The Parallel: Deaf Protest 2006 & Presidential Election 2008

Back in May of 2006, as the students, the faculty, staff and the deaf community were protesting the choice of Jane K. Fernandez as the next president of Gallaudet, I began to observe, research and understand what had transpired in the events prior to the protest, with a wide range of substantiated and unsubstantiated information flowing from academic or staff insiders, the protest leaders, the community activists, the students and deaf bloggers like Ridor. I’d tried to keep most of these informations to myself, because I was several hundreds miles away from the actual protest event, and had to rely on first-hand and second-hand information passed up from friends, their friends and bloggers alike. Fortunately, I have few good friends who have maintained very close connection to the deaf community activists, NAD, and other deaf organizations and informed me of what was really going on, so I wouldn’t jump to any unnecessary conclusion. Things were getting crazy at the time, then by October of 2006, it was getting more crazier and intensive for all involved.

At that beginning of the protest, I felt there was something about the whole thing, an unusual gut feeling kicking me mentally but I dismissed it. As the protest and the flow of information transpired, the same gut feeling didn’t go away, nagging me. Once again, I dismissed it. Though, my intuition about something is usually, but not always, right on the mark, but the problem, which I’d acknowledged a long time ago, is predicting something solid based on my own intuition is very murky and difficult to ensure the probability of such a thing or event to occur as it is. Take the events of 9/11/2001, for example, I didn’t predict anything of that sort but my intuition at the time leading up to it was unusually low-key and muted, as if it was like a long lull before a coming storm going on an unpredictable path, you never know which way it was going to and you may pretend that it is not coming your way.

Anyway, by the time the protest intensified toward the end of October, the same gut feeling popped up as I was observing the entire affair unfolded before my eyes, and just as rumors began to circulate that Fernandez would be withdrawing her nomination as the next president of Gallaudet (eventually, the BoT withdrew her nomination), my mind began to ruminate about my intuitive possibility about the whole Deaf Protest 2006 affair being a preview of the US Presidential Election 2008! Click on the graphic below to see the whole thing for yourself.

From the beginning, I had to compartmentalize the whole notion to myself, knowing that such a similarity between the Deaf Protest 2006 and the US Presidential Election 2008 could never transpire in this degree. I’m talking about different peoples, different personalities and different situations. The 2007 pre-election campaigns of Clinton, Obama and McCain were ratching up big time and there were just too many speculations going on. No one could really predict, for sure, who would get the Presidency on Nov. 4th, 2008 but the stakes are, indeed, very high.

As for me, the weird thing about Dr. Robert Davila is that he came out of the left field, almost unexpectedly, since rumors and gossip were intensifying in November on who would the BoT ask to become Gallaudet’s interim president (especially the fear that Jordan himself could continue to remain as president until the new search process is complete and the person has been selected with satisfaction by all parties involved). The selection of Dr. Davila as the interim president surprised several people. Some had the initial concern about his age, despite his wealth of experience and skills as an able administrator. Senator John McCain, he ain’t but you cannot ignore this unusual similarity between Davila and McCain, as I’ve termed the “old guardian leader” figure. Sen. McCain used to serve on the Gallaudet BoT as a honorary member but had to leave the seat to concentrate full time on his Presidential campaign, in addition to his duty as a U.S. Senator.

Some people behind the deaf protest have told me that Dr. Glenn Anderson should have been the preferred choice to be Gallaudet’s 9th President, due to his experiences and popularity with the student body. I’d remembered the furor from the members of the Deaf Black Student Union at Gallaudet prior to the protest about Dr. Anderson not being really considered fully, in regard to the BoT selection process and did not made the final list. Some charged the Gallaudet BoT of rank racism. You can see the PDF article from the National Deaf Black Advocates Position paper about that. In a certain way, Dr. Anderson can be comparable to Barack Obama – the “promising black leader” of hope and change for Gallaudet. Interestingly, both are from Chicago.

The funny thing about Jane K. Fernandez is that she’s no Hillary R. Clinton herself and yet she came off as a woman eager and willing to do whatever she would take to win the mantle of leadership at all costs, by being stubborn, relentless, and ambitious all the way. Seem like Hillary Clinton as you’d seen her in her aggressive, stay-the-course campaign the last few months? Yep. Both were educated in elite colleges in the eastern establishment (Hillary’s alma mater were Wellesley and Yale, while JKF’s alma mater was Trinity College). Women like Hillary Clinton and JKF played some important parts in the corridors of power but their deeds and ambitions did not goes unpunished in the court of public opinion.

I. King Jordan and George W. Bush. Both widely disliked leaders. You see the similarity there? Enough said!

In conclusion, the similarity of the key figures of the Deaf Protest 2006 and the US Presidential Election 2008 is all that came from my deepest intuition based on what informations and observations I’d have and seen so far. I didn’t fully anticipate that but, apparently, it took a life of its own and I had to put up with that. When the Deaf President Now happened in 1988, effecting and resulting a real change of regime within an established institution and hope sprung forth, something really did transpired gradually and inevitably across the world a year later, especially in eastern Europe. I guess you know the rest of history?

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