WOSU-TV Interviewed Deaf-Blind Man…for RADIO only?

Today, I learned that WOSU has interviewed Bryan Grubb, a deaf-blind right activist and a motivational speaker from central Ohio, about deaf-blind rights. It was assumed that his interview would be telecast on WOSU-TV channel (Columbus, Ohio) sometime in the near future, with captions, of course. Instead, as Mr. Grubb learned today, his interview will be on RADIO.

Hello? Radio?

Many in the Ohio deaf/deaf-blind community know Bryan Grubb and his passionate fight for deaf-blind rights. He is the president of Ohio Association of the Deaf-Blind and own a motivational speaking service, BRGMS. I know him and his wife, a very nice couple and he’s a fantastic guy. We met socially at DPHH and ASL Social Night events and, at one time, I voluntarily interpreted for him during a meeting to support the Deaf Protest of 2006.

Mr. Grubb is very disappointed with WOSU’s decision to broadcast the interview on radio instead of TV. I don’t know what’s the WOSU’s reason for that decision, given that Mr. Grubb is well-recognized in the Ohio deaf/deaf-blind community and his interview on TV would be seen on WOSU-TV channel in Ohio by the community. Perhaps a radio version would reach a wider hearing audience who tune into PBS radio? WOSU Radio has about 140,000 listeners weekly. Nevertheless, WOSU should have been a bit more considerate to broadcast his interview on TV instead of going into radio first. For goodness’s sake, the man is a deaf-blind motivational speaker! For the hearing people, it seems easy to listen to a hearing motivational speaker – in the ear, out the ear, get the message and the motivation in between. In the Deaf world, it’s all about appearance, presentation and giving the message and the motivation visually.

If you’re interesting to rant, go to WOSU’s “Contact Us” webpage.

Check back from time to time for a further update.

30 Years Ago, the great American Cowboy passed on

He was born as Marion Robert Mitchell Morrison in Iowa, about 102 years ago. He was always known as “Duke” since childhood, he was an expert horse-rider by age of 11 and an all-American football star in high school and college, until his injury from bodysurfing led to a loss of athletic scholarship from University of South California. Then he took a job working as a bit actor for local movie studios and gradually went on to become the most famous American icon in the movie history. His name was John Wayne. On this day, June 11th, he died exactly 30 years ago.

His movies are great to watch, his performances, ranging from the Wild West to mystery thriller to military to romantic subject, are amazing, compelling and entertaining. The John Ford movies, in which the Duke starred in most of them, are the very best. His greatest and finest role was that of being Ethan Edwards in the movie, “The Searchers” but he won an Oscar as a Best Actor in the 1969 movie, “True Grits”. Of his movies, the most I really enjoyed were “The Quiet Man”, “The Cowboys”, and “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon”.

He was also a conservative Republican and mainly voted and supported Republican issues. He won’t participate in movies that have anti-American sentiments or pro-communist sympathies. He encouraged Ronald Reagan to run for U.S. President one day when Reagan was the Governor of California. In Hollywood and the movie studios where the majority is Democratic and liberal, John Wayne was still a popular, revered and respected actor. He was one of few civilians who received two of the nation’s highest honors: the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Robert Aldrich, then the President of Directors Guild of America, offered a great testimony for the Congressional Gold Medal prior to Wayne’s death:

“It is important for you to know that I am a registered Democrat and, to my knowledge, share none of the political views espoused by Duke. However, whether he is ill disposed or healthy, John Wayne is far beyond the normal political sharp shooting in this community. Because of his courage, his dignity, his integrity, and because of his talents as an actor, his strength as a leader, his warmth as a human being throughout his illustrious career, he is entitled to a unique spot in our hearts and minds. In this industry, we often judge people, sometimes unfairly, by asking whether they have paid their dues. John Wayne has paid his dues over and over, and I’m proud to consider him a friend and am very much in favor of my Government recognizing in some important fashion the contribution that Mr. Wayne has made.”

He was married three times, all Hispanic women, and had several children, one is an actor today (Patrick Wayne).

So the great American Cowboy and an enduring screen icon passed on this day 30 years ago. Though you can always enjoy him in many of his films and TV recordings. There’s none like him today and perhaps never will be.

This is a great quote from a great movie, “McLintock!”, which he played the title role:

“I haven’t lost my temper in 40 years; but, Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning; might have got somebody killed; and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won’t. I won’t. The hell I won’t!” (He belts him in the mouth).

We Almost Came Very Close to a Nuclear World War…in 1995

January 25/26, 1995 would have been the “Judgement Day” for the whole planet, with nuclear missiles flying in the sky and hitting targets, resulting in a nuclear holocaust for the human race. Not even the Cuban Missile Crisis had this incident shown how perilously close to a nuclear Armageddon. This happened all because Norway launched a science rocket to space above the Norwegian-Russian airspace, which provoked a very alarming reaction by the Russian government under President Boris Yelstin, according to a former Russian officer who was there.

Former Russian officer stated that not many people were aware of how really close they were to seeing a nuclear war.

He saw that President Yelstin was ready to trigger a command to his nuclear forces to launch nuclear missiles. Fortunately, few of his military officers developed sudden conscience and saw a moral dilemma after the fact that Norway’s science rocket was already airborne and they choose not to follow orders based on this not-quite threatening incident. The U.S. President (Clinton) was already informed prior to this ready-to-launch order by Yelstin.
Excerpt:

“Jeltsin (misspelled as Yelstin) had opened `the briefcase`, the keys were put in place, and a direct call was made to the US president. At the same time, nuclear missiles were prepared to be launched against the west. Jeltsin literally sat there with his finger on the trigger for awhile, considering whether to launch the counter attack or not.

One of the reasons the incident had a happy ending was that his fellow officers hesitated to get the Russian counter missiles ready for launch while the Norwegian rocket was airborne. When the officers were ordered to prepare the missiles to be launched, they faced such a serious moralic dilemma, that they simply were unable to follow orders.”

As we now know, the situation was solved in the last minute, and no launch was made from Russia.

*Whew!*

This is known as the Norwegian rocket incident.

Now we got North Korea threatening to launch nuclear missiles at the USA as a “merciless offensive”.

Obamacare…Coming Soon!!

Ten years from now. Something’s wrong with you as you’re aching in a continuous pain. You went to the Urgent Care to find out what’s wrong. After a MRI scan and Xray, the doctor diagnosed you having cancer and referred you to a doctor specialized in cancer treatment and therapy. You don’t have a lot of money for an expensive cancer treatment since you have a family to feed, a job that doesn’t pay well and you already have medical debts.

Here’s the caveat: you have to wait approximately 12 months before you get your first shot at a low-cost cancer treatment therapy that guaranteed 100% curable results. Here’s the real downside: you have 9 months to live.

And your first kid is about to graduate from high school in one year. You were so looking forward to it.

That’s Obamacare for you.

The above mock poster was done by Scott G. of “Ah, Shoot”.

The lovely Michelle has more of the mock posters.

Understanding the insanity known as the Kennedy Heath Care Bill. Please read it all to really understand what the implications are!

65th Anniversary of D-Day Landing Today in Normandy

Update: Transcript and video of President Reagan’s legendary speech, “The Boys of Pointe-du-Hoc” 25 years ago at the beach of Normandy below this blog.

On this day, 65 years ago, about 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy fortified by the Nazis. Before the landings, the Allied forces took high-risk plans to airborne over 20,000 US and British troops over the night sky of Normandy in the early mornings of June 6th and drop them behind the enemy’s lines in anticipation to distract and divert the Nazis from sending all the troops to the beachheads, resulting in a significant achievement in their mission objectives, but at the cost of many lives for the whole day. The Canadians stormed Juno Beach, the British stormed Gold and Sword Beaches, and the Americans stormed the Pointe-du-Hoc, Omaha and Utah Beaches. Of all the difficult and bloody landings, Omaha Beach was the bloodiest and the most difficult, because it was heavily fortified and well-armed, with high walls, machine gun nests and artillery batteries. About 4,500, out of 50,000 American troops, were casualties, 1450 were fatalies within few hours of the landing. Eventually, the beach had fallen to the American troops before noon.

By the next 2 days, all the beaches of Normandy were finally taken and secured by the Allied Forces, opening up the way of the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany. They said the war would be over by Christmas 1944 but soon learned just how terribly difficult the liberation had become.

Freedom isn’t free. Remember those who fallen in battles to keep America free, especially those fallen at Omaha and Utah beaches, the Pointe-du-Hoc and the fields of Normandy.

UPDATE: 25 years ago, President Ronald Reagan made a legendary, moving speech at the beach of Normandy, “These are the boys of Pointe-du-Hoc”. The speech was so moving that even the Secret Services agents stoically guarding Reagan were brought to tears. Click here for the transcript.

Closed Captioning not necessarily alone improve one’s reading proficiency

This morning, reading JJ Purorro’s blog about his campaign to convince Netflix to include closed captioned movies offered on Netflix’s “Instant View” online rental service, which doesn’t offered the closed captioned versions. I commended him for setting up a Facebook campaign He pointed out a Facebook campaign to rally people to get Netflix to include captioned/subtitled movies in the Instant View streaming video service for the deaf/HoH subscribers. I was disappointed by Netflix CEO Rex Hastings for his ridiculous and ignorant comments about the accessibility and availability of technology to support people with disabilities, including the deaf/HoH people. You can follow the story about a Netflix shareholder who questioned Hastings on the lack of closed captioned videos in Netflix’s online streaming service at the annual shareholder meeting on May 29th, 2009.

The deaf and hard-of-hearing people have the right to reasonable accommodation and accessibility to available technologies in order to assist them in communicative matters in their lives. Closed captioning in television shows, movies and videos is a very important integral feature in everyday life of the deaf, crucially assisting them to understand what is being said and described on the screen while enjoying the same privilege as the hearing people can hear and enjoy likewise.

However, JJ Purorro, in his blog, stated that since his mother purchased a closed captioning box for the TV, his reading proficiency skyrocketed. This is a common saying within the deaf/HoH community: watching closed captioned (CC) shows/videos on TV would improve one’s reading proficiency. I remembered saying this for the same reason many years ago. Though, having later realized that watching shows or movies with CC should not be the sole factor in helping the deaf improve reading proficiency, I used to debate with a deaf friend at Gallaudet that relying on only CC shows/movies won’t improve English skills in writing and reading. I pointed out my experience in reading other materials while growing up in the pre-CC TV age.

Before the advent of closed captioning technology in the late 1970s and early 1980s and before my parents got me a closed captioning box in 1983 for our family TV, I grew up reading comic books, newspapers (Washington Post, Washington Times, local papers), Time, National Geographic and other magzines, and few of my parents’ books. Doing all these eventually improved my reading proficiency over the years. By 1985, TV networks were adding closed captioning to many primetime and news shows and I watched TV more than often, since captioned shows made viewing them more interesting or entertaining than the non-captioned shows, except for the crazy actions of professional wrestling or great sports games.

Going well into 1990s, I was still reading newspapers, magazines and books, and still maintaining my reading proficiency, notwithstanding the greater availability of captioned shows on network and cable TV and movies on videos. Reading these published materials fired my imagination or stroked my thinking in ways that CC shows and movies cannot even do. It opened me to the realm of many possibilities and different thinking.

On the other hand, when you’re watching a CC show or movie, you’re watching oral communication (dialogue) between peoples or narrative description of scenes or events to tell a story in a very visual, moving manner. These doesn’t quite fire your imagination in your mind since you’re watching a scene and reading captioned words at the same time, leaving little room to process any imagination or provoke any thinking in your mind. Ever wonder why these terms to describe people who are addicted to TV? Click here and scroll down to the title “Sensory Confusion”. Your mind is only engaged to the TV while viewing and that’s it. No imagination or thinking processed or provoked. I noticed these mental anomalies myself when I watched TV or movie with CC.

Closed captioning on TV can only help you understand what is being said and described on the screen, but not necessarily alone can improve your reading proficiency. So, do not rely totally on CC TV shows or movies in order to improve your reading skills. It may benefit only for those learning and understanding English for the first time and be more proficient with it in real life communication but not necessarily to learn all that from watching only TV for the rest of life. I would not be impressed with people who said that they got their English skills only from watching CC TV, it’s sad and pathetic. The English literature and language did not start out that way.

So read the books, fiction or non-fiction.

Read the newspapers.

Read the magazines or periodicals.

Read the blogs, news and interesting stuff on the Internet.

Heck, read anything that is written and published. Even that boring manual instruction book.

Well-written words without pictures, static or moving, can fire your imagination or provoke your thinking to new possibilities in your mind. It can certainly improve your reading skills over the long term.

Turn off the TV!

20 Years Ago, a dark day in China

A lone Chinese man stood up in defiance against Chinese tanks, showing the spirit of human courage and resistance against his government’s totalitarian actions. His fate in the aftermath has never been known since.

I was in high school, looking forward to my graduation and the end of the school-year when the news broke that Chinese tanks and troops rammed through students’ barricades and cleared the Tiananmen Square, resulting in unarmed civilians and students being killed or wounded in the night and put a crushing end to the fledgling democracy movement in China. There have never been an official count of how many were killed and wounded in the days after that, unofficial accounts ranging from 10,000 to less than 200 but no one knows for sure. Many people were arrested, some of its leaders and dissidents are still jailed to this day.

That was exactly twenty years ago on this day. Many nations, including the United States, condemned China for the crackdown.

Recently, China blocked all Internet access to Twitter, Hotmail.com, YouTube, WordPress, Blogger and other popular Internet websites in an apparent effort to quiet down the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Pretty typical and disappointing, huh? To this day, one is not allowed to walk through or stand on the Tiananmen Square if it is to memorialize that dark day and remember the victims in silence, that person would be escorted out and arrested by the Chinese authorities for “disturbing the peace”. That’s the mindset of denial and avoidance of their responsibilites in these atrocities against the Chinese people wanting better opportunities, greater freedoms, and much less totalitarian ways in China.