I cannot even begin to think about the cobags and how they think that helping anyone (beyond inheriting all the help you get from being rich) is somehow massively inappropriate.
I'd better nto say nay more if I'm goign to keep it clean.
Mon. Gold. Theat. is up.
Cafe Press is sending me a rep. shirt. The other one got lost or something.
Monsieur RP,
Awesome awesome post. I'm one of your new fans, led this way by the beloved Twisty. I'm also a linguistics grad student studying Irish Sign Language, and I feel like printing this post and handing it out to everyone that is surprised that there isn't a 'universal sign language' or scoffs at the notion that signed languages are natural human languages or is appalled that oralism isn't the Way, Life and Truth when it comes to educating deaf folk.
I wish the points you make were required reading in high school civics or thereabouts, not only with regard to Deaf culture, but as applicable to any 'disability'. Even then, though, I fear the masses would remain indifferent. As we've seen here and over at Twisty and Prof. B's hangouts lately, it's ever so much easier to unanalytically accept your privilege, no matter what form it takes. It took a visit to Gallaudet Univ. years ago when I knew not a single sign, to be the odd one out communicatively, for me to appreciate the day-to-day difficulties Deaf people have in interacting with the hearies.
In any event, good luck with the dentist hunt, and until the day we can feast on the rotting carcass of the patriarchy, keep fingerspelling 'evil' as "G-O-P".
Hahaha thank you, Chris! That's the best comment I've gotten in a long time! Of course, I'd expect no less from a fellow Twisty fan.
I'm getting ready for work, so I'll be brief; I never really gave any thought to the Deaf or hearing impaired before I met M, but I don't see how you can watch two people communicate in sign language and not intuitively understand that it is full, real, natural language. As I said, M escaped all the oralist abuse, but many of his friends were not so lucky. We know Deaf people who can speak pretty well, and I admire the accomplishment - I cannot imagine learning to communicate in a medium I could not perceive. But the stories they tell about their oralist training...well, I wouldn't subject any child to that. Not for ANYTHING. And of course, they all use ASL more often than not. Also, I was interested in your mention of other sign languages. I didn't mention this in my post for the sake of simplicity, but M's true first language is Mexican Sign Language, although he switched to ASL at a very early age. Oh, and his family speaks Spanish at home. That's a lot more language mastery than I've ever managed to accomplish.
Anyway, thanks again...I hope you'll visit and comment often. 
Hi Res!
I completely agree with Chris -- people need to READ what you wrote here.
I'm just thinking of the obvious -- but, why don't you submit it to the MSM in essay form?
Back of the NYT's Sunday Magazine....The personal essay page Newsweek does?
Submit it to NPR -- and then maybe you could read it, too!
Maybe that great "Sunday Morning" show should do a story on it!
You can tell, I just loved it.
You SHOULD pursue submitting it though. It's such an important issue.
Great job!
Well THANK YOU, Blue! That comment made my day! I will try to polish it up when I have some more time. It's a little rambling for publication - the beauty of blogging is that I can just ramble on and on and NO ONE CAN STOP ME!! Hehehe 
You should polish it, Res.
You really, really should.
BG
BG is right - it's wonderful.
I do have a question, perhaps odd, given that you and M have been together for a time. When you remember conversations between you and him, in ASL, do you recall them, yourself, as vocalizations? It's funny, but I do "hear" my conversations with deaf friends, though that may be only because I am ASL-illiterate. However we talk - combination of notes and gesture, I still have the impression of spoken dialogue.
Also, Oliver Sacks wrote eloquently about ASL as a distinct language:
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/b...=1-0375704078-
4
yours and M's responses?
Hi grishaxxx! I'll been meaning to order "Seeing Voices" for a long time. Sacks is an interesting writer. I would also recommend "I See A Voice" by Jonathan Ree and "Deaf In America" by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries.
As to your question, I "hear" our remembered conversations in my head. It's hard to explain exactly how, because I don't have any clear idea of his "voice". I guess it would suffice to say that I'm not fluent enough to think in ASL.
Thanks for stopping by!
Damn, man. Just, damn. And what Blue Girl said.
Well thank you, Lance! Like compliments from BG, compliments from you mean a great deal to me.
Just mulling, but I'll bet M could nail your accent or inflection in ASL - and even as you gain fluency, you'll always be uniquely RP. And I completely get not being able to characterize this phantom voice hearing people might experience, retrospectively, with their deaf friends. It's just an invented artifact of our own sense habits, isn't it?
I am not just playing with concepts here; I cannot begin to understand how stupid M's dentist must have been to mistreat him twice - because that's what it was, mistreatment. Equally idiotic is the expectation that M needs anyone to serve as a go-between or interpreter - sure, it might be helpful initially, but it's not a prerequisite. Disabilities (per the ADA) take every conceivable form - do the people who need accommodation have to flash neon every damn time they need it? It would drive me mad, but in my friends' experience, they have to do it daily, and that's way too often.
My ASL is so crappy, M probably thinks I'm his loving-but-retarded boyfriend. That's a major frustration for me, because I am a very articulate and talkative person, and I have a hard time communicating fine distinctions and complicated feelings in ASL. But i"m getting better all the time.
He likes me to interpret for him at doctor appointments because he has a hard time with english grammer. Interpreting actually involves translation, so that makes things much clearer for him. I personally think the doctor should hire a professional interpreter (because I'm so far from being at that level), but even if they were totally willing to do so, most have never done so before, so you have to wait for them to get their shit together and hire one, etc. Sometimes it's easier for us to just go together.
Which, incidentally, is why i think interpreting is something that the goverment could directly subsidize to a certain extent. It's one of those things were "reasonable accomodation" can be difficult and expensive, and your average small business or independently practicing professional could probably use a little help.
Commenting by HaloScan
