To Chiara's post
haha, i've gotten halfway through some of these comments and I just can't keep reading them anymore. I wouldn't quite have said I agree with everything you've said here but I found when I started thinking about each individual topic, I find myself agreeing more and more.
I have no idea who Tara is but I agree that it was a bit stupid. Regardless of whether she was walking on the tracks or "along" the tracks, it's just not the best idea. However hopefully the community learns something from her death and the next time someone is thinking about walking along some train tracks they'll think of her first. And someone likened walking along the tracks to walking on a sidewalk but the thing is...cars don't drive on the sidewalks, a better way to put it would be walking in the middle of the damn road. While it is certainly insensitive to talk about someone who has just died the way we are, people seem to be taking alot of offense just based on that. However I don't think you're laughing at Tara herself...actually I know you're not and understand completely when you say it's the irony of her death. But you certainly have chosen the perfect time when most people who cared about her still have high emotions about the situation...this post might have been better understood if perhaps you delayed its posting, but such a choice is yours. *In this I mean no disrespect to Tara or her friends and family who have endured this terrible loss, you have my symphathies*
Also I feel that you lumped two ideas together and its somewhat akin to mixing chemicals that may be quite harmless alone but together explosive. Maybe it was they way you spoke about deaf "stereotypes" that overshadowed your whole point in Tara's death. I feel though that your rant addresses an extremely small part of the deaf population simply because it deals in extremes but most stereotypes do right? Maybe not completely but someone who does everything you said is fairly hard to come by. A few set the image for many however they do not define them. I was about to say you might have chosen not to deal with such an extreme stereotype but rather, I'd like to ask everyone who voiced an opinion against Chiara for what she said about some deaf people, I want you all to look at yourselves and think for a minute......then ask youself, was she in any way talking about me? And I guarantee that for 99% of you the answer will be a hearty no, and in that conclusion you should take absolutely no offense to this post because in reality is she trying to degrade deaf culture in this post or enrich it?
Lastly, " allow yourself to be represented by who you are rather than your inabilities"
I know exactly what you mean, for my entire life up til I attended RIT I spent everyday rebelling against my own "deafness". I'm not deaf, I'm like you hard of hearing however sometimes the two are not seen as much different. When I was in 7th grade I refused to use any of the support I was given by my school, this was against all my advisor's recommendations as well as my parents...but it was my life and I knew I wanted to do it my way. I didn't want to be percieved as the deaf kid in my class but rather as Neil and every bit of what makes me who I am. At the time I would never have let my disability be a part of defining me. I finished high school without using that supporte and shunned anyone who claimed my hearing loss made things easier for me because they weren't. I still struggle in classes to hear everything a teacher says and at times I just don't get everything or even a majority of things. It sucks yes but I wouldn't do it any other way and thats my choice to make.
Okay one last point upon coming to RIT, I was still at a point where I rebelled against my own deafness. I never embraced it, I never had deaf friends growing up and I never saw myself embracing deaf culture.... Needless to say I was ignorant and stubborn and really close minded, and I regret that. The deaf culture here has hands down amazed, enthralled and entirely changed my opinion of deaf people and my own disability. I've had the extreme pleasure of meeting and getting to know some of the most amazing people I have ever met and a large majority of them have been deaf. I hope to keep in touch with them for my entire life and meet many more. Nearly all of the deaf people that I have met should not in any way be insulted by Chiara's post because I feel you entirely miss her point. Look at it this way her post addresses and extremely small margin of deaf people or maybe alot of people in small and partial ways. It does in fact deal alot with stereotypes but stereotypes to do not come from thin air, they are created by someone. Her point here I feel is that you deserve better...shes sounding this cry in an attempt to get an ignorant few to realize something and perhaps get alot of us to jugde ourselves. For your and their actions are defining of a culture, theirs cast a shadow across it while most of you bring a light to the culture. It sounded to me like she was arguing for that light.
The deaf culture I've seen is amazing, a group of incredibly diverse people who have come together and turned what was once assumed as a weakness into a strength. They have developed a rich open minded culture that the world deserves to see, because they could all learn something from it.
Kudos Chiara
I have no idea who Tara is but I agree that it was a bit stupid. Regardless of whether she was walking on the tracks or "along" the tracks, it's just not the best idea. However hopefully the community learns something from her death and the next time someone is thinking about walking along some train tracks they'll think of her first. And someone likened walking along the tracks to walking on a sidewalk but the thing is...cars don't drive on the sidewalks, a better way to put it would be walking in the middle of the damn road. While it is certainly insensitive to talk about someone who has just died the way we are, people seem to be taking alot of offense just based on that. However I don't think you're laughing at Tara herself...actually I know you're not and understand completely when you say it's the irony of her death. But you certainly have chosen the perfect time when most people who cared about her still have high emotions about the situation...this post might have been better understood if perhaps you delayed its posting, but such a choice is yours. *In this I mean no disrespect to Tara or her friends and family who have endured this terrible loss, you have my symphathies*
Also I feel that you lumped two ideas together and its somewhat akin to mixing chemicals that may be quite harmless alone but together explosive. Maybe it was they way you spoke about deaf "stereotypes" that overshadowed your whole point in Tara's death. I feel though that your rant addresses an extremely small part of the deaf population simply because it deals in extremes but most stereotypes do right? Maybe not completely but someone who does everything you said is fairly hard to come by. A few set the image for many however they do not define them. I was about to say you might have chosen not to deal with such an extreme stereotype but rather, I'd like to ask everyone who voiced an opinion against Chiara for what she said about some deaf people, I want you all to look at yourselves and think for a minute......then ask youself, was she in any way talking about me? And I guarantee that for 99% of you the answer will be a hearty no, and in that conclusion you should take absolutely no offense to this post because in reality is she trying to degrade deaf culture in this post or enrich it?
Lastly, " allow yourself to be represented by who you are rather than your inabilities"
I know exactly what you mean, for my entire life up til I attended RIT I spent everyday rebelling against my own "deafness". I'm not deaf, I'm like you hard of hearing however sometimes the two are not seen as much different. When I was in 7th grade I refused to use any of the support I was given by my school, this was against all my advisor's recommendations as well as my parents...but it was my life and I knew I wanted to do it my way. I didn't want to be percieved as the deaf kid in my class but rather as Neil and every bit of what makes me who I am. At the time I would never have let my disability be a part of defining me. I finished high school without using that supporte and shunned anyone who claimed my hearing loss made things easier for me because they weren't. I still struggle in classes to hear everything a teacher says and at times I just don't get everything or even a majority of things. It sucks yes but I wouldn't do it any other way and thats my choice to make.
Okay one last point upon coming to RIT, I was still at a point where I rebelled against my own deafness. I never embraced it, I never had deaf friends growing up and I never saw myself embracing deaf culture.... Needless to say I was ignorant and stubborn and really close minded, and I regret that. The deaf culture here has hands down amazed, enthralled and entirely changed my opinion of deaf people and my own disability. I've had the extreme pleasure of meeting and getting to know some of the most amazing people I have ever met and a large majority of them have been deaf. I hope to keep in touch with them for my entire life and meet many more. Nearly all of the deaf people that I have met should not in any way be insulted by Chiara's post because I feel you entirely miss her point. Look at it this way her post addresses and extremely small margin of deaf people or maybe alot of people in small and partial ways. It does in fact deal alot with stereotypes but stereotypes to do not come from thin air, they are created by someone. Her point here I feel is that you deserve better...shes sounding this cry in an attempt to get an ignorant few to realize something and perhaps get alot of us to jugde ourselves. For your and their actions are defining of a culture, theirs cast a shadow across it while most of you bring a light to the culture. It sounded to me like she was arguing for that light.
The deaf culture I've seen is amazing, a group of incredibly diverse people who have come together and turned what was once assumed as a weakness into a strength. They have developed a rich open minded culture that the world deserves to see, because they could all learn something from it.
Kudos Chiara