there are limits to "power to the people"

[acroyear]

Gallaudet's Loss - washingtonpost.com (editorial):

THE BOARD OF trustees at Gallaudet University certainly showed who was in charge when it voted to terminate Jane K. Fernandes's contract as president. Sadly, it wasn't the members of the board, who are supposed to serve the interests of the university. Nor, for that matter, were reason or right in evidence Sunday as the trustees ousted a woman they had recently judged to be the best person to lead the renowned school for the deaf. Instead, what triumphed was lawlessness and the principle that a university president should be chosen on the basis of popularity.

Comments

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Deaf people are in a weird place when it comes to their difficulty hearing. People who hear consider them disabled but they don't have any of the outward signs of disability that a blind person does (dark glasses, cane, seeing-eye dog), or those with issues like Downs Syndrome, or those with mobility issues than use various canes, walkers, wheel chairs, and crutches. They look just like everybody else and are often mistaken for hearing people until it's too late.

I'm really appalled at your "tough shit" attitude that a deaf person should be subjected to the same treatment in the jail system. It is a system set up for hearing individuals and those who can't hear are at a distinct disadvantage with horrifying results.

Deaf people are intellectually as capable as hearing people but because they communicate differently they are regularly thought to be mentally deficient. I suggest that you look into the types of descrimination that deaf people have to deal with regularly.

The particularly egregious example I'm aware of (that I heard in grad school in my class on how to make libraries accessable for those with disabilities which included a visit to Galludet's campus) had a deaf person almost killed in an emergency room because the doctor was going to give her a med she was deathly allergic to. To keep her from "flapping about" they had restrained her hands. Luckily, another nurse nearby (not one of hers) understood some ASL and was able to avert tragedy. This is not the sole example of things like this.

When you have to put up with the rest of society treating you as if you are stupid, or careless, or troublemakers, just because you don't hear what someone is saying, you would tend to turn your back on that majority culture.

You my think that "deaf culture" is "bullshit" but I assure you, there are those take it seriously. They feel as though hearing culture has excluded them, so they avoid hearing culture as much as possible and I don't blame them.

It seems as though you are most angry at the fact that they are asking for "special treatment" by not being punished for their protesting. Deaf people are at a big enough disadvantage in a hearing culture that I'm willing to cut them slack for exercising their First Amendment right.

They disagreed with a choice. They made their opinions known. They persuaded others to their cause. There are precedents for their actions both at Galludet and in history at large. So it was a minority. Those who make the most ruckus tend to get the most attention. If the majority liked the choice for president why didn't they protest on her behalf as vociferously?

Deaf people are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to getting by in the hearing world. Presidents at other, hearing universities interact with others and whatnot, but the students at Galludet see it as more. They want someone of their culture in that position, someone who isn't trying to "pass".

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

breaking the law is not "exercising a first amendment right" unless the law itself violates that constitutional right.

no law violated by these people did so. the courts have continually upheld laws requiring permits.

if they want to assert that they were just "exercising their first amendment rights" THEN GET ARRESTED, SERVE THE TIME, AND FILE THE APPEAL ON THE BASIS OF THE RIGHT THAT THE LAW WAS EITHER WRONG OR APPLIED INCORRECTLY - deal within the system, not above it.

PERIOD.

If one minority group feels they can just discard the system, then the law and society might as well not exist.

this is not an episode of "I have immunity" survivor, this is LIFE under a constitutional republic.