What a surreal experience for the AB 2072 opponent bumped into Rep. Tony Mendoza at the Pyramid Brewery restuarant after the hearing! That was Elena Ruiz, deaf Latino clicked very well with Rep. Mendoza and chatted for awhile. Mendoza felt connected with Elena due to their similar ethnic hertiage. Politics surely make a strange bedfellow!
Here is Elena Ruiz's own words -
Elena M. Ruiz we were all gathered at pyramid brewery, and it just so happened that mendoza came in with a troupe of his own. thanks to sharing a pitcher of IPA beer with some friends, i felt bold enough to wave to him-- apparently, he recognized me from last week when i passed by him on the street wearing my yellow anti-ab 2072 shirt, shooting him a haughty look. so he came over to me, shook my hand, and we started chatting.after introducing myself as a Latina Deaf woman with parents in the field of bilingual (Spanish-English education,) I was really blunt to him. i told him i felt he was letting down us Latino Deaf people, and that he was contributing to the oppression of us. I told him that his bill reminded me of Prop 227, and he instantly said "i'd never do that, i'd never do that." i also said that i hope we all can work together to make sure that Latino Deaf children dont have to have hearing aids on their ears or stuff implanted on their skull to feel like complete human beings, that they can be ASL users and still be a total part of both the hearing Latino community and the Deaf community. He kept agreeing with everything I said. Then I went on to ask if he had had a change of heart today, and he said yes and that he really wanted to work with us. the convo was prob around 10-15 mins long, and it was photographed and videotaped. i'm sure i'm leaving some more details out, but those are definitely the big points...thank god for that IPA buzz for giving me the ganas to do that.
ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason
RLMDEAF blog
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Inspirational Message for the AB 2072 Detractors!
This inspirational message are for the naughty deaf naysayers undermine the attempted unity and teamwork of CDNIS (Deaf California) to bring such joy, community-building, elevate the deaf child's educational opporunity to the fullest potentials and sparks within our enriched language, American Sign Language free from the destructive pathological medical viewpoints.
Happened to stumble into one of the website which surely bring the inspiration to many of us -
Dr. Martin Luther King said this in a 1957 sermon: " An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. Every person must decide, at some point, whether they will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?"
Look forward to sit together with all of you, deaf naysayers and drink and eat merrily together and embrace the real community unity in the name of Deafhood and Deaf Empowerment and Deaf Unity.
ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
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