Trench Warfare

I have to say that lately I've been seeing a disturbing trend effecting our Deaf community. It's probably not all that new however it's taken on a new life due to the popularity of Vlogs. I'm gonna express what I feel is just my opinion as I refuse to take sides on because I feel it's a cultural equivalent of Deaf on Deaf violence.

With the onset of HR 3101 bill being pushed to pass, the formation of Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) and the National Association for the Deaf's (NAD) strive to reach new and youthful audiences. it has created a type of warfare much like gangs. Everyone wants a piece of the streets.Everyone wants to be the next leader in a movement they compare the the Gallaudet University "Deaf President Now" movement.

Enough already people! We have a chance in front of us to catch up where we're 10 years behind! How many people still have TTY/TTD ? I'm guessing maybe 5 of my readers still actively use it (according to Deafread I get about 100+ per post). How many of you surf Youtube? I bet nearly ALL OF YOU used it from one point or another. Thankfully Google is working on technology to eventually caption all Youtube videos. Now that's a national recognized brand. Your local news station has 100's of video's posted on-line at any given moment. With all certainty not one of them is captioned!

Why am I ranting? Well a certain Vlogger DeafASLVlogs whom's page I frequent just egged herself. Literally to make a point towards NAD including the words "I am a person with a disability"  She made some good points and even had me thinking, This was until Jeff Rosen from SNAP!VRS who serves as general council and is deeply regarded in the Deaf community got into a bit of a flaming war on her website over he comments towards NAD.

Stop the train! let me off!
Here we are, two important people who are making an impact in our community wasting their time fighting over the words of NAD which yes clearly could have chosen better lingo to use. Meanwhile we're struggling to get Republicans in favor of HR 3101. We all need to make a concious effort to put down our cultural guns and get this bill passed. If we don't we're gonna continue to be set back 10 years.

Taxi!

Joey