Yesterday working on finances with friends, a friend stood up, reading her pager and screamed "Fernendes is terminated!" out of the blue (thankfully no one spilled drinks!) The friends jumped up and down, screaming and hugging each other. I looked on and smiled, but I had a lot of questions running through my mind as well.
What happens next?
Who will be the next president?
Will FSSA really walk the talk that they talked about for 4 weeks?
Will students, faculty, staff and alumni work together to stamp out audism, racism and deaf oppression?
Will the deaf community really look at themselves and realize that they even silence and oppress OTHER deaf?
Mind you, I LOVE Gallaudet and I am behind FSSA 110%, however we all need to think carefully what we need to do next. We didn't win the war..we won a major battle- (think it like Gettysburg or Normandy) The war will be only won if Gallaudet have a LOT of changes done (bylaws, procedures, policies, crystal-clear boundaries, duties expected of the president, provost and the BOT; recognizing audism practices within the campus, making it mandotary(correct me if I misspell that) for staff to learn sign language (mind you, I'm not asking for 100% skilled signers but enough to help in basic communication, emergencies and necessary situations) and also recognize racism and deaf oppression within the campus as well as the nationwide deaf community. This morning I got a rude email from a blogger "Stop shooting things out of your mouth, *******!" and added that they are already planning to clean the tent city-( but how would we KNOW that if no one said it in any article last night?) after I sent a comment to his/her blog, giving some advice such as cleaning up the tent city, doing research on other universities' policies and bylaws about the president/provost/board/s responsibilties and duties as well as boundaries, and that all deaf are equal: culturally deaf, oralists, sim-com, blind-deaf, etc, you get the idea. (in other words, I was saying that I hope that deafhood is the first priority in mind.) For saying all that, I got that rude email, and I was thinking, "wow..I got oppressed and silenced just now?" That really saddened me because I meant positive and well by my comment. I could say his/her name but what's the point? Right now there's no sense in finger-pointing and we all need to be mature and to recognize flaws within OURSELVES as well as outward (deaf community, campus, audists, racists, and folks who don't realize they practice any of those I just listed.) And that means you as well, blogger. I realize that s/he may be high on the fifteen minutes of fame, and s/he DESERVES that fame- since s/he did help out greatly in that blog, being there in person and speaking out for the deaf community- however s/he needs to look inward and realize- need to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Don't do double standards, folks! You need to respect 'em as you'd want to be respected.
Written by Jules
