Due to recent events and the fact that tomorrow is the 4th of July, I started thinking about freedoms that Americans enjoy or take for granted, deafness and privacy. You see, there's been a lot of brouhaha about our telephone conversations being "monitored." Being deaf, I gave up privacy involving telephone conversations years ago. I really had to laugh at hearing people having an absolute hissy fit about this. I began losing my ability to understand speech over a voice telephone in late 1979 - through the early 2000's. By 2000, I was using either TTY's or text pagers. All were telephone conversations that required a third party to read my text speech to a hearing person. Nothing was spared. Health information, credit card information, sensitive conversations. The Caller Assistant (CA) could have easily shared sensitive information to anyone but didn't.
I will observe my third CI anniversary on October 12, 2013, and I have been bilateral for a little over 17 months. I don't use TTY's anymore. I use a captioned phone and a voice-data smartphone. Today I made some business-related calls using my captioned phone and the connection from the business I was speaking with was not the greatest quality. I suspect the customer representative was using a wireless headset because the audio kept cutting in and out. Thank God for voice recognition software. There was absolutely no privacy during this phone conversation. There was still a third party using voice recognition software in transcribing the phone conversation for me.
I'm still a deaf person with two cochlear implants. You think monitoring telephone conversations is lacking in privacy? What about deaf people whose first language is American Sign Language (ASL)? Now THAT's an "open conversation"! Signing for all the world to see. There's nothing secret or private about ASL. Everybody knows your business.
I recently attended a convention in the Pacific Northwest, and for the first time post cochlear implants, got taken aside by a TSA Agent. I was surprised - I didn't hear any warning bells or see any flashing lights - I am old enough to remember when my Behind The Ear Hearing Aids used to trip magnometers at the airports (pre-9-11) and I would tell security that I wore BTE's and was deaf. That was the time I usually got "wanded."
Well, Post 9-11, security at the airports has changed, so here's what happened. I was shown a picture of a human body with "hot squares" that had lit up the wave technology scanner. It reminded me of Star Trek. The TSA Agent, who was a woman, patted me down, using the edge of her blue gloved hand. I wasn't embarrassed, but it did make me think about all the fuss about the body scanners allegedly showing the size of body parts, particularly what the guys call "their junk." The TSA Agent was very professional and no, I didn't feel violated.
Next, she took me over to this machine that spit out a strip of paper and she took the strip of paper and tested me for residue. Nothing. I was cleared and I went on my way to my gate to wait for my flight. Now I don't doubt the horror stories of passengers who have been humiliated by improperly trained TSA agents who required the passenger to reveal a colostomy bag in the open or whatever. Fortunately, these incidents are few and between, and the exception.
I grew up a deaf person in a hearing family. My view of "privacy" is different than that of Hearing people.
The revelation that the National Security Agency has been monitoring phone calls or phone numbers is not funny. I get that. But as someone who is deaf, uses bilateral cochlear implants, I gave up privacy to a certain extent. Does it bother me? No. It is simply a way of life for me as a deaf person with two cochlear implants. I would rather forfeit a little privacy in order to keep my country safe from terrorists and others who would do us harm.
There were people who died to give us the right to vote, practice what religion we choose, free speech, the right to criticize our own government, and as a deaf person, to choose to hear with cochlear implants. We now have rights that we didn't have 40 years ago.
As you celebrate the 4th of July, remember, Freedom is not Free.
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