The End of a System

We have to destroy this system.

Do you ever wonder if maybe it’s not just the case here that individuals who occupy these positions, these Offices, were corrupt before they occupied them?  Maybe it’s also the case that this system–built as it was and is upon the foundations of colonialsim and the colonial mindet (translation: Masters looking out over Slaves)–automatically sets about corrupting those who were once good and decent individuals.

Of course I’m not going to name names here, or make a direct accusation of any kind against any standing Administrator at Gallaudet.  What I’ve said above is meant in the most general sense, really.  I’ve lost at least one former friend to Administration, plus I find myself unable to become friends with another individual who was formerly an administrator.  I’ve seen–and thus I know–that people undergo changes when they make the transition from Faculty to Administrators (and back).  These changes, in my experience, have not been pleasant–neither to me nor the Administrator undergoing them.

I think that this system was built to maintain power only at the highest levels because the history of the Deaf in America echoes the histories of all minorities once colonized: the relationship between Master and Slave.  I think that prior to 1988 we were slaves to the ideas and ideals of the Hearing.  We were starting to come sharply awake as we approached that year, and then in an explosion of awareness and victory we started to realize who we were and what we could be–all at the same time.  But then we were drawn to sleep again, because we tried to channel all of that newfound, beautiful, enormous energy into the cold, stone passageways of this system.  Gallaudet wasn’t built to foster the growth and development of Deaf Culture–it was built to get deaf people away from hearing people.  Deaf Culture was a side-effect of that original purpose.  These schools were never meant to bring you together and make Deaf people grow together.  They were meant to keep us locked away and invisible.

And that’s why we went to sleep.  This system took on a life of its own–a dark mirror-image to the life we took on as our own during DPN–and  started sucking the energy for creation we discovered back then right out of us.. practically as soon as IKJ officially took office.  What else do you think has driven people to such insane lengths to stop this protest?  It’s the system’s jealous and terrified–albeit delayed–reaction to the euphoria of DPN.  I think this system feels that it failed miserably when the students won in ‘88.  It cannot and will not allow itself to be defeated again.  If the students win one more time, there will be no remanent of the Master.  A whole mindset will have died, and with it any hope the concept of colonialism might have had for a future.

I think that if we destroy this system, we will defeat a powerful force of corruption in and of its own right.  And maybe if we can do that, the people who eventually come to occupy various administrative positions here will take care of themselves.

heuer_chris@hotmail.com

reprinted with permission by the author

email contact: mishkazena@aol.com