Calling all ears.

What would you do if you experienced a tragic accident, resulting in permanent deafness?

What would you do if your child was born deaf?

Today in my American Sign Language 3 class, we talked about the advantages and disadvantages of deaf people receiving cochlear implants (CI).  So much controversy surrounds cochlear implants, including the question of making such a huge, life-changing decision for a child who may not want to grow up hearing (keeping in mind that the earlier a child receives a CI, the more effective at improving speech and language they prove to be), the fact that CI's are not guaranteed to deliver results to all who receive it, and the disruption and possible extinction of Deaf culture.

So, whether the deaf person be the child of deaf parents, hearing parents, YOUR child, your brother, or your next door neighbor, how should their deafness be "handled?"  Many protest CI's because being deaf is not viewed as a handicap, but a way of life and a culture that could be eliminated by CI's.

I'll leave you with a video that made me angry, frustrated, sad, and enlightened.  It's called "My son is deaf, finally!" The video is 10 minutes long, but you absolutely must watch it through to the end or you won't get the whole message.

Thoughts???

How to Smack Writer's Block Like An Angry Infant's Momma

It is an arid fight for inner peace,
with neither palpable beauty or defined poetry.
In this fight, one sometimes advances
in the night of anonymity,
in the mud of indifference or misunderstanding
under the storms and bombardment unleashed
by the conjugated forces of repressed pain
and denial, the flesh and the seed
of pure evil which lay deep beneath
the surface in each of us.
But it is through this course of action,
the commencement of this fight,
that the wicked seed is slaughtered,
the angels of the heavens are attracted,
and serenity is granted
to those who seek it most ardently.

- I'm unsure who wrote this or from where I originally copied it down,
but sometimes when I'm staring at my computer like a retard,
it's hellfire for my writer's block;
gets to boiling blood pumping through my grape
when it's frozen stuck, and needs to stay nice and frosty
so I can keep packing two thirds of a snowman.