RE: Amy Cohen Efron and Barbara DiGiovanni, you both have my...

Jared:

I’m disappointed to discover that you chose to sweep my questions under the rug and avoid accountability as a Deaf Read editor and that you chose instead to preach to Deaf bloggers and vloggers to stop looking at the small picture and stop nitpicking on minor and human mistakes. I don't care about Amy Cohen Efron's comment and Barb's comment. They are human. They have right to take off their professional hats and be themselves. But the whole point is that Deaf Pundit is perpetuating a double standard. She didn't freak out about Amy's comment, but she chose to act like she freaked out about Barb's comment supposedly because of her principles, which is not true. She used this as a tactic to harm Barb because of her accomplishments with DBC and AFA. If it had to do with Deaf Pundit's principles, then she would freak out about Amy. That is my whole point. My suspicion have been confirmed that she is doing this because of a personal vendetta..

Deaf Editors need to wake up and realize that they are inappropriately posting titles, intro paragraphs and links to blogs and vlogs that harm Deaf people’s professional reputations and personal lives.

Deaf Pundit had obtained a copy of Barb's video comment and changed the title from "your reality" to "Barb’s mooning," and yet the Deaf editors approved this and allowed the link to her blog post to stand. Deaf Pundit then removed the video comment, but she didn’t remove the title ("Barb’s mooning"). This is highly misleading and it would tend to spread the wrong information where people would think that she was the one who was doing the mooning. Please do not forget that you approved Deaf Pundit’s blog for posting on Deaf Read while the republished version of Barb's video comment was included (!) This is BAD JUDGMENT on the Deaf Read editors' part. Then you tried to avoid accountability on this issue by saying this video was already removed. The point is that you approved it while the republished video comment was in Deaf Pundit's post. You need to accept accountability on the matter and apologize to Barb for causing her to suffer.

You as Deaf editor made an assumption that everyone knew where Amy and Barb worked and what their positions are, and you feel it is OK to publish the information revealing people’s jobs.

You as Deaf editor said that you supported Barb Digi, but as a bystander you are watching Barb get rhetorically beaten up, and then after witnessing this and playing a role in its occurrence you came to her and said you supported her. THAT is screwed up thinking, plain and simple.

Deaf Pundit could have simply said: "I do not agree with Barb’s video." Instead, Deaf Pundit published Barb's teaching position and her school. She knew that by doing this that there would very likely be people writing to complain to Barb's school. From my observation, I do sense that Deaf Pundit actually encouraged this in subtle way, as usual.

Many commenters had been trying to reason with Deaf Pundit, but she kept on shifting the blame to Barb and refused to take accountability for her actions. Maybe you should start to preach to these type of bloggers who are selfish and self-centered and who harm people like Barb and tell them that they should learn to listen and keep an open mind and be empathetic to people like Barb and leave the professional and personal out of what's turned out to be this damnably destructive Deafread and Deafvideo community.

Lastly, please answer my questions:

Do you approve of Deaf Pundit’s misleading title which implies that Barb did the mooning, while actually she was not the one who mooned the camera?

Do you approve of how Deaf Pundit obtained a copy of Barb's entire video comment and that she republished, and not only republished it (violating copyright) but that she republished it without any link to the main vlog where people can see the whole context and get the whole story instead of half of the story and be able to get the whole perspective instead of just her (Deaf Pundit's) perspective?

Do you approve of vlogs which invade people's privacy by announcing their workplace and position titles?

How do you tell the difference between a personal vendetta and differing opinions?

I’m very disappointed with both Deafread.com and DeafVideo.Tv where the editors do not know how to detect a vendetta and tell the difference between that and differing opinions and they keep on giving us excuses as to why they do this or that and they avoid discussing the real issues and try to dodge their own accountability. They constantly try to cover their mistakes and blur their intentions. It’s getting worse and worse now and I say that the Deaf Read editors, including the owner(s), need to take a deep breath and examine themselves and to improve the Deaf Read system and the DeafVideo.Tv system, so that they will be safer online environments for people, both professionally and personally.

Thank you,

Aidan

RE: "Let me show you reality!" by Deaf pundit

The owner of the DeafRead, Tayler wrote the guidelines which preclude being targeted negatively by name. Yet, DeafRead editors published the post where Deaf pundit targeted Barb Digi negatively. The video was then removed because of the copyright issue. I wanted to make sure to point that it was removed because of the copyright issue and not because of name calling.

8) Name Calling and Discrimination

Naming a person is still fine, however if the named person is insulted, or targeted negatively, it will raise a flag for which we will survey the post more closely. Criticizing an idea or organization is fine. Any exceedingly negative posts, regardless of whether a name is used, will be omitted." (DeafRead Guidelines)

Deaf pundit had deleted my two comments on her blog, which she had the right to do, however the irony is that Deaf pundit wrote to JK2. This is what JK2 wrote to me:

JK2-- “Aidan, you need to grow up too. You did the same thing to other victims in the past for different purposes.”

Then I crossed examined JK2:
“Did I ever threaten anyone’s job or reveal anyone’s position like Deaf Pundit? NEVER!"

Then Deaf Pundit: "I’ll write my comment to you under my blog.” (I'm grateful that I chose to write my comment on my blog or else it would be censored.)

Now Look at that irony of this. JK2 attacked Ridor, and here is how Deaf Pundit's comment now stands:

Deaf pundit wrote: (The comment was edited due to personal attacks on Ridor)
(deleted)

Deaf pundit wouldn’t delete JK2’s comment about me, and she deleted my comment in response to this person.

What's more, I got an email from someone saying that Deaf pundit did not write a blog or post a vlog about Amy Cohen Efron's reaction in her video comment to a porn video called "Two Girls and One Cup." And as we all know that Amy is school psychologist. What is the difference? A double standard is being imposed.

Also, I must add this: It's about a vendetta.

So in regard to Deaf pundit I say: "case closed."

Deaf pundit had a grudge against me for three years over a small and silly thing. Deaf pundit once contacted me to see if I would work with her on a Communication Access project by making a short promotional video. I was more than happy to do that and for no cost. It was very expensive labor-wise but I overlooked that and did it as volunteer. After I submitted my rough cut to Deaf Pundit, she said she loved it and she greenlighted my video. I told her there was no way for me to change after I finalized the video. She insisted that I go ahead and finish it. I worked on it for 30 hours one weekend. I gave up my time to do this project.

I then submitted the final video to Deaf pundit. She was thrilled. Then next thing that happened, she demanded that I change the video based on the opinion of a friend of hers. I tried to explain to her that I couldn't change it. This video then took a lot of my time. She wouldn’t listen and demanded that I change the video. I told her we should post it online to see what the Deaf community would think. Then I posted it.

One of commenters, Amy Cohen Efron, asked me to enlarge the size of the video size so she could see the details better. I did that. I tried to upload it to a different site to enlarge the frame size, and then I found out that Google offered a larger size. I posted there on Google. After that Deaf Pundit exploded and wrote me awful, accusatory emails. I felt like, "Whoa, what was going on?" Then she wrote a post on the blog about me which I had no idea she was going to do. I read it and saw that she was pissed that I had uploaded the video to a different site, and she said I was only supposed to upload it to YouTube, not other sites. I told her OK, then apologized to her and said it wasn’t my intention. She then immediately removed her blog. I realized I didn’t want to work with someone who would broadcast "workplace" issues to the world which should stay on the inside.

Later, she decided to make another blog about me saying she didn’t want to work with me anymore. Now for the past three years, she has been looking for any reason to attack me, and often does in subtle ways.

Deaf pundit has a pattern of attacking people, instead of addressing herself to the ideas involved, and does so as part of a vendetta pattern. I didn't care too much about her attacking me, until she attacked Barb and tried to portray her as being a bad or unfit teacher. That is absolutely untrue. Then she mentioned Barb's job position and the name of her school and she republished Barb’s video comment as her insurance.

Who's the hell Deaf pundit deciding people’s fate? She has lot of bitterness inside of her. It’s sad to see this bitterness reducing her potentials. She has no idea about the idea of communities of diversity and how this is a moral issue involving the diversity of values, and the business and the personal aspects, too. This is not about one nation, or one belief, or one set of moral values, or one value. It's about DIVERSITY.

Thank you,
Aidan

"Thank you, Father" (Tribute to Lonnie Mack)

As soft winds sweep away the days, I look back on life through a haze.




A man always thinks the world of his wife, does anything for his wife, and comes home every single day to her. He supports and encourages his wife to reach for her dreams.



A man always maintains his loyalty to his wife by providing to her children shelter, food, clothes, and medical needs, so she is able to pursue her dreams.



A man always carries a giant dog food bag and giant bone bag on his back, walking through the door, while the dogs jump up and down and bark excitedly at him.



A man always mows the lawn, rakes the leaves, and shovels the snow. He comes in and sits in his favorite chair and watches the sports channel in between tasks, and then he goes back out to finish the job.



A man always breaks things when he tries to fix a thing, and then he fights for his right to try again to fix new problems, then again he breaks the other things, too.



A man always wakes up with his hair spiked up every morning and doesn’t know who he is until he sits in his favorite chair, drinks a cup of coffee and reads the newspaper—he goes right to sports section first.



A man was my father. Even though we didn’t have the best relationship as a father and daughter, I still embrace some good memories that we shared, our laughs, the shared wisdom, and our supporting each other. I wish only that I had one more chance for us to mend our relationship before he departed. I accept fate and am grateful to it, since if he had never adopted me, I would be someone different and wouldn’t be here where I am today.



Thanks, Father.

What Is Deaf?

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A Short Motion Graphic Film

Alexander Graham Bell's Body Snatchers

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"We should try ourselves to forget that they are deaf. We should try to teach them to forget that they are deaf." Alexander Graham Bell, 1884

Special thanks to Body Snatchers (1993)

Alexander Graham Bell: Hear My Voice (Poster Girl)

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AGBELL, "Reverse Audism", AFA (AUDism Free America)

I feel compelled to write a post in response to Valhallian’s post: “Reverse Audism”. I don’t know if you realize that there’s historically been a pattern where some Deaf people feel safer in criticizing their own people (in the Deaf community), instead dealing with the real culprits who are outside of the Deaf community.



Some Deaf people have been subjected to such severe measures in their educational upbringing that they actually think they have no say about themselves as Deaf beings. People in white coats and people behind the window in the sound-proof booths keep checking on people’s hearing status, and they have positioned themselves as being minor gods who have all the answers for the Deaf people.



Some Deaf people actually think that they are not complete human beings because they don't have one of the five senses that hearing people have. They don’t have any sense of celebrating the idea of being in an audism-free world, which we will soon have, thanks to the efforts of the Fighters of the Deaf Community who are determined to break the cycle of audism and make a difference for the Deaf community and Deaf children.



Those who think they are not complete human beings are so customed to the idea that there is something wrong with themselves because their whole life they were forced or pressured to receive all the various services provided by the troubled-persons industry--services which come with the hidden message that they need to get fixed or else they will end up as a nobody, living on SSI, giving up their self-pride, self-confidence, and doing without the sense of being a self-driven, self-reliant, passionately self-actualized person. Instead, they give up control of themselves and their lives to the audist establishment.



I also must write that I find it amazing that some people would spend hours and hours to criticize and to destroy this organization and they do not do anything themselves, while this organization would spend hours and hours to take a stand and to speak out for the Deaf children, and to make difference by taking actions and doing something about the situation.



I also must write that some Deaf people feel that they are being bashed for not signing right or for not signing clearly, but they need to think twice about this. In America, people high expectations for their fellow citizens, that ideally, all people in our democratic society should be able to use English fluently or else they will be corrected. Many of them are able to be exposed to English when they are first born to this world, or from a very young age. The same goes for minority languages, which sometimes serve as first languages for many of our citizens.



I appreciate the fact that people have corrected my ASL when I was growing up, or I wouldn’t be not be able to use it fluently and clearly and be understood. I always aspire to improve my fluency in both of my languages, and I appreciate it when people correct my English and also my ASL so that I can improve. You know, some people are overly sensitive and they overreact when it comes to feedback, input, and comments that they don't want to hear. It’s good to listen things that you don’t like to hear. That way you prove to yourself that you can deal with anything and grow.



How it can be a person's choice if they never were exposed to the choice of using American Sign Language in the first place?



With the powerful of AG Bell system having spread its roots slowly and steadily within the education establishment, the medical establishment, and the media establishment--having spread its roots deep into the ground to where the message and mentality is obviously clear--a message that states that Deaf people are (according to them) not able to function in this world unless they can speak and hear like hearing people.



Look at the Deaf community now with people currently struggling to obtain jobs, while having to battle the attitudes of ignorant people, and deal with preestablished and untenable oral-aural educational expectations.



AG Bell has many finanical resources which support their audist philosophy, which is supported by the 53 percent of their membership who are in the medical professions who make money by exploiting the status of the our EARS, which is only a small part of ourselves.



Parents of Deaf babies want them to hear and speak fluently because they mistakenly think that if their children do not speak or hear, they will supposedly face hardships and many obstacles. But that's a view borne of ignorance.



AG Bell's corrupt system exploits its existing political advantage by planting false hopes in the minds of the parents by offering speech training and auditory training regardless of the high risk that is involved that affects the psychological well being of the child which impairs their ability to learn and grow.



American Sign Language comes with very low risk, or really actually no risk at all, that there would be any interference in a Deaf child's ability to learn and become a whole human being. Many Deaf children who discovered American Sign Language know that ASL actually saved their lives.



However, learning ASL at a relatively late age does have its consequences, which would not have been evident had they been able to be exposed to ASL from birth, as they should have been allowed. So the whole point is: How can it be someone's "choice," if they didn't even really know that the choice of using American Sign Language existed in the first place, or if they really didn't understand the ramifications of not using ASL?



I had a great and pleasant experience at the Audism Free America demonstration. One of my favorite parts at the rally was watching the AFA team leaders interacting with people and how they offered their unconditional support and welcome to anyone who came, including toward the people that have been skeptical toward the AFA. They inspired me greatly. I had a wonderful time meeting new people and also old friends, and some vloggers as well. AFA Rocks!...



To those few anti-DBC, anti-AFA bashers who sit and complain all the time, you need to get a life and to set up your own organization. Doing these things I suggest will make a difference and your organization can join "Insane Misha’s" million-person march where all different organizations and people with different ideas can come together to overcome the audist establishment's nefarious and counterproductive audist system.



Thanks,
Aidan