Reading the various blogs and watching the various vlogs related to the recent Deaf Bilingual Coalition protest at the A.G.Bell conference in Virginia prompted me to recall two posts which I first wrote for DeafDC.com, and which were published here way back in November, when I first began blogging at Deaf Pagan Crossroads.These posts are titled
and
These posts focused on the Unity For Gallaudet protest of last Fall. While certainly the circumstances between last fall’s protest and the DBC demonstration are different, there are still some issues which remain the same, and which I’d like to revisit.
…I am talking about the spirituality of Deafhood - of the thoughts and beliefs and ideas and concepts and struggles and dialogue that define a process by which Deaf people identify themselves and their existence in the world. It is this spirit of Deafhood that defines the Deaf community, a community which has looked to Gallaudet as a symbol of such spirit for nearly 150 years.
By the same token, this spirit of Deafhood is also identified to a large degree by the language it utilizes - American Sign Language, or ASL. ASL is a significant part of that whole process, of that whole spirituality of Deafhood. Whether or not one attends Gallaudet, ASL still serves to reflect the heart and soul of the Deaf Community…which relies on it not merely for communication and for language, but as an important aspect of its whole existence.
What makes Dreaming the Dark such a challenging book for many Pagans is that it presents a harsh but honest ethic:
That if you believe in and follow the Pagan Path, your spirituality will demand that you act, and work to bring about change. And change is never an easy thing to deal with.
By the same token, the GUFSSA was confronted with that demand to act, and that need to bring about change. It is a need that is linked to a growing realization amongst many of its members that the world of oppression, the world of domination, cannot sustain our inner lives, nor our lives in community with each other.
With the above, I was referring to a book written by one of my teachers, which played an important role in shaping the perceptions I had about the Unity For Gallaudet Protest, and that now are influencing how I see the DBC/AGB demonstration.
Let’s change the wording of this just a bit…if we go back to what I said about the spirituality of Deafhood, and those thoughts and beliefs and ideas and concepts and struggles and dialogue, then we could perhaps conclude the following:
That if you believe in and follow the journey of Deafhood, your “spirituality” will demand that you act, and work to bring about change. And change is never an easy thing to deal with.
If we replace GUFSSA with DBC - Deaf Bilingual Coalition - then we can recognize, understand, and accept (even if we don’t necessarily agree with) their need to act, and to bring about that change…a change linked to a growing realization amongst many of its members that a world of oppression and domination cannot adequately sustain the lives of deaf and hard of hearing babies and children…or the community they may grow up to become a part of.
It is a mistaken assumption that spirituality must be about calm and peace, and conflict is thus unspiritual. If this be the case, then the spirituality of Deafhood would insist that we sit back and act like passive victims as we endure oppression, discrimination, prejudice, mistaken assumptions, and downright hostility from an unknowing and sometimes uncaring world.
It is this “conflict” - this deviation from calm and peace - that I have been seeing over the past month or so. Don’t get me wrong…that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Like I say above, conflict does not have to be unspiritual. There does come a time when our spirituality - that spirituality of Deafhood - does indeed demand that we act.
I don’t think anyone disagrees with the NEED to act…but it does appear there is dispute regarding HOW we should act.
Certainly we shouldn’t act like passive victims. But should we even act like victims at all? I’m not saying that we haven’t been victims - victims of oppression, victims of discrimination, victims of prejudice. I’m not saying we haven’t dealt with mistaken assumptions and downright hostility…many of us have.
Nor am I saying that we shouldn’t fight against such.
But at the same time, we need to move beyond a “victim mentality” to a sense of empowerment by which we can educate others so that they might better understand where we are coming from - what we think, how we feel, and why we think and feel that way.
Empowerment is about having Power-From-Within…not Power-Over. To explain the difference, Power-From-Within is a power that comes from recognizing our own abilities, as well as our own limitations. It takes its meaning from the Latin word “podere,” which means “to be able”…
Power-From-Within develops from the ability to control ourselves, to face our own fears and limitations, to keep commitments, and to be honest. To be able to channel this power requires personal integrity, courage, and wholeness. It cannot be assumed, inherited, appointed, or taken for granted…and it does not confer the right to control another.
“The right to control another.” Does that mean we do not have the right to control the decisions made by others, decisions which we may not agree with?
This gets a little tricky. As a Witch, I adhere to a strong sense of ethics which can basically be documented in eight words:
And ye harm none, do what ye will
What this basically means is that we do not impose our will upon anyone else, and we don’t interfere with their own free will. We don’t lessen their freedom of choice, nor do we force them to take certain actions - whether it be by mayhem, manipulation, or magick.
And yet…at the same time, as a Witch who believes in and practices magick, I am often involved in the process of creating change.
So how does one create change without imposing on another’s free will?
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
I think it likely that non-violent protest will be the most effective means of getting the message across (it worked for Gandhi and it will work for Soulforce, I hope). Conflict doesn’t necessarily equate to violence. It’s worth reading Cat Chapin-Bishop’s excellent post on the Quaker peace process.
Thanks for the reference to Cat’s post, Yvonne. I agree that it is well-written and thought-provoking. While the issues are a bit different (it relates to GLBT issues within religion), I think the approach which was taken by both sides is something that we could all learn from…
including the deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing communities as we struggle to understand one another and our varying thoughts, perspectives, beliefs, etc.
Good question. I think we walk a very fine line when we create change, especially if we believe our actions have repercussion both in this life time and others as well. Philosophicaly, if we are all connected to another, we can’t create change without effecting others-or vice versa. But in the same breath, we should also be working with the realization that how people react to change, wherever it happens, we have no control over. Yule Brenner once made a statement which I liked, “We are born into this world alone, and we leave this world alone.”
As selfish as it may sound, it comes down ultimately to our needs and how we meet them and how we life our life. To thine own self be true. Obviously there are exceptions to this, although it could also be argued there are no exceptions-just choices, life style involves a choice and each choice has repurcussions, but ultimately we are accountable for our actions, even if it is belief which in and of itself has threads which dictate the life we pick.
I have yet to find any spiritual path which promises the journey will be an easy one. On the contrary, spiritual living holds us to a higher standard of living and comittment, an extended awareness of the world around us, and a call to arms(if you will) to live accordingly.
If having a sign language is a fundamental right of all deaf people, from infant to death, then I will claim and stand by the statement that when hearing parents prevent deaf infants from learning sign language (specific ones depending on what country/region one is born in), I will seek conflict because that parent, whether knowing or not, is harming the infant already. Harm none is my ethic but only to a limit, personally. Only when the cause of others and mine collides, will I become a warrior, even to the price of my spirit, because if nothing else I must have a purpose. The fact that deaf people everyone have a right to sign language, no matter if they have auditory aids (hearing aids, CIs, oral training) is my burning purpose.
For United States, I declare with a loud voice, “American Sign Language Now!”
thank u for ur post - its very insightful
i think as the first responder mentioned - there r many parallels with gandhi’s truth force - satyagraha
principle to this philosophy and sentiment has always been the concept of compassion with change
gandhi said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” - “there is not way to peace, peace is the way”
both of these may seem like platitudes but i think their essences is that we must be peaceful beings first and foremost - and as u stated being peaceful beings calls us to advocate for true peace - not false peace. MLK, jr said peace is not the absence of conflict but rather the presence of justice
if we approach advocating for positive and peaceful social change with anger, hostility and vengence then we are imposing our will and doing harm
civil disobedience and most especially truth-force requires compassion for the oppression - this is not to make us victims and it is not to make us overpowering new oppressors - its to make us part of the truth-force seeking justice in a JUST manner
interestingly and sadly enough the folks in power / dominant culture / oppressors often respond to non-violent protest VIOLENTLY. this is why anyone committed to a spiritual path that calls them to bring about positive and peaceful social justice can never respond back with violence - not even verbally
in this way does the individual become the change s/he wishes to see in the world
we need far more peace warriors than we do those willing to accuse and attack individuals for their personal choices - our energies will be best spent trying to influence the agencies and organizations that have the most powerful and direct impact on parents of Deaf children
thank u for ur posting
peace
p
“So how does one create change without imposing on another’s free will?”
Influence. It does not interfere with an individual’s free will to
Influence
Persuade
Educate
It may not even effect free will to impose consequences for the choices.
From my Christian perspective, Free Will means that God will do what it takes to show his love, to reach us as we reach for him, but will not make us love him or obey him.
In this case, you cannot modify the free will of others, you can persuade/influence/educate, without interfering with your “harm none” principles - you just have to watch for creating consequences that are harmful.
I have to agree with Bill above, and quite honestly, we could learn a lot from what the GLBTs are doing, and look at what the blacks did in the ’60s. I’ve said this time again and again. Why reinvent the wheel?
I also completely agree with what you said about victimhood. We need to stop playing victims. I mean, I’ve been on the receiving end of audism, and severe audism at that, but I swore to myself that I would never allow it to change fundamentally who I am. Nor am I gonna go around saying, ‘Ohh. Look at me. I’m a *survivor*!’ Please.
Just because a person thinks I’m that way, doesn’t mean I’m *really* that way.
And as for ASL is a must for ALL deaf children - it is up to each parent, and each person, to decide what’s the best for themselves, as long it doesn’t infringe on others. And this is the part where I disagree with the culturally Deaf, even though I consider myself culturally Deaf… We CANNOT tell parents that they HAVE to teach their children ASL. For some children, they *don’t* need ASL!
Think about this for a second. Do we like it when a person comes up to us and says, ‘You are required to speak and lip-read, or else you will be a failure.’
No, we don’t. Then why are we turning around and saying the same thing about ASL to them? Two wrongs don’t make a right.
DP, your analogy fails because lip-reading only works for real after English is first acquired. And if we were to look at testimonials of oral system children since Braidwood, Pereire, etc till now, we will find that, irony of irony, oralists had to use some type of sign language before their all too small number of prize-children succeed. Even after that, a lot smaller number of those children end up still speakingw ith their mouths. That is why AVT is harming deaf children because it is in experiment stage and so far it follows the same awful success rate of oralists throughout the history.
That is why I am strong believer in being aggressive in showing disappointment when parents make wrong decisions. However, do that mean I will go up and bawl out at them or beat them up? No, it doesn’t. My expressed disappointments in my blog posts, lectures to general audiences, etc will suffice. When I meet with parents who disappoint, I know basic etiquette of keeping my hands silent about their decision. My facial expressions, if the topic comes up for discussion, will suffice. That was what I meant, the Deaf community must show to parents that they are in WRONG!
As for people who go up to parents to bawl out or beat them up or whatever, I say to them, you are over-aggressive and in wrong. That is where you, DP, are right: Wrong plus wrong don’t make right.
Now do you understand? I know I may not like you, DP, but at least we can have reasonable debate, alright?
Thank you!
Whoa, Oscar…
I think you are getting carried away a little here.
First of all, I’m not sure that the point of this post is to get into a whole ASL debate, but rather to discuss how one goes about implementing change without imposing on one’s free will to make their own choices.
Even if, as you say “having a sign language is a fundamental right of all deaf people” (and I am not saying that you are wrong in that statement), it merely is the RIGHT to such, it’s not a statement dictating or enforcing that everyone must comply.
It’s the same as saying that all Americans have the right to vote - none of us are FORCED to have to vote if we chose not to…but we do have that choice if we so decide to do so.
Are parents indeed doing harm to their deaf child by choosing not to expose the child to sign language?
There is no easy answer to this. Harm isn’t that easy to define, and we must each seek our own definitions. Your definition of “harm” won’t be the same as mine, which isn’t the same as Ocean’s.
This isn’t saying that your definition is wrong…but neither is mine, or Ocean’s, or Deaf Pundit’s. Neither for that matter, are the parents who make decisions you might not agree with. You might see the decisions they make as being wrong and indeed causing harm…they may see it differently.
While I commend you for the conviction of your own beliefs, and your willingness to stand by your own definitions, I am a little troubled by the fact that you state you will turn into a “warrior” should your beliefs and definitions collide with others.
This does sound a bit like you are in fact taking that “Power Over” approach that seeks to oppress, dominate, and annihilate anyone whose thinking doesn’t parallel your own.
I don’t think this is where Ocean is coming from…I know it’s not where I would be coming from as a fellow Witch and a fellow ordained Pagan minister.
The question is…how can we implement change without acting as if we have to win the war? How can we practice the magick of transformation without judging people as being wrong? How can we create that shift of perception where people can explore the possibilities instead of endlessly arguing the differences?
How can we use Power-From-Within to honestly, lovingly, and nonjudgmentally act in a responsible and ethical manner to bring about those changes that work in the best interests of all?
Hawk, I stand corrected.
DP, I apologize for that first and last paragraphs. The last paragraph was completely unnecessary on my part. As for the first paragraph, I misspoke. I meant that lip-reading can not be used as an analogy becaus it is merely a communication method while sign language is not. Again, my apologies.
Oscar, I live in a city where Oralism is very very prevalent. I don’t need you to tell me about it. Okay? I’ve seen many deaf people lost to drugs, alcohol and despair, because they were lost in the educational system. But do the deaf professionals come here and stay to make a difference?
No, they don’t. I can give you a nice laundry list of deaf professionals who came here, made a few failed attempts at making real changes, then turned tail and left. I would LOVE to see people like Ella come here and TRY to make a difference. In fact, I challenge all of you, who *think* you know what you’re doing, to come here and try it!
This reality isn’t abstract for me. It isn’t far away, to be only discussed about on blogs or be written/signed about in poems or whatnot.
DON’T preach to me about the destructions of Oralism. Every day when I step outside of my house and see my fellow deaf, I see it UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL!
I was going to save this for my blog, but let me tell you something Oscar. One day I was with my friends volunteering for my local deaf services agency’s booth when a hearing woman brought her children with them. One was deaf, and enrolled in the oral program. But she wasn’t sure if the oral program was truly the right place for her child. She never said she was unsure, but she came in and was very curious about us, and did try to communicate with us.
Our response was to tell her to listen to her instincts, that she knew the best when it came to her child and that we were always here to provide her with feedback, support and resources if it was needed. We sat around and chatted for 15 or so minutes, with a hearing volunteer as an interpreter.
This happened a year ago… and just recently I was told that the hearing woman wrote a letter to the deaf services agency thanking them. Her encounter with us altered the course of her child’s path. She said, ‘The doctors and educators told me NOT to seek out the Deaf community - that they were just angry failures who took out their wrath on people like me. And that the Deaf community would criticize me for any decision I made.
And when I met those 3 deaf at the booth that day, they proved the doctors and educators wrong. They weren’t angry. They were successful, signing deaf professionals. They also did not criticize me, but encouraged me and told me I was doing the right thing, and to listen to my instincts.’
Now that kid is enrolled in the Total Communications program, and both parent and child are learning ASL.
With that said, Oscar… It is high time that the Deaf Community gets off its high horse, and recognize their own flaws, start addressing its own flaws, and that one size does not fit all, and that includes ASL! Love or hate me, Oscar, but I refuse to romanticize reality, or to sneer upon others because they’re doing things that I disagree with, because I want to see real change be accomplished, and not leave a swath of rage and destruction behind me!
(DP there are programs in your city? I did not know!)
These free will issues get even trickier when it comes to parenting. My wife told me of a news story about a 12 year old who was overweight and had tummy-tuck and liposuction (two VERY useless surgeries) lost 60Lbs, and gained back 30. Her mom took her to Mexico to get a lat band (rubber band on the stomach, similar to stomach staple but not as permanent) surgery (Mexico? Are you serious), because no one would perform it on a 12 yr old in the US. (I am glad to hear that - she should have taken the hint).
This woman has put her child at risk in much the same way as the parents that do CI on young children. Our “will” would be that this mother is unfit and should be stopped. But “harm”? It ends up being a debate on what is “harm”, because she is trying to “fix” the problem.
“So how does one create change without imposing on another’s free will?”
I think that you have given an excellent example of this, DP, in your most recent comments.
The woman you met was given some inaccurate information about the Deaf community and options for her Deaf child. While you and your friends may not have agreed with the choices she had made, you encouraged her to do what she felt was best for her child. But also provided her with information she did not previously have, and your offers of support, and resources for her to explore. Your actions did in fact create change, positive change it appears, in that she has since opted to provide her child with more educational options, as well as learning ASL herself.
Now what if this woman, somewhere down the line, were to have a friend who has a Deaf child, and her friend is given the same information she initially received from the doctors, etc. But the friend, knowing she was once in the same situation, turns to her to ask for advice…what do you think she will tell her friend? Most likely she would advise her friend to talk to members of the Deaf community, and to explore all options in deciding what is best for her own child.
Providing access to information, awareness, and education is one way to create change without imposing on another’s free will.
One thing to remember, you don’t always find out that this change did in fact happen. You don’t always learn that your actions so greatly affected someone else in a positive way and altered the course of their lives for the better.
So keep in mind that the same can happen in reverse, if you were to treat someone with negativity, hostility, intolerance…etc.
pdurr’s comments above included Gandhi’s quote,
“You must BE the change you wish to see in the world”.
I think that sums up my thoughts quite nicely.
Well said, crystaldolphin!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads is a breath of fresh air! I stumbled across this site today while seeking information about paganism… I am blown away and loving it!
While browsing the thought-provoking and stimulating articles and posts, I found this page and whoa! my inner fire went into overdrive.
Oscar: Your views are valid, it’s the approach that needs a bit more work. I too am very much in favor of ASL being used to develop, enhance, enrich, counsel, teach, assist, enlighten every facet of our community - hearing and deaf.
Deaf Pundit: Your story about the mother of a deaf child … it is so amazing and uplifting that she would write what essentially was a “testimonial” about how that one encounter with you and your friends changed her perspective on deafness and led to a, dare I say it? radical shift in her child’s educational path. You are SO right that the Deaf community needs to get off their arrogant arses and DO SOMETHING productive to improve, change, develop a better relationship with the rest of the world. It’s always the same old effing crap - US vs THEM. Why can’t we FIND A WAY to work together collaboratively?
CrystalDolphin: YES! “Providing access to information, awareness, and education is one way to create change without imposing on another’s free will.” I am in agreement mind/body/soul.
pdurr: “Be the change you want to see in the world” That’s so true. To me that quote means if enough people engage in some sort of positive act, change will happen. Of course, the reverse is true – negativity breeds negativity – witness the crime & violence in our world. As an just-emerging pagan, I believe very much in this philosophy and I think it also fits in with “and ye harm none, do what ye will” - they complement each other.
Bill: When you wrote: “You cannot modify the free will of others, you can persuade/influence/educate, without interfering with your “harm none” principles - you just have to watch for creating consequences that are harmful” BINGO! Same as CrystalDolphin.
It’s so wonderful to be able to express my inner contemplations and share them with like-minded people. Thank you, Ocean for creating this e-community. I’ve always thought it worthy of note that the word “community” can be interpreted as an combination of two words: communication and unity.
Goddess be with you.
Rachel