Thursday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P-O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
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’ ve been trying to learn sign lan
guage for the past two years. Af
ter speaking Japanese for two
-JL years and retaining none of it,
and after a brief and unsuccessful
stint with Spanish, I had all but con
demned myself to the fact that I am
just one of those people who cannot
pick up languages.
I was ready to give up on ever be
ing able to mark the bilingual box on
a job application, when I stumbled
upon the a small subheading of the
School of Education in the course
catalogue: Communications Disor
ders & Sciences.
I didn’t really have any idea what
this was, but I was a few credits short
and desperate to find a class that
wouldn’t infringe on my strict “no
classes before 10 a.m.” policy.
I was surprised to find out that the
University offered a Beginning
American Sign Language class. I fig
ured that maybe my problem with
languages stemmed from my inabili
ty to make the “rah” sound in Japan
ese or the rolling “r” in Spanish.
Maybe my problem was my tongue,
not my mind. So with hopes of being
able to pad my somewhat pathetic
resume with a statement of bilin
guality, I registered for Beginning
American Sign Language.
It wasn’t until later that I realized
the University apparently doesn’t
believe I should markthebilingual
box. I guess the University’s stance is
that American Sign Language isn’t
actually a language but rather is the
byproduct of a “disorder”: deafness.
This is offensive to some—myself
included—but unfortunately, it’s
not surprising.
For those who don’t know, which
is just about everyone that isn’t deaf,
sign language is not English for the
deaf.
I know that our American sensibil
ities tell us that if deaf Americans
speak it and it’s called “American
Sign Language, ” then it must be Eng
lish for the deaf. It’s not. ASLhas it’s
own sentence structure and gram
mar, just like every other language.
ASL is no more like English than any
other language. So why doesn’t the
University consider ASL it’s own
language? The problem lies in the
way society, including the Universi
ty administration, views deaf people.
The debate is whether there is
such a thing as a Deaf culture. I was
n’t aware of this until I started taking
ASL. Like most people, I was igno
rant to the fact that deaf people have
their own culture. You can be deaf
and not be a member of the Deaf
community. It depends on whether
you “speak” ASL. First off, the com
munity has its own language, and
more importantly, it has its own set
of values.
Members of the Deaf community
don’t consider their inability to hear
“disabling. ” It’s simply something
different, such as skin color or sex.
Deaf people are proud of their deaf
ness. This is why most members of
the Deaf community are so opposed
to the new cochlear implants. They
feel that by taking a deaf person and
giving them hearing, doctors are in a
way committing cultural genocide
against the Deaf community, which
they are.
It is more difficult to be deaf in a
hearing society, but so what? It’s not
easy to be a minority of any kind, es
pecially in this country. Does that
mean that doctors should develop a
surgery to make everyone into up
per-class heterosexual Caucasian
men, just because then our culture
will accept them? Of course not.
So why doesn’t the University of
fer an ASL language program? One
possibility is that if it did, the Uni
versity would be admitting that be
ing deaf isn’t a “communication dis
order. ” Rather than trying to
understand and welcome the Deaf
community, the University can just
label deafness a disability and call it
a day.
What if the University had its own
ASL program, such as the one at
Western Oregon University? More
Deaf people might actually enroll
here! Then the University would
have to provide services, such as in
terpreters, which would siphon
money from integral campus pro
grams such as stadium renovations
and batons for the newly commis
sioned DPS “officers.”
As long as the University adminis
tration continues to overlook the ex
istence of a Deaf culture, ASL will be
nothing more than a way to commu
nicate with people with a “disorder. ”
ASL at the University should be a
program dedicated to learning and
speaking the language of another cul
ture. So much forbeingbilingual.
Casey Holdahl isa columnist for the Oregon
Daily Emerald. His views do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald. He can be
reached at
choldahl@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
Male rape victims
need support, too
Before I begin, I should make it
quite clear that I think that Sexual As
sault Support Services, the Women’s
Center and the Take Back the Night
people are doing an incredibly valu
able thing, and they are doing a fabu
lous job.
However, today I noticed one of the
signs along 13th Avenue that read,
“10 percent of rape victims are men.”
Not only should it probably read, “10
percent of reported rape victims are
men,” but it brought up another ques
tion in my mind.
Ten percent of our society is report
edly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgen
dered or in some way not straight.
This statistic is quite similar to the
first. These two comparable numbers,
though, receive a quite different treat
ment from society. While we often go
out of our way to acknowledge, re
spect and accept non-straight people
(as it should lie! J,' out”brothers,”fa:
thers, lovers and male friends who
are rape or sexual assault victims of
ten are ignored and not even allowed
to talk about their pain and shame,
which is no less than any woman’s
trauma in the same situation.
We send the message to women
that regardless of what they did, wore
or said, they didn’t deserve to be
raped or assaulted. Of course this is
true, but why are we sending it only
to women? Not only do our men need
to hear this message just as much as
women do, they need to know that
they are welcome in a healing com
munity such as SASS or Take Back
the Night.
Lauren Manes
junior
linguistics/French
Date rape victims aren’t liars
I would like to respond to the letter
written by Charles G. Haller II (“Is
every unwise choice a drugging and
raping?”, ODE, May'14). I was really
‘dfstufBed byllTs opinion that most
date rape victims are liars. My ques
tion to him is: Who the hell wants to
be labeled as a rape victim? I don’t!
I don’t want my lifestyle, my in
tegrity or my sanity questioned in
front of a jury of my peers. I don’t
want to relive every detail of a night I
would rather forget. I certainly
wouldn’t want to have to deal with
the stupidity and insensitivity of peo
ple like Haller, who are so quick to
judge others by their own meager life
experiences.
For you, Haller, I have two words:
Get help.
Andrea Patterson
senior
journalism
Less sports, more scholarship
in the Emerald
' I would like to commend the Emer
ald on its editorial “shaming” the re
cent benign attempt at a reprimand
for the commercialization of sports
on this campus. I would also like to
commend the paper for its coverage
of events such as the pow wow this
weekend put on by the Native Ameri
can Student Union.
I might suggest that there is even
more room for coverage of such
events. Perhaps something beyond
the daily “Calendar” to let students
know of other student organizations
and their activities. I would go even
so far as to suggest a separate section
devoted entirely to student organiza
tions, their activities and even pro
files of outstanding members. If
sports players can get this level of
coverage, why can’t other student
groups?
If the Emerald is that adamant
about taking action against the role
sports plays on our campus, I would
suggest starting in its own backyard
by devoting less coverage to the very
sports it addresses and more to the
student activities that promote schol
arship and the pursuit of intellectual
growth.
Joseph Snider
graduate student
architecture/historic preservation
CORRECTIONS
The boxing match
between Nathan
Osborn and Greg
Baeendedina
minor decision, not
a TKOfln your cor
ner,** ODE, May 16)
The Emerald
regrets the error
A pro wrestler was
incorrectly identi
fied in the small
photo accompany
ing Monday's story
about “Rowdy”
Roddy Piper’s
benefit at McArthur
Court. The caption
should have read:
“Michelle Star,
right, throws Miss
Pittsburgh across
the ring. ”
The Emerald
regrets the error.