I happened to walk into the den, when I saw someone gesturing on television. I looked up and saw it was a child- she signed, "Hello, My name is Alana. I was born deaf." I was pleasantly surprised but then what she said then, sunk my stomach. She said that she asked her mother why deaf people don't wear hearing aids. "They don't like how a hearing aid looks on them." She ended it by "I would do anything to hear better." (If I'm wrong in parts of those, please let me know, but I got the whole message.) I may sound I'm "touchy" about this issue, but to say that deaf folks don't wear hearing aids because they are embarrassed to wear hearing aids??!! I was so speechless when I worked it out in my mind and then I got furious. If they had an elderly woman/man saying that, okay, I can handle that because a majority of eldery lose hearing as they get older. A lot of eldery do tell me that they don't like to wear hearing aids because it make them look different. BUT a child that SIGNS ASL says this??!!! I know there are deaf people out there that wear hearing aids and not, but this commerical is very very misleading. It is giving an impression that we are EMBARRASSED to be deaf, hence EMBARRASSED to wear hearing aids.
I grew up in mainstreamed schools, I am very comfortable in both hearing and deaf worlds and I help both communities. I can write and type very well with hearing people as well as sign excellently with deaf people. Before you ask, I stopped wearing hearing aids because I kept getting ear infections frequently and I realized that even with hearing aids, I wasn't able to identify sounds at all. NOTHING about embarrassment. NOTHING about being 'vain.' NOTHING about fear of being identified as a deaf individual!
Or maybe I'm overreacting to the commerical. What do you think?
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Favorable results for Deaf?
When I read C's comment on Mishka Zena's blog about his challenge about court cases involving deaf people and whether or not they got favorable results, I can think of one. I wrote a paper about him- Donald Lang. It's difficult to get information, but I was fortunate to find an out-of-print copy of "Dummy"(non-fiction) by Ernest Tidyman who did research about Donald Lang and the trial. Donald Lang is African-American, deaf, and mental retarded. He was taken out of school at 2 1/2 years old,and never returned to school. He was kept at home 'til his mom died. The book also provided much background, court appointments/trials and what happened to him in the aftermath. From what I remember, Donald Lang was a suspect in a murder of a woman (due to finding blood on some of his clothes left in his closet) However, due to him not knowing how to speak or even sign or write/read, they couldn't really "talk" with him. He DID gesture about stabbing someone, but the question begged, ...did he SEE someone stabbing the woman or did he stab the woman himself? The lawyer was even deaf, Lowell Myers. He managed to convince the judge to send Donald Lang to a mental hospital in hopes that he would learn sign language. That would help them then try him in trial. He didn't learn much sign language- they felt that his age (20 years old) was too late to learn any type of communication. After six years, they let him go. In a year or so, I believe, there was a murdered woman near where Donald Lang worked. At one time when detectives tried to "interview" Donald Lang- he did his best as I'll read you the paragraph (page 182-183)
"Again, Bertucci(detective) read Donald his rights and again, Donald stared blankly at him. Bertucci then took out his pen and wrote several questions on a piece of paper in large, block letters:
DO YOU READ AND WRITE? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?
Donald grabbed the pen from Bertucci's hand, picked up a blank piece of paper from a table and drew a picture with quick strokes of the pen. It was a curious drawing- crude yet somehow terribly expressive. He drew a jagged line in a shape of a stick and a stick figure. After finishing the stick figure, he pointed to himself, indiciating that he was that figure. at the opposite end of the first jagged line, he drew another stick figure with a curly mass of lines at the top to indicate hair. He made a gesture with his cupped hands to pantomime breasts. The drawing was clear to the policemen. A man and a woman- Donald Lang and "Jane Doe." Donald then drew a jagged, steplike line toward the top of the page, perpendicular to the first line. At the top of these "stairs", he drew a big X. He paused for a moment, looked at the men around him, held up three figures, pointed at the figure of the woman and then crossed the woman out with another large X.
It was an eerie experience. The officers stared at the drawing, not quite knowing what to make of it. They had the feeling that they were looking at the story of a crime, but how to interpret it? Was it a confession? What was the significance of the three fingers Donald had held up? Ther was no answer. The men placed their initials on the drawing..."
A detective took the drawing in for inventoried, as another detective noticed there was some brown strains on one of Donald's socks. When they came back to look, the strain wasn't visible.
I'd like to read you this part in the book that made me nod in agreement. After Donald Lang was found guilty, they had a sentencing then.
"State's Attorney Kavanaugh rose and turned to the Bench. "Your Honor, the defendant, Donald Lang, stands here before this court, tried by twelve jurors. He has been found guilty of the crime of murder, the most serious crime known to man.
There has been much comment and conversation in this case concerning Donald Lang's condition, and that Donald Lang is to be looked upon with pity and mercy because of his affliction. Indeed, any rational human being thinks about his affliction with a sense of pity. However, we often neglect to think about the suffering of the victims of crime, in this case; Earline Brown. No comment is usually made about the murdered dead, since they are not around to tell us of the anguish and suffering which occurred to the at the time their life was being taken from them. Earline Brown had a right to live, as much as anybody in this courtroom. And, for that death, which the defendant has been found guilty of beyond a reasonable doubt, the State would recommend to this court a period of incarceration in the Illinois State Penitentiary for no less than 40 nor more than 80 years."
Donald's lawyer said, "We are not asking for pity or mercy from this court because of Donald's condition. The State attempted to show motive for this alleged murder, that Donald Lang hired the services of a prostitute, that he went to the Viceroy Hotel with her and that she attempted to "rip him off" either to take his money without the service, to perhaps demand more money, or to steal any money Donald might have had on him. This is the motive the State presented to the jury. Now, they are asking this court to send him away for forty to eighty years because perhaps he was defending himself.
"Now, here is a man that has been diagnosed all of his life- he has never been really treated, he has just been diagnosed. If he had as much treatment as he had diagnosis, perhaps he wouldn't be here today, perhaps he could have gotten up on the stand and explained what did occur in that room, perhaps it would have amounted to justifiable homicide, or perhaps manslaughter. We don't know. We are asking the court to take his inability to defend himself into consideration. Not for mercy, not for pity; he has had too much pity. We are asking the court to give him the benefit of the doubt... that he went up there...that he was about to be ripped off...and that he was defending himself. He could not yell for help. Perhaps it was self-defense and he had to defend himself. He had nowhere to yell to, no one to yell to, no way to yell.
"This man may be trainable. We have met in chambers with officials of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and we know that they will set up a program where Donald may be trained. It may well be that he will never be trained. Everyone who has diagnosed his condition has said that he is untrainable; yet we know that he can hold a job, we know that this man is so "untrainable" has learned to live in society, in the ghetto, for twenty-five years and hold a year, even though he is totally illiterate. We are dealing with a capable man, we are dealing with a man who must return to society before he is an old man. We are dealing with a man that must be given a chance to live and die in society, not in prison. I humbly urge this court to impose a minimum sentence of 14 years and a maximum sentence of 16 years. Thank you."
In the end, they figured that it would be cruel to him to put him in jail. They had him taken to Joilet Reception Diagnostic and Special Center to stay for between 14-25 years. At this time, he is released from that mental institution and now lives in a mental institution where he is allowed to work (seems he LOVES to work and be useful) as well as have some freedoms. In this case, I believe he had gotten favorable results due to his deafness, mental retardation and limited communications if any. AND this happened in 1972. Yes there were interpreters in court, there was several psychologists and mental health counselors speaking up about his diagnosis and what they found about Donald's mental, physical and emotional abilities. I don't know about you, but to me, wow... 1972 and they tried to be fair with the guy, because of his inability to speak up for himself (while Daphne Wright was ABLE to speak up for herself if she desired), they tried to help him by giving him opportunities to learn how to learn sign language or at least give him access (while Daphne was able to communicate with interpreters.)
In my perception, they didn't use the "deaf card" or "pity card"..they UNDERSTOOD his inability to understand right and wrong, his incapability to communicate either by speaking, signing or writing and his limitations in what he can do and what he can't, especially with growing up in an hostile neighborhood (ghetto), he survived by having a full-time job (and very helpful and useful as his employers reported at court) and not having ANY method of communication, being the only deaf and mental retarded African-American man at that time and in that neighborhood (that had been popular with rapes, drug abuse, robbery, mugging and murders.)
In some ways, I have to admire that he managed to survive all through that before the murder of the women, and for me to be amazed that Chicago courts actually went out of their way to ensure that the trial was "fair as possible." Did I say that it happened in 1972?
"Again, Bertucci(detective) read Donald his rights and again, Donald stared blankly at him. Bertucci then took out his pen and wrote several questions on a piece of paper in large, block letters:
DO YOU READ AND WRITE? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?
Donald grabbed the pen from Bertucci's hand, picked up a blank piece of paper from a table and drew a picture with quick strokes of the pen. It was a curious drawing- crude yet somehow terribly expressive. He drew a jagged line in a shape of a stick and a stick figure. After finishing the stick figure, he pointed to himself, indiciating that he was that figure. at the opposite end of the first jagged line, he drew another stick figure with a curly mass of lines at the top to indicate hair. He made a gesture with his cupped hands to pantomime breasts. The drawing was clear to the policemen. A man and a woman- Donald Lang and "Jane Doe." Donald then drew a jagged, steplike line toward the top of the page, perpendicular to the first line. At the top of these "stairs", he drew a big X. He paused for a moment, looked at the men around him, held up three figures, pointed at the figure of the woman and then crossed the woman out with another large X.
It was an eerie experience. The officers stared at the drawing, not quite knowing what to make of it. They had the feeling that they were looking at the story of a crime, but how to interpret it? Was it a confession? What was the significance of the three fingers Donald had held up? Ther was no answer. The men placed their initials on the drawing..."
A detective took the drawing in for inventoried, as another detective noticed there was some brown strains on one of Donald's socks. When they came back to look, the strain wasn't visible.
I'd like to read you this part in the book that made me nod in agreement. After Donald Lang was found guilty, they had a sentencing then.
"State's Attorney Kavanaugh rose and turned to the Bench. "Your Honor, the defendant, Donald Lang, stands here before this court, tried by twelve jurors. He has been found guilty of the crime of murder, the most serious crime known to man.
There has been much comment and conversation in this case concerning Donald Lang's condition, and that Donald Lang is to be looked upon with pity and mercy because of his affliction. Indeed, any rational human being thinks about his affliction with a sense of pity. However, we often neglect to think about the suffering of the victims of crime, in this case; Earline Brown. No comment is usually made about the murdered dead, since they are not around to tell us of the anguish and suffering which occurred to the at the time their life was being taken from them. Earline Brown had a right to live, as much as anybody in this courtroom. And, for that death, which the defendant has been found guilty of beyond a reasonable doubt, the State would recommend to this court a period of incarceration in the Illinois State Penitentiary for no less than 40 nor more than 80 years."
Donald's lawyer said, "We are not asking for pity or mercy from this court because of Donald's condition. The State attempted to show motive for this alleged murder, that Donald Lang hired the services of a prostitute, that he went to the Viceroy Hotel with her and that she attempted to "rip him off" either to take his money without the service, to perhaps demand more money, or to steal any money Donald might have had on him. This is the motive the State presented to the jury. Now, they are asking this court to send him away for forty to eighty years because perhaps he was defending himself.
"Now, here is a man that has been diagnosed all of his life- he has never been really treated, he has just been diagnosed. If he had as much treatment as he had diagnosis, perhaps he wouldn't be here today, perhaps he could have gotten up on the stand and explained what did occur in that room, perhaps it would have amounted to justifiable homicide, or perhaps manslaughter. We don't know. We are asking the court to take his inability to defend himself into consideration. Not for mercy, not for pity; he has had too much pity. We are asking the court to give him the benefit of the doubt... that he went up there...that he was about to be ripped off...and that he was defending himself. He could not yell for help. Perhaps it was self-defense and he had to defend himself. He had nowhere to yell to, no one to yell to, no way to yell.
"This man may be trainable. We have met in chambers with officials of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and we know that they will set up a program where Donald may be trained. It may well be that he will never be trained. Everyone who has diagnosed his condition has said that he is untrainable; yet we know that he can hold a job, we know that this man is so "untrainable" has learned to live in society, in the ghetto, for twenty-five years and hold a year, even though he is totally illiterate. We are dealing with a capable man, we are dealing with a man who must return to society before he is an old man. We are dealing with a man that must be given a chance to live and die in society, not in prison. I humbly urge this court to impose a minimum sentence of 14 years and a maximum sentence of 16 years. Thank you."
In the end, they figured that it would be cruel to him to put him in jail. They had him taken to Joilet Reception Diagnostic and Special Center to stay for between 14-25 years. At this time, he is released from that mental institution and now lives in a mental institution where he is allowed to work (seems he LOVES to work and be useful) as well as have some freedoms. In this case, I believe he had gotten favorable results due to his deafness, mental retardation and limited communications if any. AND this happened in 1972. Yes there were interpreters in court, there was several psychologists and mental health counselors speaking up about his diagnosis and what they found about Donald's mental, physical and emotional abilities. I don't know about you, but to me, wow... 1972 and they tried to be fair with the guy, because of his inability to speak up for himself (while Daphne Wright was ABLE to speak up for herself if she desired), they tried to help him by giving him opportunities to learn how to learn sign language or at least give him access (while Daphne was able to communicate with interpreters.)
In my perception, they didn't use the "deaf card" or "pity card"..they UNDERSTOOD his inability to understand right and wrong, his incapability to communicate either by speaking, signing or writing and his limitations in what he can do and what he can't, especially with growing up in an hostile neighborhood (ghetto), he survived by having a full-time job (and very helpful and useful as his employers reported at court) and not having ANY method of communication, being the only deaf and mental retarded African-American man at that time and in that neighborhood (that had been popular with rapes, drug abuse, robbery, mugging and murders.)
In some ways, I have to admire that he managed to survive all through that before the murder of the women, and for me to be amazed that Chicago courts actually went out of their way to ensure that the trial was "fair as possible." Did I say that it happened in 1972?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Yeah, that's what Morgan Pozgar, 13, typed in fifteen seconds to win $25,000 dollars on her sidekick (from the photo I could tell.) I have to wonder if there were any deaf participants in that contest! She said that she send out more than 8000 text messages to her family and friends- in which when I read that, I was thinking, "what is the average numbers of messages a deaf person would send out in a month? Do anyone in the deaf community use sidekick or blackberry pagers THAT much? I know I get and send about 500 messages a month, myself.
Check the link for yourself. :)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/04/22/top.texter.ap/index.html
Check the link for yourself. :)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/04/22/top.texter.ap/index.html
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Black Mood
Warning: It's not a political rant..it's one of the days I talk what I want off my chest and if you don't like it, you don't have to read this blog. I have been in a black mood for weeks. Nothing related to what had happened this week or last week. And ah, don't run to cops thinking I was going to grab guns and shoot someone. I don't EVEN have guns in the first place, not even a weapon unless you mean this cute keyboard where I could use words as weapons to hurt someone. Frankly I am not in mood to hurt ANYONE but to lash out in general. I can sympathize with the families of students and faculty who were killed in Virginia Tech, however I have to remind people- those are not the only ones who died. There are thousands of people in United States who die from any type of cancers daily, ones who die in auto accidents, women who die in domestic violence, children killed in neglect and abuse..the list goes on. School and business shootings are actually rare. It's the damn media who makes the hype of all this- making the people hysterical thinking that EVERY college have somene trigger-happy to shoot their precious children. The students are MORE likely to die from achohol overdoses, auto accidents, drug abuse, depression(suicide)and domestic violence more than they'd experience a shooting on capmus. GET REAL! Campuses ARE still safe compared to many cities out there. It is the damned media who are overblowing all this, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
I get some emails from friends who say they are going to VT to sign on that VT poster to show their sympathies, and I had to bite my lips before I'd ask "Would you go to the hospital here and help reading a book to children sickened by lukemnia? Would you go to a church and work with an elderly woman who had lost her daughter to domestic violence? Will you go to a rehab hospital to work with a father who has to relearn how to walk and he lost his wife and daughter to a drunk driver?" Those are tragedies. Guess what? Media ignore what are very common and pretend that rare events (like VT massacre, Oklahoma bombing, etc) are the MAJOR DISASTERS, to PANIC and PREVENT incidents like that from happening again. Now, why can't we do that with drunk drivers? Regulating drug trafficking? Educating high school students about drug abuse and taking them to a house about to fall around their ears, mice and roaches everywhere, seeing addicts lying in their own filth, begging for another hit- to show that it's not ALL "fine". I could go on and on..but hey, it's my blog and I'm not up for oversensitive people who may think that I'm belittling the VT disaster. I'm not. I'm just TIRED of the damn media who makes all this hype, setting it up that EVERY school and EVERY campus has an insane guy with a hundred rifles ready to shoot.. GET REAL.
You know what? When they said, "be careful, you could be hit by a car someday if you don't pay attention" Guess what? I paid attention and I got hit by a car anyway and ended up with severe injuries.. What are the odds of that, hmm? I'd say less than domestic violence numbers but much much HIGHER than campus shootings. Do your damned math!
Blah... have been in a bad mood for a long while especially with someone doing remodeling in the house. Being told "you're doing nothing, lazy bum" despite I had even washed the floors on my hands and knees, washing the kitchen sink and counters with bleach and special brush for 3-4 hours and to be told that I am a "lazy brat"??!! Helping painting the walls and being told "you don't help around the house." I'm tired of coming to help people and being told "I forgot that you come in today.."(finding the door locked and no one in the office to let me in, never mind that I had driven 30 miles to go in for work) I'm tired of the damned dramas in the deaf community here- "did you hear what she did last week??! yes way!" "You'd not believe what I heard!" I'm tired of the community trying to pull each other down to high school-level. Tired of people whining to me about not being able to find jobs, never mind that THEY hadn't done anything- no resumes, not willing to develop experience, not willing to get off their asses to get a job. TIRED of all this! And to have some friends telling me "We will pray for those students who died." was the last straw for me. Why would they pray for the students when they'd not pray for the children who have seen their dads beat up their moms? Why wouldn't they pray for people who are dying of cancer, AIDS, diseases and other conditions that will lead to death? Why aren't they demanding for more protection from drunk drivers? Why is it that people act they are immortal, thinking nothing will happen and act as if they are betrayed when they get slammed with a cream pie that reads "Get REAL!"
I'm going off. I have an headache.
I get some emails from friends who say they are going to VT to sign on that VT poster to show their sympathies, and I had to bite my lips before I'd ask "Would you go to the hospital here and help reading a book to children sickened by lukemnia? Would you go to a church and work with an elderly woman who had lost her daughter to domestic violence? Will you go to a rehab hospital to work with a father who has to relearn how to walk and he lost his wife and daughter to a drunk driver?" Those are tragedies. Guess what? Media ignore what are very common and pretend that rare events (like VT massacre, Oklahoma bombing, etc) are the MAJOR DISASTERS, to PANIC and PREVENT incidents like that from happening again. Now, why can't we do that with drunk drivers? Regulating drug trafficking? Educating high school students about drug abuse and taking them to a house about to fall around their ears, mice and roaches everywhere, seeing addicts lying in their own filth, begging for another hit- to show that it's not ALL "fine". I could go on and on..but hey, it's my blog and I'm not up for oversensitive people who may think that I'm belittling the VT disaster. I'm not. I'm just TIRED of the damn media who makes all this hype, setting it up that EVERY school and EVERY campus has an insane guy with a hundred rifles ready to shoot.. GET REAL.
You know what? When they said, "be careful, you could be hit by a car someday if you don't pay attention" Guess what? I paid attention and I got hit by a car anyway and ended up with severe injuries.. What are the odds of that, hmm? I'd say less than domestic violence numbers but much much HIGHER than campus shootings. Do your damned math!
Blah... have been in a bad mood for a long while especially with someone doing remodeling in the house. Being told "you're doing nothing, lazy bum" despite I had even washed the floors on my hands and knees, washing the kitchen sink and counters with bleach and special brush for 3-4 hours and to be told that I am a "lazy brat"??!! Helping painting the walls and being told "you don't help around the house." I'm tired of coming to help people and being told "I forgot that you come in today.."(finding the door locked and no one in the office to let me in, never mind that I had driven 30 miles to go in for work) I'm tired of the damned dramas in the deaf community here- "did you hear what she did last week??! yes way!" "You'd not believe what I heard!" I'm tired of the community trying to pull each other down to high school-level. Tired of people whining to me about not being able to find jobs, never mind that THEY hadn't done anything- no resumes, not willing to develop experience, not willing to get off their asses to get a job. TIRED of all this! And to have some friends telling me "We will pray for those students who died." was the last straw for me. Why would they pray for the students when they'd not pray for the children who have seen their dads beat up their moms? Why wouldn't they pray for people who are dying of cancer, AIDS, diseases and other conditions that will lead to death? Why aren't they demanding for more protection from drunk drivers? Why is it that people act they are immortal, thinking nothing will happen and act as if they are betrayed when they get slammed with a cream pie that reads "Get REAL!"
I'm going off. I have an headache.
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