The Power of Twitter
The online store, Amazon.com is now embroiled in an intense controversy due to its labeling GLBT books as adult, effectively censoring these books. This tactic apparently began back in Feburary, and it wasn’t until this weekend, when Twitter bloggers took up the cause with the tag of #amazonfail, that Amazon.com declared it was a glitch and they’re supposedly investigating it now.
This kind of cyber-activism is right up the alley of the Deaf Community. We are well-versed in cyber-activism, as DeafRead’s official blog post stated. Imagine if we started to do more than just letting DeafRead link to us, but also started to link to each other’s blog posts, which would lead to our blog ranks increasing in many search engines, making us even easier to find.
Then we twittered about it with the right tags.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that DeafRead doesn’t do enough for the Deaf Community. However, if we truly want to effect social change as so many of us claim, we have to reach out beyond the borders of our community, to the masses.
Just like the GLBT community and their allies did on Twitter to take on Amazon.com and their shameful censoring of GLBT books. So what are we waiting for? *tweets*
Twisted Irony
For those who follow the news, it’s impossible to escape any news story about Rod Blagojevich, the Governor of Illinois who was impeached yesterday by the Illinois House. The more the news expose him, the more unbelievable how corrupt this guy is.
On September 12, 2007 Governor Blagojevich signed Illinois Senate Bill 259, which established statewide licensing standards for registered interpreters for the deaf.
Then it was publicized on CNN and on some media outlets this week that Blagojevich hired a woman to interpret for the deaf, when her only experience was a one-week class in sign language when she was in grade school.
Talk about twisted irony…!
