i cannot pretend to know what it's like to be deaf

i hope i never know what's it's like to be deaf. i DO know a tiny bit about the deaf community (here in the greater hartford area). i hung with them for a bit when i studied sign language. it's a VERY tight community. it's a community that generally sees itself as NOT having a disability by the way.

i DO know something about a child being abused by an adult. i know how it feels. i know how it feels physically and mentally. i know what it does to you. i know you try to forget it and i know sometimes it does seem like it goes away...........................

it doesn't matter if you're deaf or hearing. it's beyond frightening. it also scars one for life. sure you can SORT of get over it, but it never truly leaves you. it's like a burr that sticks to your pants except you can't ever pick it off.

it's worse when you tell and no one believes you. that's worse than ANYTHING.

there's no excuse if you KNEW about it and did nothing, you are GUILTY TOO. it's high time for some housecleaning
(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-mennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn)

For Years, Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priest’s Abuse

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and DAVID CALLENDER

They were deaf, but they were not silent. For decades, a group of men who were sexually abused as children by the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin reported to every type of official they could think of that he was a danger, according to the victims and church documents.

They told other priests. They told three archbishops of Milwaukee. They told two police departments and the district attorney. They used sign language, written affidavits and graphic gestures to show what exactly Father Murphy had done to them. But their reports fell on the deaf ears of hearing people.

This week, they learned that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, received letters about Father Murphy in 1996 from Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee, who said that the deaf community needed “a healing response from the Church.” The Vatican sat on the case, then equivocated, and when Father Murphy died in 1998, he died a priest...........