Stubbed-Toe Gate

Well, the situation of the gate crashers at Gallaudet University sounded dramatic alright. Especially so on the injuries part that were described in lurid details ranging from cut, crushed, broken to lacerated. Well, it's the big toe I'm talking about. Especially the classic photo of the wrapped up foot with the damaged big toe while holding the big toe's nail...all of it... in the owner's hand. You may wince if you look at the picture. Then again maybe not if you watch a lot of those ER shows. I'm sure that's a war injury that'll be talked for years and years. Even my step-dad has a recent "war" injury losing the top 1/3 of his finger. It's floating somewhere in a pickle jar of his house right now I believe just to scare his step-grandkids for fun whenever they come over.

But there seems to be a bit of a hubbub over the severity of the injury being called as "not serious". Well, it's not a minor injury and it's certainly not a major injury but it is a serious injury having lost the whole nail of the big toe. I agree. Even I received a lacerated injury and it was serious, too. Can anybody guess how I got the injury?

But the one thing I don't understand is this:

"I was just standing there peacefully holding the gate with my arms and got injured doing so," he said.

Peacefully? Just standing there? And just "holding" the gate? All by yourself? I thought the gate was surrounded by a human chain with Brian, the injured big toe guy, involved when the gate was forced open and the gate's wheel went over Brian's big toe.

From Sue Mather’s pager
Subject: Injured!
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 9:04:36
Brian here.. I am at hospital right now with a severe injury on my right toe. I woke up this morning seeing 15-20 PPD destroying our fort, taking everything away. So I and other students formed a human chain around the gate. But they all physically assaulted our human chain by pushing the gate away. During the process of it, roller of gate smashed on my right toe...

Physically assaulted? You were holding onto the gate with your arm, Brian. I don't think opening a gate constitute as an "assault" if you're hanging on to it. And who knew Brian's toe would get in the way of the gate's roller wheel?

Of course, people "out there" are not going give these protesters any brownie points and they'll just end up making fun of the whole thing.

I can imagine the scene:

The poor, filthy and unwashed protester, lying supine on a stretcher with a critically injured toe, stretches forth with grasping hands and vigorously signs to his fellow protestors (in ASL) to continue to keep fighting the good fight.

A white linen sheet is draped lovingly over his face as he slips into unconsciousness with his fellow protestors pleadingly looked to the heavens for the medevac that will no doubt come too late for this brave and selfless Gallaudet revolutionary.

Still, there are people out there who are not making fun of this protest but simply do not agree with the protest. Granted, many of them are the hearing kinds. Okay. Call them "audist" if it makes some Deaf people feel better. Here's one from the president of George Washington University:

President of George Washington University Stephen Joel Trachtenberg called the ongoing protests by students at Gallaudet University a “terrible tragedy” and questioned Student Association President Lamar Thorpe’s pledge to assist the student protesters.

In an interview with The Daily Colonial, Trachtenberg said the students of Gallaudet must realize that their current actions are not appropriate and that the current president, I. King Jordan, deserves a better send-off after 20 years in his position.

“Gallaudet cannot afford to have anarchy and student riots every time they turn over a president,” said Trachtenberg, referring to similar outrage in 1988 before Jordan was selected as Gallaudet’s first deaf president. “They’ve done it once and now they’re doing it again. It starts to be a pattern, and that’s not something that speaks well to them.”

The university’s campus has been shut down for three weeks due to student protests against the selection of Jane Fernandes, the school’s former provost who has been deaf since birth, as the next president of Gallaudet. Protesters say that she will be a divisive leader and accuse her of signing at a third-grade reading level. According to the Associated Press, the Gallaudet faculty voted last week by a margin of 82 percent to ask Fernandes to resign or be removed.

Despite the claims by protesters, Trachtenberg still thinks their actions are inappropriate.

“So far, I haven’t heard any accusation made… that justifies this kind of behavior,” he said. “These illegal behaviors are not a way to petition for justice. It makes you wonder why anyone would want to serve on the Gallaudet Board of Trustees.

Trachtenberg said that the protesters should respect the selection process, which included student and faculty input. He suggests that “they should let this woman be president for a few years and see how it goes,” then initiate calls for her removal.

Okay. Go sic 'em for saying that.

Brian...speedy recovery. Lesson learned.