Get In Line
By Leeanne Seaver, H&V, Headquarters © 2020
Of all the ways we’ll describe 2020 from a rearview mirror in the future, “It was a banner year for Deaf advocacy” will probably not be one of them. But it could be true.
Even if Deaf causes aren’t making the news, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Ironically, it’s taken a global pandemic to show us how connected we all are to one another. We were already glued to the screen watching in horror the COVID-19 body count rising when the unconscionable, in-your-face racism of George Floyd’s murder (and so many others) took the stage. It was the tipping point for many who weren’t going to wait any longer for permission to act—not only in the U.S. but worldwide.
Add Australia burning, the polar ice cap melting, floodings and mass shootings and the world economy collapsing, plus countless other disasters—an Apocalypse Bingo as it were—that present humankind with epic opportunities for growth . . . a complete sea change.
Direct engagement in healthcare, politics, community building, and social justice initiatives is growing in proportion to the shockwaves we feel watching the news on so many fronts every day. Changes to our attitudes and relationships, to our health and legal system, and to our culture and global awareness will result.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
― Audre Lorde
From these cataclysmic events, common themes have emerged. If we’re paying attention, they can school us on how to be part of the solution instead of more of the problem.
Every minority group, including the Deaf (deaf/hard of hearing/hearing impaired), faces unique and complicated issues. Plenty of my colleagues in the medical field and my African American friends might tell me to “Hey, get in line” about now, but that is exactly my point.
Find your voices, raise your hands, grab a sign, and get in line.
Whether it’s in the checkout line or the line at the DMV or the picket line: Get in Line and get to work. To paraphrase civil rights champion John Lewis: Wherever you are, if you see something that’s not fair for our children (and adults) who are Deaf or hard of hearing, do something.
Know your own answers to What part of the load am I carrying? How am I using my skills and talents to be helpful?
And I encourage the non-Deaf among us to Use your hearing privilege to make a difference. Call out the inequity you’re aware of because you can hear what someone is missing because he or she or they cannot hear. Complain to the flight attendant or the bus driver, whine to the fast-food restaurant manager, write a memo to your boss or the school principal or your legislator or your relatives. Be like my friend Julia who called it out to us as a family when we weren’t seeing what Dane was missing.
If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.
– Senator John Lewis
Don’t wait for someone to give you permission or grant you authority to point out what’s wrong. We’ve all been putting up with patronizing attitudes towards “disability” too long. We should be insisting on full and effective access—regardless of the mode or method of communication.
We must unify all our efforts so we are helping one another—signers/talkers/combiners—not invalidating and discrediting our cause with in-fighting. At Hands & Voices, we always emphasize our commitment to advocating for the ASL kid who wants to be transferred to the state school for the deaf in the morning and then fighting just as hard later that afternoon for the CI/oral kid who wants to be fully mainstreamed.
Be like Hands & Voices.
Deaf people requesting captions is equivalent to hearing people requesting audio. Imagine being denied access to audio every time, everywhere, every day.
-– L. Friedmann
When I see the angry but exuberant, frustrated yet encouraged, uncertain yet confident faces taking to the streets and airwaves for so many righteous causes today, I feel the lessons of this era for all of us. The common threads—strength in numbers, inspired leadership, a unified sense of purpose, the compulsion to buck the trends/the system/the majority rules—they’re all there.
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.
— William Faulkner
I am struck by the words of the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. However often I have missed the mark over the years as the parent of a Deaf child and the leader of a DHH family support organization, I am more aware than ever of the importance of what I can still do now.
There is much to do in this present moment that affects the future. That may sound overwhelming, but I’m talking about the minutiae of every day . . . like prompting my hearing relatives to reach out to Dane on FaceTime or Wavello. Just do the next right thing—even a simple thing.
You can’t have a forest without a leaf, as the saying goes. Start with a leaf. ~
H&V Communicator – Fall 2020