Thank you.

It's time but will say it short and sweet. I'm moving on to focus on other things in my life. That was my advanced news I mentioned back in September only that it took longer than expected to make that announcement.  And, yes, people still send  me stuff but that will stop, too.

Kokonut Pundit had a good run for 9 1/2 years with over a million hits and the longest continuously running deaf/hh blogsite with the most blogs ever at 2,230 blogs written. I penned many more pages than the book War and Peace book (1,440 pages). As the genius mathematician Andrew Wiles who solved Fermat's Last Theorem once said, "I think I'll stop here."

I think I'll stop here, too.

My advice to my loyal readers?

Watch out for monsters who like to celebrate the passing of deaf/hh people. Watch out for people who support monsters and bullies who will look the other way which will only encourage monsters and bullies to continue their deeds They can be just as bad in some ways. And watch out for those who "lead from behind" and those who talk out of the side of their mouths doing one thing but hypocritically does another. We know who they are.

Next, Carl Schroeder's recent passing is a sad one even though I, at multiple times, disagreed with him during various blogging/vloggin debates over the years such as my most recent debate over Kappa Gamma's salutes. I did not like him much but respected him enough to know the difference. One can disagree and walk away instead of harboring such constant hatred. That is not healthy. Learn to agree to disagree in life and you'll be much better off as a person. RIP, Carl.

Thank you for supporting my blog.

Adios.

Au revoir.

Good bye.

Dishonesty or Truth?

Disingenuousness comes in many forms and this is one of them.

Now, if doing the Nazi-style salute is not an issue at all then I dare the Kappa Gamma of today to do another group photo doing the exact same salute as the Kappa Gamma brothers did back in the 1989.  Go ahead and prove me and to the rest of the people out there wrong.

Here's a close up zoom of a Kappa Gamma group doing the Nazi-style salute seen below . Note the deliberate outstretched arm, palm flat facing toward the front that reminiscences Nazi Germany's own Nazi salute ?  They are certainly not waving, Carl.

In Carl's futile effort to rebut my argument on the fraternity Nazi-style salute he had the audacity to use a picture of MLK waving to the crowd (more pictures here) as being the equivalent of a Nazi salute. Completely laughable. Yet note the palm of MLK's right hand is outstretched while his right arm is bent in a relaxed form but not in an attentive form.  Sorry, Carl, it is not the same thing. MLK wouldn't do such a dumb thing as to mimic a Nazi-style salute knowing full well, with him being a highly educated and wise man, knowing the history behind Nazi Germany. The kind of salute that is a reminder of the Holocaust that Nazi Germany atrociously committed during WWII.

Ok. What about the Pope's own salute? A Nazi style salute?

Nope. Not even close. Note the relaxed arm. The spread the of his fingers or outstretched palm. Nothing is indicative of having an attentive form but a person who is obviously waving at people, humbled by their presence.

Ok. What about Obama?

Nope. Again, just like the Pope. He is in a relaxed pose, outstretched arm with outstretched palm where he is obviously waving to his adoring fans before entering on his Air Force 1 jet like he has done many times.

Hmm. What about a cartoon drawing depicting a Nazi-style salute?

Seriously?

Based on a Roman character during Roman times doing their own kind of salute specific to their own time period that *PRE-DATES* Nazi Germany and WWII? Oh, c'mon! Why so desperate, Carl?

This next drawing suggested by Carl seen below certainly cannot be compared to the Kappa Gamma's 20th century Nazi-style salutes because that salute in the picture scene depicts an era that, again, pre-dates Nazi Germany and WWII by a few thousand years.

The point of this has to do with after the fact when it was Germany who made their Nazi salutes recognizable around the world and is correlated strongly with the history of their atrocious mass killings of several million Jewish people in Europe.   Anybody who attempt to use salute examples that predates Nazi Germany in an effort to rebut an argument about KG's own Nazi-style salute as being warranted and justified is simply missing the point in a totally disingenuous and dishonest way.

But, you know what's funny, Carl?  When you produced a picture seen below in the effort to rebut my argument it has backfired on you. Why? Simply because the young man with the tattoos doing the salute was a 20 year old professional soccer player who did the Nazi salute at a soccer game that got him booted for life.

The Hellenic Football Federation met Sunday in response to the incident and decided to ban the player, who has previously captained the national team in youth competitions. “The player’s action to salute to spectators in a Nazi manner is a severe provocation, insults all the victims of Nazi barbarity and injures the deeply pacifist and human character of the game,” the federation said as Greece marked the 70th anniversary of the deportation of thousands of Greek Jews to Nazi death camps.

Katidis, who initially claimed that he was not saluting but pointing at a friend in the stands, said later that he had no idea what the gesture meant. In an apology issued after the ban, he called his salute “totally unacceptable,” adding, “I feel terrible for those I upset with the stupidity of my act.”

Video and photographs of the incident showed that while several members of the club’s support staff celebrated with the player, others looked disturbed by the gesture, and at least one older man tried to pull his arm down.

Bold emphasis is mine.

The big difference with the 20 year old professional soccer player who did the salute is that he profusely apologized to the public for something that he was not aware of that it was in bad form and an insult to do such a salute. He acknowledged the stupidity of doing that salute. Did the Gamma do that? Nah. Never apologized to the public. Not once. In fact, we got people like Carl to help sweep it under the rug, because, you know, doing Nazi-style salute isn't hurting anyone. Right?

Here's another incident of two girls from a girls basketball team doing the Nazi salute that got them in hot water this year.

Remember, what we have is a *GROUP* photo of KG brothers doing exactly the same Nazi-style salute that took place in 1989, well before the era of the internet. It was a salute that looks exactly like this:

But knowing the history behind the people who did the saluting were the ones who supported and obeyed Hitler and his regime would understand that a Nazi style salute reminds people of this:

And, Carl, since you emigrated from Netherlands to the United States as a little boy and your continued refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of Kappa Gamma's own Nazi-style salute disrespects and insults the memories of those who died at those Holocaust camps, the Netherland Jews who suffered at the hands of German Nazis.

After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, a civil administration was installed under SS auspices. Arthur Seyss-Inquart was appointed Reich Commissar. He presided over a German administration that included many Austrian-born Nazis. They in turn supervised the Dutch civil service. This arrangement was to prove fateful for the Jews of the Netherlands.

During 1940, the German occupation authorities banned Jews from the civil service and required Jews to register the assets of their business enterprises. In January 1941, the German authorities required all Jews to register themselves as Jews. A total of 159,806 persons registered, including 19,561 persons born of mixed marriages. The total included some 25,000 Jewish refugees from the German Reich. A Jewish council was established in February 1941.

The arrests of several hundred young Jews (sent to the Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps) led to a general strike by Dutch workers on February 25, 1941, and a hardening of Nazi policy. The German authorities and their Dutch collaborators segregated Jews from the general Dutch population, and incarcerated 15,000 Jews in German-administered forced-labor camps. The Germans then ordered the concentration of Jews in Amsterdam and sent foreign and stateless Jews to the Westerbork transit camp in the northeast part of the country. Some of the remaining provincial Jews were sent to the Vught camp. As of April 29, 1942, Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing.

Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands began in the summer of 1942. The last train left Westerbork for Auschwitz on September 3, 1944. During these two years, the Germans and their Dutch collaborators deported 107,000 Jews, mostly to Auschwitz and Sobibor, where they were murdered. Only 5,200 survived. In addition, 25,000-30,000 Jews went into hiding, assisted by the Dutch underground. Two-thirds of Dutch Jews in hiding managed to survive.

The geography of the Netherlands made escape difficult. The ruthless efficiency of the German administration and the willing cooperation of Dutch administrators and policemen doomed the Jews of the Netherlands. Less than 25 percent of Dutch Jewry survived the Holocaust.

Carl, by sweeping under the rug what your own Kappa Gamma brothers did you manage to disrespect the memory of your own motherland by making light of it. Out of the 107,000 Netherland Jews that were sent to concentration camps, only 5,200 survived. But you insist the KG's salute was nothing.

Carl, you managed to defile the memory of your motherland and your Netherland ancestors in one full sweep by essentially laughing about the KG's Nazi-style salute.

Here are some pictures to make you laugh! We the Kappa Gamma Brothers do have our own salution–a gesture of our own that is as ancient as it is modern! It is an incognito salution–I shall never tell you our secret!

A load of bull, Carl. Completely dishonest and disingenuous regarding this salutation. Just like that young soccer pro at age 20 who did the Nazi salute in full public view, he didn't understand the gravity of doing that.  Others around him were visibly disturbed by his saluting out on the soccer field. He continued to do that even while an older and wise man tried to pull his arm down to get him to stop doing the stupid Nazi-style salute. The young soccer pro was completely clueless and didn't understand the seriousness of doing that Nazi salute. Neither did the group of 35 young, Kappa Gamma men in their early 20s, who didn't understand the folly and seriousness of doing a Nazi-style salute in a group photo, too. Otherwise, if that salute is not a big deal, then I challenge you and all the KG brothers to do another group photo doing the exact same salute that was done in 1989.

But you and your KG brothers will never, ever do that in a million years because you and they KNOW it is not right. You know it is not right to do that in public or in private within the confines of the KG's fraternity walls. Your recent comment is a startling revelation because you appear or seem to imply that this type of Nazi-style salute is done all the time within the confines of the KG's private areas? And that KG brothers are required to do that kind of salute to each other? Just like Hitler's troops and officers who were required to do that back during pre-WWII and during WWII?  Are you saying that KG is still secretly doing that type of Nazi-style salute today??

Utterly unreal, Carl.

Keep digging. Keep going to bat for them, Carl.  I'd would rather see a much better and improved Kappa Gamma fraternity for them to own up to their own history and move forward and finally deserve the respect and recognizance. You're not helping, Carl.

Paddling is hazing no matter how you try and minimize it

In the Greek fraternity business, the use of a paddle represents hazing. It represents the degradation of your fellow human beings. It represents power and abuse over those who are powerless and seeking acceptance in a group that wielded power on the campus of Gallaudet University.

And yet paddles are still proudly displayed on the fraternity walls like past trophies on the unknown number buttocks they have paddled and caused pain, injury, and suffering.

Carl Schroeder is a Kappa Gamma brother of the 79th Congregation. In his recent blog last month he attempted to minimize Kappa Gamma's use of their paddles on pledges as inconsequential and harmless and by his own admission revealed that paddling was a common practice in Kappa Gamma during his time.

The odd thing about this fraternity pledgehood was its initiation which was, to me, “the battle of wills and wits–alienation and accommodation, as well as affirmation.” I went through a battery of social tests, mental challenges, and physical tolerances. They were well-planned, well-programmed, and well-delivered, and my ego was never in bruise. Yes, I got tired and angry, and, yes, I was made to laugh at times throughout my Fraternity probation–the trial of my character. You can check with my beloved Brother Gary Malkowski of Toronto, Canada, because, as the pledges, we laughed together in public.

Now here are a few words about paddling. The Fraternity paddles were properly introduced to us the pledges. We were asked to accept them as very much a big part of the Kappa Gamma Fraternity. There was one member in our Congregation who did not so he left, for which I am always saddened by his own decision. Paddling itself was never crazy, absurd, or senseless; it was always foretold, explained, and interpreted. We were never subject to humiliation or abusive tricks, and we were never harassed with disagreeable tasks.

Meaning and understanding of the Kappa Gamma Fraternity are socially determined that casts light on the examination of the experience to elucidate these concepts, generating many different things. If one is not a full-fledged Kappa Gamma Brother, he cannot have a multiple concept of this prestigious fraternity, period! For me, as the Kappa Gamma Fraternity Merit Key holder, I am proud to be “the Fraternity man,” especially from Gallaudet University.

My baby brother Gerhard (Olgar) and our father George were also initiated as Kappa Gamma Brothers. It was very cultural for us. I first learned about this precious Fraternity when I was young in the middle school at the Maryland School for the Deaf. After I became initiated into the Blue Brotherhood, I confess to have since been “true to Gallaudet.”

Carl is proud to be a Kappa Gamma brother? He's proud of the fact that his Greek fraternity organization at Gallaudet University was caught hazing and suspended numerous times? Even racism was a factor for one of that fraternity suspension? Proud of the fact that Kappa Gamma brothers did a Nazi-like salute in a group photo, by which he continues to remain silent about?  Proud of the fact of how Kevin Clark (a former Kappa Gamma pledge who took Gallaudet University and Kappa Gamma to court for hazing) was dumped at a children's hospital in D.C. after sustaining injuries that night of hazing from paddling causing bruising and bleeding to his buttock? Proud of the fact that Kappa Gamma never publicly apologized for their past hazing practices to all the past pledges (those who made it or opted out)?  Proud of the fact that Kappa Gamma never publicly apologized for the Nazi-like salute group photo to the public and to president Hurwitz who is Jewish?  That sure is a long list of stuff to be proud of, Carl. Yet you opted to sidestep the issue or keep quiet about it. Quite curious how you avoided the KG Nazi-like group photo in your blogs but didn't mind discussing the paddling aspect of it one month after I did a few KG blog pieces on paddling and hazing, and the KG group photo.

Paddling is paddling and that is part of hazing no matter how much you try and minimize that, Carl. Every time someone sees a paddle hanging proudly on a fraternity wall means that fraternity has not learned anything about paddling and hazing.  Why are you still covering them, and making excuses for them?

From the wise words of a Kappa Sigma brother seen in the 1990 Tower Clock Gallaudet University Yearbook, page 324:

The benefits they had to offer, frankly, were unequaled by any other organization I knew of and the concept of a warm, strong brotherhood that these men had shared caught my fancy.  another valuable plus about them: they don't haze.   Their stand against hazing and the belief that pledging should be any enrichness and education of character rather than abuse and strict "training and re-education" of minds and bodies only served to further reinforce my initial hunch that this fraternity was the one for me.

Carl, you do not need paddling or hazing in order to have a strong brotherhood. A paddle need not be a big part of a fraternity. That kind of mindset is absolutely warped and sickening. Take the example of Kappa Sigma, a Greek fraternity that does not haze. Paddling has never been a part of their tradition. Compare that to Kappa Gamma when their tradition was obviously steeped with paddling. One thing though, do they still hang their KG paddles on their fraternity walls? If paddles still on their walls mean they still secretly embraced their past tradition of hazing.

Carl, the only way to ease your burdensome thought and embarrassment about Kappa Gamma is to be fully honest about the whole thing.  Reach out to those who have been wronged in the past. Minimizing the whole paddling and hazing history and practices is an attempt to hide the real truth of what really went on. The only way to right a wronged history is to be forthcoming about it honestly and truthfully. Only then will Kappa Gamma come out better and brighter in the future.

Carl, it is not up to you to decide

Barry describes himself in video he did in 2009 as "deafless" person which means he sees himself as a human being first, and not about his hearing loss, his deafness or whether he's hard of hearing, deaf or Deaf.  In the video below he asks a deeper question.

Does the term 'deaf' own us or control us? In some instances I've seen how the term 'deaf' control us to a certain degree where we are seen as slaves to the word. Have we forgotten the fact that we are human beings first before we are anything else? Think about it.

 

Carl Schroeder attempted to define a term for Barry is which is a no-no. The only person who is allowed to label or define him/herself as is the person him/herself. And not from other people. If Barry wants to call himself as a Deaf person, then so be it. Or if he wants to call himself as a deaf person, so be it. Or hard of hearing, so be it. Or hearing impaired, so be it. Or a deafless person, then so be it. It's important to see a person as a human being first with all other extraneous details as second. Once you get into the practice of that then it wouldn't matter if a person has a condition. It wouldn't matter if a person is deaf. It wouldn't matter if a person is blind. It wouldn't matter because the person is a human being first and foremost.

Granted that Barry went to Idaho School for the Deaf and graduated there but so what? Granted that he grew up in an nth generation household of deaf families and signing. So what? Lately the labeling of the term "Deaf" has increasingly become perverted away from the original definition to mean people who are culturally deaf. Now the label "Deaf" has become so muddled in its definition to mean anybody with a hearing loss. And how certain culturally deaf factions have attempted to hijack the term "Deaf" for their own selfish agenda as I have carefully outlined in a previous blog on that very subject. And why it is destined to fail in the attempt to mean an all-inclusive term.

It won't................work.

Carl, learn to respect those who prefer to define or label themselves as. Carl is attempting to control Barry. A typical M.O. of Carl's. It is not up to Carl to decide for Barry what label he should carry. That's Barry's decision. And his alone.

ASL Dragon Flops

Let's get one thing correct on what I said about Kappa Gamma and PKZ.  

ASL Storytelling Theatre blog claimed that I thought or said that

"the Kappa Gamma Fraternity is a sister organization of the Phil Kappa Zeta Sorority."

 No. I never ever said that or thought that.


What I did say:

"PKZ considers Kappa Gamma fraternity as their "brother" group and Kappa Gamma sees PKZ as their "sister" group...."

Note the quotes. Very important.

The ASL Storytelling Theatre blog is run by Carl Schroeder, a Kappa Gamma brother, of course.

I wonder if he approves of Kappa Gamma doing the Nazi-like salute?

He's strangely silent on that matter.