DC-Area Examiner Newspaper Took Swipe at Deaf and HOH ....

According to the DC-area Examiner (The Examiner) free newspaper's 5/12/08 article took the swipe at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Government Employment and Technology Forum and accused the federal government's so-called "colorblind" government training program(s) a JOKE!

Melanie Scarborough, the DC's "The Examiner" columnist blasted the federal government's wasteful spending on 800,000 federal nonessential employees being sent to the training conferences. Her exact quote - "our taxpayer money send them (nonessential government employees) to training conferences that are worse than nonessential" Huh?

Why lump our own deaf federal employee's cultural and linguistic minority status- "Deaf and HOH in Government Employment and Technology Forum" with other racial minority like the

Society of American Indian Government Employees,
League of United Latin American Citizens,
Federally Employed Women,
Blacks in Government,
The Federal Asian Pacific American Council and other more .. ????? Huh?

In fact, Deaf Federal Employees are truly the endangered species nowadays within our national government. More and more deaf federal employees have been recently bought out with early retirement incentives or laid off without any advance notices or being transferred against their own wishes to another department or agency. Any deaf federal employees being forcibly retired early and get less with their pension values or laid off without being provided with the follow-up assistance worthy of their cultural and linguistic minority status.

The Bush II (Dubya) administration have been aggressively shrinking the hard-working and dedicated federal employees to be replaced with high-salaried contractors whose really f**ked up our national government operations more than anyone could do. Many government contractors simply sit out and do nothing and mess up things by assigning different private firms with contractors every time. All dirty works simply lump on many federal employees! Hired contractors greatly benefited President Bush and his cronies to fatten up their earnings after leaving the White House in January 2009.

Look at the Iraq War - most privatized war ever enacted in the history of the United States! Ever the U.S. Government have to hire the private contractors to provide the security protections and daily accommodations for our overly exhausted and weary soldiers like the water showers and laundry errands thru containmed water uses!

The Library of Congress in Washington, DC used to have more than 30 deaf employees within their facilities back to last 30 year s ago. Very few deaf employees left in the Library of Congress (LOC) right now. *sigh*

Deaf and HOH Federal Employees greatly have been benefited from the annual Deaf and HOH In Government Employment and Technology Forum for their career tips, feedback, evaluations, career reinforcement lectures and social interactions with their own fellow federal employees in their same language usage (ASL) and greater accommodations for other HOH federal employees.

Deaf-owned enterprises also brought greater access to the annual federal training programs of deaf federal employees with their newest products and accommodations unlike the regular government training conferences for federal employees in general without meeting any specialized needs for deaf and HOH federal government employees. Many deaf federal employees found the private-funded exhibitions within deaf-owned enterprises truly effective and time-saving.

This year's Deaf and Hard of Hearing In Government Employment and Technology Forum took the place at the new U.S. Department of Transportation building unlike swanky resorts as what the Examiner reporter speculated. The after-hour social event took the place at the Lulu Bar, private-owned bar in the Gallery Place-Chinatown area. The deaf federal employees and other deaf visitors paid for their drinks and meals out of their own pockets, not the federal government monies. The conference committees were consisted of deaf volunteers (federal employees) out of their own time preparing and scheduling the forums and lectures.

Melanie Scarborough, DC Examiner columnists last quote in her following column - "Indeed. And Americans hungry for unity are ill-served by a federal work force trained in the culture of division". Huh? This reporter obviously did not done her reporting legwork very well and made such assumptions without checking out various federal government training conferences to see all for herself. We ought to take her press credentials away. Don't you agree?

Here is the link to the DC Examiner article by Melanie Scarborough -
http://www.examiner.com/a-1386368~Melanie_Scarborough___Colorblind__government_a_joke.html

or www.dcexaminer.com and type Melanie Scarborough on the search column for this latest article written by Melanie Scarborough. Okay?

This article found on the page 13 under "Commentary" on the DC Examiner newspaper.

ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog