Walk4Hearing to break donation record

I reported on this earlier this year in April and in 8 months time the Walk4Hearing organization was able to raise another $800,000 with $1.2 million dollars already raised with the goal of $1.4 million dollars this year. From the looks of it they will definitely break the $1.4 million dollar mark this year beating out last year of $1.3 million dollars.

Money raised is shared between national and local programs and services including support of children with hearing loss at www.kidsandhearingloss.org.

National Programs and Services      

• Provide timely and reliable information about hearing loss through HLAA’s website, Hearing Loss Magazine, HLAA e-News, the Hearing Loss Support Specialist Training, message boards/chat forums and annual conventions
• Advocacy at the national level to affect legislation that impacts people with hearing loss, whether it’s funding for hearing aids, cochlear implants, communication access in public places or other important issues
• A nationwide network of chapters and state organizations providing peer support
• Support for parents of children with hearing loss at www.kidsandhearingloss.org
• Outreach to veterans returning with hearing loss
• Social networking site for young adults with hearing loss at www.hearinglossnation.org

Local Programs and Services     

• Captioning and hearing assistive technology at HLAA chapter meetings to make them accessible
• Scholarships toward college tuition for students with hearing loss
• Funding for hearing aids and assistive listening devices for people who cannot afford them
• Installation of hearing assistive technology in public places, such as community rooms and public libraries
• Captioning of live theater productions
• Seminars on coping with hearing loss

The www.kidsandhearingloss.org website is to help

...empower parents of hard of hearing and/or deaf children by providing the resources necessary for them to make informed decisions about their children’s hearing loss.

The million dollar whine....

People need to stop whining about Marlee Matlin's $1 million dollar charity contribution via The Celebrity Apprentice show to the Starkey Hearing Foundation in their own utter befuddlement over on why she didn't contribute to NAD or some other organizations. Best to put your money where your mouth is if you are so darned worried about NAD not getting enough money. As for Starkey HF, I simply see evidence of them being a successful organization than anything else.  I've no need for these hokey, wild-eyed conspiracy theories about Marlee Matlin, and Starkey Hearing Foundation. Better to focus than to whine.

All this boils down to simple math if ya'll want to see $1 million dollars put into, for example, NAD's coffer each year.

Let's use 5,000 people who can contribute to NAD as an example. That's $200 per person per year. Or just under $17 per month if you prefer to contribute monthly. Are you telling me that a mere 5000 Deaf people are unable to contribute basically a few dollars a month to NAD? That's 100 Deaf people from each state in the United States that can contribute if they are so concerned about NAD or where the money "should be" going.

Which is it, folks? Complain and worry about NAD or other organizations not getting enough money for more and better advocacy while complaining incessantly on how Marlee Matlin should've forked over the $1 million, or actually have the balls to do something about it? BTW, you don't have to be a member to donate. 

As for me, I am more in line with HLAA's philosophy.  And more good news on "Walk4Hearing" fund raising goal. They are at 30% of their goal on raising $1.2 million dollars. At least they're doing something positive that reach across all folks with a wide range of hearing loss.  

Chris Artinian of Sound and Fury to Speak

Christopher J. Artinian to Deliver Keynote Address, June 16th, 2011
The Hearing Loss Association is delighted to announce that Christopher J. Artinian, Chief Executive Officer and President of Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc., will be the keynote speaker during the Opening Session at the HLAA Convention 2011, June 16 – 19, 2011, in Washington D.C.

The Artinian family is the subject of the Oscar-nominated film Sound and Fury, which tells the story of brothers: Chris, who was born with hearing, and his older brother Peter, who was born deaf. Both brothers married and both had children who were born deaf. The difficult decision to provide cochlear implants for their children ripped the family apart. Chris and his wife Mari chose to have a cochlear implant for their son, while Chris’s brother and his wife Nita, decided they weren’t quite ready for such a medical procedure for their three deaf children. The families finally came full circle and have put the period of “fury” behind them.

Comfort Zone

I read for the first time a blog called "SayWhatClub" about a woman with a hearing loss describing her "inner struggle." A struggle about who she is. This is about a late deafened woman who lost her hearing at age 19 who is now a much older woman. She explained she could never feel at ease in trying to fit into with the Deaf community and has already found her comfort zone.

My problem was, I just did not fit in with the deaf/Deaf community.  I wasn’t comfortable.  It wasn’t my world.  I was trying hard to be a deaf person, not a hard of hearing woman when in truth, I was and am a woman with a hearing loss who lives in a hearing world.  I was very comfortable in the hearing world and I’m very proud of the fact that I became extremely skilled at reading people. ASL taught me to be very aware of body language, facial expressions, the movements of the mouth and of course, the eyes tell me a great deal about a person as well as what they are saying to me about the individual. 

It wasn’t until closed captioning and CART came along that I finally stopped to really think about who I am?  Most recently, CART and closed captioning has given me a great deal of hope and  brought me closer to accepting that I have truly found my comfort zone.  I became more involved with SWC (SayWhatClub) and met many people like myself over the years.  Then, I recently became involved with CCAC and realized that between these two major groups,  hearing impaired individuals really do have a culture of their own.

I really do believe that "hearing impaired individuals" do have a culture of their own just and how they interact with their kind. If you ever been to a HLAA meeting you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.  They are a different breed of people who sit between deaf and hearing worlds. A world of sound, sometimes clear, other times garbled. They have their own way of interacting and communicating with each other and other people. They share their own cultural understanding of each other. A diversity all of their own.

Deafhood - religion like?

Recently over the last few days based on comments I received in my blogs I had the realization about how some people follow "deafhood" to such an extreme. How extreme? That depends. One commenter named "Kim" had this to say about "Deaf culture" in one of my most recent blog where she discussed "deafhood" and religion:

Language and religion are definitely huge. While we can't say that Deaf people have their own separate religion, their fervent belief in the Deafhood experience almost seems like a religion sometimes.

There it is. Religion and "deafhood" in the same sentence. So that got me thinking.

Kim soon clarified the next day on what she meant by what she said earlier.

Judging by v/blog posts (and comments) it seems like there's this strong fanatical, almost religious-like movement of Paddy Ladd worshippers who spout passages from his book like it's the Holy Bible of Deaf existence. So when people like Mike here ask questions, such as "is there a Deaf culture," there is a tendency among those "few" to over react, and sometimes they accuse him (and others) of not being Deaf since he doesn't seem to believe the right thing.

Candy also followed up about the whole oralism thing segueing into "deafhood" in that same blog.

This one need to be documented and published in the deaf blog as part of deaf history of deafhood and how they really are taking Paddy Ladd's colonialism too far. I suggest you all view Ella's comment number 41 in ASLrocks. It is a must viewing to see how delusional this deafhood thinking is. There is this evidence right there that indicates that dh is all about going after this oralism system rather than a personal journey to find one's deaf center.

Is there a conflict of interest here regarding certain "deafhood leaders"?

Let's look behind Curtain #1 about the Deafhood Foundation and you'll find a familiar name as who those board members are, and quickly you'll get to the "Vision" part where it says:

The Deafhood Foundation will provide financial, educational and social opportunities to end the economic exploitation of Deaf people. The Foundation aims to free the world from a*dism and recreate a society where everyone experiences full humanity and celebrates Sign Language.

So, this "deafhood" isn't about celebrating individual's own identity and personal journey wherever it goes even if it means identifying and embracing oralism and excluding ASL but about the attempt to wipe out oralism, avdism and have sign language to take its place instead according to one "deafhood leader"? Even though oralism has shown to be beneficial in many cases (even I have benefitted tremendously from it, too):

Deaf individuals who use Oralism have "proficiency with spoken language and . . . have an average reading ability . . . of thirteen to fourteen-year-old levels, which is approximately double the national average for all children who are deaf" (Stone 2). Furthermore, programs using Oralism generally have strong academic curricula resulting in high achievement levels and more students who go on to complete secondary or higher education programs (Schwartz 167-168). This also results in "more social, educational, and work opportunities . . . [and] to a more fulfilling and independent adult lifestyle" (168). With such results, it can be understood why those who value education truly approve of Oralism. These benefits of Oralism allow deaf individuals to reap the educational benefits and equal opportunities that people such as Mary Wollstonecraft strived to obtain and society, particularly the Oralists, continue to cherish.

It is obvious that oralism has its own benefits and that many deaf and hard of hearing people have benefitted tremendously from that. I understand that there are those who fell between the cracks and how beneficial signing is on an emotional and social level. But that's beside the point here. If people simply cannot leave alone the philosophical concept of what a personal journey of a deaf or hh person is like but instead use it as foundation to push their own ideology while espousing for the "death of oralism" and so on certainly does give it a religion-like feel. A fanactical-like following.

If this continues then this whole "deafhood" thing will simply stay within the Deaf community circle that is mostly accepted by some Deaf people rather than seeing it accepted by the rest of the hearing loss population that is 33 times bigger than the Deaf population of some perhaps 900,000 Deaf people.  This acceptance by the bigger population will never happen if this fanaticism continues. This is the perception of what many people would probably see whether they're hearing, deaf or hh who happen to come across this whole "deafhood" drama. Especially seeing how some "leaders" and other "followers" would prop up this "deafhood journey" under the guise of a friendly non-profit Deaf organization while in the background advocate for the "death of oralism," use of ad hominems, harrassment (see Tayler Mayer's example who is the owner of Deafread) and such. No wonder other groups like "Deafhood? No Thanks" cropped up recently as a response to this whole mess.

Many people do cherish the free and independent thinking regarding the many hearing loss issues out there and recognize the fact that there is no one shoe size fits all when it comes to addressing hearing loss, modes of communication, education and language development. Especially in a period of time when technology has been a boon to help address communication, educational and language developments owing to the simple fact is that hearing loss range from mild to profound. The diversity is large and mixed out there.

As a closing, I liked what Kim said in my blog "You have to be hard of hearing to understand":

People like Ella can never understand what it's like to be me. I experienced a life time of hearing before my hearing began to decline. Those experiences made me who I am. Naturally I still identify with hearing people.

Through HLAA and ALDA, I am part of a growing, thriving, powerful mostly oral deaf community, and we don't care what Ella thinks.

And you know what?  Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) would certainly look to be the better organization to join when it comes to advocacy and support in a more neutral manner rather than wade into chest deep the hypocrisy, the conflict of interests, unprofessionalism, rogue followers and petty politics. And I'm certain people wouldn't want to be a part of an organization or group of people that has a religion-like feel to it seeing how some use an inquisition-like process whenever one states a view opposite of somebody else's opinion. And then there comes the auto de fe.

This whole thing simply doesn't feel right.

You have to be hard of hearing to understand

It's not just "you have to be deaf to understand" but for me to tell other people it's "you have to be hard of hearing" to understand. The difference is quite pronounced between the two. Which is why I support Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) which was once known as SHHH (Self Help for Hard of Hearing People).

Yes, even I tell deaf people or those who cannot hear at all or benefit from hearing aids that you have to be "hard of hearing" to understand just as I would tell a hearing person the same thing. Although with my experiences I do understand from a hearing person's point of view as well as a completely deaf person's point of view as well as their experiences since I share many similar experiences between the two.

As a hard of hearing person I stress the importance of using one's own voice especially when it comes to elocution, training of the ear to understand words and sound, the enjoyment of sound, and just being able to take advantage of technology that supports or enhances one's own hearing level.

Some people have it easier as a "hard of hearing" person than others because of the amount of hearing loss, the early exposure to oral and aural approaches, and so on. These things vary from one HH person to the next. For us hard of hearing people we prefer to talk just because it comes naturally and easier for us to do so. For us hard of hearing people we enjoy music and even take up musical instruments for our enjoyment. For us hard of hearing people we enjoy having verbal conversations with people whether it's in in person or even over the phone. Our lifestyle and preferences vastly differ from the lifestyle and preferences of culturally Deaf people. Just because people who are hard of hearing and have preferences does not mean they reject "Deaf culture" but that they have a preference. It does not mean that hard of hearing people do not know sign language when many of them do. It does not mean that some of them are not a part of the Deaf community when they are but whether they are active in that particular community or not is not of anybody's concern.

You see, sometimes you do have to be "hard of hearing" to understand. Not as a deaf person but a person who is able to take advantage of what's hearing is left in the world of sound. It's a labor of love.