Conference Update

During Conference

Gearing Up

Friday, 27 June 2008

EDITORIAL

Here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, gearing up for this weekend's "Battle of the Conferences," a drama is playing out on the scale of a Greek epic. Perhaps some day in the distant future some gifted writer will pen the next great epic, written on the scale of the whole of human history, and will include passages in that epic describing the rise and fall of the Oralist Movement, including merciless references to the great antagonist and arch-villain of the story, Alexander Graham Bell.

Unfortunately, the story is not fiction, it is very real, having left thousands of destroyed lives in its wake, having stolen the unrealized potential of those thousands, as well as measures of damage done to untold more numbers, pieces of whose individual lives were taken away by the insidious method of preemptive strike.

Preemptive strikes on the social level are invisible, yet very much real, since the drama of the mind has consequences for the physical world. One, put Deaf kids in day schools in order to keep the class size down as a way of inhibiting their social interaction with each other. Two, force them to try to communicate by vocalizing sounds they cannot hear, in a medium in which they have no real access, all while being prevented from developing the mental tools necessary to even begin to be able to achieve such super-human feats in the first place. Three, find some imposters and have them pretend to be successful outcomes of the pseudo-method in question. Four, take the money raised by such deceptive promotional schemes and then continue the cycle again.

The whole Bellian-Oralist scheme should have been considered a non-starter from the get-go, and should have ended up as a still-born plan of the type of mad scientist better relegated to a Mary Shelley novel. Yet here we are, over a hundred years later, the general public having been fooled by that silver-haired, silver-tongued embezzler of the mind, whose mental hijinks lay dormant, as revealed by descriptions scribbled on stray pieces of paper, or written in passages in obscure books. Or they could even be found as telling admissions buried in mountains of court trial transcripts, being hidden in plain sight, until the gambit was exposed for all to see.

Now a modern-day man named Seth has shown us the truth in his book--a truth which cannot be ignored. The perpetrators of Bell's plan and legacy would have us now believe that the end is near for those "children of a lesser god," and they might have been so kind as to even furnish the raw materials for the construction of modern-day Pillars of the Sons of Seth, so that those "children" might be kept busy and out of the way, just before they vanish from the face of the earth.

Yet those perpetrators are due for a wake-up call, accompanied by the discovery that their dreams will go unrealized, and they will have to face the rude reality of the present...

Read Our Lips: Deaf children have the right to sign!

And the saga continues....

---Brian Riley, DBC conference blogger

Written: Thursday, June 26, 2008, 11:00pm CDT

Posted (pre-conference): Friday, June 27, 2008, 11:25am CDT

Friday Evening Opening Ceremony

Saturday, 28 June 2008

Open Ceremony today opened with Jason Altmann welcoming the audience, then introducing NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins.

The room was packed with several hundred people, with four sections of chairs nearly completely filled with people in the front, and people sitting around a couple dozen tables toward the back. Bobbie Beth was greeted quite warmly with visual applause all around. She began by asking if people remembered why the NAD was founded in the first place, and reminded all that the NAD was established in order to counter the negative influence of the International Conference of Milan, especially as that influence related to the oralists taking over the schools for the Deaf in America. She explained that now the NAD has "come full circle," explaining that: "We look at American Sign Language as our human right and we see that we [the NAD] fit very well with DBC's philosophy when they [DBC] focus on Deaf babies, and we can do it more successfully as we work together."

A heavy round of visual applause for Bobbie Beth Scoggins led to the introduction of DBC's founder, John Egbert, who was also greeted enthusiastically. Egbert began: "I know how you all feel. I'm very excited to see everyone here, as tomorrow we'll all have the same understanding and experience as we come together."

Egbert then emphasized the central point which DBC is attempting to convey to the general public: "The MIND is necessarily more important than the ability to speak, and how we develop the mind is through language." Egbert's speech was punctuated with visual applause, culminating in loud cheers. It was obvious to all that John had brought the audience to a higher level of antipication and excitement, with an unspoken "sense of electricity" becoming nearly tangible.

DBC core member Barb DiGi was up next, speaking of language development of Deaf children: "If they are denied [ASL] from birth, they end up being behind and not school-ready," also explaining: "Parents, of course, have that right to make that decision, but they are unaware of the facts of bilingual education [...] So we need to work harder at exposing parents of Deaf children to their options." The excited feeling from the audience continued, with Barb later remarking to this blogger that she felt a real sense of inspiration in the room.

David Eberwein (DE) took the stage and explained insights he gained in his work as an educator. Time and time again he has found that the Deaf students who flourish are the ones who had good access to language (i.e., sign language) at home. This always turned out to be the deciding factor. DE ratched things up significantly by declaring (about AG Bell): "Enough is enough!" This was met by wild applause. He continued: "We're going to talk about this day after day for the next four days!.... AG Bell must go! They need to stop inhibiting access [to Deaf children's natural language learning].

DE then projected one of Alexander Graham Bell's infamous quotes on the screen: "The adults who use sign represent our failures; let us have as few of them as we actually can." DE, responding to the AG Bell quote, proclaimed: "People who sign are NOT failures!"

(Open Ceremony update to be continued in next post.)

--Brian Riley, DBC conference blogger

Written: Friday, June 27, 2008, 11:10PM

Posted: Saturday, June 28, 2008, 6:30AM

Friday Evening Opening Ceremony, Part 2

Saturday, 28 June 2008

PART 2: Friday Night Opening Ceremonies

DBC core member Tami Hossler was introduced to a warm round of visual applause and then addressed the crowd in ASL:

"I had never met a Deaf person before having my daughter. I realized that I need to COMMUNICATE with her, and I couldn't imagine NOT communicating with her. We learned HER language. And it was very important for me to adapt to my daughter, instead of her adapting to me.

(Heavy visual applause)

"I needed to support my daughter and support HER LANGUAGE."

(Visual applause and loud cheers)

"....we need to inform them (AG Bell) that THIS (what they are doing) IS WRONG!"

(Visual applause and loud cheers)

The next person to address the crowd was DBC core member, David O. Reynolds:

(Referring to AG Bell) "....This is the end. And that's it! Enough is enough...

...DBC is a great place to start that change!

(Visual applause and loud cheers)

...We're going to spread the word and let people know...Oralism is wrong. We're NOT failures. It's time for change. We survived through the system and we know what is RIGHT!

(Visual applause)

We need to get AG Bell to TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!!!

(Heavy visual applause and loud cheers)

Next, DBC core member Kristen Weiner addressed the audience briefly, as the "electrified" atmosphere in the room kept building...

"I am THRILLED to see all the children gathered with us in this room....and adults, too...We can see the complete life cycle in this room."

Next, DBC core member Ella Mae Lentz addressed the audience:

"All roads lead to Rome... There are many problems (with AG Bell). People have said that some Deaf people read at the 3rd or 4th grade level. THAT is because of AG Bell. All roads lead to AG Bell!...

That's why we're here--to approach them and confront them and teach them what we (know).

Next, Genie Gertz and Patrick Boudreault addressed the audience, briefly explaining some details about their ASL storytelling project.

Jack Barr then told the audience about putting up the big banner on the trailer and explained how people are assigned in two-hour shifts to watch over it and guard it, as the audience watched and reacted enthusiastically.

David O. Reynolds bid everyone good night.

--Brian Riley, DBC conference blogger

Written: Saturday, June 28, 2008, 11:57 p.m.
Posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008, 3:56 a.m.

DBC Conference Vlog #1

Sunday, 29 June 2008
More news from the DBC Conference! (Please wait until the vlog loads completely for smooth viewing.) If you want to leave video comments, go to deafvideo.tv.

DBC Conference Vlog #2

Sunday, 29 June 2008
Second Vlog installment! (Please give the vlog time to load.) If you want to leave video comments, go to deafvideo.tv.

DBC Conference Vlog #3

Tuesday, 01 July 2008

Third Vlog installment!

(Please give the vlog time to load.)