Vlog is for the Deaf community. Letter below is for everyone else... Councilmembers Mitch O’Farrell and Nury Martinez: September 24, 2014 My name is Michael Keathley. I have lived a life of people speaking for me and it is a very oppressive and demeaning action. I will not speak for the Deaf community. Instead, I will speak as an individual who is a Deaf business owner. I own and manage TruColors Striping. We are the only Deaf-owned and Deaf-employed full service pavement markings company in the United States. I would like to tell you a little bit about how running my company has been and continues to be a struggle to try and stay financially afloat not because of my inability to hear sound but instead as a direct result of my struggle to communicate. Far too often, my disability is misunderstood as if it is the inability to hear. That is not the disability. The REAL disability is living an insular life. While growing up, doctors and audiologists worked feverishly to recreate sound by installing fancy gadgets in my ears. They gave me hearing aids. They poked my ears, blasted excruciating levels of sound directly into my ear canal. Yes, I heard sound alas no matter what they did… the sound was still muffled. It did not solve my struggle to communicate because I still could not understand those who tried to speak to me. People had to figure out a viable solution. That solution consisted of building a bridge linking my isolation to other islands thus enabling my quest to be self-sufficient to a reality. That beautiful and majestic bridge has been named “American Sign Language” (ASL). It is a redeeming tool that was fine-tuned by the Deaf community so we could break free from our insulary. It is for this reason alone why I choose to only employ people who are fluent in ASL. ASL instantly bridged my ability to communicate with my employees so we can work together as an effective team. As a result, I am enjoying some moderate success. I still struggle tremendously but I will persevere. ASL is everything to me. Without ASL, I am a lost Deaf man with a dream designed to fail in the hearing world. My vision to succeed in life is constantly maligned by those who make uninformed decisions; in this case it is you, City of Los Angeles district 6 and 13 councils, for presenting Paul Sirimarco and Tina Cleveland with a Certificate of Recognition on the occasion of Deaf Awareness month. I personally look forward to every Deaf Awareness holiday and event because it relishes me with the self-esteem, inspiration, and cultural pride that strives me to be an independent, hard-working, tax-paying American. You recognized a hearing person for a cultural achievement. Never would I have imagined it possible to see an oppressor recognized for the achievements of a Deaf culture. I was heartbroken… ashamed… defeated… silenced… oppressed all over again. This pain is deep. Why am I so hurt? Language is closely tied to the identity of a human being. American Sign Language has been devalued time and time again. You see… the use of ASL brought along with it its own new battles and struggles. The biggest one being the ethical choices that the gatekeepers of the bridge make. Who are the gatekeepers of the American Sign Language Bridge? ASL interpreters. As a Deaf man, I live through a world of filters. My entire life is exposed to them. In every way imaginable. It demeans me that I can be educationally-challenged without an interpreter. It embarrassed me when an interpreter had to be there during times of personal struggle, it humiliated me that an interpreter had to break the sanctity of my college fraternity initiation. It destroyed me that she was there when the doctor told me to turn my head and cough. An outsider busted the closeness of a family circle when they were there for my children’s birth. They are privy to all the going ons of my business. They know how much I earn and what my mundane bills are. Having compassion and sensitivity for having complete access to my vulnerability is what I like to call… “Deaf heart”. I watched Paul publically berate Deaf people by telling people how to identify with their culture on his facebook page, Paul and Tina’s Signalongs. An example of that in Paul’s post… “Karen, I’m just trying to tell you that some people may think you’re disrespecting the DEAF community by not writing correctly.” Ouch. They have posted and made it into a profile picture… a picture of them standing with a television reporter who is incorrectly signing the most universal sign in ASL, I love you. Double ouch. Additionally, I watched proactive comments randomly disappear while they left the negative ones up. This purposely deceits the hearing world into thinking that we are trying to villainize them. Their actions are of malice and vilifying. Paul Sirimarco and Tina Cleveland are bridge gatekeepers who rule with medival spike flails… ergo they have no “Deaf heart”… particularly Tina Cleveland who is a certified k-12 interpreter. Councilmembers, I’m hurt. I am exposing my wounded Deaf heart to you. How will you respond? Thank you for your time, Michael Keathley Owner -- TruColors Striping
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:21:35 +0000
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