 22, 2009
I have come to realize that I need to stop labeling people and also stop using quotes such as “Enough is Enough”, “Walk the Talk”, etc
I have come to understand that I am wasting a lot energy away from my mission to seek betterment for babies and children in schools.
And I am still a strong advocator but my strategy needs to be improved to be more effective.
Many thanks of those that gave me the message to change my ways.
John Egbert
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It is Time to Say Good Bye to Deafread
By egbertpress | September 21, 2009
I think that it is time to leave Deafread now because it is not what it used to be and many, many good Bloggers and Vloggers have left Deafread due to the loss with integrity as a Deaf aggregator.
Many Deaf people who practice the “Walk the Walk” are no longer interesting doing the V/Blogs anymore in Deafread and they are waiting for the new Deaf Centric aggregator coming soon so they can get back to help the Deaf community with inspirations and motivations instead of integrating with those “Talk the Talk” type of deaf dysconcious audists V/Bloggers in DeafRead.
Wish you the best of luck with Deafread.
John Egbert
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Psychopathy and the Characteristics of a Cult Leader
By egbertpress | September 13, 2009
A well known “Deaf Guru” said that Deafhood is a cult in DVTV(a video aggregator part of Deafread. com) and this is unbelievable one would say that Deafhood is a cult group. And this person said, “Go and look it up in the dictionary”. And maybe you should also look it up in google as well.
Let’s look in google and define “Cult leader” and find out who might that be in Deafhood or the person that reflects himself against Deafhood.
Cult Leader as Psychopath:
Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.
Glibness/Superficial Charm:
Glibness is a hallmark of psychopaths. They are able to use language effortlessly to beguile, confuse, and convince. They are captivating storytellers. They exude self-confidence and are able to spin a web that intrigues others and pulls them into the psychopath’s life. Most of all, they are persuasive. Frequently they have the capacity to destroy their critics verbally or disarm them emotionally.
Manipulative and Conning:
The hallmark of the psychopath is the psychopathic maneuver; which is essentially interpersonal manipulation based on charm. The manipulator appears to be helpful, charming, even ingratiating or seductive, but is covertly hostile, domineering….[The victim] is perceived as an aggressor, competitor, or merely as an instrument to be used….The manipulation inevitably becomes the end-all and is no longer qualified by the reality principle.
Grandiose Sense of Self:
The cult leader enjoys tremendous feelings of entitlement. He believes everything is owed to him as a right. Preoccupied with his own fantasies, he must always be the center of attention. He presents himself as the “Ultimate One” enlightened, a vehicle of God, a genius, a guru, the leader of humankind, and sometimes even the most humble of humble. He has an insatiable need for adulation and attendance.
Pathological Lying:
Psychopaths lie coolly and easily, even when it is obvious they are being untruthful. It is almost impossible for them to be consistently truthful about either a major or minor issue. They lie for no apparent reason, even when it would seem easier and safer to tell the truth. This is sometimes called “crazy lying.” Confronting their lies may provoke an unpredictably incense rage or simply a Buddha-like smile.
We may know who this person is and we need to be careful about not being manipulated.
It is Time to Change and start the betterment for Deaf babies and children in schools bilingually.
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Parent Blast LA Times and Shari Roan
By egbertpress | August 26, 2009
8/24/09
Dear Los Angeles Times:
When the Propaganda mirrors Hitler’s…
I find it interesting that the Los Angeles (LA) Times and other media publications would continue to participate in spreading propaganda about the cochlear implant in deaf babies and children (Cochlear implants open deaf kids’ ears to the world, 8-3-09, Los Angeles Times by Shari Roan). I hope this message helps the LA Times, and the readers understand fully how this constant promotion about cochlear implants in deaf babies and children, is the promotion of an antiquated concept that deaf children can be made to be hearing, mirroring that of Hitler’s racist ideas of “anyone not like me must be changed or eradicated”.
There are 4 key issues not addressed in the article, which the Deaf Community has faced for over 150 years:
1). Lack of unbiased research on cochlear implants (CI) in children: In your article, you stated “there is ironclad evidence that the devices are safe in babies and toddlers and allow most children to develop spoken language without extensive occupational therapy”. Irresponsible of the LA Times not to double check the facts for parents to also be aware of the cons associated with cochlear implants. “In 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began investigating reports that showed a possible link between cochlear implants and a higher risk of meningitis, causing a CI manufacturer, MED-EL, to voluntarily take an implant model off the market. This link was confirmed in 2004 by a further study done by Center for Disease Control showed cochlear implants with a positioner did somehow increase the risk of bacterial meningitis. Cochlear implants without a positioner still carried a higher risk of bacterial meningitis, but not as high as those with positioners. Advanced Bionics had stopped implanting models with positioners after July 2002, and MED-EL voluntarily took their model off the market”.
Another area not mentioned has to do with its public health risk. “The hearing aids (cochlear implants) pose a public health risk due to excessive moisture, exposing patients to the risk of device failure, possible surgery, and the potential for additional hearing loss,” the FDA said in a statement. A lawsuit was filed against Clarion Cochlear implants due to a potential moisture failure within the implant. Adverse events such as pain, hearing loss and other problems have been associated with the cochlear implants malfunction. As well, the implants can cause scar tissue to form which could make the implant of a replacement device difficult or even impossible.
2). Cochlear implants are based on the concept that if you are “different” you either have to be changed or you have to have to be eliminated. There are millions of deaf children who do not have cochlear implants who are quite successful, who end up going to college, obtain work as professionals as teachers, doctors, attorneys, corporate Executives, and so forth. Such individuals live their everyday life quite happily. There are a great many children who were implanted up to the age of 8 yrs, however as teens they rid themselves of the implants for reasons not yet researched. Those who do get cochlear implants as adults who may be happy with the choice they made, knowing that this implant is not a onetime thing, knowing too, that no matter what, they are still deaf. The difference is, as adults we have choices, as children, we are forced. Nowhere does the article mention the successes of Deaf children without cochlear implants, and more importantly, the successes of Deaf as adults, who are independent, productive, tax-paying citizens.
The objection here has to do with when the media portrays this as a miracle, as a cure, “with ironclad evidence” encouraging readers to fall prey to a 150 year old lie. The propaganda promoting deaf children being able to listen and speak fails to mention a core belief behind this movement: eugenics.
Alexander Graham Bell as we all know, invented the telephone yes, but he was also connected with the eugenics movement in the United States. From 1912 to 1918 he was the chairman of the board of scientific advisors to the Eugenics Record Office associated with the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, as well as honorary president of the Second International Congress of Eugenics held under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Organizations such as these advocated passing laws to establish the compulsory sterilization of people with a “defective variety of the human race”. Basically, although married to a deaf woman, friends with a deaf-blind individual (Helen Keller), Bell promoted through these Eugenics organizations, the eradication of Deaf people. To many in the Deaf community, this is not unlike what the KKK attempted to do with trying to eliminate African Americans, Jews, and anyone not of the Aryan race.
From Wikipedia, “Eugenics today is widely regarded as a brutal movement which inflicted massive human rights violations on millions of people. The “interventions” advocated and practiced by eugenicists involved prominently the identification and classification of individuals and their families, including the poor, mentally ill, blind, “promiscuous” women, homosexuals and entire “racial” groups—such as the Roma and Jews—as “degenerate” or “unfit”; the segregation or institutionalization of such individuals and groups, their sterilization, euthanasia, and in the extreme case of Nazi Germany, their mass extermination.” If Hitler was viewed as an evil tyrant, why isn’t Alexander Graham Bell?
Hence, it is only obvious, that the underlying root of the propaganda surrounding cochlear implants in deaf children is tied to Alexander Graham Bell’s promotion of eugenics to delete individuals who are deaf, off the face of this earth. Bell’s enterprise, the Research Laboratories of the Bell Telephone System is whom conducted early comprehensive research in hearing and speech that forms the theoretical foundation needed for later success of the cochlear implant. In the early development, Bell Labs’ vocoders describe how to break up and then re-assemble speech, have been absolutely critical to the development of signal processing in modern implant systems. Why wasn’t the public made aware via media such as LA TIMES, to show that this experiment obtained the direct current (dc) stimulation armed with vacuum tube-based oscillators and amplifiers, and the dangers associated with this product?
3). The propaganda surrounding cochlear implants is based on the idea that deaf children can be made to hear. There is also no mention in this article that should a child not have hearing in the required hearing and speech range, he/she is unable to be a candidate for Cochlear Implant. The propaganda promotes false hope that it is for every deaf child, when in fact, it disrespects the very notion that a child who is deaf, is a human being with its own rights.
On Friday, July 24, 2009, President Obama acknowledged the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and announced his intention that the United States of America will sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Under the CRPD, governments are to recognize and promote the use of sign language; facilitate the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community; and ensure access through the provision of professional sign language interpreters. This is another reason to celebrate being Deaf!
4). Crucial to point out, there is money to be made by the very people promoting cochlear implant. It’s a billion dollar industry set out to “fix” deaf children, Cochlear Implant companies, hearing aids, speech therapists, and etcetera. The Bell Patent, Bell laboratories, its subsidiaries, the various cochlear implant companies, the shares that are bought within each of these companies, all tied to the medical industry that performs the very surgery to eradicate deafness, to do the cochlear implants on Deaf babies and children. Altogether we are talking big money, to hear, listen, and speak and all under the name of: Treatment, a misnomer at best. A propaganda which is actually promoting eugenics and billions of dollars associated with it. I suggest you do your research to discover how horrific the $$ are associated with this propaganda promoting in fact, Eugenics. Take a look at the shareholders, transactions, such as Cochlear Ltd aka COH.Ax. And this is only one example of many that are out there (http://au.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=COH.AX).
What this billion dollar industry doesn’t tell you are the number of failed surgeries, lawsuits against the surgeon, or the cochlear implant company, or even the number of times the FDA recalls the products in the implant itself, which may require for clinical removal of the products putting the child again at risk. “cochlear” http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfRES/res.cfm
Last but not least, the main point that is not mentioned in your article, a critical fact above all else is this: when the implant is turned off at nights for sleeping, or swimming, or malfunctioning, or broken, the child is in fact, still Deaf. The adult, who uses the hearing aid or cochlear implant, is still Deaf. There is no cure. Contrary to what the Alexander Graham Bell Association, laboratories, their corporate sponsors who are cochlear implant businesses, and all of their affiliates would like for you to believe, Deaf infants, children, will grow up to be adults who will still be Deaf.
LA TIMES should be in fact, celebrating that there are Deaf individuals who as Americans, take pride in the fact that we cherish life and exist with our own Culture and Language. We have in fact, much to offer the world.
As a deaf adult, responsible for overseeing an organization providing services of, by, and for Deaf individuals residing in northern California, the possibilities of what we CAN do are endless; the reality-based successes already demonstrated and enjoyed needs to be what the media promotes: human beings lives. As a parent of a teenager who is hard of hearing, I can tell you my daughter, whose primary language from birth was ASL, and later learned English, it is she whom makes her own choices of what she wants from her education, and if you ask her about getting a cochlear implant she will flat out tell you she is strongly opposed to it. Her motto is, “accept me as I am because I’m happy who I am!” I have to say, I agree with her philosophy of life completely. She is intelligent because she has two languages from the start of her life, ASL and English. She is loved because she has two deaf parents who surround her with love. She will succeed in life because she is backed by a community of Deaf individuals who embraces her, spreads knowledge to those who don’t know her. LA TIMES should be showing more stories of what deaf children have to say about their life which has nothing to do regarding the ability to hear or not, but everything to do with the joy they have, the successes thru Deaf eyes not as a medical toy about the ear. We are whole, and one body function, does not define, who we are nor what we are capable of doing. Our heritage and contribution to society as a whole, tremendous. The number of changes needed in order for our population to experience functional equivalency are still great. In United States today, American Sign Language (ASL) is the 3rd most used language nationwide. The LA TIMES should be in fact promoting the use of USA’s visual language ASL. The education curriculum should include ASL as well as English promulgated by the Obama Administration. After all, it is this President who said, “It’s time for a Change”.
In closing, it is therefore imperative LA TIMES to support and promote change, away from the ear, and talk more about what is seen through the eyes as evidence and factual information. Stop promoting the propaganda about cochlear implants which mirrors Hitler’s eradication of a race, disability, creed, religion, and all that is spelt out in our Civil Rights Amendment. Respect the American people who are Deaf who choose to use ASL and English as languages for life. See us as human beings with our own rights, with the freedom to be ourselves without someone constantly trying to fix us.
We’re proud to be here, and we’re here to stay.
Thank you,
Sheri Ann Farinha
.
Note from this Blogger:
Wow! This is a powerful letter to Los Angeles Times newspaper.
What do you think of it?
Do you think we need more letters written to the media to start having “Fair and Balance” articles related to Deaf issues?
John F. Egbert – (I am not speaking or as a representative for NAD, DBC, AFA, AG Bell, etc but as a Deaf Citizen)
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