On Monday evening, Erin Casler, the present Miss Deaf America, a fellow DeafDC.com blogger and arguably, the best, brightest and most beautiful deaf woman to ever hold the title–will be giving up her crown. She has been working hard these last several days as NAD’s public spokesperson and has literally conversed with hundreds of conference-goers on various subjects that concern her domestic violence platform and other issues affecting the American deaf community.
Miss Casler has been a great representative for NAD and with all due respect and love to her, this blog entry is not going to be about her or her tenure as Miss Deaf America. Instead, it will be about a certain contestant who participated in the 1984 NAD Miss Deaf America Pageant.
The contestant who won the 1984 third runner-up MDA title was Miss Deaf Iowa - Dr. Jane Fernandes, the 9th President of Gallaudet University.
In 1983, Deaf Iowans welcomed and selected Jane to be their representative in the 1984 NAD Baltimore pageant. This warm embrace happened even though Ms Fernandes was a fledgling to the deaf community and was beginning to learn to sign.
Back then, pageant contestants did not have platforms; instead, they relied on their talents to prove their ability to represent NAD as an ambassador.
For the talent portion of the pageant, Dr. Fernandes chose to interpret and sign a complex work of poetry written by Edgar Lee Masters. She chose to portray Lucinda Matlock, one of the characters in Master’s “Spoon River Anthology”. The poem reads as follows:
I went to the dances at Chandlerville,
And played snap-out at Winchester.
One time we changed partners,
Driving home in the moonlight of middle June,
And then I found Davis.
We were married and lived together for seventy years,
Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children,
Eight of whom we lost
Ere I had reached the age of sixty.
I spun,
I wove,
I kept the house,
I nursed the sick,
I made the garden, and for holiday
Rambled over the fields where sang the larks,
And by Spoon River gathering many a shell,
And many a flower and medicinal weed–
Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys.
At ninety–six I had lived enough, that is all,
And passed to a sweet repose.What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?
Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you–
It takes life to love Life.
Here are two photos, one of Ms Fernandes performing - and the other is a picture of the MDA finalists with her being the fourth person from the left.
Now, I think most will agree with me that it takes guts, determination and a great deal of courage to be a young, oral deaf woman who was proud to be a newly-inducted member of the Deaf community – to rise on a stage, face a large audience of her deaf peers and work tirelessly and shamelessly to express herself and her love of poetry.
1984 was 22 years ago. It’s now 2006 and we are living in a society where women are no longer objectified. Times have changed, people have changed. While at one time, the pageant may have served a purpose, it is time to move on. Just like we no longer use TTYs and use handhelds today, we no longer need beauty queens. We need ambassadors.
Dr. Jane Fernandes, President Designate of Gallaudet University and her husband, Jim, alongside Dr. I. King Jordan, President of Gallaudet University, and his wife, Linda; Dr. T. Alan Hurwitz, Vice President and Dean of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and past NAD President, and his wife, Vicki; and Marilyn Smith, Executive Director of Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services , former NAD Vice President and President of Deaf Women United, all join me in stating this message:
We need to humbly, and with respect to all of the past and present Miss Deaf America pageant contestants, renew our focus on America’s deaf youth by discontinuing the NAD Miss Deaf America Pageant. Instead, while collaborating with the State associations, we can work together to design a new or modified event that allows for the appropriate identification of young, talented, deaf male and female leaders to serve as NAD’s future ambassadors.
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I LOVE THIS POST! I agree with most of it- except for the part where you said: “women are no longer objectified”. Many women genuinely do not feel exploited being contestants; more rather, they view it as a new power wave for feminism. And in some ways, it is. So in that retrospect, I have to disagree with you.
I am glad that somebody has finally spoken up on this. I have nothing against the current and all former MDAs; in fact, I have nothing but the utmost admiration for each of them… for they all are amazing individuals. But it’s really time for NAD to spin off this whole MDA pageant shebang and give our males access to national ambassadorship. If they really want to take heart with the issues of social justice brought up in their third Open Letter, then perhaps they should walk the walk.
National ambassasorship can come in many forms. It is understandable that there is consideration of a “modified event” that includes male and female ambassadors. This is reasonable, yet, I agree that many women do not feel exploited by being contestants of MDA. MDA is not only about BEAUTY in physical terms of the word, but it is about the passion, strength, talent, intelligence, and inner beauty that gives the title it’s honor. These women work hard and would not be a part of this competition if they were not intelligent, passionate women who were supported by people in their community. It is within each community where things happen that will make a difference. With all that support, MDA gives a forum for intelligent, passionate, educated Deaf women to enlighten people and pursue their passions to make a difference. It is not only MDA who can make a change, but it’s each state representative, and their “title” (Miss Deaf ______) that can give them opportunity to make change locally. I have utmost respect and admoration for each of the contestants who have worked hard and have given of their time and talents to show what can be done and that you are successful. “Your dream is in your heart” and you have shown that dreams can happen. I thank all of you contestestants for your time, effort, passion, talent, and BEAUTY. You are winners in all of our hearts. Thanks for your motivation, time, and encouragement. We love and support you all!!
I know that our contestants do a great deal of advocacy work; however, it is still only themselves and the people with whom they directly interact who view this title as a token to national/state/local ambassadorship.
To the rest of us, it’s just a pageant. Period. Such public perception will continue as long as the NAD keeps sponsoring this pageant in its exact same form.
I personally think that Lauren Teruel was one of the best ever hold the title. She went far beyond her expected duties and epitomized an unique beauty that many of us only hope to achieve in a lifetime.
I do have to admit it’s pretty remarkable to see a young Jane in the 1984 picture and know that, 22 years later, she would be selected to be an university president. Amazing!
The bottom line is that the MDAP is the “money-maker” of NAD Conference.
Surely, Rob forgot to mention that.
R-
Sigh. Some people are just so clueless. Within NAD, it’s common knowledge that the MDAP is a moneymaker, and even more so for the State Associations. Rob, King, Jane, Alan and Co. clearly recognize this moneymaking issue for they state, “…while collaborating with the State associations, we can work together to design a new or modified event that allows for the appropriate identification of young, talented, deaf male and female leaders to serve as NAD’s future ambassadors.”
Even though I, as absolute feminist, have never been crazy about this kind of females’ beauty contests, I surely support that concept for some women who might need it to get themselves on right track of lifetime careers and leaderships which they, unlike myself, would never be able to do on their own independently or through other sources of recognition. There are many different categories of females and males. One of those categories depends on that kind of beauty competitions to achieve something out of nothing which they would never obtain as their great opportunities, otherwise. Other opportunities would be competitions in art, writing, public speaking art, English-word fingerspelling, bicultural poetry or poetry in ASL, storytelling in ASL, engineering talent, computer invention, film/DVD, etc. at which they with talents in Beauty contests, would not be interested in participating when other types from other categories would dare to try. Therefore we need to be flexible about variety of competitions to offer just like those various sports offered during Deaf World Games. Hmmm.
Off the point but related.
Dr. Jane Fernandes was a former Miss Iowa, taught and directed an ASL program, taught and became an administrator of the world’s only Liberal Arts Program for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing at Gallaudet university.
To me those are the criteria of being a member of the “Deaf Culture” group. She has met them all.
She is part of us and no matter she choses to speak more than signing also she is a D/deaf woman.
Is it because she is a woman? I wonder…
I am now staying neutral because propaganda stuff is kind of twisted somehow.
Dr. Roslyn Rosen was a popular choice among students and alums before the final 3 candidates were announced. So, no, it is not because Dr. Fernandes is a woman.
BTW, Dr. Jordan was adored by most students until recently- so it is not because Dr. F is not deaf enough. Compared to him, she’s like a 7th generation deaf family anti-CI ASL militant. ;)
I really doubt Roz Rosen was a popular choice among students. Roz hadn’t been around for several years, and even when she was here in her last years, she had very little to do with undergrads. Roz burned a lot of bridges when she left — no surprise to many that she wasn’t a finalist.
I have known Dr. Roz Rosen to be an excellent leader and she did a great job as a NAD president years ago. She is a good person to be around students as she has that charisma to do whatever Gallaudet needs. She is more qualified than Dr. Jane Fernandes. Dr. Rosen’s brother is on the Gallaudet’s Board of Trustees (Dr. Harvey Goodstein). Harvey and Roz was the first Deaf brother and sister to obtain a Ph.D. degrees. Both of them are excellent leaders within the Deaf community.
[…] Rob Rice from DeafDC.com mentioned about Dr Jane Fernandes (Next Gallaudet President) used to be in Miss Deaf America Pageant (MDAP) as third runner-up in 1984 – I never knew about it till he brings it up. To read full details; Click here. […]
Press Release - July 3, 2006
( To translate this material in your language, visit http://www.babelfish.altavista.com )
A LIAR IS THE NEWEST PRESIDENT OF THE N.A.D.
By Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas, CISS Ombudsman
New York, USA – This afternoon an official announcement was made that Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins was voted as the newest President by the delegates of the just-concluded 48th Biennial Conference of the USA National Association of the Deaf ( “NAD” ) held in Palm Desert, California.
Photo: Bobbie Beth Scoggins - is she an ideal choice for the NAD Presidency?
While Scoggins is now receiving congratulatory messages from many people around the country, this Ombudsman, a long-time watcher of the deaf world affairs and authority on the history of the CISS and Deaflympic Games, however, perceives her NAD Presidency election victory in a very different manner.
Scoggins is a familiar figure to our international deaf sports movement as between 1995 and 2005 she occupied the key positions in the United States Deaf Sports Federation ( “USADSF” ).
The eloquent position of this Ombudsman is that the election of Scoggins as the NAD President is a highly-questionable, illogical and unjustified one!
Firstly, this Ombudsman questions Scoggins’ integrity and honesty.
Namely, in 2004, in order to gain her coveted wish of being selected as the Olympic Torch Relay runner, the three major and influential publications – The Kentucky Courier-Journal, The Kentucky Herald-Leader and The CISS e-News Magazine – glorified Scoggins’ name by reporting on their pages that Scoggins was “a silver medal winner in swimming” at the Deaflympic Summer Games in 1973. The Kentucky Courier-Journal on its May 14, 2004, issue also labeled Scoggins as “a Deaflympics star.”
http://www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update45.htm
The truth, however , was that Scoggins never won any medal in the sport of swimming in any Deaflympic Games.
In addition, what kind of “a Deaflympics star” was Scoggins?
Again, the truth was that Scoggins never was such a star at all: at the 1973 Deaflympic Summer Games held in Sweden she finished next to the last place in the preliminary heat of the women’s 400 meter free style event and at the 1977 Deaflympic Summer Games held in Romania she was a substitute and seldom-used player for the women’s USA volleyball team.
In comparison, Scoggins’ non-deaf sports administration counterpart – Sandra Baldwin as the then President of the USA Olympic Committee ( “USOC” ) - in 2002 was caught by a journalist for doing an improper thing: in her resume Baldwin lied about her academic credentials.
Photo: Sandra Baldwin - she left her top USOC job after she was caught for her act of lying.
When caught for doing such an act of lying, Baldwin, unlike Scoggins, immediately, unselfishly, voluntarily and in tears resigned from her top USOC position and went into obscurity!
Secondly, this Ombudsman questions Scoggins’ previous work performance in the national organization such as the USADSF ( she was the USADSF President between 1997 and 2005 ).
In spite of the fact that Scoggins continues to ably showcase herself in public as a slick ASL
( American Sign Language ) talker, it is the opinion of this Ombudsman that she administered the USADSF affairs in an incompetent, messy and negligent way.
Here is the randomly-selected list, which will vividly demonstrate the poor, stagnant and unprofessional work Scoggins did on behalf of the USADSF as its President in the last few years:
- since April 1, 2000 and to this day, USADSF has been failing to fully comply with the many rules of the CISS Constitution, including its 10% annual membership dues penalty non-payment;
- USADSF allowed its representatives and Scoggins’ cronies to obtain various high-level positions in the CISS ( Donalda Ammons as the Secretary General and President, Jerald Jordan as the Chairman of the Legal Commission and others ) in blatant violation of the CISS Constitution rules;
- USA teams and their athletes at the last three Deaflympic Games in 2001 ( Italy ), 2003
( Sweden ) and 2005 ( Australia ) won all the medals – gold, silver and bronze – undeservedly, illegally and in complete non-compliance of the rules of the CISS Constitution and Deaflympic Games Regulations;
- in 2002, the women’s USA basketball team won the world’s championship title in clear breach of the CISS Constitution and Deaf World Championships Regulations rules;
- in 2003, the state of Utah, through the USADSF, was awarded the organization of the 16th Deaflympic Winter Games for 2007 in total non-adherence of the rules of the CISS Constitution and Deaflympic Games Regulations;
- one major sports organization – the USA Deaf Basketball ( USADB ) with whom Scoggins had an uneasy working relationship – recently disaffiliated from the USADSF, which has, as a result, substantially reduced the membership base for the USADSF itself.
Another administrative wrongdoing Scoggins committed in the USADSF structure was that in 2004 she raided the special Investment Fund of the USADSF, without approval of its organization’s House of Delegates, by grabbing out of it $150,000.00 ( one hundred fifty thousands dollars ) in order to pay unauthorized expenses of some of her people going to Melbourne, Australia, the site of the 2005 Deaflympic Summer Games.
http://www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update71.htm
By intransigently defying the certain CISS rules and by managing to field a sizeable delegation of 207 persons, including 172 athletes, to the 2005 Deaflympic Summer Games ( the Scoggins-led USA delegation was the largest one at these Games ), the whole USA team , especially in swimming, track and field, tennis and wrestling, performed very disastrously – it earned an aggregate of just 32 medals, including 8 gold, at the Games.
This total medal result performance by the USA team was the worst ever result in the Games’ history in 44 years, that is, since 1961, which was innately regarded as a shame, humiliation and embarrassment to this always-proud and sports-mad world super power nation – the USA.
Finally, because of Scoggins’ irresponsible, biased and discriminatory treatment of this Ombudsman as a candidate for the application position of the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 2007 Deaflympic Winter Games, the USADSF is still engaged in a very costly litigation matter vs. this Ombudsman before the USA District Court for the District of South Dakota in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Thus, did the delegates at the NAD Conference, who voted for Scoggins as their new President, know all the facts mentioned above, did not they? Did they carefully scrutinize Scoggins’ past, did not they?
The major question of this release is that:
Is Scoggins, by concealing her shady past, including her act of chicanery to the media and her improprieties and mismanagement of the USADSF affairs, an ideally appropriate role model for any deaf - old and young - leader of local, national and international stature?
“In spite of the fact that Scoggins continues to ably showcase herself in public as a slick ASL
( American Sign Language ) talker, it is the opinion of this Ombudsman that she administered the USADSF affairs in an incompetent, messy and negligent way” commented by CISS Ombudsman made me recall how Bobby Beth Scroggin behaved in California and Kentucky. I have considered her as White tower clan arrongant type who never hired any born deaf person from non signing hearing family to work with or under her. She tended to hire or to pick any minority person (deafened, hard of hearing or genetic deaf types) with bilingual mastery to work with/under her to falsely represent us the majority–the deaf ones with language denied and delayed language acquisition, born from nonsigning, hearing families. How do I know…she asked me some too personal questions which she would not ask other interviewees,”I know that you used to have allergies in California. Wonder if you still have those allergies. Why did you moved to AZ? Why did you ask VR to help you with job searches? I want to read your articles or writing paper as your talents? Send me as many as possible.” So I did. I read HER Newsletters of her organization and found out that allll of her employees are genetic deaf, hard of hearing and deafened types to serve us the majority as the often clients. NONE of us, the representatives of majority would be hired to work in any decision making administrative level.
WE WANT SOME OF US, THE GRASS ROOT FOLKS FROM OUR MAJORITY TO REPRESENT US UP THERE IN THOSE WHITE COLLAR ADMINISTRATIVE LEVELS OF EMPLOYMENTS AS WELL AS IN TEACHING POSITIONS TO WORK WITH THE DEAF CHILDREN LIKE OURSELVES WITH SIMILAR HOME-BROKEN-NONSIGNING-HEARING-FAMILY, HEARING-LOSS AND LATE-LANGUAGE-ACQUISITION BACKGROUNDS!! WE NEED OUR OWN ROLEMODELS OF OUR LIKENESS TO WORK WITH AND FOR US AND TO UNDERSTAND US BETTER AND FAIRLY.
I hope that someone would find time and money to investigate alllll schools for the deaf, mainstreaming programs and universities serving all kinds of students as well as all deaf community services serving all kinds of clients in their community. The goal is to see if the percentage ratio of employees with various backgrounds in language acquisition types match with that percentage ratios of their students and clients with similar background accordingly.
And who might this “Ombudsman” be? Anyone elect him/her? Self appointed? I have seen the ranting before and that is just what it is - ranting!
As for MDA - yep, high time to get rid off it! Up here in Canada we had our MDC - miss deaf canada - event before the USA MDA one. And we got rid off it quite a few years ago now! Just totally inappropriate for a community that is fighting for equality to then turn around and do something as oppresive as a MDA.
Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas, CISS Ombudsman and I cannot find his name on the CISS or DeafOlympics listing.
There was a lawsuit and the judge dismissed the case. http://www.deaflympics.com/new.....asp?ID=314
And rejected Pinchas request for an appeal:
http://www.deaflympics.com/new.....asp?ID=541
I wrote about the MDA pageant and how some people have tried to get it changed in an August 19, 2003 article in THE TACTILE MIND WEEKLY (copied/pasted below, also available at my website blog). As a delegate at this year’s NAD convention, I talked to quite a few other delegates about it and had a very interesting mix of responses. MDAD’s motion is one worth revisiting, I think.
ON HAND WITH TRUDY SUGGS
I sat in front of the stage, trying not to show how restless I felt.
I was one of three judges for a deaf state-level pageant, trying to endure a ballet performance given by one of the three contestants. We had just watched another contestant do a signed song with her eyes frozen to the floor.
Bored with the dancing, I reflected upon the weekend’s events. The interview process had been grueling–for the judges. Example: A contestant, who could barely sign, was asked what she had found most enjoyable about the pageant experience. She said with genuine awe, “Deaf people are sooooo friendly!” Never mind that she was deaf herself.
Last week, I wrote about how state association conferences aren’t so well attended anymore. This is also true for state pageants, which often have low contestant turnout or are cancelled. In fact, the 2000 Miss Deaf America pageant only had 25 contestants. Nowadays, we’re lucky if we have even two contestants at the state level.
Again, like with the state conferences, I’m not sure why participation is so weak. We could probably come up with a hundred reasons why, but the real question is what we can do to better represent our state associations (and ultimately the national association).
In 1993, members of the Maryland Association of the Deaf approved a resolution, proposed by Robert Weinstock and Astrid Goodstein, that would have changed the pageant structure. Instead of having young women strut their stuff on stage, a female and a male would be chosen to represent the state as “young ambassadors.” They could make presentations, work with legislators and various entities throughout the state, and then enter a national competition with their counterparts from other states.
When I first learned of this idea, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately, this bill never made it through at the national convention, but I’m still convinced by this idea.
I’m convinced that having not one, but -two- representatives would command more attention from hearing legislators and community leaders. It’s hard to take someone seriously when she wins a contest based on how good her evening gown and talent presentations were.
The ambassadors would definitely bring an updated image to the state associations. And trust me, I’d enjoy the ambassador competition far more than ballet or signed songs.
I agree with Trudy and times have changed. We need to get the younger generation to take up a role that represents the D/deaf population. That way many schools would look-up at the young leaders and pull them into NAD as members. We need to train the young minds on advocacy issues to prepare for the upcoming struggles of inclusion within the D/deaf society.
And an ambassador who is just learning would be taken seriously? Nah. Would at most be used for a phot opportunity.
I was pretty active when I was young - but totally naive also. I was a teacher at MSSD, etc., so know what young people are like. They are great, they have lots of promise. But if I want someone to go and represent the Deaf view I would not pick any of them - Kelby Brick, Nancy Bloc are who I would pick and who should be doing it.
Find something else than an “ambassador” competition!
If the Miss Deaf America pageant is irrelevant, maybe we should consider something else. We have 50 states in the US. Why is DC the 51st….something??? It is not a state, therefore it should not be represented in NAD. If DC is to be represented in NAD – we should consider inviting Puerto Rico, Guam and other US territories a part of the representation because DC is a territory, just it happens to be our capital.
There is a Mr. & Miss Deaf Teen program in place through deaf high schools consortium. Is it irrelevant? I have observed the passion and NAD’s ideal that it should be diverse and all encompassing. It should look within its’ Youth program and the Miss Deaf America Program to see the diversity within at all levels.
There has been no offer of solution, compromise, or any discussion with the Youth Program Coordinator and interested parties. Just a blatant disrespect toward those who have worked hard since 1972 and have changed the program over the years, to accommodate the generational perspective of American living, strongly recognized in our deaf community because we are a smaller group than the number of people in the US. The reason provided by Rice is insufficient to consider its worth.
No one asked us for our opinion, our perspective, potential changes, problems that we deal with and etc. It is just assumed by a few elitist deaf people that the worth of MDA is insufficient just because they feel that it has no impact on them….personally. How is this democratic place to be? Did anyone suggest we add a Mr. to the MDA program? Did the Deaf Women United even participate in assisting this program to be more successful within a truly impacting avenue? (This attitude would not encourage me to participate in the DWU organization, even though I’m curious about it and the organization did not have a booth at the conference.)
The Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services should be thankful to have two wonderful women bring up issues of domestic violence in the recent and current pageant. They are wonderful examples of deaf women who have suffered, survived and move through their pain to bring awareness and education in a different capacity. Again this pageant – MDA – is not a beauty pageant to most of us, it never really was in the first place, this seed of self awareness, self identity, teamwork development and mutual support for each other and those around them, is more than one can expect from a common beauty pageant.
The Jane Fernandes’ excuse is a pathetic attempt to dissuade young deaf women from succeeding as women and humans. There have been plenty of runner ups that have succeeded far more than she has in her time. Great – she’s an oral person who succeeded in becoming the Miss Deaf Iowa and became a 4th runner up in the MDA and she is successful in her own right at her age. Miss Deaf West Virginia 2003-2005 Linda Jane Phillips has succeeded more than she has because she went before her own government and took the time to explain about education interpreters, passed a law, she did not make the top six in 2004 pageant, and she’s in her early twenties. I consider her a greater woman because of her desire to be more because of the opportunities that were presented her and she took the initiative to make improvements rather than be discouraged. The perspective provided by J. Fernandes is a negative connation of what it means to be deaf women in the US. We have new issues and concerns concerning today’s young deaf women compared to in 1983.
Jane Fernandes interpretation and performance of the poem she selected is not the only difficult poem that was performed nor is it exceptional. There are stories we must read and translate by imagination to understand. Imagine the number of hearing and deaf folks who cannot read and write because of the education system in place that impacts EVERYONE. The works of Foster, Homer and many poets and authors (Edgar Allen Poe) are hard to read and takes a long thinking, analysis and translation period before it hits any person reading them. As everyone else says, deaf folks have to work twice or thrice harder to achieve academic goals. I did a monologue of Portia in Julius Caesar and it was difficult to figure out how to put it into an artistic performance because of my bilingual and bicultural experience. I would not achieve that without the assistance of my mother, who is hearing and is a strong advocate of ASL and Bi/Bi Philosophy (in education and the real world) and a close friend of mine who is a current ASL teacher, who was my chaperone at my state pageant.
We only have been provided a small perspective from the Deaf Elite, who can twist and turn anyway they want to go and keep forgetting the grassroots that established NAD and still keep it alive. We have new problems and issues and we need to get back on track on focusing on what we can do for everyone at every level of our life stages from our local to national stages. As it has been talked around – we have been far more segregated today than in the past, which is why we have problems with diversity within.
Joanna,
I’m glad you posted here- this issue really, really needs input from all sides- yours especially, because you seem to have an intimate insiders perspective. So, thanks for sharing.
I think that the question many people (myself included) have is, what does the pageant REALLY have to do with NAD’s mission and goals? As stated on its website, NAD’s mission is:
The mission of the National Association of the Deaf is to promote, protect, and preserve the rights and quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America.
Would this purpose be met more easily if fundamental changes were made? (Such as changing the title to include ambassadorship, allowing males to participate, and/or drawing greater focus to the contestants’ actual participation in the community, rather than whatever mundane talents/looks they spit up for the sake of competitiveness.)
YES, I know that the contestants can offer a great deal to the community- that is not disputed- but if the above mentioned suggestions were implemented, then even a broader impact could perhaps be made on the local, state, national - and even global - scale.
Julie,
I do agree with the *concept* of “ambassadorship” you just explained in your post.
However, I have a huge problem with the choice of term like “ambassadorship” because its definition does not apply to the *concept* that you discussed. I believe the proper term for the concept that you visualized would be spokesperson.
See, the true definition of ambassadorship is a temporary resident in another country, representative of his or her own government. NAD is not a government but an association.
Perhaps we should consider “spokesperson” or something else, anything but ambassadorship.
Patricia:
Merriam Webster has the following definitions for ambassador:
1: an official envoy; especially a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment
2a: an authorized representative or messenger
2b: an unofficial representative
I’m sure definition 2a fits the *concept.*
flyingduck,
Like I said in my previous post that I have a huge problem with the choice of term like “ambassadorship” due to its true definition.
Even though 2a applies to the concept that Julie visualized, for a political reason, I simply felt that the term “ambassadorship” might not be a good choice. It’s just me.
I believe the term spokeswoman, spokesman or spokesperson is a better choice, probably more fitting and it has only one clear definition.
……………………………
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/spokesman
spokesman
One entry found for spokesman.
Main Entry: spokes·man
Pronunciation: ’spOks-m&n
Function: noun
Etymology: probably irregular from spoke, obsolete past participle of speak
: a person who speaks as the representative of another or others often in a professional capacity
……………………
I disagree with you, Joanna… the people that live in DC are US citizens. The people in Guam, etc are not.
I am quite impressed with knowing the fact a runner up of Miss Deaf America pageant is currently a President of the University.
This says a lot about the pageant.
Pageant isn’t just a pageant like Julie Feldman has said. She said that Lauren Teruel is the best… what is she best about? Being Miss Deaf America, right? What is Miss Deaf America? It’s a pageant. So you’re unsubciously saying pageant brings the best out of a young woman.
I don’t know what is the big stake about the pageant itself. Yea, I agree… it’s hard to recruit the young women these days, but like Jennifer Yost Ortiz emphasizes enough… the youth are our future. As you can see, Miss Deaf America doesn’t just win the crown and say “Thank you.” They embark their journey throughout the states… the young girls are looking up to them.
It is more than just a pageant.
It is a yellow brick road to success for some women. Some. I didn’t say all. There are some people who might find pageant somewhat stupid. You are entitled to your own opinion, but don’t reflect your own opinion on everything else.
The Miss Deaf America pageant has been running biennial since 1972. Why would you want to take that down? Change the remarkable tradition of NAD?
P.S. Miss Deaf America is nothing compared to Mr and Miss Deaf Teen America. It’s like comparing a Hummer to a jet plane.
I did not say Lauren Teruel was “the best”. More rather, I said she was “one of the best”. But then again, I’m ridiculously biased because I know her personally (from having gone to the same high school as her) and I also know only a handful of the other contestants. I also think that Tyese Wright, Erin Casler, Jennifer Yost, Amy Wong, and Maureen Yates all have been terrific as well.
DC is not represented in the House of Representatives and the Senate - therefore the consideration of having them be represented in NAD is incorrect; however, I do not oppose representation since the DC area has a “state association” membership. Maybe we should consider inviting the US territories in participating in the conference or the like. The National Council on Independent Living invites the US Virgin Islands, Guam and the other territories to participate in the conferences.
Well, I was one of committee for NAD `90 in Indianapolis…(Media for MDAP) got the girls into three local talk shows,news people from three different channels to interview the girls and took films for their local news. Anyway, when the news person came to the door with video camera, the chairperson demanded that he paid registration fee before he could be allowed to come in. Of course, I got in and made sure that all the news people came in and took pictures, etc. The chairperson reported me to the board. That truly turned me off from NAD. On top of that, the parents (hearing and deaf) of MDA participants were required to join as members of either NAD OR their state associations before they would be allowed to come in and watch the pageant. To me, if they just come in for their daughters, why should they be required to pay the memberships??? What do you think?
I think that everyone should know the rules for attending conferences.
I also think that the whole MDA thing hurts the Deaf cause so should be thrown out as fast as possible.
Re: Pinkhasov Pinchas lawsuits vs. CISS officers Ammons and Jordan - do not get misled by the CISS
e-News Magazine releases’ propaganda. The truth is that Pinchas filed 3 lawsuits and they all were dismissed because the court in Maryland was not basically a PROPER JUDICIAL FORUM to litigate the matter each time. Jordan and Ammons were very lucky that they never went to a trial session, the two also filed their countersuits vs. Pinchas - and the court threw their countersuits away, too. Ammons and Jordan intentionally chose to conceal this fact from the public.
You may check up the facts from the files of the US District Court in Baltimore. Maryland.
As for the wording of an Ombudsman, anyone can be an Ombudsman monitoring the activities of a particular organization. You can, for example, be a NAD Ombudsman to expose the wrongdoings or questionable or unethical activities of the NAD officers, etc.
The CISS officers Ammons and Jordan have, thanks to Pinchas’ bold and factual revelations, been abusing the CISS legal system in the last few years en masse, including the fact that the two - Ammons and Jordan - were elected or appointed to the top CISS positions in complete and blatant violation of the CISS rules.
I’ve read all the comments here about pageants and found it amusing. I fully agree we’re way overdue for a change and that ambassadorship (as well the inclusion of males) is a great idea.
But it’s never going to happen.
As people here have already said before, pageants are a cash cow. I’ve been to statewide conferences where attendance was *abysmal* — and then at the pageant, the auditorium was packed to capacity. Packed with paying customers who had event organizers breathing an understandable sigh of relief.
There’s also the human nature factor. Face it, our society has turned into Reality Show addicts. We love watching people competing for one goal and getting eliminated one by one. We love the suspense of finding out who’s going to win. And we love to be entertained, be it a breathtaking poem or a ballet dancer falling flat on her butt.
I’m tempted to challenge NAD and all the statewide organizations: if you really want to keep the pageant, go all out. Go for the gusto and add a swimsuit competition. That’s right… why hold back? Go for it! That’ll triple attendance.
If you find that offensive, keep in mind that there’s not much difference between an evening gown competition and swimsuits. Same concept, different clothes.
Seriously, though… I really do like the idea of ambassadorship. There’s so much to benefit from this. I just don’t know if it would put enough people in the seats.
Maybe a deaf Fear Factor competition? :)
Best regards,
Drolz
Sex sells.
When I was a young boy there always a stripper upstairs at the Deaf Club after the softball tourney. The place was packed. I can see why now. *grins*
[…] But the greater issue of whether pageant should even continue has also cropped up, too. Rob and others have proposed an ambassador contest where two deserving young people, one male and one female, are chosen to represent the Deaf community. It’s very politically correct, but a Deaf Ambassador certainly lacks the allure and glitter of the Miss Deaf America title, and I, for one, would be a little sad to see it go (much like how I feel about the British royalty). […]
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