For Me, "Spotlight" Was The Best Picture of 2015

Tomorrow night, the Academy Awards will be handed out and I seriously doubt the film that deserves the Best Picture Oscar will win it. That film is "Spotlight." If you haven't seen it, you're not alone, but still shame on you!

This film is really exceptional and powerful, tackling the difficult topics of modern day journalism and the Catholic Church cover-up/protection of pedophiles wearing collars (priests) in Boston. It's just not the type of film that is a blockbuster and won't receive all the attention it deserves due to the challenging subject matter.

It is my hope that "Spotlight" will at least win one of the five other awards it's nominated for, so that the film will get more publicity and, hopefully, more screenings, and be viewed by more folks. More people need to see the suffering that comes from silence and the abuse of power, especially by the hypocrites hiding under their cloaks of "holiness." The hope, of course, is that the more that is known, the less likely it will be allowed to happen again.

A really horrible thing about the "Spotlight" case is that it wasn't an isolated incident. It happened in multiple locations across the U.S. and the World. Clearly; the corrupt Catholic Church repeatedly
failed to put the needs of the children in its flock above those of the perpetrators.

This hits closed to home because I spent nearly five years of my life working on a play titled "Preying Hands," which tells the story of the Deaf teens (and later men) who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a beloved priest at the St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin.

(It's not right to tarnish the entire state but I can't stop thinking that this priest and native son really put the "con" and "sin" in Wisconsin.)

And again, this horror of clerical abusing of people with disabilities wasn't an isolated incident. The same thing happened, perhaps even worse, to Deaf students in Quebec at about the same time.

If you can't see "Spotlight" at your local cinema, be sure to access it from another source as soon as you can. It' is well worth the time and effort.

ASL = Good for Deaf Kids, CI & No ASL = Bad for Deaf Kids

I don't know how many times I've seen or read about the greatness of cochlear implants and the wonderful technology behind them. It's undeniable, but dear news media, dear medical community, and dear hearing parents of deaf children, they are NOT MIRACLE CURES for deafness.

A miracle cure for deafness is when a person who can't hear can suddenly hear again without having their heads cut open and devices implanted. So please stop presenting CI with the show-biz hype and marketing spin, because it's not a 100% effective on everyone and it's certainly doesn't come without risks or drawbacks.

Need evidence, read this article recently published by the University of Connecticut:  http://today.uconn.edu/2016/02/study-of-cognitive-development-in-deaf-children-revisits-longstanding-debate/

Real miracle cures are 100% and don't have qualifications. End of story.

Now, given that it's not 100%, why in the world would you not want to give your deaf child access to sign language? And even, if it were, why wouldn't you want your kids to know ASL?! There are no drawbacks. Let me repeat that. There are no drawbacks to your CI-implanted child learning ASL to augment their exposure to language. It's all benefits.

For gosh sakes, hearing people with hearing children teach their babies sign all the time because it helps with the child's intellectual growth as well as making communication easier when the little one is pre-verbal. It's ridiculous for a deaf child not to get the same benefit, doncha think?

And yet, you have many medical professionals and oral advocacy groups still discouraging the use of sign language. Shame on you, you knuckleheads! You doing a great disservice with your fear and ignorance.

Full disclosure: my daughter is profoundly deaf, does not have a cochlear implant, and is currently an ASL instructor as well as an award-winning actress.

Wow, Six and Half Years Just Flew By

Well, it's been more than 2,000 days since I last posted on this blog. Why the extended lapse? Well, I was asked by my daughter to stop writing about her. She felt that it was an invasion of her privacy and I completely understood her concerns. So I stopped.

I suppose I could have written about more broad topics concerning my relationship with the Deaf community and the issues, but to be honest. I was tired. I had been writing about being a hearing father with a deaf daughter for nearly twenty years and I was weary of discussing the topics and documenting the ups and downs. So I stopped...well, sort of.

I actually did spend an inordinate amount of time (years) researching and writing a play called "Preying Hands." I worked with Deaf actor Howie Seago on this epic drama that spans four decades and tells the story of the survivors of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest at the St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin.

We had a couple of round table reads at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and a staged reading in Seattle for the Deaf community there. A few re-writes and development stopped, but I did publish it like you might do with a master thesis. So it available for reading but it's not a "finished" theatre work...hoping some day it will be.

More recently, my play "Silent Salzburg" received it's third production. It was produced by the Rocky Mountain Deaf Theatre this past October. I was happy that they received a lot of good feedback and recognition for the company.

So I wasn't totally gone, but I did retreat from being a "parent advocate" though I did go back to the California School for the Deaf in Fremont a couple of times to participate in new parent orientation meetings to offer advice and answer questions.

It's hard not to be a braggart when it comes to my daughter because she's done so well her whole life, but especially since she went away to college. She received her B.A. in Theatre and her MA in ASL from Gallaudet University and now teaches there. On top of that she been nailing lead roles in plays and getting great reviews from D.C. Theatre critics - topped off by winning a Helen Hayes Award for her portrayal of Helen Keller in a new musical called "Visible Language."

You can check out Miranda's brand new actress website here: mirandamedugno.weebly.com

Okay, that's it for now but I promise it won't be another 2,000 days until I post again...if you care.