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MICHAEL A. KARCHMER lmost exactly a year ago, I had the honor of making a presentation ..,........_ to the Association of Canadian Educators of the Hearing Impaired meeting in St. John's, Newfoundland. I gave my presentation the curious title, "Woodstock, Poland, and The Deaf Way." I used the presentation to talk about The Deaf Way, which had only happened a month before. I tried to describe The Deaf Way for those who hadn't been there, to reflect on its meaning, and to place it in some kind of context. In trying to describe the context of The Deaf Way, I expressed the thesis (now obvious) that the years 1988 and 1989 would be seen as pivotal years in this century, both in the world at large and in the world of deafness. Further, what was happening in the world of deaf people had to be seen in the context of what was happening in the world at large. Also, it seemed to me that the events of 1988 and 1989 could be compared in importance to events twenty years before in 1968 and 1969. I won't repeat my entire discussion of a year ago, but Iwill repeat the thought that in some important ways, The Deaf Way can be compared to Woodstock. For those of you who don't know or don' t remember, Woodstock, New York, was the site of a week-long rock festival in 1969 that attracted upwards of 500,000 people. Whatever did or did not actually happen at Woodstock, the event came to symbolize the spirit of an entire generation of young people living in challenging times. In an important sense, I think that The Deaf Way was the deaf Woodstock because it was the positive expression of deaf and hearing people coming together with a sense of shared community-discovering depth and diversity and finding strength in this diversity. The Deaf Way had a serious side, but above all it was a celebration of the creative potential of deaf people expressed in cultures around the world. The last three years have been momentous times for the world. When I gave my talk a year ago in Newfoundland, Poland had just held its first open elections in forty years, and events instigated by a democracy movement were unfolding in China. Of course, I did not predict the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, the incredible changes in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, and the rapid thaw in East-West relations. Throughout the world, people are striving for self-determination, for greater control over their own lives, for freedom to find their identities within specific cultural contexts. This presentation, given in August 1990 to the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (in Rochester, N. Y.), reflects on the relationship of The Deaf Way to other momentous events occurring in the still unfolding era of political and social upheaval that began in the IIlte 1980s. Global Perspectives on The Deaf Way In the world of deafness, 1988 and 1989 were equally landmark years. In 1988, the Gallaudet protest leading to the selection of Gallaudet's first deaf president was the catalyst that sparked many changes. As in the world at large, deaf people started to take new pride in their identity and began to seek more control over their own lives and to demand fuller access to the benefits of society. Just as the Gallaudet student-inspired protests were clearly the catalyst for change, I think that, in the future, The Deaf Way will be seen as a related and almost equally important event. Why do I say this? Because it pointed the way to new possibilities, reinforced new attitudes, and explored the vitality of the deaf experience worldwide. Let me expand briefly on the uniqueness of this event and why it represented a marked departure from past professional gatherings. First, The Deaf Way was not trying to fix anything about deaf people. Its purpose was to bring people together to understand and explore the language, culture, and history of deaf people through the conference and to experience these things by means of the festival. The Deaf Way was not about disability-it was about ability; it was about the creative energies of deaf people expressed in their own cultures. The Deaf Way was a professional event, to be sure, but one with a difference. First and foremost, it was designed to meet the requirements of people...

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