Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Real Shame on Laura Bush for Excluding Deaf Authors

Real shame on Laura Bush, the current First Lady for excluding deaf authors from being part of the 2008 National Book Festival this September 26th and past bookfests- seven straight years!

First Lady Laura Bush never made any attempts of being inclusive with the deaf community like inviting any deaf authors to the Texas Book Festival and National Book Festival. We have plenty of deaf authors in our literary circles!

Our first lady of America is supposed to bring out the best out of the diverse America! She never did at all. Laura Bush schmoozed the Library of Congress to support the National Book Festival at the expenses of American taxpayers! Not every American taxpayers benefit from the National Book Festival since it is in the Nation's Capitol!

The past National Book Festival usually provide the ASL interpreters for deaf attendees, not this year. Huh?

Please check out the Library of Congress web site for the 2008 National Book Festival -

http://www.loc.gov.bookfest/

Laura Bush the First Lady, never bother to visit Gallaudet University or Model Secondary School for the Deaf or any school of the deaf. Have Laura Bush or Georgie visit the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin before??

Bill and Hillary Clinton have been regularly visited the Arkansas School for the Deaf in Little Rock, AK as Governor of AK. Bill Clinton stepped on the ground of Gallaudet University to give the Gallaudet commencement in the 90s. Hillary Clinton made one or two informal visits to Gallaudet University as the First Lady.

Deaf America's Librarian - Alice Hagemeyer, a tireless advocate of library access and uses for deaf people across the United States. Ms. Hagemeyer once told me that Laura Bush was her personal favorite. Hasn't Laura Bush help anything in DC-area libraries or any deaf library programs? Nope!

Laura Bush just lend her personal support to the creation of DC City Museum at the former Carnegie Library next to the brand-new Washington Convention Center on 7th-9th and K Street, NW. Guess what? The DC City Museum suddenly closed in a year due to lack of interests among local DC residents and tourists. Laura Bush doesn't know how to choose the projects more carefully. How typical of her own hubby, Georgie for screwing up our country beyond imagination!

Not many people realize that Laura Bush is a smoker herself! She have been shamelessly promoted her own daughter, Jenna Bush's book at this year's 2008 National Book Festival. Jenna Bush's name have been omitted on the list of 70 authors featured at the 2008 book festival website. Why??

Several authors like Bob Schieffer of CBS-TV News and Salman Rushdie are being featured as this year's selected authors. Many people did not realize that Bob Schieffer is a close pal of George W. Bush's brother. Journalistic integrity with Bob Schieffer? Nah!

Salman Rushdie do not deserve to be on the list of selected authors since he is not an American citizen at all.

We must demand that some deaf authors to be featured at the 2008 National Book Festival or Laura Bush herself is really anti-deaf .

Deaf America's Librarian -Alice Hagemeyer should get some recognition from President George W. and Laura Bush for her never-ending library advocacy for deaf people. She founded the Red NoteBook directory for librarians across the United States and tirelessly pushed libraries to provide the library programs/lectures and books related to deaf people . Hagemeyer founded the Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action. She have been the current outreach coordinator for the National Literacy Society of the Deaf lately.

Alice Hagemeyer ever is a registered Republican herself. I am sure that she is rooting for John McCain this year. Despite her political party affiliation, I dearly love Alice for who and what she is.

For more info about Alice Hagemeyer's past accomplishments and awards -

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=archives&template=/contentmanagement/contentdisplay-cfm&ContentID=151

www.folda.net/libreading.hmtl

I look forward to see President George W. Bush to award Alice Hagemeyer the Presidential medal before he and Laura leave the White House for the new occupant.

ASLize yours,

Robert L. Mason
RLMDEAF blog

22 comments:

  1. Hi Robert - I have just a single comment. You said "Bill and Hillary Clinton have been regularly visited the Arkansas School for the Deaf in Little Rock, AK as Governor of AK."

    The abbreviation for Arkansas is AR, not AK. AK is Alaska, and I'm quite sure you don't mean Bill Clinton was Governor of Alaksa before Sarah Palin...

    Grin...

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  2. RLM:

    Just out of curiosity, since I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in this post of yours, have you contacted any of the deaf authors themselves to see if they received an invitation? Have you emailed or wrote to Laura Bush's office at the White House to express your disappointment? Do you even know what the criteria is for inclusion in an event such as this is? Perhaps they require that the author be on a best seller list or sell a certain number of books.

    All I'm saying is, you seem to be pissed off, yet, you have not made note anywhere in here of what you have done YOURSELF to rectify this supposed oversight by Laura Bush. Complaining is easy, telling everyone about it and then doing something and asking them to join you in fact-finding or petitioning is taking action.

    Don't take it as a personal affront from me to you, I'm just trying to find out exactly what you have done, is all. Or to see if there are facts you haven't shared with us in this posting accidentally.

    Eddie Runyon

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  3. "We have plenty of deaf authors in our literary circles!"

    Maybe im behind on the news, BUT WE DO? Where, Who, What, When, lord fill me in on all of these deaf authors!

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  4. Lolypup:

    Two I can name right off the top of my head are Mark Drolsbaugh and Dennis Jones, Jr. I suppose you could also consider Sue Thomas, since she wrote her life story a few years ago (she was the deaf lady who became a "Lipreading" expert with the FBI).

    Heck, I will even be joining that circle soon, since Mark, Dennis, and I are collaborating on a book.

    Eddie Runyon

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  5. Anonymous,

    Thanks for the correction on the state abbreviation from AK to AR.

    What a klutz I am! :)

    RLM

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  6. Eddie,

    I never did contact Laura Bush about the questions on the lack of deaf authors or ethnic and racial minority authors for the annual National Book Festival.

    I hope that my blog entry will shake Laura Bush and her First Lady office what kind of person she is representing our country.

    Laura Bush and other Republican ladies like Cindy McCain seems preoccupied with foreign aids and overseas children, not our own people.

    How laughable of John McCain and Sarah Palin's campaign slogan -
    "Country First".

    Why the Republicans keep saying national security by spending more time with foreign issues, not domestic issues?

    Larua Bush is really a lousy librarian anyway. She never done the nationwide book festival on nationwide level and urge every American communities to hold the book festivals to empahsize on the importance of literacy - reading and writing. Huh?

    Lolpup,

    We surely have plenty of deaf authors within our American society.

    Or you spend too much with the hearing world than deaf world?

    Am I correct?

    RLM

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  7. Lolypup:

    I wrote the previous post at 1:11 p.m. today, forgot to sign my name to it. But anyway, here is a list of some deaf authors for you:

    Marlee Matlin
    Elizabeth Thompson (HOH Reporter)
    Robert Panara
    Bob Ayres
    John Brewster, jr.
    Harlan Lane
    James O'Connor (Deaf poet)
    Henry Kisor ("What's that pig outdoors?" author)
    Lew Golan

    This is just a partial list, of course, in addition to Mark Drolsbaugh and Dennis Jones, Jr. that I mentioned in my earlier post.

    Regards!
    Eddie Runyon

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  8. Eddie,

    I really enjoyed your counteroffensive replies very much.

    I still stand by my blog entry as all the truthful facts.

    Laura Bush was trained as a librarian. She knew BETTER like bringing various authors from diverse backgrounds - racial and ethnic and other kinds of undernoticed individuals to the book festival on the national level. Laura didn't!!

    If you done the research on the past selected authors. Almost all the authors were predominately WHITE!!

    Why not choose a speck of deaf author and help hir getting the national exposure as part of the cultural and linguistic recognizance??

    FYI, Harlan Lane is a hearing author.

    Lew Golan is anti-deaf himself and never accept himself being a deaf person.

    I wrote this blog entry to give people some chance to dispute and give the list of deaf authors. Okay?

    Lolypop is a male white gay known as Bobby White. He is one of the student leaders against the Unify for Gallaudet protest.

    You ought not to make any assumption about everyone. Life is full of surprises! :)

    RLM
    RLM

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  9. Eddie,

    I NEVER said that Laura Bush did not host the National Book Festival.

    Where did you get that idea? I re-read my blog entry to see if I misintentionally mentioned that Laura Bush never hosted the book festival on the national level.

    I was trying to say that Laura Bush lived in the metropolitian area like Austin and Washington, DC with considerable numbers of deaf people living in those areas.

    Laura seems never bother to get acquaint with deaf people in Austin and Washington, DC. What is her own excuse for not doing this kind of stuff.

    Laura and many Republicans rather go overseas to make themselves look good to the American people that they helped out the unforunate foreigners.

    What about our own people living in the extreme poverty and sufferings???

    GWB proposed the federal budget to slash off the heating subsidies for the low-income Americans while he had more millions and millions to take care of foreigners with HIV.

    Why our country have to spend the hard-earned taxpayer money to take care of foreigners living in other countries and deny our own people such assistance.

    Thank God for the U.S. Congress to restore the fundings for the heating subsidy for the low-income and elderly Americans from getting frozen in their own residences!

    That are many examples about Republicans having mispriorities for our country like the Wall Street bailouts!

    How come didn't Laura Bush get in touch with the deaf community to promote the book festivals in our deaf communities and provide finanical resources for deaf authors and festival themselves to celebrate our cultural and linguistic pride, etc?

    Laura Bush and her corporate supporters do not pay for the expenses of ASL interpreters. The Library of Congress do!

    The LOC recently reduced the staffing rosters include the ADA coordinators to pay for ASL interpreters at Laura Bush's insistence!

    I never twisted the facts as many people knew me to be most honest and fortright person!

    RLM

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  10. RLM:

    Why don't YOU write to the Library of Congress and Laura Bush's office and express your concerns about the lack of representation of deaf authors? I hate to be the one to tell you this, you may have written this to get her attention, but if they have no deaf authors to begin with, how can you be sure they will even notice this blog?

    Action, Robert...Actions speak louder than words. Tell them how you feel about the issue, that;s the great thing about this country, you can do that.

    As for Lolypup, I made no assumptions, I could care less who he is, or what he supports, it's a free country. Since I didn't know who he was, I was merely trying to be helpful by providing a list of authors. And by the way, my mistake about Harlan Lane.

    Lastly, I can't believe you are still standing by your comments, even after I have shown you they are blatantly wrong. Your opinions are your own, but when you try to pass off statements as facts, make sure they are correct.

    Eddie

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  11. Eddie,

    For the public notification about the ASL interpretings being provided at this year's National Book Festival 2008.

    The "accessibility" info have not been inserted in the first place til today.

    I did not seen "accessibility" until I re-checked the LOC website few minutes at 10:52pm.

    Was the last-minute attempt to save their own face by inserting the "accessibility" on the LOC website? Definitely yes!

    I wish that I did copy and paste the LOC website as a proof.

    FYI, there are still the newspaper ads without the symbol of ASL interpreting for this year's National Book Festival 2008.

    The usual insertation for ASL interpertings for any LOC events in newspaper ads and brochures.

    That is the typical Republican tactic to cover up their own mistakes like John McCain's resignation from Gally BOT to cut off any political liability.

    RLM

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  12. RLM:

    This is from your post on September 24 at 12:14 p.m.:

    "Larua Bush is really a lousy librarian anyway. She never done the nationwide book festival on nationwide level and urge every American communities to hold the book festivals to empahsize on the importance of literacy - reading and writing. Huh?"

    Read the part of your post beginning with the second sentence where you said "She never done the nationwide book festival on the nationwide level". That sure sounds like you said she never did it on the national level.

    Eddie

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  13. Eddie,

    Oh I see about the literal interpretation of what I composed on my blog entry.

    I said that Laura Bush never done the book festival on nationwide level which she hasn't doing it for having the book festival across the U.S. for every communities to establish the book festival. That was all I meant. Okay?

    RLM

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  14. Eddie,

    Thanks for the list of Authors some I recognized others ill have to check into.

    RLM,

    I move freely between the deaf and hearing world if thats what your asking. Thats not a negative thing if thats what your trying to hint at.

    As you know, im profoundly deaf, have a BA and an MA from a deaf university, I currently teach at a deaf institute, all of my closest friends are deaf, my partner is deaf and I think my fish might be deaf too but not certain on that.

    Sooo hmm what was your point again?

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  15. Lolypup,

    My point is about you being unaware of many deaf authors out there.

    Since you received BA and MA degree from the deaf university and teach at the deaf institution.

    You should know handful of deaf authors, instead of making a mockery about many deaf authors in our literary circle, etc. :)

    Did you know that there were numerous deaf editors for the regular newspapers during the
    1800s?

    Laura Redding was one of well-known and respectable deaf journalist back in the 1800s.

    One deaf journalist interviewed the President of Mexico as a last person before that president got assassinated.

    That proves that the Gallaudet University under I. King Jordan, really prepared its own students poorly from knowing great deaf resources and precessedors.

    RLM

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  16. RLM:

    Just out of curiosity, when did YOU graduate from Gallaudet? Was it during IKJ's reign?

    Eddie

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  17. Deaf authors would be acknowledged only as a token and Laura Bush is a first class person. She won't include a substandard deaf author just for the sake of it. When a deaf author really makes it, the deaf author will make Laura Bush's list. Promise!

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  18. Whoa! I'd googled "deaf authors" and came across this blog. I've known some deafies to be great complainers...but somehow I find it humorous. Not to be very offensive, but it sure sounded like RLM was very bitter against the hearies?

    I once had a deaf man ask me a question:

    "Why are the deaf people not around? Why are there not many deaf people?"

    As I was preparing to reply, he stopped me and said, "I think they're hiding."

    He really believes this. I'm not sure if I believe him, but I do know for a fact that the world is full of hearies. The majority of people are hearies.

    So it is understandable when deafies don't get noticed, because, well...they aren't part of the majority - the hearies.

    Also, no one likes to be around people who are full of bitterness, I'm not surprised that no one really likes the deafies. I speak the truth because I've met people who hates deafies because of someone deaf had done to them in the past, and then meeting me, (I'm deaf, by the way), and then they would tell me that they are happy to find out that not all deafies are bad.

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  19. Charry,

    How interesting about the handful of hearing people have such perception about deaf people as whiners and miserable!

    You and others have to understand that many deaf people have been victimized by the aspects of audism within the society at large.

    Many of us, deaf people surely dismiss the existence of racism and often think that the African Americans just love to complain about everything.

    If we are in the shoes of African Americans. We would understand much better. Hearing people need to take some sensitivity training to understand most overlooked linguistic and cultural minority like deaf people.

    To be honest with you, I really write this blog as political intent to embrass deaf Republicans and Alice Hagemeyer for their pro-Republican leanings.

    Alice Hagemeyer is not really the staunch Republican ,but always admire her volunteer works and dedication to the access of libraries for deaf people in general.

    I also hoped that President Bush to give some awards to Alice Hagemeyer for her hard lifelong works with libraries. President Bush and Laura Bush really don't give any hoots about Alice Hagemeyer and deaf people in general.

    Bush's FCC fought real hard to undermine the long-fought progress for deaf people within communication technology accessilbity.

    I must admit that I did this blog entry to push deaf people to vote for Obama and other candidates, not John McCain. :)

    RLM

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  20. Aha, your blog is political. I have no problem with that. In fact, my family likes to debate politics. I like to listen to people's opinions of politics. And I've checked your other entries on your blog. It'svery interesting.

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  21. Hi Charry,

    I am trying my best to reply to your comment and others' comments in timely manner.

    Every of us should not do politics on daily basis.

    I did root for John McCain until he turned rabid on Obama thru Palin's bashing of Obama's middle name, etc.

    I am more interested in facts and solutions what we could make real difference in our humanity, not inflate our egos or standings or private interests, ex. wealth.

    Gotta go now. :) Thanks again, Charry for your comment and compliment.

    RLM

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  22. very good response

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