Wednesday, March 26, 2008

For Tayler, I'm not functional because I can't hear?










For those who read Jodi's blog, I would like to say something, too!

The message from Tayler:

"He's had about 75% hearing loss since birth but uses implants that allow him to be functional." I need cochlear implants to order to funciton? I'm not functional?

Okay. I have a beautiful answer for you, so I quickly got started to write a haiku, a type of traditional Japanese poetry! Ready?

Signing speaks so well!
Wasn't it also functioning?
We are functional.


We are functional.
Because we hear and speak well
in our sign language!


Amen! One more poetry.

Speak or sign alive
No one is unfunctional
Unfunctional Dead


We all are so proud to be DEAF! Signing is speaking!
Right?

5 comments:

Candy said...

I'm sure being "functional" is a personal view of oneself and also in the eye of the beholder. I see deaf people as functional. Same goes for HOH and C.I. Others might feel C.I. is more functional than deaf.

We all compensate in other ways and in the end, it's functional...

To each his own.

Nice Poetry, by the way.

:)

Deb Ann and Hannah said...

Awww! I read it! Thanks so much!

It means a lot to me.

(got an email from Tayler)

drmzz said...

Nice poem. The greatest myth of C.I. is that it is assumed to make you more functional than being Deaf. I function fine with ASL, thank you.

Kim said...

Nice poem. Functionality sounds so cold. We're all living to the fullest extent whether we hear or don't hear.

Deb Ann and Hannah said...

Amen to all! :)