I believe that the hearies will never understand the deaf as long as they continue to push for "A better life through hearing"...
I am not a hearie, I am what is considered HoH living with hearies
but in reality I am deaf with HAs, is all.
I give you an example how I see CI -
suppose you - an English speaking American -were given an opportunity to learn Chinese and Spanish.
One would think living in USA, where English is predominant and legal language
both of these albeit useful, are not required nor necessary for you to learn
so why bother?
BUT they do are practical and often come handy, aren't' they?
So why not widen your horizons and work hard and learn both of these-
who knows what the benefits could be. maybe you'll get a better job opportunities, maybe just a great Chinese and Spanish friends,
maybe you will just have an immense pleasure from reading literature in the original text.
For sure you'll have easier time communicating while travelling to China and Spanish speaking countries than these who don't know these languages.
Possibilities are limitless. plus, you'll always be tickled pink with yourself
for knowing you are smart for knowing two foreign languages
I however do have to admit, learning foreign languages is not exactly the same
as surgery, so the CI can not be taken lightly.
It does have to be well deliberated before making a decision,
HOWEVER, my point about CI is to not treat it as some political declaration
but simply to use it as a TOOL. A helpful hearing tool.
Now, some people say "we can have HAs or CI but we just don't feel the need for it".
Well I can understand that, as I had a brother who was like that- he refused to wear his HAs,
except that I am afraid you can't appreciate something you don't understand.
If you don't understand sound clearly, you don't feel the need for it nor you miss it, it's as simple as that.
I was fortunate in this aspect that I was losing my hearing slowly over the years, so I experienced speech, music to the point I used to recognize languages on radio, whose voice belongs to who presently perform on the radio, and could recognize lots of lyric's words.
I know how nice it is, and what I am missing, - not that I despair over it because I don't. It was great but oh well. I moved on.
It's just if you don't know what you are missing, you are dis-missing it way too easy. So, okay, you've made your choice, but please, do not deprive your babies of this wonderful choice.
And you do, if you say "let them choose".
If it only was so easy. But it is not. And please remember -
ASL and speech - always!
Fuzzy
