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 Sound and Fury: General Discussion [all categories]
 Sound and Fury
 Sound and Fury: The Film (Page 4)
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nette b Member Posts: 3 |
posted 01-16-2002 12:08 PM
  
quote: I was deafened at age 32 by a reaction to a prescription drug. I had 100% hearing until that time and now I am less that 12% in either ear. I believe people like myself fall into a different realm. I have experienced the sounds and the silence. I was implanted in January of '02 and am awaiting my "plug-in". Although I would never condemn a parent for not choosing a CI for their child I cannot ever imagine going through my life without hearing the wind or a baby cry. Some things simply have to be heard to be appreciated. |
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Riana Martin New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 01-18-2002 06:33 PM
Overall, I thought Sound and Fury was an excellent documentary, but there was one issue I felt was not explained well enough. Everyone keeps saying that a parent should wait until their child is old enough to decide for themselves whether or not to get an implant, but there is a good reason not to do this. Simply put, the younger the child, the more effective the implant. If you were to wait until the child was 6, much less 18, they are not likely to get the full benefits of their implant. The brain of a child has a lot of plasticity, and when it realizes that connections and pathways designed to carry and process sounds are not being used, the pathways are re-routed to perform other functions. There are cases of adults who were blind their whole lives being granted the ability to see through surgery. They could suddenly see, but could not process the information. It is truly a case of use it or lose it. So I just don't get why everyone keeps saying to wait. |
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ruby25 New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 03-13-2002 10:34 PM
Because of modern medical advances alot of conditions born to a person or developed at some point in their lives can be treated and sometimes overcome. A parent should not be put down for wanting better for their children than what they may of had. If a parent with a crippling disease had a child who inherited that disease but had access to a medical treatment which would allow the child to walk, would it be right for the parent to deny their child this opportunity because the parents didn't have this chance. You should always want better for your children than you might have had and a parent should never keep a child down so the parent won't feel inferior. |
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Andrea Sauer New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 04-05-2002 02:00 PM
After having viewed this documentary, and then reading the responses on this discussion board, I find myself very conflicted. I think the hearing find deafness so difficult because it is seen as an invaluable sense - a part of the body and of life. However - and I could be wrong - it seems to me that the deaf community sees deafness as a part of their identity, because they are dissimilar to others in that they have difficulty with this sense. Thus, if you are hearing, you see the deaf community as unfortunate because they lack what you consider to be an intrisical part of your biology and life. But, if you're part of the deaf community, you don't see yourself with a loss, but with a different kind of identity. I think the complication comes when you try to say who is "better," or whether being deaf is "good" or "bad." No matter what label we may assign to being deaf or hearing, we are making value judgments with knowledge of only one half of the story (if you are hearing, you don't know what it's like to be deaf; if you're deaf, you don't know what it's like to be hearing). Another complication is whether you consider the deaf community to be a different culture than the hearing community, or if you consider persons with hearing impairment as handicapped individuals in a hearing world (by this I mean that we often try to categorize one way or the other, going for black and white instead of trying to see if there is some overlap here). So, why do I think these complications are so important? Because they affect one's position on cochlear implants as well as the education of students with hearing impairments. If you're a proponent of deaf culture, your fear is that anything but signing will take away from the identity of deaf individuals and their way of life. If you're a proponent of solely auditory education, then you see ASL as setting back students with hearing impairment because they live in a hearing world where they will need to function. In relation to cochlear implants, I feel that the arguments for and against are as varied as the individual situations that arise with each candidate for a CI. After saying all this, I still find myself perplexed by this topic. No matter what I say, I feel like I am doing one position - that I respect and agree with - injustice. I think technology places us in a peculiar area, where we have to decide if we should and are allowed to mess with the situations life has brought us. Is a CI okay for someone who loses their hearing after spending most of his/her life in the hearing "world"? Or is this person now a part of the deaf community? Furthermore, are you part of the deaf community only if you are born with a hearing impairment? And is the impairment of what society and science have deemed to be a major sense (hearing) so life altering that it must be changed, fixed, or even seen as a way to unite in another culture? I guess in the end, this entire argument comes down to who we think we should all be. Are we all supposed to have all of our five senses and do x, y, and z? And if this isn't true for us, are we at a disadvantage, or are we just different? And who is to say one way or the other? Maybe we can't make one universal judgment in this situation, because it obviously won't fit every case. My last comment is really another question. Why can't a child with cochlear implants learn ASL as well as work with their verbal/auditory skills? We are expected to learn a second language in school, so what's wrong with knowing both spoken English and ASL (which is obvioulsy a valid language in and of itself)? I guess I'm not seeing how participation and accessability to both the hearing and deaf culture could have a negative aspect on the child. |
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Rashida New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 04-06-2002 12:22 PM
After watching the documentary, Sound and Fury, I begin to have a lot of questions. I’ve never thought that getting the hearing implants could be considered a bad thing. As someone who has full hearing, I was ignorant to the deaf community and their sense of identity. It was hard for me to understand why someone would not want hearing. Since I’ve always been able to hear, I just believed that this was the best route for any person to take. However, now I completely understand that those who are deaf consider this apart of their identity. For some, to be able to hear would not be being themselves. I think that if a child wants implants their parents should allow them to make this decision. As many people have mentioned, however, the problem becomes when are children old enough to make this decision? Also, what if by the time they make this decision the implants are less effective? These are all questions that need to be taken into consideration because while parents are waiting for their children to make this decision, they’re also reducing the effectiveness of the implants. Another problematic situation are hearing parents wanting their deaf children to be able to hear. Most hearing parents are probably not as exceptive of the deaf community because they want their children to be ‘normal’ like themselves. Like me, they probably are not aware of how being deaf is so much apart of ones identity. So, I don’t think that hearing parents should make their children have implants just to be more like them. I definitely think that it should be each child’s choice…but then the problem comes of age and implant effectiveness. At the same time, I don’t think that deaf parents should neglect their children’s ability to get implants and be able to hear and speak. Overall, I think that children should have the ability to have implants and be apart of the deaf community. All deaf people should be able to communicate with the hearing (if they want) through speech and the deaf through sign language. If people do get the implants I think that they should not neglect learning sign language because this is a very important part of who they are…and to not know sign language and be apart of the deaf community is somewhat, to deny yourself of your culture. |
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Aimee Gibbs New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 04-08-2002 01:28 PM
After watching the documentary “Sound and Fury” it brought to light many things that I have never thought about. I did not really know that there was such controversy over a person getting a cochlear implant and I did not fully understand the arguments for and against cochlear implants until watching this documentary. The documentary revolves around this issue of implanting cochlear implants, which is a device implanted to help those with hearing loss to hear. Most people view that being deaf is a disability and that it only makes sense that if we can do something to give back their hearing it should be done. Some view that through implanting a cochlear implant a person can have a more normal life. This is where the controversy lies. What is overlooked most of the time and is not understood by the majority of hearing people is that there is a deaf community in which deaf culture exists. Some people of the deaf community believe that their way of life is normal for them and that cochlear implants will cause impediments upon their culture. This documentary shows how those who are deaf have their own community and because of their culture they strongly oppose cochlear implants. Both sides make very strong points to their beliefs. Those who support the implant see it as not an impediment but an opportunity to extend an individual’s abilities. Those who oppose cochlear implants see it as something that will inevitably wipe out deaf culture. In the end it is personal autonomy that will decide whether or not to implant this device. [This message has been edited by Aimee Gibbs (edited 04-08-2002).] |
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RickA Member Posts: 10 |
posted 04-10-2002 08:52 PM
Yes, it is true that the film does a fantastic job in depicting in fair and impartial way the controversy that does exist over the cochlear implant. However, it would not be accurate to come away from the movie believing that all who are deaf oppose cis or are part of "Deaf culture". For the most part, most people respect the rights of parents to choose a ci for their children. Additionally, there are many deaf people who do not subscribe to "Deaf Culture" view of the world. Yes, there is an ever decreasing strident minority of Deaf individuals who oppose the ci but fortunately, their numbers are diminsihing while the number of children getting cis continues to increase geometrically. What these anti-ci people have yet to explain is how and why a ci and "Deaf Culture" are mutually exclusive? As a parent of a di child I know she is and always will be deaf, that the ci while a truly wonderful device is not a "cure" for deafness and is not intended to be, but most of all, I know that she has opportunities before her educationally, socially and economically that would not have been available to her without the benefit of a ci. And yes, overall, her life is easier with her ci and what is so wrong with that? |
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RickA Member Posts: 10 |
posted 04-10-2002 08:54 PM
Yes, it is true that the film does a fantastic job in depicting in fair and impartial way the controversy that does exist over the cochlear implant. However, it would not be accurate to come away from the movie believing that all who are deaf oppose cis or are part of "Deaf culture". For the most part, most people respect the rights of parents to choose a ci for their children. Additionally, there are many deaf people who do not subscribe to "Deaf Culture" view of the world. Yes, there is an ever decreasing strident minority of Deaf individuals who oppose the ci but fortunately, their numbers are diminsihing while the number of children getting cis continues to increase geometrically. What these anti-ci people have yet to explain is how and why a ci and "Deaf Culture" are mutually exclusive? As a parent of a di child I know she is and always will be deaf, that the ci while a truly wonderful device is not a "cure" for deafness and is not intended to be, but most of all, I know that she has opportunities before her educationally, socially and economically that would not have been available to her without the benefit of a ci. And yes, overall, her life is easier with her ci and what is so wrong with that? |
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amyh0297 New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 05-06-2002 01:57 PM
I rented this movie last night and I was completely shocked by what I saw. It is beyond my comprehension why Heather's parents would choose for her to remain limited. I am not deaf but I certainly can recognize the importance for the deaf to have a community in which they feel safe. I also can understand that this community would develop its own "culture." However, I cannot understand the unwillingness of Heather's parents to admit that being deaf is a limitation. No matter how all-encompassing the deaf community may seem at times, it does not exist in a bubble. Just as hearing people cannot pretend that deaf people do not exist, neither can deaf people pretend that don't interract with the hearing EVERY SINGLE DAY. To quote the professor in the "extra footage" section of the DVD (who was born deaf and opted for the CI late in life), deafness is a loss of one of the five critical senses. Why on earth would you deprive your child of having the chance to gain back one of those senses? The reasons that Heather's parents gave for not allowing the CI bordered on severe paranoia. They mentioned that by having the implant she would become ashamed of deaf people. By learning to speak she would somehow become MORE limited. It is interesting that Heather's mother was more than willing to get the CI herself until she realized that it would do little good at her age. And this is where I believe the actual decision was made for Heather. To me, these parents were simply afraid of having their daughter truly become a part of a world that they can never fully be a part of. And that fear, that JEALOUSY is what caused them to not only deny their daughter the CI, but to completely uproot their lives to become even more secluded in the cult-like deaf "culture." I believe they are cowards and criminals. |
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Clg New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 07-18-2002 11:00 AM
[QUOTE]Originally posted by fishgetter: [B]If your child was born blind, but could hear, and such technology existed that a simple operation would allow that child to see, would you opt for the operation or would you say "our child was born blind and we want him to experience the blind culture." In response, I have been an educator of the blind and visually impaired for over 20 years and your analogy is not valid-a "blind culture" does not exist. There is no need for a blind culture because blind people speak the same language as sighted people. While they may read Braille, a blind person can exist in the social context of the sighted without knowing one "dot" of Braille. So, the comparison is not the same. I saw the film for the first time last just this week as it re-ran on our local pbs station. Seeing the "fury" of the members of this family, exemplified the true divisions which result from growing up in a culture-something which, while at its very roots is born from common language and the human need for communication, is much much more than simple "speech". It begins developing when a child is very young and becomes a part of their personality and way in which they think and make decisions about many things in life. Heather, at age 6, had already developed this quite solidly, just as hearing children are engrained in their culture by this age as well. While Peter, at age 1.5, had not. This is not to say that Heather could not have made a switch to the "hearing culture" because she is still developing at a phenomonal rate at her age. But, this felt uncomfortable for her parents. The interactions in the film showed that hearing people do feel that the deaf people are "not as fortunate" and do, to some degree, look down on them. While the deaf people may feel that they, at times, are less fortunate, it seems that overall they do not feel that way. In a way, they do not know what they cannot fully understand the concepts of what they are missing, so, they do not strive or long to achieve those things. Like the example of music- many hearing people say, I could not live without music. Heather's deaf mom could care less about music, because she has never experienced it in the way a hearing person does but she still can feel that she lives a very fulfilling and satisfying life. It would be like me saying that in a galaxy somewhere, far away, there exist sounds like I have never heard before which would make me feel euphoric when I heard them. Do I spend my life wanting for them? No-because they really do not exist for me and I would accomplish nothing in my short time here on earth if I focused on trying to discover and experience them. Essentially-you don't miss what you do not know exists. I also think one must consider that a deaf person can get along better in a "hearing" world, because there are a number of alternatives they can use to facilitate receptive communication. They are immersed in a world with many visual means of communication which they can take advantage of. But, a hearing person who does not know sign language is at a bigger disadvantage in a group of signing people because they have had little, if any exposure to this language and there are no alternatives, except for gestures, body laguage & facial expression. But these communicate superficially and do not afford any measure of profound exchange of ideas and values. I have experienced deaf culture to a small degree in my work with the deaf-blind. I have basic conversational sign language skills and have attended events where I, as the hearing person, was in the minority. It is not a good feeling when you look around and see people communicating & having fun and you cannot participate. I don't get that feeling when at a gathering of blind people as there is no communication gap whatsoever. I think that while we all try to make comparisons and analogies, we must begin to accept that there are unique problems which arise from the very nature of not being able to hear. It is NOT the same as being blind, it is NOT the same as being in a wheelchair, it is NOT the same as having a different skin color. I feel there will always BE a deaf culture as long as there are deaf people, even with the best efforts of hearing people wanting to help deaf people to be accepted as equal members with equal oppotunities in, let's face it, a predominantly hearing world. |
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dms New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 04-01-2003 01:36 AM
quote: Blindness does not have the unique heritage and language and culture that deafness has. i think it is unfair to compare the two. I think a more fair assessment is comparing hearing parents of a deaf child, with white parents of an african american child. Yes, the african american child will have disadvantages in this white world, but maybe that child likes to be african american, and the parents should make an effort to expose their child to the african american culture and provide their child with good role models. The same applies with deafness. Sometimes it is hard to understand, but if you use the analogy of deafness as a miniority race, it is much easier to understand. |
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Nora Member Posts: 7 |
posted 04-21-2003 02:22 PM
"Blindness does not have the unique heritage and language and culture that deafness has." I disagree. "Deafness" doesn't have a language at all. People who are deaf, and indeed all people, can communicate one of two ways, with their voices, or with their hands. There are some deaf people who use sign language to communicate, but there are many, many others who do not. My profoundly deaf daughter, for instance, has never met another deaf person who signs. She only knows deaf people who talk. In her preschool class, which is a mixture of four deaf, and 8 hearing kids, ALL the children use their voice as the sole means of communication. My daughter doesn't even know what sign is. It's ignorant for you to say that a deaf person needs to know sign to be in touch with others who share this disability. There are plenty of people, old and young, who make excellent role models, friends, teachers, etc. for my daughter, who are deaf and yet have no use for sign. If some people want to isolate themselves by only using sign to communicate, that's fine, but I feel no obligation to expose my daughter to them. |
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magicm2 New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 04-30-2003 12:14 AM
first of all i just wanted to bring up one thing..i cant stand it when people compare being deaf to being blind or being cripple or someother disability.blindness does not have thier own culture..blindness does not have its own language and values same for being cripple or other wise. in the film the deaf father of heather..his father who is hearing tells heathers father that its the same as being cripple..and hes was explaining how if you and your wife were both cripple and your child was normal..would you break his legs to fit in?i totally dissagree with comparisions that dont make any sense. i believe deaf culture and everything that is involved in it has its own category and cannot be compared to being blind or what have you. |
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Jack Rice New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 06-14-2003 02:44 AM
Have only now seen Sound and Fury, so this post may be playing to an empty room. Nevertheless, I'm so incensed, that I need to vent. I have never seen such selfish people in my life as the deaf parents who want to keep their daughter deaf and those at the deaf people's picnic acting like they are fighting the rest of the world instead of fighting their handicap. They were talking as if their children's future wasn't as important to them as preserving their deaf culture. I was very relieved when an end note appeared, saying that the mother and daughter finally got the implant. Otherwise, the granddad would have been right, and we would have been witnessing child abuse. "Sound and Fury" teaches us the ugly side of a closed culture. The fact that deaf culture is a rich, diverse and humane culture does not excuse depriving a child of the possibility to live with five senses instead of four. Parents have the unfortunate tendency to regard their children as property. Apparently this includes some of the people in "Sound and Fury". |
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bluebird79 New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 08-09-2003 12:52 AM
quote: |
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Ezekiel 25:17 Member Posts: 5 |
posted 12-03-2003 03:55 PM
"Deaf school is stink" -Mari |
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fixie21 New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 12-03-2003 08:13 PM
Okay tell me this. What happens if the deaf child is being kidnapped or they are home alone and their house is being robbed... how do they call the cops? Moving to Maryland is not going to solve the issue, that is simply putting the children in a temporary safe haven, and denying the facts of life. What happens when they want to be on their own? Are they confined to Maryland? Or if they want to travel- or worse- a relative dies and they NEED to travel. Moving to Maryland is a great idea... Under the assumption that NO "what ifs" are going take place. But dont you want the best for your child, dont you want to avoid risks of this sort at all costs? It is selfish not to! Deaf people can not use the phone under any circumstances. It's too sketchy to rely on the fact that there is ALWAYS going to be a translator between signers and speakers. Its nice that they want to keep their culture alive, but not when its putting someones life in danger, that is just rediculous. God is mentioned in the documentary... Don't you think that God gave us every possible earthly sense for a reason? They are used for survival in this world. I would not ask my father to deny me of sight, taste, touch, or smell, so why would I ask him to deprive me of the gift of hearing? |
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beeblebrox Member Posts: 11 |
posted 12-17-2003 03:00 AM
quote: I don't like this kind of argument.. because I could also do the same thing and simply say that if the God had intended for everyone to hear, the deafness wouldn't exist.. and there must be a reason for it. Actually, I think that a better way of looking at this would be the fact that the deaf people have somehow created a culture, language, and a heritage out of their deafness, despite everything.. and this is a beautiful thing to happen. This must be what the God had intended all along, to show how far the human spirit can reach.. and with the deaf culture, it is monumental. I'm only saying these to make a point. I don't think that anyone could really say what the God's "intentions" were.. not me, and especially not you either. It's probably one of the easiest thing to do in the world to put something into God's mouth and make it sound like it's something true. I don't really get the fear some people here seem to have of not being able to hear.. for the "survival" as someone put it. Look at me, I don't even own any hearing aid, and I'm fine. I have all these senses that my deafness brings. Even if we live out in the wild, do you think a tiger would warn you with some kind of noise before it pounces and gobble you up? This is just absurd. All this insistence on being able to hear seem to border on being complusive sometimes, in a really neurotic way. Would "hearing" with a cochlear implant, and with all the electronic signals that it gives, be any better than being Deaf? The implant is cold. It only turns the sound into an utility. This is not music as far as I'm concerned. Oh, I read somewhere in this thread that the deaf culture is a segeration of some kind. It's not. It's a way of living inside a non-deaf world, using the Deaf identity and experiences.. instead of living by some theories, or even imaginary fears, thought up by someone not deaf. [This message has been edited by beeblebrox (edited 06-12-2005).] |
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Jaimashi New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 11-01-2004 03:46 PM
Well, I see that no one has posted here in a whie, but I still feel like putting in my 2 cents... God doen't make mistakes, everything that happens, happens for a reason, even if we can't see what it is... Poeple have always been in a hury to push their way of life onto other people. Look what we did to the Native Americans. We forced them to speak as we did, and live a life like we do... If someone is born deaf it should be up to that person or if they are younger their family should also be included.. but I have many friends who are deaf and they would not give that up their life depended on it. Right now I am working as an aid on a school bus for MSAD (Minnesota State Acadamy of the Deaf) and when we pick up most of the children for the week, when they get on the bus most of them will remove any hearing aids or cochlear hearind aids to become deaf. They are proud to be deaf. Who has the right other then the parents to tell someone that they need to change who they are and be this other person. If both parents are hearing then they should have the right to allow the child to be part of both the hearing and the deaf world. but in the case of like Heather, both her parents are deaf and she was brought up deaf, her grandparents should not be getting involved as they were... The grandma wanted to take Heather out of her parents world and bring her into the hearind world. What is different between that and when we took the children out of the Native American families and forced them to go to schools to learn to be like the Americans, and to force them to speak English... to be continued later... |
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KasiaW New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 11-20-2004 11:46 PM
I just finished watching this movie. Thank you for earing that - it gave me a new perspective. But the most important part for me was to understand that Heather (the six year old deaf child of the deaf family) wanted to communicate with easy with hearing people. I Why her parents didn't allow her to do it by having an implant? What is wrong in learning new languages? Learning new things doesn't mean that we cannot use the old ones as well. Heather is (I believe) able to hear, speak and also, as well, use sign language. Why it must be only one or another? One can speak many languages!!! and by that fact no culture is gone!!! |
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NJgirl New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 02-11-2005 05:35 PM
I watched Sound and Fury while I was in a night class for learning ASL. I remember looking around the room when the little girl (sorry about the loss of names, it has been a while since I have seen it) was playing with her Barbie. She was trying to make it sign the phrase "Nice to meet you." She was trying to get the doll to be just like her much like children of "normal" hearing capabilities do. In my eyes, the problem with today is that everyone wants people to be "normal." Being a person who has a partially deaf cousin, I can understand the stuggles that the Deaf communtiy faces day to day, but why should they have to become like us. I have never seen a person who lives in a predominently deaf community try to make himself deaf. That is what i tell my cousin and that is what I strongly feel. If the family has any negative feelings toward giving their child CIs then they should not do it. They are Deaf themselves and if they made it through life, then what would make them think that their daughter would be any different? |
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spikeyfaery New Member Posts: 1 |
posted 04-12-2005 09:53 AM
I have just seen Sound and Fury,this movie left me speechless. I am a hearing person involved in the deaf community though my deaf sister. I have never viewd my sister as a handicapped person and have never seen my sister seriously struggle with her deafness. My entire family is hearing and we have embraced her deafness and deaf culture with open arms. The hearing community has no idea about the beauty of deaf culture. The family in the Sound and fury were so argumentative, so angry they seemed to be in denial that they themselves were apart of the deaf community. I felt the movie portryed the family as not wanting to be apart of the deaf community..notice how peters father does not sign. I am sure this family loves eachother, but it was hard for me to see the understanding and acceptance between both cultures. I dont think implants will destroy the deaf community, but i do believe it is the childs decision whe she or he grows up. |
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Niquita Member Posts: 3 |
posted 08-24-2007 08:35 AM
quote: Hi. I'm hard of hearing, but right now I have a short time to write statements about what I have read. There is so much to comment. Also, please, excuse my English, as my first language is Spanish since I live in the Caribbean. (My down side of being deaf is my inability to hear the English language, so I'm unable to pronounce half the words correctly ME MYSELF would be very SCARED of a CI surgery... Think how would the child take it? I don't know if I even would do it. I do well enough with my hearing aids, so I can keep going as I'm (except, I wish I could understand on the phone... I can hear it well, but I can't understand - the same goes for people speaking behind my back). Of course, I would be very depressed if I started to lose my hearing to the degree that I could not have a common conversation. But my mother doesn't use hearing aids at all and people don't notice she is deaf! She never liked the hearing aids, as she explained to me that they hurt her. I never understood, but I accepted it as her choice, no matter how it makes me angry when I try to reach her from one room to another just because I'm lazy. I could just walk 6 seconds more to signal her! I'm in the middle: cherish the pros, but get worried about the cons... I just will wait for more research about the topic. I have read that it doesn't work at all to one person and it does wonders to another... :S it is too confusing!!! But I would not say a Deaf parent is abusing his child by not letting his kid wear CI. I would say if the child is UNABLE to communicate, learn, and be productive in order to survive as a happy individual, then the child is being neglected. The tech didn't exist before and some people did fairly well. It is just some tech device. Is not a miracle device. I know that the majority of the Deaf kids are not doing well for the hearing standards. But if you are part of the Deaf community, you will see that they excel in their community. Also, I wish that more Deaf persons would be able to challenge hearing persons in almost everything. There are only a few Deaf persons that go out to the hearing world to challenge the hearing and let them know that the only thing a deaf person can't do is hearing. We can do almost everything, we just do it in a different way (TTY, interpreter, etc.). There is so many levels of hearing/deafness that it makes it be so many different persons. I have a deaf friend that speaks freely on the phone! Oh, how I tell her I wish I could do that. But still, I like me being deaf, as it makes me unique. My sister and I were the only deaf persons at our school. I really love the daily challenges of being deaf and to show off to the hearing. Also I saw a message that that person obviously didn't know the difference between deaf and Deaf. I think that person doesn't actually know what consist the Deaf culture as a community and should do more research before making nasty comments about the D/deaf. What I'm going to write next is intended just for THINKING and NOT to offend anyone. Please forgive me if you are offended. I was offended by some comments in here that got me thinking... but I liked to read about so many views, also liked that everybody got their shot at the Free of Speech opportunity. So I will comment also... I have been discriminated against just because I use hearing aids and speak so well. Deaf people just hate me because I don't imposse other people to learn sign language, while I have seen persons of the Deaf community saying that EVERYBODY should know sign language... even the university professor that doesn't know that she will be in his class. I'm wondering... Does being born deaf makes you Deaf? Of course not. Does knowing sign languages makes you Deaf? No. Living in a Deaf community does. Then, why there are many people that get angry at parents of deaf children for not teaching them sign language or letting them make the choice of which culture does the child wants to grow up. If the child was born into a hearing culture, and that the parents that have never heard about the Deaf culture, they are going to teach their child to be like a hearing kid. (I didn't know there was a Deaf culture until I was 13 years old... my mother didn't know the difference between deaf and Deaf until she was 57 years old... and we are in the 5th and 6th generation of deaf persons in our family). The same goes for children born in the Deaf culture. These children can be deaf or hearing, but if they are brought up in the Deaf culture they are part of the Deaf. The same goes for children that are born into a Jewish culture... the parents aren't going to teach the children to be Christian. The child CHOOSES to be Christian when learns about it. What if a white kid wants to grow in a black culture? It his/her choice, right? Being deaf is like being a white Latin-American person. You can be in any world (white, black, tan) and still be either rejected or accepted. Instead of making a debate out of the kids' social environment, try to let the kids make the choice. They know where they feel better and in which environment they want to develop socially. If they don't, help them by giving unbiased real facts. At least, they will have something to call "identity" in where he or she will feel comfortable and won't be lonely. After all, nobody has died of not having an "identity" or a "culture". I believe that every culture has its beauty and should cherished. The real issue should be if the kid can COMMUNICATE with his/her family, friends, and teachers (this last one is really important!! they are the ones that give us an education!) and lead an independent pleasant life. It doesn't matter wish language does the child expresses, as long as he/she can COMMUNICATE and have a healthy self-stem. If there is support, the child should grow up healthy as a productive person. |
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Niquita Member Posts: 3 |
posted 08-24-2007 08:42 AM
 I posted something here but it doesn't appear. I was talking about that this person doesn't know the difference between the deaf and the Deaf. I'm so sad that I lost this post. Anyways, it is still so SAAAD that everbody keeps commenting insulting things. I have never felt sad about my hard of hearing/deafness, whatever. I'm not part of the Deaf culture, but I feel fine being part of nothing. Yeah, the Deaf will say I'm hearing, the hearing will say I'm deaf... so I have no part anywhere and I really don't care. I work just fine, I make my own money, I go wherever I want. I live by myself in between of three apartments (on the side, behind, and over) and I hear NOTHING happening around me, and it makes me so happy to be that deaf. If there is a fire, I don't care, because if I die, then let it be. Everybody is going to die anyways. Right, that's not the best way to do so hehe, but I'm in peace with myself Also, I can't hear the stupid nasty comments ignorant people make on my back and have the blessing of being able to hear music (I know someone that does sing and sign, and he is a Deaf person... how wonderful would it be if I could do both things too). My friend is also hard of hearing and she can hear over the phone and have common conversations. I just can hear the voices and don't understand them... frustating! Then again, if I was part of the Deaf culture, then I would know sign language and would use the Video Relay hehe. It's the same any style of life you live. The only difference is the method to make your living.This is not what I wrote or intended to write for this post.... I just got angry it didn't post I had to post something hehe. Sorry!
quote: [This message has been edited by Niquita (edited 08-24-2007).] [This message has been edited by Niquita (edited 08-24-2007).] |
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Niquita Member Posts: 3 |
posted 08-24-2007 09:37 AM
quote: I'm hard of hearing not part of the Deaf culture, as I have stated before. I just noticed I'm the first post since 2005 (2 years). Based on the definition of culture stated here, there is a Deaf culture because: |
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