Amy Cohen Efron lit the “fire”
YES!
It was Amy Cohen Efron that lit the “fire” in the “World” with her vlog “The Greatest Irony” last year in DeafRead.com
She woke up the Deaf Community, the World and DBC became established.
If Hearing babies can learn sign language at the age of 4/6 months to 18 months to build their cognitive development while waiting for their vocal chord to be fully developed to be able to learn speech…so can Deaf Babies.
But AGBell/AVT and its associates built a wall “Berlin Wall” so that parents of Deaf babies will not know the whole truth about American Sign Language.
DBC wants to tear down that WALL and educate all parents of HEARING and DEAF babies that learning sign language early as possible will help all babies to learn how to learn, especially speech.
AGBell/AVT and its associates will do all their mighty to keep that WALL up.
So how are we to take down that WALL?
DBC is here to help. And so can you!
If you have a better idea, DO IT!
That “Berlin Wall” has been up for 128 years. It is time to take it down and educate all parents so that they can make the BEST INFORMED DECISION for their Deaf babies.
John Egbert http://deafbilingualcoalition.com/
Posted on April 26th, 2008 by egbertpress
Filed under: Uncategorized
Amy? She blew out the fire a long time ago…Now she has left the Deaf community in the dark. I learned that she and other human editors want to remain neutral because they are firm believers to accept blogs/vlogs who support AVT/CI for Deaf babies. They also support blogs/vlogs to spread out myths and illusions about our community too. They feel it is imperative to be neutral about everything. Ouch! We need to think of a new person who keeps the fire burning and giving out message to fight for Deaf babies…one who who is not lukewarm and never waver about babies needs ASL. You are one of them. You have not been lukewarm . We need to stop giving recognition to people who are lukewarm. They are very dangerous people in our community. It is true. I hope you agree with me.
Geez! What a comment! What’s wrong with this world?!
~ L
Beats the heck out of me, LaRonda.
I do believe the tide is turning and we’re making great strides to tear down the foundation of audism.
We just need to reassure each other that we all want to help improve the future of Deaf children by exposing the misinformation that has been spread for well over 118 years.
Penny,
A little faith can go a long way. Let’s simply believe rather than be lead by doubt and fear.
Believe.
The future….
….is coming on!
Heh,..Let us LEAD, rather than to be led.
There we go!
LaRonda-
I told Tayler that I respected him and appreciate his hard work even though we do not agree on some issues. What I meant by saying “dangerous people” is that they have accepted blogs/vlogs to support CI/AVT on Deaf babies and some farfectched myths that will harm many deaf children in the future. I understand that it does not mean that editors agree with their philsophy however I feel that they always validate their statements which is contary to what Amy shared in the past about ASL for Deaf babies. Amy made a decision to become human editor for DeafRead. She takes a full responsibility to remain neutral for approving vlogs/blogs for CI/AVT on Deaf babies. If Amy wishes to remain neutral then we need to recognize that she blew out the fire. It was her decision. We need to give recognition to John and many others who never waver and lukewarm. I believe in honesty and I can’t live in lie to pretend that everything is great for the future of Deaf children.
LaRonda, There is nothing wrong with the world.
Just that some people do not fully understand the new role DeafRead have in the deaf community. They do not understand how people on DR team can screen posts based on guidelines yet able to maintain their own blogsite, however inflammatory or benign. As in any small close-knit community, accusations of allegiances prevail. Accusations, especially not well-reasoned out and premature, has no place in the blogosphere.
We can ask, what s wrong with this or that person, but the world - the deaf and the hearing - our world, LaRonda, is purring crazily fine.
John posted an interesting and probably correct idea about Amy. We could read what he wrote and ponder. Only history will tell. Or only the truth prevails.
As with the DBC’s fight - the truth will prevail - persevere!
I agree with Penny. We are not too sure about Amy anymore. She has her own agenda. We have lost her. She is no longer a fighter. Being neutral is the most dangerous thing you can do. The Deaf community has struggled with a lot of things and we need more Deaf people who are clear on principles. Amy does not seem to understand how harmful it can be when we let pathological views continue. We have to stop pathological views.
Penny and Susan,
While I understand your perspective, I also agree with John that Amy DID lit that fire with her vlog. Right now, I think the worst thing we can do is to tear people down for their actions/positions, and blaming each other for this or that. We need to unite and remain united. So put aside our doubts about human editors and their neutrality. Think of it this way, if they had not been neutral, we would likely NOT see the depth of audism, and the CI’s perspective on being deaf, and on ASL, and so on forth. If we did not see, we won’t be able to plan on how to fight that. Knowledge is power, so I’m glad we saw those blogs and plan accordingly.
Put aside bickering and blaming, and remain united. If we fight among ourselves, we lose, and the folks with anti-ASL pathological views win.
Shelley
All the above comments are true, however, Amy still remains steadfast in her support for ASL for babies and still blogs for it.
There have been people who became uncomfortable with the hardline approach to AGBell and preferred to remain out of it, while holding to their position as professionals who recommend that ASL be included in all Deaf babies’ education.
To be a supporter of ASL, one does not need to be hardline or radical, nor does one have to publicly denounce an agency. This is what professionalism means.
This is in addition to maintaining neutrality as an editor.
Dianrez,
I agree.
Shel
John,
Aww!! Thank you so much for taking the time to recognize Amy. Everyone is important in this movement. Check Di’s vlog on http://www.earofmyheart.com. We all need each other and this can be accomplished by respecting each other.Everyone involved in any capacity is important. Its all about finding our common ground. Amy lit the candle for us and we carried it on for her in our own ways. It is a community effort. Lets move upward by appreciating everyone’s contribution in this process.
Yes indeed and including that drawing photo by this deaf artist brought in even more impact to her message. I understand where Penny is coming from. It’s too bad Amy’s hands are tied due to her commitment as a human editor. But, we can’t always depend sorely on her and we have many other people that can make an impact as well. Nevertheless, I believe less is more and to avoid overkill for this cause. Amy brought it home in that vlog. Thanks.
Penny,
It seems to me the neutrality that we uphold as Human Editors isn’t understood.
As it reads on DeafRead Guidelines, “Because a Human Editor publishes an opinionated post does not mean the Human Editor agrees with it. We will often publish posts with which we disagree.”
Moreover, we’ve long printed a disclaimer on all pages of DeafRead that reads: “DeafRead does not endorse any of the blogs by the mere act of publishing.”
Amy is neutral when she is a Human Editor moderating posts at DeafRead, but not neutral when she speaks for herself.
Many bloggers and vloggers have come and gone. Why can’t Amy take her hiatuses too? Must one person carry the torch for so long? Her “Greatest Irony” vlog created the pillars on which many things stand, including DBC (John acknowledges this). It’s up to us to work together and take turns carrying the torch. Instead of pulling her down, why not positively reinforce and say thanks for lighting the torch so that we can again see?
Thanks Amy for your great work. You’re our inspiration.
Even those who has inspired you, need inspiration too. We’re all people.
(Good post, John)
Let’s forgive Penny,
I am sure that we all will eventually work together(unity) and forgive ourselves for mistakes we all have done one time or another.
John
John-
I want to make myself very clear here. I have no malice against Amy. I am a firm believer that we should not give applaud to anyone who serve two masters. This put more harm for the future of Deaf babies. It looks like many still do not get what I have been trying to get the message across. I guess there is nothing more I can do here. All I can say before I let this go is that I am extremely jealous of some groups like black community and tibetans who fight for their human rights and for the same cause. When they give messages out to the public…they act on it. They are not lukewarm or hypcrite crowds. They mean business.
Penny,
I can see your discouragement, but I want to caution you to remember that although groups present united front to the world, it does not mean there are no lukewarm or hypocritical people in those communities. We are ALL people y’know. There are most definitely divisions in the Black community for example. To wit: Jesse Jackson’s comment about Obama being too white (I read that somewhere in the news a few months ago). Doesn’t that seem familiar?
We need to learn to present a UNITED front to the world regardless of the conflicts we experience inside our community. We are not quite there yet.
Shel
Penny,
Just like Shel said, “We are not quite there yet.”
It is just like a poker game, regardless how much money you have on hand, you can win if you strategize how you play.
We can win and it will be honest as we do know in our hearts of what is true about our deprivation of our language and all we need to do is to get to the ROOT OF THE PROBLEM which is to start language as early as possible.
John
Where are you, Amy? Willing to come and discuss your thoughts? Not as a human editor. We are already sick of human editors because they hide behind neutrality which is a hogwash. I don’t think you would appreciate German people saying they had to stay neutral while Hitler was killing Jewish people.
Susan,
1) You seem to think everyone agrees with you.
2) People have said that they won’t be using DeafRead Custom because they like DeafRead the way it is.
3) DeafRead wasn’t created to favor a position.
I want to add something here. I had few hours to think things over and I realized that it seems to be acceptable to the majority of Deaf community that anyone can practice neutrality, support, neutrality, support, neutrality, support. Left, Right, Left, Right. Left, Right. It seems to me that it suits fine to many Deaf people in our community. Interesting. I never gave a thought about it until now. It looks like Tayler and others can handle this way and they feel extremely comfortable about it. Hmmm…Not me. I will try never practice this way as it does not work out for me.
Penny, we are providing a service, and we feel the best way to do this is to be neutral. We’re not going from neutral to support to neutral because of the issues themselves, but because of our roles. And, Penny, let me tell you it is not easy.
Tayler-
I don’t think I have asked you this before and I am not sure if it is my business or not…but do you get pay for providing a service? If so, is that the reason why you have to be neutral about everything? or do you want to do use this approach for your own benefit? I am trying very hard to understand you too. Maybe your answer to this will help me to understand where you are coming from. Thanks.
In light of some comments (vid. supra) as well as on other blogs, it would be best if a person made a choice — to be a v/blogger or to be a human editor. How can a human editor POSSIBLY be a completely neutral moderator of DeafRead v/blogs when his or her blog shows exactly the opposite on DeafRead, n’est-ce-pas? Some readers are not that gullible.
DeafRead is sponsored by Sprint Relay to cover the costs. But that is not the reason. In a nutshell, the reason is because we prefer not to make judgments ourselves, but instead to pass this judgment making choice over to you, the reader. We simply cannot represent everyone.
Thank you, Tayler. The only thing I can say here is that I wish to have your talent and genius to design a website like DeafRead because I will have no problem to reject some blogs and vlogs that do not give accurate information about our community. Everyone is different.
Let’s see what will happen with DeafSide
John,
Yep,
I agree Amy Cohen Efron has made very direct and signficant impact on our Deaf community, The Greatest Irony. It has fired us up. Without “The Greatest Irony”, we would have never experienced that.
I admire Amy and her leadership. She deserves my respect. I am honoured to have her as my friend!
We all know that our views cannot be the same. If so, we would be robots. Most important of all is that we believe all Deaf babies deserve to have ASL as their natural language. Some people prefer additional tools such as AVT, oral, other methods based on parents’ decisions. Some do not but they share same goal for Deaf children is ASL or Sign Language!
Some people are not comfortable with rally and some are comfortable with that. I respect that. But we must work together in different ways for the common cause of Deaf children’s primary need, ASL!
John, thank you for bringing it up!
Deafchip
Tayler
Your number one point? Did I say everyone agrees with me? You are putting words in people’s mouths or should I say hands? The hardcore deaf community like Joey, Ella, DE, GG would agree that we are better off at DeafSide with deaf-centered or deaf-centric blogs and avoid neutrality. We want to push human editors out of their comfort zones using neutrality as an excuse every time. When there are important causes, we should come out and fight. Think about history! Holocaust. Too many people looked the other way because the wanted to remain neutral and protect themselves or their jobs. Wrong approach!