The DBC, Kula and me...

Whenever Kula barks, I perceive that he needs to understand something. I try very hard to calm him down and to appreciate any attention he brings to me.

Some few people who deem themselves to be critics have criticized the Deaf Bilingual Coalition (DBC) for the "barking" they did in Milwaukee last month when the AGBell people convened to promote their 'listen and speak" agenda. As an intellectual who uses and promotes ASL, I would make the analogy between DBC's challenging AGBell to the difference between organic food vs. food of the artificial variety. After all, there can't be any "artificial nourishment" for Deaf babies without American Sign Language (ASL), period.

It is very difficult to fathom why Deaf babies would be denied the use of ASL, especially since their gross motor development allows its use, so the DBC's efforts were very worthwhile. A little gentle "barking" on the DBC's part proved to be quite necessary and useful. And let's not forget the second meaning of "bark," which is: "to remove the natural covering of..." The DBC succeeded in barking AG Bell bare, leaving its naked ideology exposed for the world to see.

We probably do need a term that expresses a difference between a true critic in the Deaf blogosphere compared to the critic-wannabe (or faux critic, or heckler) especially as it pertains to the recent confrontation instigated by the anti-Deafhood naysayers who waged their faux attack, or incoherent pseudo-attack against the upstanding DBC. As it is, DeafRead has allowed the pseudo-punditocracy to perpetrate their mayhem, assisted by bloggers who allowed themselves to be walked over by allowing their blogs to go unmoderated. One is tempted to say that the pseudo-pundits who launched the pretend attack against the DBC were "all bark and no bite," but actually they were "faux bark, wearing false teeth." Now that we have seen them with the false teeth removed, and the red gums showing, their true nature is clear to be seen. The DBC succeeded, while the pseudo-pundits failed miserably.

What, then, are other uses of the term "barking"? It assists us in defining ourselves through the battle of language oppression and cultural bigotry. "Barking" often helps us to learn something about ourselves. During the DBC gathering a few weeks ago the featured speakers need not have been the ones who, in a well-known phrase, "spoke truth to power" in the direct sense. Our power lies within ASL itself, the language and culture we know the best. We too need to keep in mind that ASL is a means and not an end, lest we fall into the same trap as those who believe in their "listen and speak" utopia. Language is for the living, not for the ghosts of some future as-yet-unrealized linguistic utopia.