When I was approximately 11 years old, I remember being in the canned food section of the grocery store "Levels" on Montgomery Street, in Fort Worth, Texas. While my mother was carefully canvassing the shelves for whatever it was she was looking for, I noticed a Deaf man struggling to communicate with a woman in the same isle. I was fascinated to say the least. The woman gave him a dollar and he gave her a little card. He made a gesture, which I now know to mean "Thank you." The Deaf man approached my mother and I. Without taking my eyes off of him, I asked my mom for a dollar. She rummaged through her purse, gave me the dollar and I quickly gave it to him. On the little card was the manual alphabet. I immediately started to practice each and every letter. I had A-E memorized before we left the market. I practiced for days, then months until I had every letter memorized. Fast forward 38 years. I'm now 49 years old and last semester successfully completed ASL IV.
During my ASL classes, I was surprised to learn that Alexander Graham Bell was so disliked by a great number of Deaf Americans. I have always considered Mr. Bell one of the great inventors. Along with electricity, the light bulb and written language, the telephone is arguably one of the most important inventions for mankind. He originally invented the telephone because he thought it would help Deaf people somehow. Obviously, that was not the case. I mean really, they couldn't hear. Alexander Graham Bell's mother was Deaf and so was his wife. So, it baffled many people that Mr. Bell tried so hard and succeeded in banning American Sign Language (or Sign Language of any kind) from educational schools or institutions. Why would a man who became so rich and famous for facilitating communication, fight so hard to strip a culture (so close to him) from their natural language?
With my research, I hope to answer that question and many more.
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