I share the same sentiments about McCain. He never once investigated or listened to the stakeholders. When the BoT realized their errors and terminated JKF, he jumped the boat, claiming he couldn't support BoT's decision. I didn't believe him,,,, feeling it was because of his incoming presidential campaign and that he doesn't want to be associated with Gallaudet negatively.

The former Gallaudet administrator Holt told me he contacted each Board member five times to inform them about the missing four million dollars... that he was asked to commit perjury, which he refused to as he had never received the four million dollars granted to Gallaudet by Congress for security improvements. Even though McCain was working for Congress, he never investigated this allegation of the missing four million dollars paid by the taxpayers. That amount of money is nothing to sneeze at. If he didn't care about Gallaudet while he was on BoT and never lifted a finger to try to resolve the conflicts between the stakeholders and the administrators at Gally, how can he run a country? 

True, Deaf Community united and revolted. In the past, Deaf Community was plagued with intolerance to diversity within itself. I had hope that the protest would indicate that the Deaf people would finally unite and work together, avoid cultural infighting. However, unfortunately the unity was transient. We witnessed serious infighting the last few months, leaving Deaf Community more polarized  and fragmented than before. Yet, the Deaf Community is still empowered and making progresses, being more proactive with groups working separately.  DeafRead and DVTV helped mobilize the Deaf Empowerment after the end of the protest.

However, Gallaudet was saved and is doing better now than before. The academic quality was raised to a higher standard. These young Deaf warriors made a big sacrifice and we are forever indebted to their courage. They did it out of deep love for their Gallaudet.

McCain isn't a good candidate for President of the United States. His moral fiber has been called into question in addition to the platform of the Republican Party, which this year favors the wealthy with tax cuts while the middle class and the poor will be hit with increased taxes once the current tax cuts have expired. On the other hand, the Democratic platform is the reverse: tax cuts will be continued for the moderate income people while the wealthy will be dealing with increased taxes meant to bolster Social Security.

I have a great many relatives who are diehard Republicans so I have sent around an emailed letter to them describing McCain's behavior at Gallaudet last year and why I would not be supporting him for any office.

Also, he wooed a younger, wealthy woman while still married to a disabled wife and mother of his children, and divorced her to marry the second woman while attempting to give the impression to the press that the two relationships were at different times. The press did a simple check of dates in the records offices and verified that he was lying. One might argue that one's personal relationships and one's political works are different areas of ethics. I don't think so. Ethics comes from an overall philosophy that is part of the self.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for this short update. What I feel about McCain is that he stood at the wrong side at the Gally protest. The flaws of those Gally leaders were so clearly exhibited during the protest. Everybody knew these. Still, these leaders acted as unquestionable characters. But they were not. Their authority could not be respected anymore. I think a lot about the source of their arrogance. I realize that they felt protected. That is why they defied all common sense and all human reason. Who protected them? Well, who else than someone with access to the highest levels of politics and power: the senator himself. For me it means the senator is cannot be flawless himself.

I could envision a 2nd year anniversary reunion of Black Friday. Gally protestors should gather in DC to remember and make a point about our fight. Also, make a point about the senator's flawed actions during the Gally protest. I guess it would be a time when our voice could be heard again in the news media. Of course, it only works if there are people at Gallaudet who want this to happen. I don't know if they would.

"We witnessed serious infighting the last few months" you say. I am saddened to read this. Being out of the loop, I have no information whatsoever about many thing that happened. I hope this recent troubles can be fixed. We would need unity again in order to be heard.

testing_the_truth

Dear Diane, I agree with you about McCain's character flaws. We may know a little more about him than the general public, because we learned about his staunch support for the previous Gally leaders. Why did he support them? How could he stand behind these leaders who were so arrogant and hurt so many people? Why did he want a failed administrator to be the next president of Gallaudet University? Well, obviously because he is just like them. He also has the same kind insincerity, the same kind of disregard and the same kind arrogance in him as those leaders had. That is why he supported them. And that is why we must not support this person to be the next president of the United States!