Trust in the deaf community?

G'day Everyone..

Trust. Respect. Understanding. Those are big names that we commonly use every day whatever it be used in a business manner or in personal conversations. It's used by hearing and Deaf people.

But some how, I get the feeling the trust is GONE among the members of the deaf community. WHY? Look at all the big name organizations that been posturing (and anti-posturing) to speak on various issues that are happening in our deaf community: NAD, A.G.Bell, and DBC. (it also includes any anti-DBC/NAD/and AGBell groups as well).

They all appear to represent interests in the deaf community. Right? Wrong.

We all got our opinions. We all start coming out with various facts and anti-facts of for/against each other. So it seems like we've all gone the way like rabid cats and dogs in fighting with each other. We all can't agree. But we have to respect each other's opinions as well. (Don't get me started into my junk yard dog anger here. I'm already upset enough).

So how long does it take to rebuild Trust, Respect, and Understanding among the members in the deaf and hearing communities? It doesn't happen over night. It takes a while. It depends on how deep the issues are happening affect the community


Just as much as many years ago, the deaf community fought against the hearing community over the promotion of hearing aids that do help some hearing impaired deaf people. It took time to respect and understanding that deaf people could benefit from hearing aids. It brought about changes in our deaf community. We agreed on one thing. If we took off that hearing aid, we're still deaf. We still speak in Sign Language. That's the main clear principal.

Now, we're going through the same thing again. The affects of deaf babies being installed CI after getting informed that a CI is better than sign language. It creates way hard feelings in the deaf community. Especially for the very person, who invented the CI in the first place.

The people who invented the CI should have considered and investigated the possible reactions in the deaf community before getting the FDA approvals. I hate seeing deaf babies installed with CI on them. How is their future status in the deaf community itself? In a way, rough.

I feel like we've divided into various groups among our community alone:
Deaf- Sign Language.
Deaf- Non-Sign Language.
Deaf- CI.
Deaf- Non- CI.
Deaf- Hearing aids.
Deaf- Non-Hearing aids.
and just deaf.

Whatever happened to just calling ourselves Deaf Community and Hearing Community?

Ahh, there's the fracture and there's the rub, right?
So what do we do?
What sort of path to unity do we all start carving out and working together for it?
Should we have one big Deaf convention and invite all the pro/con DBC, NAD, and AGBells out there and sit down and work out some type of "peace pact" where we can work on every issue in the deaf community? Get one "pact" done and everyone goes home happy?

Good idea right? Ahh, there's my rub on me. It's just an opinion and a suggestion of mine. I expect nobody to take me seriously.

*heavy sigh*

Give me back just two different communities that we had before:
The hearing community and Deaf Community.

Two different types of community trying to work together to make life easier for each other on various levels.
Just don't call names.
Just treat us with respect and understanding.
Time will only tell if TRUST ever comes back to us again.

Semper fi