I Am Another!

I have just read how Lou Ferrigno lost his hearing, as a child and I have known a lot of people, who also lost theirs, in childhood.

Until very recently, the average person wouldn’t have known I was Deaf, when I would converse, with them, because, until about the year 2001, when I turned 40, my speech had yet to be marred by deafness.

Unlike a lot of children, who lost their hearing, I continued talking. Generally speaking, the child, who is deafened, with sooner or later, develop speech problems and, then, stop using their voices, which would, generally, annoy their hearing parents, who wanted their child to be as “hearing” as possible.
I still recall a man, by the name of Ed Nagy, who was hired as the principal of the Georgia School for the Deaf, right before I began my second year, there. Mr. Nagy took it as his “call” to demand that Deaf children speak and lipread. He didn’t care that deafness is a culture, he used his position of authority to demand that sign language would be used only in conjunction, with speech, which caused a lot of kids to hate his guts!

Because, until I was in my forties, before my speech began becoming unintelligible, Nagy was able to utilize this, to his own ends. I recall that he told some kids they weren’t smart, because they couldn’t speak, “like (I can).” He didn’t explain, to them, that I’d lost my hearing a little more than two years, prior to his arriving on the scene, which make speech a way of life for me, Nor did he allow them to understand that speech, in general, wasn’t a way of life, in their own culture – Come to think of it, I doubt the idiot accepts deafness as a culture, now, much less, in 1973!

A few years ago, I mentioned to someone about deafness being a culture and someone else, who was eavesdropping, demanded, “IT IS NOT A CULTURE. IT’S A HANDICAP AND NOTHING ELSE!!”
And, I shot back, with, “Not to us. To the Deaf people, the handicap is in being able to hear. You see, you’re unable to think, because of noise; you can’t talk on the phone, because of noise; your ability to work in impeded because of noise … AND, WE DON’T HAVE THAT PROBLEM, BUD!!”

This same man, once, told me he’s smarter than I, so I ask how many languages he speaks, fluently and he replied, “One. That’s all you know.”
To which I shot back, “No. I know English and American Sign Language, which is something you and the idiots, who have destroy Deaf Education would love to outlaw because it makes it easier on the people, in control, to demand the Deaf must learn English.

You see, I’ve been told, on more occasions that I’ve been able to keep up with, that the Deaf need to learn to speak, o they can communicate, with hearing people and, just as I did, shortly after I was first told that, in 1972, after I’d begun my first year, at GSD, I ask why they don’t demand hearing kids learn signs, so as to allow them to communicate, with the Deaf.
In 1972, a teacher’s aide, at GSD, told me, “They will,’ and, looking back, nearly 50 years, I continue to wonder, when it will happen!

The thing is, people, who are wrong, will say absolutely ANYTHING, just to get their way, which is to not have to admit their error and, looking back, that may have been the first time I experienced someone using that ploy.

This is also akin to the demand, “This is a hearing world; you have to learn to live in a hearing world,” which I’ve been told more times than I care to count!

I remember a retired educator of Deaf children, who had spent 35 years demanding the Deaf needed to speak and lipread, telling me that America needs to learn “foreign languages,” so as to honor other cultures. I responded by asking how she can reconcile this thinking with having spent nearly her entire adult life, demanding that the Deaf culture learn English, without a thought of requiring the hearing people to learn signs.
Would you believe that he reply was to explain how she believes the Deaf, who are unable to converse, in English, which contradicts the demand that Americans learn other languages, so as to communicate, with other people. The problem, for hearing people, is that you have to have an ability to learn to use your hands and, basically, this is harder than learning a spoken language, because you, simply, need to hear one. The hearing people, apparently, make the demand of the Deaf, because, although the Deaf aren’t able to hear English,

Come to think of it, this also fits in, with people, who assume that the Deaf are stupid, simply because the Word of God, in Mark, chapter seven, mentions a man, brought to Jesus, who is re-corded to have been “deaf and dumb.”
The newer, English, versions of the Word, correctly, explain that the man had a speech impediment, but the King James bible says he was deaf and dumb, leading a lot of people to assume that the Deaf are idiots. Therefore, nothing we say or do, counts and any of our accomplishments never could have happened, because – to them – we, simply, are worthless, to the Holy Spirit.

I wonder what the world would be like, should all of those people, who assume the Deaf as nothing more than a worthless group, who are simply handicapped beyond any worth, woke up, one morning and realized that the Deaf have done a lot of things many hearing people have yet to do. I mean, I know of a totally unhearing man, who took drum lessons, for two reasons: First, to prove he could and, secondly, to prove the Word of God, where Paul wrote “I can do ALL things, through Christ, Who strengthens me,” to be true.

This man found a drummer, who believed he could and this drummer, who had already worked with some of the top contemporary Christian groups (these included both The Imperials and The Allreds) and, in nine months, learned to play the basics. The man even had a field day, when people would say, “Oh, you can feel it,” and he’d reply that you cannot “feel” a beat, until you hit and that you have to know what you’re doing.
He would explain how the beat, utilizes the hands and feet moving differently and how mistakes are make because those, who don’t know what they’re doing, will not how to to count the beat,” he explains.

Now, lest anyone demands I am creating the, above-mentioned, character, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I was the Deaf man, who took drum lessons and, to this day, remember how to play songs that require 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8 tempos. Often, I can look at the pianist and tell you the he/she is playing a song that is a 6/8 tempo, too.
The main thing, here, though, is that the Apostle Paul admonished us to boast not of works, I always conclude.

The only think I am unable to answer is this: Deaf people will, continually demand that we can do anything, except hear. Then, when I mention that I have taken drum lessons, more often than not, one of them will demand that it’s impossible, because I am unable to hear.
At the same time, hearing people will demand that the Lord can do anything but, when I tell them that He has called me to preach, they will turn around and demand that Deaf people cannot do that, because we cannot hear.

The main group, who make that demand, though, are the charismatics and Pentecostals, though, and these two groups will turn around and preach that the Lord can do anything, which is, then, contradictory, to their own belief and, instead of giving us an opportunity to show them what we can do, they continue demanding that we must be able to hear.
One other thing: Their demands, appear to be based upon the scripture, where the deaf, at the time, where also said to be dumb and, these uneducated people, even some, who have earned PhD’s, will assume this means ALL Deaf people are idiots!

So, I wonder where this leaves me. I mean, the charismatics and Pentecostals, who demand I need hearing to do what they demand I hadn’t done, although they were either told by the very people, whom they assumed had done the work, that I was the one who completed the task, or SAW me do it, themselves, and, then, turned around and demanded I couldn’t have, giving me no opportunity to complete the work, unto complete fruition and giving the work to a hearing person, who will allow it to die, rather than allow a Deaf person, who knows more, about Deaf ministry than they ever will, to do what I’ve been called to do.

So, the ministry died!