Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!101!460!Ron.Rothenberg
From: Ron.Rothenberg@f460.n101.z1.fidonet.org (Ron Rothenberg)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Now Silenttalk Is Here!
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Date: 16 Jan 90 03:38:43 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

 LW>> he tried to have the law passed...to forbid the intermarriage
 LW>> between the deaf people.

Bell undertook familial studies to try to link congenital deafness with
heredity, as did many others.  THey eventually gave up on direct
genetic links, since this research preceded Mendel's experiments and
his explanation of recessive and dominant genes.

I don't think Bell was an evil man.  He was obsessed with the deaf and
his love for his deaf wife.  He truly believed they could be taught to
talk to help them be a part of the greater society.  I think he may
have been misguided, but not through bad intent.  He was working from
love with the best knowledge of his time.

I think much of the pain and suffering may have been caused by his
legacy, and the fact that for so many years people took his word as
gospel, just because he was Bell.   The same is true with Freud.  We
can't question the demigods, can we?  

The sins of the succeeding scholars and educators, unable to think for
themselves should not reflect on the work of the originators.  Bell's
work was impressive and enlightening for his time.

-rsr-

... It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick-D. Barry's Mom

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