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| Dear IKJ,
I was 18 when you became President of Gallaudet University. I had faith in you to lead us since I knew you were also elected to represent all of us as a community; but now, you are in a tight situation, my friend. You will be a legend; however, it is entirely up to you to decide how the Deaf will speak about you in the many years to come in the deaf communities, in academic journals, and in books that will forever label you either as a good or bad leader. Your choice. Seriously, who wants to reflect their past as a failure not to yourself, but to a culture especially if you made a few poor decisions in the last few months of your position as a president? If you want to look back and feel that you have done something productive for Gallaudet and for our deaf generation, you would at least consider this:
1) For the love of Thomas Gallaudet, remove Jane Fernandes out of the entire picture. Re-start the whole selection process to seek for the 9th president of Gallaudet University. Unless you are blind too, it is quite obvious that the Deaf faculty, students, and members of the community do not support her. She needs to go.
2) What are you really hiding? Why are you making this so hard for us? Acknowledge your faults instead of hiding them. I fear that you have some critical information that we do not know about. It is time to come forward because we will find out sooner or later. Remember, it is your legacy not mine.
3) Do not band-aid the problem. Allowing JK to continue is a small band-aid that will tear much sooner than you think. Address the problem in the larger sense and if you cannot solve them, at least acknowledge them rather than hiding it because it will come back to you sooner or later.
4) Think about the future. Your actions will reflect on your character.
The next few days is critical and is much more important than you - it is important to the future. Do what we had in faith for you to do 18 years ago: be our voice.
It is your legacy.
Good luck,
Tommy
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Think the bigger picture for our future deaf generation and
don’t stop just at IKJ and JK!!
As I lay stranded in Phoenix
wishing I was in DC in the midst of a historical revolution, I can only read
the other people’s blogs, powerful videos, pictures, and the rise of
tent-cities. I pray that this protest
will go beyond to just to ‘band-aid’ the problem with just JK and IKJ. The
problem is deeper-much much deeper as we all know and fear.
We are all Gallaudet and we are the foundation for the
future Deaf generation.
Is it a coincidence that Deaf people are still trapped in
the same unemployment rate as 20 years ago?
Is it a coincidence that Deaf people are still measured by
what we cannot do instead of what we can do especially by having them usecommunication
modality as their weapon?
Is it a coincidence that that education for our elementary
and high-school Deaf students continues to be marginalized?
Is it a coincidence that after all these years that the Deaf
community is still considered a group with a disability and not just a
linguistic minority?
NO!!
Don’t ever forget the bigger picture. These problems need to be addressed and it
all starts at Gallaudet NOW.
Lead on!!
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