Part 2 of 6 video clips taken in Sacramento on the day of International Celebration of Sign Languages. 9/27/08. In this clip, Lyle Hinks leads the flag salute, and event host, Richard Ray, President of California Association of the Deaf (CAD) welcomes the Deaf Community in the Celebration of ASL. (Transcript below)

Transcript:

Lyle: …One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Sheri: I’m Sheri Farinha. I’m so thrilled to see all the people who have come here today. (Hands Waving) Whoo! Now, I want to introduce the person who has hosted this event. Now, here is the President of CAD (California Association of the Deaf), Richard Ray.

Richard: Thank you Sheri. WOW! We are here! HERE at the state capital! Why? To celebrate ASL! I want to share a story. We have many wonderful speakers today going on all day. I will start with our story…

It’s truly a wonderful and beautiful day here today. We are happy to collectively gather together in this location to celebrate our culture and our language — ASL! It’s a wonderful feeling that we can come together and sign freely in our language. It’s a wonderful feeling that we can sign and express joy in ASL. We can intricately describe the works of Albert Einstein, the gifted scientist, using our language — ASL. We can described the smell of a flower and how it grows and blooms using our language. Our language is American Sign Language — ASL!

ASL is a wonderful, useful and important language.

Three thousand years ago, Confucious, the Chinese philosopher once said, “Communication is everything.” Likewise, “ASL is everything” to us in the Deaf Community. Right?! Right.

We can succeed in life! We can debate in the court room using ASL! We can freely tell our stories. We can cast our votes for McCaine, Obama or maybe Richard Ray (No, no, I’m kidding). We have that freedom!

My friends, please help us legislate ASL as the official language of Deaf people. There are several ways to accomplish this. You can contact your Congressmen, your Senators or Assembly Members. Ladies and gentlemen, in this world of education, please help us open the windows and doors and throw out the communication haze and fog. Throw them out of the room! With ASL, we have CLARITY. With clarity, we can absorb information like a sponge. With ASL, it won’t bounce off. With information, we can achieve. Clarity is truly amazing. Yes. We have a right to that clarity. Yes. Yes.

I will close with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King. “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God, almighty, we are free at last. We have work to do. This is only the beginning.”

Again, welcome to the ASL Celebration.
Thank you!

(Cheering)

Posted by LaRonda on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm.