Oh Really? (for The Deaf Edge)

Instead of leaving a comment under your recent blog I thought I'd respond via my own blog. One reason is because I know you do not like me. This much is evident every where. For as long as I could remember you, dating back to at least four years ago, you have spoken ill of me numerous times. One source told me you had a healthy disdain for smart men. Go figure. Not long ago somebody shared a link with me showing your conversation with Ridor9th in a closed thread, whining about me and my presence in the v/blog sphere. You told him that I was nobody. If you really believed that I was nobody then why bother mentioning me every where?

The real reason you don't like me is because you are intimidated by my debating skills. Forgive me for saying so but it's been quite easy to read and detect your fears. You tried vlogging at DVTV but your vlogs could never seem to hold its own grounds. But then who gives? People saw you for who you were and that in itself spoke in volumes. If I was nobody, as you claimed then my v/blogs would not have amounted to anything. Mind you, credibility is not something you earn in a classroom setting where you seem to spend most of your time. Credibility is something you earn by being amongst the people. A classroom means exactly that, a confined room therefore only the people in that room will know who you are. You will only know what a classroom might have to teach you. Go figure.

The real purpose of this blog is to debunk some of the myths you managed to spew on EHDI and Karl White. Call it a bunker bomb if you like... the debunking of your myths.

First, I agree with you on strategic mistakes made by AFA when they appeared at a local CI clinic and two oral schools when the school children were still there. Thank you for acknowledging this much. You have the right to support AFA and their rally at EHDI conference. However you're turning a blind eyes on a couple of things here. Your blog clearly demonstrated denial on your part. Here is why I said that.

In your blog you gave Karl White way too much power and credit. You kept noting his vested interests and benefit as the ultimate sin. This is a laughable notion of yours. Everybody in the professional field has their own vested interest and hope to benefit from them. You are no different. You are one of these professionals who have vested interest in something and you hope to benefit from it as well. How are you any different than Karl White? The real reason you are disappointed with Karl White and EHDI is because you are envious of their demographic advantages. They represent a very large group of people who have vested interest on deafness. Being envious is probably the least of your sin but it does not give you the right to demean or belittle them and the larger deaf (non signing) community they represent.

It was quite lame for you to lay the blame on Karl White and EHDI because they were heavily supported by Federal funds. Who are you to talk about heavy Federal funds knowingly how much Federal funds we (deaf and signing community) received through the years. I do not need to remind you of a research that was presented at Wisconsin's legislative floor from several years when they disclosed how much the government spent on a single deaf/signing person in a lifetime. An average of one whopping million dollars per deaf person's lifetime. Talk about medical services, interpreting costs, deaf education (cost of these deaf school facilities, staff, resources) as well as vocational rehabilitation, Gallaudet University, post-education costs, social security income and/or Social Securuty Disability Income, medicaid and medicares, welfare programs. The list goes on and on. Try and calculate the total amount of money we (deafies) received from the government. Compare that with what the government has given EHDI to date.

Karl White did not refuse the "D" deaf people stakeholders' participation as you tried to put it. That was untrue. There are deaf stakeholders in EHDI. If you didn't know that then I'm going to have to ask you why you didn't know. I thought research was your specialty. However you got one thing right. You said "refusing the Deaf stakeholders' participation in the issue network fully. That's right. Nobody is entitled to participate 'fully' since nobody is everything. EHDI is filled with specialists who are limited to their own professions. That is the way it works. You are a specialist yourself so surely you know I would not trust you on everything. I'd only trust you based on what you know, as in a specialist because after all you went to school to become a specialist. EHDI is full of specialists like you. This does mean you're going to have to learn to trust other specialists who are professionals in their own rights. I mean, common sense prevails here. Full participation? My eye....

You kept on referring to Karl White and his oral extremists as the perpetrator of public and non-profit administration field. Kindly tell me how different it might be when we look at you as the radical big "D" militant extremists who perpetuates deaf schools and their respective outreach departments? If you think about it, you are no different than them. You all have vested interest in your fields, all the same. The goal is the same... to benefit from it.

You claimed that there were only seven (7) registered ASL/Deaf centered presentations at EHDI. Just yesterday Karl White sent me a hard copy of registered ASL/Bilingualism presenters. The number was twenty-seven (27). And then I noted your choice of word, referring to the ASL/Deaf centric presenters. You see the problem here. You were looking for Deaf centered presenters. You are cherry-picking here, dismissing the rest of the ASL/Bilingualism presenters who were not Deaf centered. Now whose problem is that? Ours? Or is it pretty much your own. You decide what your standards are just like the rest of us will decide what we want our standards to be. I am content with ASL/Bilingualism presenters as long as they promte ASL/Bilingualism. But you? No. You wanted them to be Deaf centered presenters. A tad bit more integrity coming from you would be appreciated. There were twenty-seven ASL/Bilingualism presenters at EHDI conference. Not seven. Twenty-seven presenters out of over 120 presenters is a darn good figure, especially after the fact that we (signing community) only amount to less than 1% of the deaf population in America.

Now, whatever happen to your sense of appreciation? Didn't your parent teach you to appreciate little things? I sure hope they did.

I'd suggest that you contact Karl White if you're interested in securing a hard copy of registered presenters. I have my own copy here in front of me on my desk. I am not sure you would have the courage to ask Karl especially after making numerous ill statements towards him. Good luck with that.

Furthermore, you were aware of Karl White's email dated on March 1st, 2012. The letter was addressed to over 9oo EHDI participants. The letter ended up in numerous Facebook walls including this closed 'Deaf Community Action' group, which I believe you are part of. In that letter Karl mentioned his desire to share EHDI's stakes with Deaf people as well as AFA and DBC. He was open to the idea but yet what did you and AFA do? You continued to spread the lie. You continued to mislead numerous deaf people who didn't have appropriate education to know whether you were telling the truth or not. I saw how these people were manipulated in some of the rallies. They did not know any better but yet AFA leaders manipulated them and turned them into a group of angry people so that there would be bodies to count at their rallies.

Let's talk about imbalances in EHDI. It is supposed to be imbalanced. It's a reflection of deaf people as whole. Most of the deaf people out there simply do not sign. Gallaudet University's very own research confirmed this. There are millions of deaf people in America but yet Gallaudet University could only lay their fingers on between 300,000 to 400,000 signers in America. EHDI's structure reflected exactly that. EHDI is being realistic here. You are not.

If you still really believe in staging a massive protest then kindly address the matter with the appropriate person. The person you really need to talk to is God, Himself. Tell Him you're unhappy with the fact that he did not turn every deaf people into profoundly deaf people. Tell Him you're disappointed with him for creating hard of hearing people as well as people with moderate hearing losses. Tell Him you are sorely disappointed with him for creating inventors who invented all these technologies. Tell Him you are unhappy with people's variable opinions and views. Tell Him you hate independent thinkers.

And lastly, you might find this interesting. Karl White corrected me on something I said in my recent blog. I'm going to copy and paste it here. It's going to prove how wrong you were.

----Karl quoted----

In fact, about the only thing I disagreed with on your blog was the statement that:

"If I was in charge of EHDI and if I was so tired and sick of these ranting protesters who didn't know how to register themselves into meetings, I'd let them continue what they were doing as long as they continue to frighten the parents of deaf children. This would only work to EHDI's advantage."

I think I know what you meant, and I agree with the intent of what I think you meant. The reason I disagree with what you said is that we really do need the help of everyone to improve EHDI programs. So, what would really "work to EHDI's advantage" is if the protesters would decide to work together with the state-based EHDI Programs in a respectful way to educate parents of newly identified deaf children about services and options, and then work respectfully to help parents get the best services possible for whatever they choose. By ranting, bullying, threatening and disturbing, they only interfere with the process and make it more difficult for EHDI programs to help parents. That is sad.

----end quote----

Now kindly tell me what part you didn't understand. Better yet, explain it to God. And I'll apologize in advance if you didn't believe in God. If you didn't then it might explain why you're without logic.