National Geographic Founder and Deaf Daughter

From National Geographic piece called So That We May All Know More of the World Upon Which We Live covers a piece about Gardiner Greene Hubbard, one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, about his deaf daughter, Mabel, who grew up and married Alexander Graham Bell.

The thirty-three founders of the National Geographic Society were an adventurous and accomplished group. They included scientists, explorers, a journalist and a superintendent of the National Zoo. In recognition of the National Geographic Society’s upcoming 125th anniversary this series takes a look at their stories.

Hubbard’s progressive ideas encompassed education, and when confronted with the challenge of a deaf daughter, he did not shirk from the challenge. Young Mabel lost her hearing at age five after a bout of scarlet fever, and many children like her would have sidelined for the rest of their lives, kept out of society if not actually put in an asylum. However, Mabel received the best of educations, and when she was a teenager, a friend introduced her to a new teacher of the deaf in Boston. Alexander Graham Bell immediately took Miss Hubbard on as a pupil. Bell was a gifted teacher and Mabel thrived even though they had only a few lessons before Bell transferred her to the care of a colleague. For he was falling in love with Mabel. His explanation to her mother, Gertrude Hubbard, was somewhat evasive, but one suspects she grasped the situation immediately. She was sympathetic to the somewhat shabby professor, making sure he was a frequent guest at the house. One night, while seated at the piano, Bell turned to Mabel’s father and said, “Mr. Hubbard, sir, do you know that if I depress the forte pedal and sing ‘do’ into the piano, the proper note will answer me?” His performance produced an instant partnership that would change the world.

Read more at National Geographic. 

Read more about Alexander Graham Bell's wife, Mabel, who is the daughter of Hubbard seen in the article above, in a previous blog I did called The Adventurous Life and Love Story of Mable.

National Geographic covered many stories about deaf people such one article written earlier this year on how cell phones through texting enabled and empowered deaf children in Uganda to communicate with other people. Or even about the Bhutanese School for the Deaf.  Or an article on why deaf people have enhanced vision.

If you use the search feature of National Geographic and plug in the search word "deaf" you will find 24 pages (235 results) of links to pieces or articles on deafness issues, hearing loss, deaf animals, or deaf people. There are also 3 pages of search results for "hearing impaired," too, like a search result with a link to on which president inaugurations had its first closed-captioned TV broadcast for the hearing impaired.

Check it out.

The Reagan anti-AIDS/HIV myths

Don’t be a kool-aid drinker. I try not to be one because it’s easier to check history and facts first before commenting. Nobody’s perfect but I respect people more that have facts on hand than to listen people spew utter nonsense. Let's take a look at President Reagan's supposed hatred against homosexual people and that he was anti-AIDS and a homophobe.

President Reagan first spoke of AIDS no later than September 17, 1985. Responding to a reporter's question on AIDS research, the president told a White House news conference:

[I]ncluding what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.

Reagan responded to the increasing AIDS deaths (not yet an epidemic until well into his 2nd term), it took a good friend Rock Hudson who died of AIDS for him to begin speaking publicly about AIDS.

Reagan’s presidency coincided with the emergence ofthe AIDS epidemic. Reagan’s response to this epidemicwas halting and ineffective. In the critical years of1984 and 1985, according to his White House physicianDr. John Hutton, Reagan thought of AIDS as though “itwas measles and would go away.” What changed Reagan’sview was the death in October 1985 of his friend RockHudson. Reagan went to Dr. Hutton and questioned him about thedisease. Hutton gave a lengthy explanation. “I alwaysthought the world would end in a flash, but this isworse,“ Reagan said. Even with his new knowledge,Reagan was slow to join the battle against AIDS. Hedid not mention AIDS in public again until Feb. 1986,when he announced that a major report on AIDS would be prepared, saying, ”We’re going to focus on prevention.“ Reagan’s surgeon general C. Everett released the report in Oct. 1986, and described hisremedy: ”One, abstinence; two, monogamy; three;condoms.“

Reagan’s remedy works just as well for homosexual couples who would rather wait before hooking up (marriage/union) to make the commitment to stay together with the “one-partner” rule. This would even solve the AIDS problem to such a great degree, we would not be having this epidemic. The legality issue of gay-marriage is an altogether another issue for each state.

Now, before you say, “Well, then it took Reagan 4 years before he said anything about AIDS” may I remind you of the timeline of when AIDS-HIV first started coming out?

President Reagan took office in January 1981. According to the CDC a total of 31 people died of AIDS. This mystery disease had no name, and was not publicized to any extent. During his first year in office, AIDS killed 128 people. Still a mystery disease and many were were not diagnosed until much later. The disease had no name nor was there a reliable test.Finally, in 1982 the CDC named the disease AIDS, and publicly linked it to the transfer of blood. Less than 500 people die of the disease that year, and 8 million dollars is devoted to it by the US government. In 1983 the virus is finally found and the CDC warns of possible dangers to the blood supply. It won't be until 1985 that there is a reliable test for HIV. This is well into Ronald Reagan's second term.During President Reagan's first term AIDS kills less than 6000 people. Far more people died of “common” diseases like influenza, but the Reagan administration still devoted 157 million dollars to AIDS in the first four years of office, before much was even known about it.

Here is a rundown of the mortality rates for 1985 according to the CDC

Diseases of heart - 771,169
Malignant neoplasms - 461,563
Cerebrovascular diseases - 153,050
Accidents and adverse effects - 93,457
Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases - 74,662
Pneumonia and influenza - 67,615
Diabetes mellitus - 36,969
Suicide - 29,453
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis - 26,767
Atherosclerosis - 23,926
Nephritis,nephrotic syndrome,and nephrosis - 21,349
Homicide and legal intervention - 19,893
Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period - 19,246
Septicemia - 17,182
Congenital anomalies - 12,783

Now, imagine CDC fighting to get fundings for those diseases when AIDS was just starting to become more prevalent. But President Reagan did do something about AIDS-HIV. He got the fundings started on HIV/AIDS research beginning in 1982.

According to the Congressional Research Service, federal spending on HIV/AIDS began at $5.5 million dollars in fiscal year 1982 (remember that President Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981 and had no influence on discretionary spending for FY1981 but had considerable influence on requesting larger funding for FY1982 and onward). By the time Reagan left office, the fiscal 1989 budget contained $1.304 billion dollars for HIV/AIDS research and development. Overall, between fiscal years 1982 and 1989, the Reagan Administration spent $3.2 billion dollars on HIV/AIDS research and development.

HHS Discretionary Funding for HIV/AIDS

FY1981 - $200,000
FY1982 - $5.5 million dollars spent. A 2,678% increase from prior year.
FY1983 – $28.7 million dollars. A 417% increase from prior year.
FY1984 - $61.4 million dollars. A 114% increase from prior year.
FY1985 - $108 million dollars. A 77 % increase from prior year.
FY1986 - $233 million dollars. A 115% increase from prior year.
FY1987 - $502 million dollars. A 115% increase from prior year.
FY1988 - $962 million dollars. A 94% increase from prior year.
FY1989 - $1.3 billion dollars. A 36% increase from prior year.

The spending quickly accelerated within a few years from literally nothing at first. Had Reagan not care about AIDS he could have found a way to slow the growth curve and devote more money elsewhere. But he didn't.

Also, a little known history about Reagan’s tolerance toward gays. Reagan’s interior decorator, Ted Graber, who oversaw the redecoration of the White House, spent a night in the Reagans' private White House quarters with his male lover, Archie Case, when they came to Washington for Nancy Reagan's 60th birthday party — a fact confirmed for the press by Mrs. Reagan's press secretary.

Read this website called “Independent Gay Forum”.

You ought to be thanking President Reagan for what he has tried to do to fund HIV/AIDS research on such a massive scale so early on but slow at first. At least I respect the Independent Gay Forum in taking an honest look into the Reagan/AIDS myths by being factually correct thereby slamming any myths about what Reagan supposedly did not do about AIDS or cared about AIDS, and its research and cure.

Now, do you want to be a kool-aid drinker or get facts first?