:eyeroll: Here we go again…

A friend (who happened to be hearing) alerted me to the following post on the Washington, DC Craigslist website:

confession

Reply to: pers-385651417@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-07-30, 9:03PM EDT

i’ve been thinking about killing myself lately. sadly, i wouldn’t be missed. at all.

it’s funny, i don’t steal or cheat or lie. well, except for the number of hours i work. it’s actually less as i didn’t want anyone to worry about me. now i’m near broke. i went from size 4 to size 2. it doesn’t matter i know the difference between your and you’re.

it doesn’t matter i’m nice and that i’m trying to become a better person. i’m trying so hard and so hard. i cry almost every night alone.

to make it worse, i have almost no friends. and i think i’m a nice person. i care a lot, it’s so pathetic i’m 30 and trying to be closer to my mom and dad except it’s hard because they’re divorced. and i always wanted to have a family of my own. i’m sure my parents would laugh or whatever if they knew how much i missed them and really liked hanging out with them. they don’t even know sign language but i don’t care.

if you know any child that is deaf- PLEASE make sure they get the cochlear implant. or the kid will be f*cked up for life by being isolated and almost no job opportunities. trust me. i have a college degree and it doesn’t matter.

i used to care so much and have so much hope. it’s all gone.

Location: having no hearing sucks
it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 385651417

So the inevitable question rolled off of my friend’s tongue: “Does the cochlear implant help you hear? If so, why don’t YOU get one?” I responded with a one-two punch combination–a short jab followed by a long sweeping left hook. Knockdown! I wish. According to the men in my life, I can’t even fight a wet noodle.

But I digress. In actuality, the response to my friend was much more diplomatic. I told her the idea that a cochlear implant magically enables a deaf person to hear was the number one misconception. Bottom line, not true. It does not capture the true essence of hearing. I know of some people who were implanted but chose, for whatever reasons, not to continue wearing the implant. Then there are some folks who proudly tote the implant, along with a hearing aid. That is a sight to behold, trust me on that. Some people do benefit tremendously from the cochlear implant, no question about that. They report increased recognizance of sounds as well as the ability to talk on cellphones and other benefits.

As for the answer to the second part of her questioning, I reminded my friend that just as hearing people are individuals with their own experiences and values, the same also apply to *gasp* deaf people. So the reasons for me not obtaining a cochlear implant were purely personal. I don’t like invasive surgery in general, and I have a fear of somehow turning out to be like the Borg if I’m implanted. Plus, I think I function pretty well within the society at large, unlike this poor bloke who posted on craigslist. I know plenty of un-implanted people who managed to carve out successful careers while balancing their social calendars. So the poster’s assumption of perhaps having a better life with more opportunites if s/he were implanted is misguided, in my opinion.

To sum it up, cochlear implants aren’t the magic hearing pill they’re made out to be. Presto, bang! A new, improved you! Just like the commericals for those dubious weight loss pills. Don’t get me wrong, I think cochlear implants are a great tool suited for those who can really use them. I, however, am not one of them. Besides, my friend agreed that I am already enough of a character, with or without my trusty (and occasionally beeping) hearing aids!

By Brianne Burger

Before heading to the World Federation of the Deaf Congress in Madrid, Spain, I went to Paris, France to visit famous landmarks such as the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Versailles. On the third day, I decided to visit the Institution Nationale des Sourds a’ Paris, the Deaf institute where Laurent Clerc studied under the famous Abbe de l’Epee.

Obviously the school wasn’t listed in the Triple-A TourGuide of Paris, so we set about checking the Internet via my trusty Sidekick 3. Keywords on Google such as “Paris school for the deaf” or “Sourds Institution Paris” brought no success. Finally, I found a street named after Abbe de l’Epee and assumed the school would be on that road. The next morning in the chilly, rainy weather I set out in that direction, changing several metro trains before coming up into a quiet neighborhood that seemed like a much older part of Paris than the other areas I had explored.

After walking several blocks, I found Avenue St Jacques, which met Avenue Abbe de l’Epee at a corner of a large gray stone wall that seemed to stretch around the entire block between St Jacques, l’Epee and two other streets. I followed the wall to the next adjoining street where I found the gate open, wandered in, and saw the large grand statue of Abbe de l’Epee carefully placed in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by looming school buildings.

Statue of Abbe de l’Epee at Institution Nationale des Sourds a’ Paris.

A worker shouted and waved at me to first register at the office. I backtracked and entered a small office next to the gate entrance. What I saw was surprising, and yet not so surprising. I expected l’Epee’s school to employ a large number of deaf people, which was not the case.

When I tried to sign/gesture with the woman seated behind the desk that I wanted to take a small tour around the school grounds, she spoke back to me in French and knew very little sign language. She then gestured that I go to a room with a big “S” sign next to it and made the sign for “S” so I would know what to look for. It was there that I found the first deaf person in the school, a man studying abroad in France doing research on deaf history. He could not help me, so I left the room to take pictures of the Abbe de l’Epee statue.

Moments later, I met a Gallaudet student who was doing his summer internship at the school. He was able to take me for a short tour and explain the school’s makeup. We were led into a brand new building which had been donated by a French filmmaker, which revealed an old kiln through a glass floor from when the school first started.

We went into the back of the school which had many gardens and flowers. There, we asked a woman, who was leading a tour for two visiting interpreters, if we could see a statue of Laurent Clerc. The woman voiced to us that Laurent Clerc was just a student at this school and in the eyes of France, had achieved no major accomplishment other than leaving France.

To our shock and dismay, we also learned that the school does not provide college preparatory classes and is more of a vocational school, where students learn the basics such as French, math, etc, in lower school. When they get to what we call middle school in America, they take a series of tests and choose a vocational skill to study for the next three years. Upon graduation, they choose among fields such as carpentry or shoe-making, or accept government pensions. The government pension is larger than what they would make in a month working, so many do not work.

The educational system in France requires a series of tests, tougher than our SATs, to enter college. University study is free, but if people do not pass the tests, they cannot enter college. Deaf people in France agree that the tests are difficult to pass with only a vocational education, so many do not attend French Universities.

All of the teachers and staff at the school are hearing. It is estimated that maybe two deaf people work there either doing janitorial or ground work. We found a ceramic sign that listed all the major benefactors and famous teachers of the school. The sign also lists the year when the school turned Oral after the Milan Conference of 1880, and then the year the school turned back to sign language. The Oral part of the sign was bashed in, leaving a gaping hole. The French deaf people now cherish their sign language.

Founder: Abbe de l’Epee, 1712-1789.
Note the destroyed part of the sign on the year the institution became “orale”.

Laurent Clerc came to America and introduced the foundation of what would eventually become American Sign Language. With this language, the American deaf community was able to communicate with each other, just as he had communicated with his classmates in France under the teachings of Abbe de l’Epee. He along with Thomas Gallaudet also helped foster a community and educational system that included a deaf culture and sign language in America which has led to the rich history of deaf leaders today and still many more to come in the future.

Two questions remain in my mind after my visit to the school: why have the people of France not honored Laurent Clerc for his accomplishments in America or taken up the example set by his leadership to do the same in France? How can the Institution Nationale des Sourds a’ Paris hold an important place in the “origins” of modern deaf education and sign language, yet not be a model, world-class school for educating deaf children?

Brianne Burger works for Gallaudet University on a nationally funded project by the U.S. Department of Education. She can be found often around DC, Boston or NYC, participating in international committees or just having fun with her two dogs and ever-supportive boyfriend!

Over the last couple of days I’ve been closely following various blogs written on the protest at the A.G. Bell conference a few days ago. Over and over I saw these types of comments being made: “It’s the parents’ choice in the end. So long as parents are making informed choices, and getting all of the information, that’s all that concerns me.”

It’s nice to see that so many people seem to agree on this one point, even when they’re standing on opposite sides of the ASL/Oralism advocacy continuum. Most people genuinely seem to want parents to get all of the information, rather than one-sided propaganda (and yes, information is propaganda until it can reconcile the following two statements: “Our approach is just wonderful, fantastic, and getting better all the time. . . nonetheless literacy rates continue to hover around fourth grade levels for huge numbers of deaf high school graduates!”).

In any case, I have a question for all of you: To exactly where do you think “giving a parent all of the information” is necessarily supposed to lead?

Please allow me to clarify what I mean with a quick Social Experiment. Everyone who has ever seen the movie Super Size Me, please raise your hand and leave it up. All right, next question: Those of you with your hands in the air. . . How many of you have gone into McDonald’s since that movie came out—or any fast food chain, really—and purchased a cheeseburger anyway? Don’t lie.

Ha. So much for “informed choices.”

I mean, you do know by now that your heart is going to blow up someday if you keep eating that crap. After all, you’ve been informed! Every bite of your Big Mac, pizza slice, Oreo Blizzard, whatever, is at this very instant turning your chest into the biological equivalent of a deep fryer.

Do you care? Sure you do! Ah, but do you stop?

No doubt there are all kinds of people here who will resent the comparison between X organization actively working to plug your arteries with fat and Y organization actively working to improve your hearing. And no doubt their resentment is entirely justified, but it’s also contrary to the point. Leave aside for the moment the question of “Who does what?” Focus instead on “How do they get you to do whatever it is that they want you to do?”

The latter is the only question that addresses the real reason behind the imbalance of information in the first place. If I want to sell Big Macs, I can’t put up huge billboards directing you to Subway. If A.G. Bell wants you to focus on cochlear implants, AVT, and so forth, it makes perfect sense that there are only a couple of sentences on their entire website directing you to the NAD for further information on all things ASL. This is the only way they can survive. Once you balance all of the information, how can you continue to promote a specific brand of information? The act of promotion is the act of raising one thing up to a higher position in the hierarchy. By definition you can’t promote anything unless you leave behind all of the other stuff on a level lower down.

Thus I restate the question: Is simply “balancing the information” enough to get parents to make different choices? Personally I doubt it. It isn’t a balance of information that counts the most; it’s the frequency of bombardment that counts the most. It’s “what’s easiest” that counts the most. Suppose I receive X number of messages telling me that McDonald’s is bad and Y number of messages telling me that McDonald’s tastes so good! If X is much greater than Y (even though Y is still out there and making its presence known), do I go to Subway? If Y is greater than X, do I wash down my fries with an extra large chocolate milkshake?

I’m not exactly an automaton, but I also don’t live in perpetual confusion. In this day and age, X and Y are usually equal. There are just as many billboards and commercials promoting McDonald’s as there are promoting Subway. After Super Size Me, I now avoid McDonald’s more often than I used to, but even this increase isn’t nearly high enough to keep me alive for the next forty years. The problem is that there’s a McDonald’s on every tenth block. The temptation is constant because the ease of access is so high. I can go home and make my own healthy meal (which will take me fifteen, maybe twenty minutes), or I can simply walk into McDonald’s and purchase the destructive meal that they have mass-produced and pre-advertised for me (which will take three minutes).

What will I do? I don’t know, but I can tell you this: Whatever I decide, I won’t make a bad decision because I’m confused or ill-informed. Lazy, yes. Addicted, possibly. Well-trained after a lifetime of truly hideous eating habits, absolutely. But ill-informed? No. If I told you that, I’d be lying.

And so it is with just about everything under the sun. Car X doesn’t pollute the environment quite so much, but there aren’t a lot of stations that carry the particular brand of fuel it uses. Meanwhile Car Y is the environmental equivalent of an oil spill in the Caribbean Sea, but it’s cheaper, and if I buy it I can get gas anywhere. ASL exposure might help my deaf child acquire literacy faster, but then I have to learn ASL. Meanwhile a cochlear implant might help him too, and it’s easier to have him implanted than it is for me to learn to sign. Harsh but true.

Despise me if you will for my opinions on the game I see A.G. Bell playing. I leave you with the following (and possibly disturbing) thought: It’s the same game everyone else is playing. Regardless of my personal views on the recent protest—none of which, you’ll note, are discussed directly in this blog—I’d hate to see a huge political movement spring up around the end goal of only making sure parents get “all of the information.” That would be a textbook example of a community setting itself up for disappointment, and I love this community too much to see it go through that.

P.S. To those of you out there who think my “frequency of bombardment” argument is full of holes, I refer you to the half a sentence in paragraph seven in which I said “…and no doubt their resentment is entirely justified.” That half a sentence of acknowledgement that the other team might possibly have a point is buried in three pages of examples comparing A.G. Bell to McDonald’s.

What impression were you left with?

I was trying to figure out what to do for lunch, so I looked around my fridge to see what I had to work with. I knew I was in the mood for something Frenchy, thanks to the Food 911 episode I just saw with Tyler Florence, courtesy of the Food Network. He helped an on-screen viewer re-create her girls-week-out trip to Paris with a yummy mussels & frites dish…so, I decided to do a twist on the classic Niçoise salad, which has tuna, hard-boiled eggs and vegetables within a bed of greens. Hence, Saladé Oscar!

There’s three parts to this salad: Pasta, Tuna and Plating!

And, naturally, the ingredients:

Cayenne pepper: a pinch
½ head of garlic
Mayonnaise: two liberal tablespoons
Mozzarella cheese: a handful
Horseradish: one teaspoon
Elbow macaroni: 1.5 cup
Baby spinach & red leaves: a handful
Cilantro: a pinch (fresh is better, but dried will do too)
Tomato: one, quartered
Eggs: two large, hard-boiled & sliced
Sour cream: two dollops (a bit more than liberal tablespoons!)
White vinegar: ¼ cup
Lemon juice: ½ a lemon
Tuna: one can

(click on the photo for a larger and better image–I’m not a digital photographer by trade, so you’ll have to excuse the quality!)

1: Pasta & dressing

Boil according to the box instructions or experience (you can use leftovers too)

Boil eggs—for large ones, approximately 12-15 minutes. Cool over cold tap water, de-shell and slice.

Split a ½ head of garlic with your knife across the middle (you should see the garlic on both sides of your knife)

Place the ½ head in foil, with the lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes at 375. Roasting the garlic sweetens it and removes its naturally bitter, or strong odor.

Once all ingredients are ready, combine the eggs, roasted garlic, sour cream and mozzarella cheese. In a food processor, run the blade until the ingredients reach a thick, creamy consistency. Then, while the blade is running, emulsify the mix with a ¼ cup of vinegar—as Rachael Ray would say, “just eyeball” it!

Mix the pasta & dressing, set aside.

2: Tuna

De-can it, drain the water & set in a mixing bowl. Add the mayo, salt/pepper mix, and horseradish; mix well. Season with S&P to taste. Set aside.

3: Plating!

On a regular plate, take a handful of the greens, place in the center…spoon about two spoonfuls of the pasta mix atop the greens, also centered…layer the pasta mix with about a spoonish of the tuna mix…take three (or more!) quartered slices of tomato, stand on the pasta mix, around the tuna…sprinkle tuna with cilantro.

Then, grab a fork and dig in!

I loved the burst of flavors—the sweetened garlic within the creamy sauce from the pasta mix, the tartness of the tuna due to the horseradish—it was a sweet/sour infusion for me, and the greens acted as a buffer in between, with the quartered tomatoes being the “juicy” element. If you do try this, let me know what you think!

Also, if you’re making this for yourself, expect leftovers. You can add or subtract from the ingredients, depending on the size of your party.

Bon Appétit!

I am upset. Last night I tried to watch the Democratic Presidential Debates on CNN.com via their new “Live Video from CNN.com” feed and it was not captioned. CNN.com cannot claim ignorance; they are familiar with the technical requirements. They’ve been dragging their feet on this issue for too long and now I have been cheated out of the opportunity to follow a critical part of the U.S. presidential campaign.

It’s my turn to ask the candidates a question:

What changes will you make to ensure that companies like CNN.com can no longer deny access to deaf and hard of hearing Americans – which coldly leaves deaf and hard of hearing people in the dark?

All of the candidates including the leading democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards can also show their commitment to civil rights by refusing to participate in any live web streaming debates or web video appearances unless the corporation captions them. They have taken the initiative to have their own web videos captioned, and I applaud them for that. CNN.com has more resources and funds than the presidential candidates. Their only excuse is to hide behind the law. As a result, CNN.com has consistently refused to provide web video captioning for years.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been concerned about this issue. I’ve sent CNN emails since 1999 asking them to caption their web videos only to receive automated replies similar to the following:

Thank you for the e-mail you sent CNN.com about our Free Video service! This auto reply is your notification that we have received it.

Your inquiry will be reviewed in the order it was received. In the interim, please visit our “Frequently Asked Questions” page at http://www.cnn.com/help/video for possible resolution to your issue. Technical questions submitted through this area will receive a response. Other feedback will be included in the response report that is prepared and made available each day to our producers and senior management.

Again, thank you for contacting us, and please visit the attached links for more information on our anchors, programs and schedules:

(And the email goes on and on touting CNN.com’s features)

I’m fed up with CNN.com. For people like me, CNN.com has been my primary source of news in the last few years — often providing valuable information that impacts the quality my life — even more so now that I don’t have cable TV.

If there’s one thing that deaf and hard of hearing adults can find common ground on, it’s the lack of captioning via vital news websites like CNN.com. We need to step up now and take CNN.com to task for lack of captioning, especially during a live national presidential debate. It’s time to flood them with complaints, demanding a response.

Please send a brief email to the following people and urge them to caption all of their web videos and live video feeds:

Richard D. Parsons
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner
(CNN is a subsidiary of Time Warner)
richard.d.parsons@timewarner.com

CNN.com Product complaint form (select “video”)
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form9d.html

And contact the following Democratic presidential candidates informing them that you were unable to follow their debate via the Internet and you expect them to address this issue in their campaign and in future web videos:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/contact2
http://johnedwards.com/about/contact/form/

You can also contact the Republican Presidential candidates asking them to demand that CNN.com caption the live video feed during the upcoming Republican Presidential Debate.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/
webteam@joinrudy2008.com
https://www.mittromney.com/CommentForm
http://www.imwithfred.com/contact.aspx

Here’s a sample email:

Dear Mr. Parsons,

As a deaf person, I was unable to watch the CNN.com Democratic Presidential Debate through the “Live Video from CNN.com” due to the lack of captioning. As a proud American, I could not participate in an important discourse on national issues that could have helped me determine which candidate I want to vote for during the Democratic primaries and the 2008 election. I urge you to immediately require that all videos from your subsidiary, CNN.com, be captioned.

Please issue a response to the entire deaf and hard of hearing community on this matter.

Sincerely yours,

(YOUR NAME HERE)

When I was a kid, I thought Sesame Street was the dumbest thing on earth. It was captioned, but uncaptioned She Ra and He-man were way cool in comparison. Rainbow Brite kicked some serious Elmo butt. The Smurfs, whom I’d sometimes, sometimes not, catch captioned, were also way up there on the cool scale.

It wasn’t until I became a mother that I started loving PBS again for its edutainment programs… except for Sesame Street. Fetch, Hacker, DragonTales — you name it, the kid and I watch together. Even the Teletubbies had the potential to start a vaccuuming rave in my living room. Whoo-hoo — partay with La-La and Po! They, with the exception of the Purple-Idiotdino-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, were all rock stars. Every single one of them.

Except for the friends on Sesame Street. I could never figure it out - they were neat. They were imaginative. They were educational. But still, I always thought they were just socially retarded. More so, even, than myself.

Then one day, when I watched after my shower and had my hearing aids in, I had my Eureka! moment.

The captions were seriously truncated versions of the actual on-screen dialogue. For example,

“Oh, no! The TV won’t work! How are we gonna watch it?”

when captioned, might become:

–The TV is broken!–

Line after line after line, the captioning on Sesame Street presented to me, a Deaf mom watching with her Deaf daughter, a watered-down, unentertaining, uninformative, and frustratingly exclusive program that the rest of the world went ga-ga over for its enrichment value.

It is enriching enough, sure — hearing kids benefit from hearing Cookie Monster say “Balloon! Ba. Loon! Balloon no start with F! Me eat Balloon cookie! Cookie mine! HAHAHA *sounds of ravenous gobbling*” The language play inherent in that dialogue is fun and sneakily educational.

But deaf kids like me when I was younger and my daughter now get dumbed down and robbed of the same language play by the boring-in-comparison –“Balloon” doesn’t start with F! I will eat the cookie–. Coming from a show that regularly features deaf kids, this was a huge disappointment. Furthermore, it was a symptom of differing perspectives on what constitutes “communication access,” equal or not.

And that is part of why I’m so honored to be one of the judges for the Equal Communication Access blogging/vlogging contest.

It’s one of the latest evolutions of a grassroots campaign started by Jeanette Johnson, aka DeafPundit to those who frequent the deaf blogosphere. The name of it, I think, is pretty self-explanatory. And the contest is being sprearheaded by Virginia L. Beach aka Osh or Ocean, owner of the Deaf Pagan Crossroads.

You can check out the description, rules, and *koff koff* judges’ bios here.

For a blogging example of what an entry might look like, check out Osh’s “What Equal Communication Access Means to Me.” A little preview:

My favorite pizza joint had me come in and explain relay services to its employees so they would understand how to take phone calls from Deaf customers. Now when I get a midnight craving for their EBA Special (Everything But Anchovies, hold the olives and add extra cheese!) all I have to do is dial VRS and place an order…Presto! Tummy growlings resolved!

That’s Equal Communication Access.

Vereee cool. There’s five categories in this contest (blog, vlog, international, hearing friend, and video), and the one I’m most excited about is the video category. Instead of inserting commentary into a blog or vlog, I’m hoping to see creative entries in this category, which could really be just about anything as long as it’s in a video.

So enter. Or just watch/read. And comment. And remember:

Support Equal Communication Access.

Or Cookie Monster will come eat you. BWAHAHA!

The tables have turned.

Just last year I was on the other side, being interviewed for the position that I am currently in. This year, we were looking for 2 new people to hire to fill the vacant spots in my department.

When I was being hired, my supervisor had decided to start having the team do peer interviews because we all had to be able to work together. And having a good team dynamic was essential to having a great work place environment.

It was almost bizarre for me because I re-read some of the questions that we had to ask and I could remember what I had said during the interview, nearly a year ago!

I knew exactly how it felt for the 5 people we had to peer interview this time around. It was intimidating to be sitting at the end of the table with 6 people staring at you and measuring you up.  My supervisor had told me she knew the team would want to hire me because during my interview I had them laughing (hey, when you’re facing 3 guys, you gotta crack jokes, otherwise they’d be bored out of their minds and focus their attention on doodling!) One of the questions they had asked me was: sometimes it gets a bit loud and noisy, how do you handle that? I told them I’d just turn off my hearing aids. The guys thought it was HILARIOUS.

But I swear I haven’t done it yet. I just ignore it, or join in on the ruckus.
The thing about peer interviewing, no matter how much we groan and moan about how we don’t want to do it, it’s absolutely necessary.

This interview gives the applicant an opportunity to size up the company, get to know the employees and find out about the company culture.

It’s also a great way for the supervisor to allow the employees to approve whether or not they think the applicant is the best candidate for the position available. During these peer interviews, we asked questions related to work, tried to get to know them a little bit, find out what they were looking for in their career, and see if they meshed with our team.

We did have a difference of opinions with our supervisior over some of the applicants. Our supervisior had thought one person had a great personality, and when we had interviewed them, we found the person too conservative, and did not think they would mesh well with the team.  The interview took close to 1 1/2 hours! Because the applicant talked so much and felt it was necessary to justify everything in her portfolio, which was really impressive (I almost wish i had some of those projects!)

Although we did take into account that we knew they were nervous. Who wouldn’t be? Facing 6 people at once!

I find this process to be very beneficial on both sides. It gives the applicant a chance to figure out whether or not they really want to work with this company and the team. They’re able to answer our questions, as well as ask us some questions that they might not feel comfortable asking the supervisor.

In turn, it gives us a chance to have a say in who we think will work well with us and blend in with our environment.

Strangely enough, as soon as one of the applicants we had interviewed, started working here. We could instantly feel the team dynamic shift. The energy was better. We started working together more efficiently. Since I’ve moved desks, I’ve started conversing with one of the guys more, and I’ve learned we have the same work style. I’ve been able to learn a few tips to make my job more efficient.

I’ve actually felt a lot better these days because I’m interacting with the team more. I’ve seen what a difference it makes. And feel that if I were to interview elsewhere, I’d want to ask for a peer interview because it would give me an opportunity to size up the company and the team I might work with.

If your work environment isn’t great, then your life isn’t good. You aren’t able to perform at the top of your game, and in turn, it affects everyone else around you. I also do think that your work life almost always affects your home life as well. Working in an environment where you mesh well with most people gives you the opportunity succeed.

Have you ever been peer interviewed? Have you ever been the one doing the interview? What do you look for in a company, a team?

Laze away in the Bethesda summer evening during the August 3rd DPHH at Caddies on Cordell! Supposedly golf-themed, this is a sports bar at its finest — cyclists in Spandex are as welcome here as club-draggers working on their slice.

Whether or not you hit up DPHH right after a sweaty workout of sport, come and enjoy good company, great ambience and amazing drink specials at Caddies. ($3 coronas until 7 p.m. on Fridays!) If you were bothered by Buffalo Billiards staff shuffling ‘loiterers’ out of the way, or stifled by the radiating heat of humanity last month, worry no more. Caddies features wide-open spaces, a broad outdoor patio, upstairs bar with balcony and chill staff.

If that doesn’t sound like the perfect DPHH environment, I don’t know what is!

Thanks to Viable for sponsoring the Washington DC area DPHH. Please visit the websites of DeafDC.com sponsors, we wouldn’t be here without their generous support!

Right now, nothing is more controversial than science and religion. Much of the world’s politics are driven by religious beliefs and ideals. Religion going green is a paradox. Is marriage between these two possible? A union between fact and faith? Why not? Science gives us definitions of what things are and why; religion gives us a meaning for life on Earth. There are plenty of issues that show the clashes between these two, including homosexuality, evolution and environment, but with a little out of the box thinking they can come together.

Let’s take the environment: The conservative movement finds plenty of blasphemy with the scientific methodologies used to declare the existence of global warming. Conservatives, by nature, practice caution. Defense and military spending are heavily supported by the conservative party (the major names in the conservative movement: Dick Cheney, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Ann Coulter — are all big on this). This is the same movement that supports pro-life activism, refuses to recognize same-sex marriages, and blocks stem-cell research from making the next medical breakthroughs. There are so many stances that go against the ideals of liberals who champion environmental awareness, human equality and freedom of choice. On the environmental side, the conservatives say there isn’t enough proof that the global climate is in danger. Many say the planet is just dandy. They’re practicing caution once again by not making the leap of actually caring about it.

But hold that “Yarg!” Even with all this happening, due to the overwhelming scientific evidence that global warming is a reality, the “progressive” conservatives (another paradox here) are now using that caution to embrace ways to protect the planet. According to the blurb on Grist (great on-line environmental news) from LA Times in an article about big corporations tackling this problem by becoming green and continuing to make a profit, “Both business leaders and enviros described a sea change in corporate strategy that is expected to transform a corporate villain into a leader for the environmental cause.” A villain into a leader for the environmental cause? If corporate culture, notorious for its Republican leanings, is taking the helm on environmentalism, then just maybe there’s hope!

Another example comes from a Post article on the eco-kosher movement in the Orthodox Jewish community, which is basically combining Jewish dietary laws with new concerns about industrial agriculture, global warming and fair treatment of workers. “Eco-kosher is part of the greening of American religion—the rapid infusion of environmental issues into the mainstream of religious life.” This article also mentions the vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals driving a Toyota Prius and more than 50 other evangelical Christian leaders pledging to reduce energy consumption. Suddenly, I’m imagining Ann, Dick, Trent, Pat, and Joe Lieberman walking around in bright orange Crocs. Seems like I just woke up from a dream where the religious fanatics are hugging the hippies of yesteryear.

All of this reminds me of a quote that reconciles the two forces beautifully. Years ago, I struck up a wonderful friendship with this person who is now a professor of biology at Gallaudet. One of our earliest conversations was about religion and science.

She shared this simple quote, from the D’var Torah (commentary on the Torah portion) at her cousin’s bat mitzvah. It left me stunned, even years later.

God gave us the earth to take care of.

Simple. Rings true. And how righteous, no matter if you’re seeing it from a scientific, political or religious standpoint. Whether you are a liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, atheist or religious fundamentalist, the truth is self-evident: It is our responsibility to take care of our environment.

Hmm…that’s food for thought.

Recently, I traveled to Thailand and visited a refugee camp on the border between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). The main event of the day was a visit to the opening ceremony of an English instruction program. See blog part one and pictures for more.

As part of our visit to Umphium, we experienced the opening ceremony of the English Immersion Program (EIP) for the 2007-08 school year.

The quiet, excited dignity of the class of 2008 presented a striking contrast to the aloof boredom of my own college graduating class. They truly cared about their education. Culled from hundreds, the EIP students were the best of the best English speakers or writers from the camp, representing various ethnic subgroups.

The EIP is an advanced English instruction program consisting of small classes of about 20 students who have prior knowledge of English. They are trained to be a corps of translators, spokespeople, teachers, and interpreters to help tell the world about the plight of the Karen people. They’ve realized that the world is moved by gears lubricated with English, and the refugees cannot afford to be left out.

It was palpable in the room that they all knew how insignificant-yet-significant this frozen, formal moment was as they gathered together. The air was solemn, maybe even grave, with an undercurrent of sad excitement and a dirt-speckled practicality; for right outside was a camp of of the uprooted, but yet they gathered to learn English on cool, streaked concrete.

During the ceremony, the students stood up one by one and made speeches; most were heartfelt and thankful. Some showed simple significance, like the young man who said that while the older generation leads now, the younger generation would lead in the future. He said this with absolute certainty, setting the stage with the strength of Shakespeare. Others were comfortably mundane, thanking the crowd, their various supporters, and sharing eager platitudes.

One student said that it was a wonderful thing, that all these ethnic and tribal groups had come together in this one room, and that this was the beginning of democracy, an effort to create and give birth to something that they could bring back to Burma, to Myanmar, to their real home.

To these solemn students, instructors, and learners of a displaced international reality, I wish nothing but the best; learn the stroke of a word, the hammer of a mighty phrase, so that your stories spread — and may they have the impact and reality of a mud-spattered leg and thousand-yard squint.