Dear Friends,
This will be the last newsletter for 2005. Next year we will start
the year with a big bang. The grapevine section will explain how we
will 'ring in the new year' for the deaf communities in the Southland.
Until the end of 2005 there is some very good news for taxpayers as a
result of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act (KETRA). Americans have
a long and rich heritage of charitable giving and involvement that
pre-dates any income tax code, and this year has broken all records
for giving following the disaster in the Gulf Coast states.
Recognizing that this extraordinary giving should not negatively
impact taxpayers' support of their "regular" charities like the Orange
County Deaf Advocacy Center, Congress enacted the KETRA, which
temporarily suspends otherwise applicable limits on charitable
deductions for individuals and corporations. In a nutshell, this
means that you can deduct a cash gift made to Orange County Deaf
Advocacy Center before December 31, 2005, from your taxes, even when
that gift brings your total level of giving above the usual limits for
deductibility! As you are likely familiar, those limits are usually no
more than 50% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) - under KETRA,
deductibility is raised to 100% of AGI - and 3% of the amount by which
AGI exceeds $145,950. KETRA also provides a unique window of
opportunity for making gifts from withdrawals from IRAs. We have done
plenty good to our communities. We just ask you to help us continue
the good works. As our overhead in 2004 was only 7%, 93 cents of
every dollar you contribute goes directly to funding our operations.
We are a 100% volunteer organization and social service agency and
none of our funding goes to salaries. So please give if you can! For
more information on helping us visit
Http://www.deafadvocacy.com/pledgeform.txt
Community participation is very evident in this newsletter. We have
letters in and some are quite interesting for our readers. It pays to
participate and it also pays to check the letters we've been getting!
This newsletter is your voice also, so take the opportunity to speak
out and let us be your bullhorn!
Senator Tom Harkin, always a friend of the disabled, has introduced
legislation last Friday to ensure that people with disabilities are
included in emergency preparedness and in responses. The advocacy
section has this information in great detail.
Our blue van which we use heavily to transport deaf-blind people to
events and we also use to conduct numerous fundraiser and education
activities is showing signs it will need to be replaced very soon. We
use it to transport over 15 deaf and deaf-blind people to various
events each month. These deaf and deaf-blind clients who are unable
to use the bus cant qualify for our local ACCESS program since their
system's rules make it extremely difficult to do so. Recent
complaints from community members tell us the local ACCESS system is
not deaf-blind friendly. Therefore our deaf and deaf-blind friends
are relying on us to help them participate in our society's offerings
and that is done primarily through our blue van. The wipers have
ceased working making it inoperable on rainy days, the transmission is
bad limiting our travel to local areas. We cant fo faster then 55 mph
without overheating, and the sliding door on the side fell off because
the metal cracked at the top. The van has been heavily used in
assisting us with our mission and vision statements. We would
appreciate your help in getting us a new van soon so we can continue
helping these deaf and deaf-blind people and our education and
fundraising activities. If you're interested in helping us out, please
contact us at [email protected]
Remember us as the holidays are coming up! Don't forget to use the
Albertsons, Ralph, and Food4Less Cards this coming Holidays as you
will help us with our mission and vision statements. Our iGive program
is there to help you with your holiday shopping too.
We have partnered with NetFlix to help community members enjoy movies
in the safety of their homes and our subscribers are given a gift of a
free 2 week trial membership to NetFlix. If you haven't tried NetFlix
yet, you should log into Http://www.fundraising.com/movies and be sure
to enter our group code # 521684 and enjoy your 2 free weeks of
membership and if you decide to continue the membership after the free
trial, you will help us get $10 for each new membership. Most movies
offered by NetFlix have subtitling and or closed captioning in them.
We wish everyone safe and happy holidays and prosperous 2006!
OCDAC Communications
[email protected]
-------------< INSIDE NEWS >
With our subscribership from the international communities increasing
at a steady pace, we wish to make this newsletter accessible to them
and the easiest way to accomplish this is by directing them to
http://www.babelfish.altavista.com/ and entering
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocdacnewsletter/ and the babelfish will
help our international subscribers become strong advocates for the
deaf and disability communities.
We have began planning for our booth at the Pet Expo thats coming up
April, 2006 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. This will be our 3rd
year there. The booth rules have changed and we have to have at least
90 percent of the products were selling at the Pet Expo to be pet
related. We have already sent written communications to several pet
products wholesalers asking for donations of overstock and/or
discontinued pet products for our booth. We will have our service
animal training, certification, and advocacy education materials for
the public.
We are contemplating a foodstand booth at the Whales Festival next
March at Dana Point, California. This will be similar to our
successful Fullerton Winter Festival booth.
We now stand at 60% of the stock for The New Year's event. We are
making good progress with Bob Apodaca being very helpful to us in our
booth planning.
We are considering a bowling tournament in September 2006 that will be
designed to raise deaf awareness within the bowling communities and
Linbrook Lanes in Anaheim is favored for this project. The editor
prefers Linbrook Lanes because that's where he got his first bowling
trophy at a deaf bowling tournament almost 3 decades ago. And most of
the bowlers will be from the hearing communities and the prize purse
is expected to be set at $2,500 to bring in a lot of players.
We have began planning for at least 10 educational events in addition
to our famous deaf awareness booth at the Orange County Fair. For more
information about these education events, please visit our volunteer
list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocdacvolunteer/
We are having a Bowl-A-Thon next February 18, 2006 at the Westminster
Lanes from 8 am to noon and we finally worked this out with the lane
owner. We have worked out the planning of this event and check on
http://www.deafadvocacy.com/bowlathon/2006/ for more information.
Drastic Social Security rule changes for Title II Old Age, Survivors,
and Disability Insurance and SSI programs such as outlined in
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/200\
5/pdf/05-14845.pdf
renews our calls for self-reliance ideas for organizations who serve
the deaf and disabled and our very own idea, our California Disability
Gaming Initiative idea and that can be found at
http://www.deafadvocacy.com/cdgicinfo.pdf is an idea that works for
Native Americans. Why shouldn't it work for the Disability
communities? The proposed Social Security rules will limit appeals
and create a new process that is less about truth-seeking and more
hostile to applicants.
-------------< ANNOUNCEMENT >
Take a look at our new magazine fundraiser and this is one of the ways
you can help us do the good work for the deaf and disabled communities.
The URL is http://www.magfundraising.com/GroupPage.aspx?e=788159
-------------< OUTSIDE NEWS PART 1/3 >
News People's Cover Up of Columbus, Georgia's Legal System's Complete
Injustice (on deaf people)
http://hometown.aol.com/wandadaxx1/myhomepage/news.html
Telephone first step to help deaf
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=2433652005
KCKCC students write book for deaf youths
http://www.kansascitykansan.com/articles/2005/12/19/news/local/news03.txt
Deaf Stuart woman tries to regain her hearing
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/breaking_news/13433222.htm
Airframers warned over access for disabled
http://www.flightinternational.com/Articles/2005/12/20/Navigation/177/203657/Air\
framers+warned+over+access+for+disabled+.html
Only three (percent) of hearing impaired can afford hearing aids
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=68623
Conference introduces new technology to hearing impaired students
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/12/15/news/local/news02.txt
-------------< CALIFORNIA DEAFIE HAPPENINGS >
COME TO OUR MEETUPS!
The Orange County American Sign Language Meetup Group -
http://asl.meetup.com/37/ - and the he Orange County Deaf & Hearing
Impaired Meetup Group http://deaf.meetup.com/38/ meets each 3rd
Fridays of the month.
-------------< ANNOUNCEMENT >
Even though most of us working on computers only work on one, the
average American depends on more than 264 computers per day—from the
tiniest microprocessor to the largest mainframe! That is a lot of
people depending on a lot of computers! Think of how much money could
go to the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center if 264 supporters bought
one computer each at www.iGive.com/ocdac, where up to 26% of every
purchase is donated to the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center! At
www.iGive.com/ocdac, membership is free! So hurry up and visit the
Mall at www.iGive.com/ocdac, where you can shop at 600+ stores for all
your favorite electronics and computers from Dell, HP Shopping, Buy,
Computers4SURE, The Apple Store, SONY, and Gateway!
-------------< DEAF GRAPEVINE >
We provide a lot of services to the deaf and disabled. We do that
while a Los Angeles based social service agency gets over $300,000.00
per year in funding from the California State Office of Deaf Access to
provide services in the Orange County area. From our monthly meetup
events we've had people telling us that too few people go to the
Orange County satellite office of the Los Angeles based deaf social
service agency. These people are people who work in the vicinity of
that satellite office and they say they hardly see people going there
for help. And to be seeing a 'revolving door' on deaf advocates, when
their advocates leave the office soon as they're hired, further adds
to the insult of us having to compensate without any reimbursement
their trademark of incompetence. We get a lot of people coming to us
for help while the Los Angeles based deaf social service agency gets
over $300,000 per year for the work that we do. It seems very unfair
that we have to do all the work while they get all the funds. We feel
that in the interest of fairness, we balance the picture out by
educating our subscribers of the very dark facts of the Los Angeles
based deaf social service agency. We've done this before and we will
repeat it again and again as long as they are getting paid for the
work we do for the deaf communities in the Southland. While we
discussed the possibility of a change in our minds before starting the
series in an advance notice, we got messages stating there remains a
huge appetite about the facts of this Los Angeles based social service
agency. You be ready for hard shocking information that reveals the
ugly face of the Los Angeles based deaf social service agency.
-------------< BULLETIN >
House and Senate leaders in Congress have agreed upon nearly $40
billion in cuts over 5 years. Although early reports suggested that
the agreement left out most cuts hurting low-income people initially
proposed by the House, that is NOT the case. Many harmful cuts in
Medicaid, child support, foster care, SSI, TANF, and student loans
remain in the agreement.
Medicaid: Low-income families will have to pay more than they can
afford for medical care under Medicaid and face shrinking benefits.
SSI: People with disabilities will have to wait as long as a year to
receive the back SSI benefits they are owed, because the government
has taken so long to approve their application.
Child Support: Children will be deprived of $2.9 billion over 5
years/$8.4 billion over 10 years in child support not collected
because of cuts in enforcement.
Foster Care: Grandparents or other relatives in certain states will
lose foster care assistance.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: The agreement assumes that
work requirements will be made harsher and expects states to fail and
so estimates that states will pay penalties to the federal government.
The Congressional Budget Office expects that states will in turn
create harsher penalties for poor families, causing more to lose benefits.
Child Care: CBO estimates that it will cost $12.5 billion in new
funding to pay for the harsher work requirements and to keep up with
the costs of providing existing child care. The budget deal only
provides $1 billion a gap of $11.5 billion. That means 255,000 fewer
children will receive child care in 2010 compared to this year.
Student Loans: Cut $12.7 billion over 5 years.
For more information about the conference agreement, see this paper by
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
http://www.cbpp.org/12-18-05bud3.htm
-------------< ANNOUNCEMENT >
Please visit our bookstore that has related books and different kinds
of assistive living devices at http://store.deafadvocacy.org
-------------< OUTSIDE NEWS PART 2/3 >
Columbus, Georgia's Judicial Moral View of Deaf Wanda Garner Gaddis &
Disability
http://hometown.aol.com/wandadaxx1/myhomepage/pact.html
Deaf Hip Hop Artist Speaks Out
http://www.rapnews.net/News/2005/12/19/Foxy.Brown/
MSD responds to student protest, schedules top educator
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-33/11350110109010.xml&c\
oll=5
Disabled athletes come second in Games
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/sports/2005/12/524262/
Group Provides Gifts For Disabled Children, Adults
http://www.thewmurchannel.com/news/5579346/detail.html
Montreal band helps hearing-impaired hear music
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051216/simple_plan_051216/\
20051216?hub=Entertainment
SFO to improve services for the hearing impaired
http://www.insidebayarea.com/portal/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3315167?_loopbac\
k=1
-------------< ADVOCACY NEWS >
Harkin Presses for Stronger Emergency Preparedness and Response for
People with Disabilities
On Friday, December 16th, Senator Tom Harkin introduced S. 2124, the
Emergency Preparedness and Response for Individuals with Disabilities
Act of 2005. The legislation will address the needs of individuals
with disabilities in emergency planning and relief efforts.
"Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has shown us that we need to have a
better emergency response plan, especially one that includes
preparations for assisting people with disabilities," said Harkin.
"This bill is an important step to ensure that the needs of disabled
Americans will be addressed in case of an emergency."
Under this legislation, a Disability Coordinator would be created in
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who will report directly to
the Secretary. The Coordinator would be responsible for:
* Working with local, state and federal authorities about the needs of
individuals with disabilities in emergency planning and relief,
* Developing a curriculum for first responder training on the needs of
individuals with disabilities,
* Ensure telephone hotlines and websites containing information about
evacuations are accessible, and
* Provide guidance about the rights of individuals with disabilities
regarding post evacuation residence and relocation, among other things.
The Emergency Preparedness and Response for Individuals with
Disabilities Act of 2005 will also require that 30 percent of
temporary housing for disaster victims be accessible, and usable by
individuals with disabilities, and would provide incentives to create
more accessible housing during reconstruction efforts.
Harkin is a longstanding advocate for individuals with disabilities in
the U.S. and has worked tirelessly to call attention to disability
rights. He was the chief sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA), landmark legislation which seeks equality of opportunity,
full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency
for millions of Americans with physical and mental disabilities.
-------------< DEAF QUOTES >
"In May 2005, my life was altered drastically," Rapper Foxy Brown on
her deafness
-------------< ANNOUNCEMENT >
Do you shop at Albertsons or Sav-on stores? You can get a free
community partners card at those stores and then add it to our list of
supporters. A percent of what you buy will go to helping our Deaf
youth program. If you already have a school or other program that you
are supporting, don't worry, you can add your card to support our
program too! There are two ways to add your card. You can email your
First and Last name with your phone number and community partners card
number to [email protected] or you can download and print our
Albertsons / Sav-on Community Partners signup forms at
http://www.deafadvocacy.org/AlbertsonsSignup.pdf and have your
friends, neighbors, associates, and relatives sign up as supporters
and then mail the form to the address on the
form. To reach our funding goal we need 25,000 supporters who shop at
Albertsons / Sav-on. And remember to use your community partners card
when you shop at Albertsons or Sav-on.
-------------< COMMUNITY BULLHORN >
The big bullhorn of this newsletter is going to be taking a break to
help foster the holiday cheerfulness within our society. The bullhorn
will be ready to help us ring in the new year!
-------------< OUTSIDE NEWS PART 3/3 >
Static zaps kids' cochlear implants
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/health/13440380.htm
Video Phones Enable Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community to "see" the
Future of Communication
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/11994/
Millions urged to check hearing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4535660.stm
High joblessness plagues disabled
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051220/METRO/512200361
Good news for hearing-impaired
http://newstodaynet.com/20dec/rf3.htm
SFO to install video monitors for deaf, hearing impaired
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern\
_california/13415245.htm
-------------< DEAF FRIENDLY JOB OPPORTUNITIES >
1) Temporary warehousing, hospitality, landscaping, construction,
light manufacturing, retail, wholesale, facilities and sanitation
through various employers.
All candidates interested in any of the job opportunities are required
to apply for our job placement services. Our intake form is at
http://www.deafadvocacy.org/intake.htm
-------------< ANNOUNCEMENT >
We recycle used cell phones, empty printer and toner cartridges! If
you have any of these to unload from your hands, please send or drop
them at our agency at 2960 Main Street, A100, Irvine, California 92614
-------------< DEAF FRIENDLY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES >
Begin your journey toward self-sufficiency by becoming a .WS domain
reseller! Become an owner of a _________.WS website for only $10 a
month! Includes hosting, email, and easy to use website design tools
to create a professional looking website. And all _________.WS owners
automatically become .WS website resellers and it comes with an
automatic selling program. All you have to do is lead people to your
reseller website! The WS stands for 'website'! This is an excellent
self-sufficiency opportunity for people who want to be on the top of
the .WS cyber real estate market. Take a look at the ASL video at
http://www.deafadvocacy.org/cbep/website05.wmv and if you're
interested in this self-sufficiency program please go to
http://website.ws/ocdac for an easy sign
up. Or if you do not know American Sign Language, go straight to the
reseller page at http://website.ws/ocdac for a video of the program.
===============================
Begin your journey toward self-sufficiency by becoming a Discovery
Toys consultant! Discovery Toys focuses on learning through play,
with products specifically designed to maximize learning moments, has
proven to be a success as the company has now witnessed an entire
generation grow up with Discovery Toys. Many parents and their adult
children credit DISCOVERY TOYS® products with helping them to develop
core skills and self-esteem, which contributed to their later life
accomplishments and success as adults. Beth Koenig is your Discovery
Toys consultant. Her Discovery Toys website is at
Http://www.discoverthetoys.net and this is a great business
opportunity for people disabilities. Discovery Toys is one of our
supported activities through our Community Business Enterprise Program.
-------------< LETTERS >
Hi, everyone. Even though it will be just days before Christmas and
Channukaah begin, I want to let you know that we will still have our
regular monthly gathering at the PD Mall on Wed 21 Dec. We'll gather
from around 6:30 - 9 pm in the food court area on the second floor of
the Palm Desert Mall. Hope to see you there for our last gathering of
the year.
We will not have our regular 4th Sunday bowling this month because it
falls on Christmas Day. So, our next bowling gathering will be in
January. So, if I don't see you before then, I wish you all a
wonderful Christmas, Channuka, and Kwanza holiday season and look
forward to seeing you in 2006.
Kay
============================================
Dormitory Counselor needed at California School for the Deaf, Riverside
The California Department of Education is posting an announcement
there will be an exam for the Dormitory Counselor classification. The
purpose of the exam is to determine the rank of each candidate before
a hiring interview is conducted. The candidate must submit the
application along with transcript, if applied, by or before December
23rd to the California Department of Education. The address can be
found at the site below.
The candidate is expected to attend the exam (interview) in person in
order to be ranked.
Below is a link to the job description for your information.
Any question, please feel free to email me. Thank you. FW
http://csdr-cde.ca.gov/employment/files/counselor.pdf
Farley Warshaw
Director of Residence
Email: [email protected]
============================================
My name is Mac Crary. I'm 45 years old and deaf. I am writing to you
about an atrocity. This is not just a crime. I am writing to you
about cradle to grave BEASTIALITY which began in childhood.
Additionally, the form it takes today is an unbearable outrage of
stalking, hate crime and intimidation.
My late father Ryland was Chair of Education at the University of
Pittsburgh. In 1979, in a state of traumatic amnesia, I hitch-hiked
from Pittsburgh to St. Louis to hear Robert Fripp play his guitar,
leading to invitations to a cult he operated in West Virginia.
Letters were sent to me as a child which show that I was deliberately
deafened and spelled out a war game for control of the contents of the
letters which are a script in the murder of John Lennon. Fripp blamed
me and attacked me with a full arsenal of Hollywood hallucinography,
in league with Oliver Stone, who printed my name in Cineaste Film
Quarterly after raping my retarded and deaf girlfriend. I was driven
in trauma and seizures into homelessness where I was barbarically
mistreated for several years, tormented and jeered at, etc.
The girl who Fripp's cult raped is deaf, retarded and has epilepsy.
In addition, although this was organized by Yoko Ono, they have
hounded me, demanding that I apologize to this woman who aided even
those who killed her husband, seeking satisfaction through cruel and
unusual mistreatment of me. This is the truth.
I live in Seattle and cannot get help. My mother is old and my family
unsupportive, because my sister Laura was acquaintance of those who
tortured me as a child and has depicted me unlawfully and maliciously
in efforts to downplay and justify years of sadism.
I have an extremely serious neuroplastic head injury from being beaten
half to death by men who tortured me as a child. They brutally
tortured me. When I saught to get help, my testimony to Amnesty
International was betrayed and the men I reported optioned for Hollywood.
Please do something. They have gangraped me for years. I deny
wrongdoing. They made me their hate object when I was just a young
boy. Please intervene. Please. I plead with you.
Mac Crary
315 Maynard Ave. S. #309
Seattle, WA 98104
============================================
Hi!
My name is Deborah K. and I am looking for a sign-language tutor. I
have recently gone almost completely deaf and I am having a difficult
time.
Where do I begin? Could you contact me with names of tutors in the
West Los Angeles area that would be willing to discuss my situation –
and – hopefully set-up tutoring?
[email protected]
-------------< EPILOG >
If you wish to contribute to this newsletter, feel free to send in
news, stories, and opinions relating to the disability community. Your
support in this effort to move the disability community forward will
be greatly appreciated. We will continue to aggressively pursue
justice, fairness, and equality for the disability community as it has
been doing since November 1996. We have chosen
that EDUCATION is the best way to accomplish this objective.
The Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center is a community based
organization that puts people with disabilities first in their
advocacy for equal opportunities in safety, health, and productive living.
The Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center provides services for disabled
individuals and their families in our community who need help in
navigating the social services maze. Every day people go without
proper food, shelter, and essential medical care every day due to a
variety of factors including low wages, job loss, injuries, illness,
age, domestic violence, or divorce. While all of us are susceptible to
hard times, disabled individuals are at the most risk. With the
generous support of people like you, we are able to help many of these
families and individuals not only to meet essential daily needs, but
to work toward a brighter future with programs in job training,
education, counseling, elderly assistance, and temporary housing.
Feel free to forward this email message to anyone and any of your
personal mailing lists so we can get the important messages out far
and wide and encourage them to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
To subscribe to this newsletter go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocdacnewsletter/ or send a blank email
to [email protected]
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