Fenced in? There is always a gateway!

My response to a journal article written by Jane K. Fernandes and Shirley Shulz Myers, known as "Inclusive Deaf Studies: Barriers and Pathways.

Greetings brothers and sisters.

I find myself in this beautiful Great Basin Buckaroo Country (pictured here is the actual view of our family's ranch in northern Nevada) this afternoon, contemplating the idea of creating a blog in response to this important article, "Inclusive Deaf Studies: Barriers and Pathways.

Speaking of Barriers and Pathways, it's a bit of an irony for me as I am sitting next to a 24" x 36" window at the family's working ranch, with a world class view of vastness of open space with no signs of civilization. Use your imagination or better yet, rent a DVD known as the "Open Range" and you'll get an idea. Allow me to explain why.

As I gazed through this cozy window I see no shortage of rolling hills in every endless directions. Such endless view is what makes the valley even more precious and prettier. I see the valley as the coveted and desired "lush green" home place for these endless rolling hills, with each hill containing great wealth of characters, different colors, multiple shapes, and steep or shallow traits. I see hundreds if not thousands of black dots scattered through out the area, covering both hills and the valley. These are the black angus cattle with such liberty to roam wherever they please, always in pursuit of better grasses. This is a picture-perfect scenario I see from my window. Such beauty is an ideal world because everything has its' rightful place in this world.

As I step outside and face the reality I know that there are numerous barriers (roadways and fences) and pathways (gates and trail) scattered all over the place. See a fence line (barrier) and you'll always find a trail leading to a gate (pathway). This is the law of any ranching community.

I see the same kind of world out there, a world filled with barriers and pathways. I see a wealth of knowledgeable characters. I see great numbers of cultures and communication modes. I see different races as well. And I see them in multiple forms, steep and/or shallow traits. These people are born with the birth-right freedom to choose how to live their lives, but always in pursuit of pathways leading towards better and happier life. This is a picture-perfect scenario I see from my head. Such beauty is an ideal world because everybody has their rightful place in this world. I'm talking about human beings in general. It's a beautiful world.

However as I step inside and face the hard but un-necessary reality, I see exactly what has been verified and written by Jane K. Fernandes and Shirley Shultz Myers, a deaf world dominated by hierarchy few who took advantage of their privileged life to tout themselves as the Deaf superiors at the expenses of "deaf" others, placing the barriers upon these people that were not born into exactly the same world (ASL-life experience). Upon realizing the advantage they hold they like to tout their own definitions on what might be ideal and what might not be. It is how they begin to define the things that are acceptable and unacceptable, as in norms and the abnormals. They want us to believe that there is no pathways except through Deafhood Journey.

Thus the birth of U.S. version of Deafhood. I call it Deafhood II. The United States version of deafhood was created for this exact purpose, to draw a huge crowd and put them in an eternal chase that will never end. It's like the King or Queen who positioned the people in such condition that will forever keep them in the lower position where they would always find the need to beg and pray for betterment by worshipping and honoring the superiors. Therefore the birth of ranks and files. Deafhood II literally have a queen who savors such title. Not kidding you here. This queen has always imposed conditions upon me and others by requiring that we would have to agree with her long list of point of views. If we didn't agree with her then we'd face rejection by her and her controlled hoodized community. Naturally I choose rejection every time to show defiance against this self-appointed queen because she acquired such title at the expenses of other deaf people with lesser privileges.

The Deafhood II's adoption of Audism theory did not happen by accident. It was adopted because it worked to their advantage since it encouraged the deaf people to believe that they were being oppressed upon by "hearing people" and by so called colonized "deafless people" who were not deaf enough by Deafhood II's standard. It was a perfect recipe for anger, which will fuel these angry people towards the Deafhood II pathway, funneling them into one pathway towards the hierarchy's trap, under the control of a so-called queen.

These people failed to understand one thing that's been laid out by the JKF and Myers article. What might be ideal to Deafhood II is not necessarily ideal for other deaf people therefore the sense for people's security has been breeched repeatily when the Deafhoodized people tried to impose their hoodized world upon other people's world.

The questions coming from these people were frequently asked, "have you attend a deafhood workshop"? Have you read the deafhood book by Paddy Ladd? This particular question was asked often by Deafhoodized people because it gave them the desired power to declare that we're unqualified to discuss the subject if we've not read the book or been to one of their workshops. Such bogus notion I declare! I, of all people am from a very large deaf family and carrying the 7th generation label with my two boys carrying the 8th generation label. I grew up with nine deaf aunts & uncles as well as deaf parents and grandparents. Who in the world appointed these Deafhoodized people into hierarchies that they are, so that they are able to say that I'm not deaf enough? Talk about typical behavior coming from a hierarchy figure.

The "not deaf enough" argument was born as a form of barrier to keep us down. We were constantly labeled as "not deaf enough" because we lacked an identity by their standard. Thus the birth of DEAFLESS term, which I invented for fun but now view it as a PATHWAY to liberty, freedom and independence, steering us deafless individuals away from this so-called hierarchy's spell. Hell broke loose at DeafVideo.tv and DeafRead.com regarding the DEAFLESS term I created because the Deafhood II stronghold saw it as a threat to their hierarchy stronghold. Over sixty or seventy v/blogs were created during the stir over the new term simply because the Deafhood II stronghold felt threatened by it and rightfully so. We, not deaf enough, had no identity up until now and when we finally discovered an identity for ourselves as deafless, it generated so much energy coming from Deafhood II for an obvious reason. Such term violated their false sense of security, more particularly, their air space.

Bottom line? As explained in the article, many of us struggled in our quests to meet the expectation of the norms, failing to realize that we will never meet their expectations simply because we were not born into the same privileges and resources. Therefore barriers were un-necessarily placed upon us by pivileged few. But fear not, there is always a pathway wherever the barriers are.

In closure I wanted to say that I've read the entire article, word for word and I am very impressed with the contents. As a natural born strategist and critic I searched hard and long for certain line(s) that I’d want to disagree with but could not find any. Much of what was written was what I’ve fought for since day one so I’m very pleased with it. This article emphasized us as human beings, something I’ve preached every where. It also emphasized on the importance of recognizing different modes of communications and wealth of diversified cultures rather than limiting ourselves to what’s ideal to the hierarchy few. Watch my earlier vlog at DVTV known as "Deafless Dynamics Explained" on the subject of cultural wealth and how we invest ourselves.

I also created this blog with one other specific goal, to verify and confirm the article's contents / references that were made from my v/blogs. I did not see any incorrect information therefore I do not have any concerns.

Barry Sewell (aka DR Hocokan)

I'm Deafless...

Recently my children posted a vlog in DVTV on homeschooling called "why homeschooling is fun". Several people questioned whether it was a good idea to home school deaf children. They said they understood why it might work for hearing children but questioned whether it'd work for deaf children. I was sort of expecting this kind of crap to show up in my children's vlog so I created this vlog in preparation for potential ignorance. Sure enough, the ignorance showed up. Several vloggers mocked our kids and began to question whether it was a good idea to home school deaf children... hence, I posted this vlog in response.

The headline, "I'm deafless" was created in comparison to "ageless" term. For instance, I see a 80 years old man that's very active and is into jogging, rowing and exercises. I say to myself, my gosh this guy is ageless. I see myself under the same light as in 'deafless'. The term deafless was also created with sense for humor in mockery of audism, which is also an invented term that has not been recognized by panels of scholars. I figured why not poke fun at audism while I'm at it. If you didn't have any sense of humor when you read this then I'm sorry.

The point of the video is to emphasize the fact that we're more than just deaf. We're human beings therefore why not seek equality / common grounds with the rest of the world by reclaiming ours statuses as human beings? Why degrade ourselves, voluntarily, by allowing the term 'deaf' to own us and control us the way it has been done for many years.

In the good old days when many deaf people held respective jobs across the nation they did not find the need to identify themselves as 'deaf' but today we see high unemployment in the deaf community, I suspect, largely due to how we introduce ourselves as 'deaf' and degrade ourselves voluntarily. In short, we've become slaves to this term, deaf, which is unnecessary in my view. Naturally the choice is yours but I've made my choice by introducing myself as a human being first rather than making an issue of my deafness.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking us to conceal, hide or be ashamed of our deafness. I've said it many times and will say it again. I'm not ashamed to be deaf but I don't see the point of being too proud of it as if we're some what less than human beings the way deafhood people does it. What they're trying to do is make us forget the fact that we're human beings first before we're anything else. They want us to forget that we have the same leverage as the hearing people. Instead they want us to be colonized and isolated in the deaf world whereas they could control us by turning us into slaves of 'deaf' terms. Well, for your information, it's not going to happen to me. Don't know about you but I say it's deafless for me. Good riddance to deafhood. Go and fish else where.

What is Holism?

Holism is what I am but what are you?

Holism or Reductionism? And the history behind Holism vs Reductionism. Which one are you? You decide for yourself.

Since I became a v/blogger I've noticed how oddly people would stare at me for my opinions and views as if I was some kind of oddball that did not suit ASL powerhouse or deaf powerhouse society. What were you thinking? They asked. Are you trying to drag us down or are you trying to tell us something? After seeing this again and again I made a decision to share the real me and the theory behind much of my v/blogs and point of views.

Holism is exactly what I am even though I'm still a student of Holism theory. Even after fifteen years of learning and practicing it I am still learning but I find myself teaching it more than ever before. It must have something to do with confidence, knowing I'm able to defend the term, Holism now than ever before. Regardless, Holism has proven to be very fruitful and effective for me including but not limited to how I manage and operate my business, investment strategies, family affairs, community and such.

In order to understand Holism it's necessary to compare wholeness with reductionism, that of parts and specialties. Over 2,300 years ago Aristotles said, "The whole is more than the sums of its parts". It was when he discovered holism theory but the term "Holism" was not born until 1926 when Jan Smuts gave the theory a name. He went on to publish a book called "Holism and Evolution". In 1983, Culcom, a research team from a University in England discovered that the modern studies (Universities and such) have moved too far in the direction of specialization. Henrik Sinding-Larsen of Culcom Research said, "Holism has been abandoned in studies of modern society".

The opposite of Holism is known as Reductionism. Reductionism is what we frequently witness coming from specialists such as professors, educators and such. They find Holism too difficult to comprehend and digest because they were trained in the studies of modern society, that of reductionism.

I know for a fact that Holism is what I am but what are you? It's a worthy question to ask in order to help us understand each other.