I have watched Carl's vlog Kalalau's Korner with his strong statement of his belief with AGB as a hate crime (May 22, 2009; "AUDISM is a Hate Crime") and watched Lchaimin in DVTV with her view with a question on hate crime with AGB as well (May 11, 2009; "Does AG Bell Have Hate Crimes?").
The word-Hate Crime got me thinking and I check out on the website Wikipedia for information on this topic and this is what it describe in Wikipedia:
Hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation.
A "hate crime" can take two forms: "hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts which are seen to have been motivated by hatred of one or more of the listed conditions. The second kind is hate speech, which is speech defined as crime. While hate crimes are rarely debated, the hate speech concept is controversial, as criminalizing speech can be seen as impugning freedom of speech. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, or offensive graffiti or letters.Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime#History
The reason this got me thinking was because back in 2006, when I was in Portland State University in Oregon and I studied in Theatre Arts under one class called script analyzes in Theatre. As I study the steps in analyzing script and happen to come across a playwright called "Project Laramie," a documentary stage play story based from Laramie, Wyoming. The victim named Matthew Shepard which it passed a law called Matthew Shepard Act. This play have really made emotional impact and brought up questions in my mind. What did Matthew did to cause two young men to torture and murder Matthew? This happened because Matthew was gay. It doesn't stop here with gay issues but it had a history behind this; African-American people experienced this during the civil right movement but there's more...
Roman persecution of Christians,
The Ottoman genocide of Armenians,
The Nazi "final solution" for the Jews,
The ethnic cleansing in Bosnia
Genocide in Rwanda.
Racial and religious biases have inspired most hate crimes,
As Europeans began to colonize the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries,
Native Americans increasingly became the targets of bias-motivated intimidation and violence,
Lynchings of African Americans, cross burnings to drive black families from predominantly white neighborhoods,
Assaults on white people travelling predominantly black neighborhoods,
Assaults on gay, lesbian and transgender people,
The painting of swastikas on Jewish synagogues,
As well as attacks against European Americans,
The Murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom and the Wichita Massacre.
It goes on and on and on!!
Do we look at Alexander Graham Bell as Hate Crime? My suggestion was that you read a book called, "Never the Twain Shall Meet." This is where a "fire" started between Alexander Graham Bell and Edward Minor Gallaudet (Thomas' son). AGB believe what Charle Darwin's theory where sign language is a lower form of language where Edward believe in sign language and based from George Veditz powerful message on sign language.
I would say that AGB do not agree on sign language but those who study under AGB, practice the cruelly in education. Deaf children were tie up with their hands, slapped the hands for signing,squeezing the mouth to make them to speak or using a tongue wooden stick that is too big for the child's mouth (just enough to gags up) and many more ways to punish the child that tried to sign. It doesn't stop in the past and it is still here today. Take a look under this title; "Sex Abuse Rampant at Schools for Deaf Kids." Maine got in trouble with this and end up paying million bucks and with a apologize.
Ummmmmm.....
Sound close and much alike to Matthew Shepard's case.
AGB as a Hate Crime? I dunno but those who studied and believe in AGB's Philosophy were much far with deaf children as the case of "Sex Abuse Rampant at Schools for Deaf Kids."
Hate Crime, it's time to stop! We can't let this sweep under the rug. Not to what they did to children and abuse the power over deaf children and the parents.
Thank you for your time to read this and I hope this will just cause you to think about it and lead yourself by researching this topic.
