February 7th, 2007
Yet further proof…
The incessant mentions of vlog/blogging conference by bloggers/vloggers on DeafRead.com are getting boring and decidedly misleading at its best — none of them reflect the true pulse of what is happening across the nation. For example, I got in touch with a friend in DC whether if he is going to vlog/blogging conference? He said, “Oops! I forgot all about it. But who wants to attend one whose her head is brad-bury in her ass?†Ooh, that is a line I never thought of. Umm. (I’ll give you one guess…)
I have to take exception to the personal attack on Ms. Bradbury. Regardless of what you may think of a person, this was wholly unjustified. I sincerely hope other b/vloggers will stand up and tell Ridor the time has come for him to practice some self-restraint.
It’s apparent that even after repeated mentions that he does not care about the b/vlogging conference, he actually does care.
January 7, 2007
And these are simply posts that mention or discuss the conference in the main body of the text. I didn’t even bother to look in the comments sections for his words.
Confession: I am one of the few people who have financially supported Ridor through the donate button. I believe that the deaf world needs contrary and controversial voices to force issues to the fore. While my contribution to his living expenses was probably insignificant, I am appalled that those funds have contributed to ad hominem attacks on people like Ms. Bradbury who, for all intents and purposes, is still a private citizen.
Perhaps the time has come for the readership of Ridorlive to realize that this so-called “pulse” he proclaims to have of deaf-America is really a gag akin to The Colbert Show: he’s masking truth for parody.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Neil!
Thanks so much and you prompted me to response on his site. I certainly hope others will stand and speak up as well.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Good points. I’d like to clarify one thing: Ms. Bradbury is a public servant-not a private citizen. She is paid, like all Gallaudet employees, as if they work for the federal government. They also receive the same benefits package as most federal workers. People who work for Gallaudet, for example, get the same retirement package (FERS) as most workers who work for the Federal Government. Hence, she is a public figure. Also, she is a Professor-hence she is a, by definition, public figure.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:50 am
And one final piont please…if you really are upset at Ridor, then please do something about it..like stop giving him money.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Thanks, Joey.
Rjstj13: Are you saying that just because someone receives a paycheck from the United States Government that they’re automatically public citizens? I disagree strongly with that idea simply because the vast majority of the federal workers are not decision-makers. The only federal employees that I would consider to be public citizens would be those that are appointed by the President.
Regardless of her position, it does not excuse posting personal insults. For example, if I thought Dr. Davila was a lousy job, I might say so and stipulate the reasons for that but I certainly wouldn’t call him “an ass” or some other vulgar names.
I have no control over what Ridor posts. That said, would I continue to support him financially? If I felt he could make constructive posts that touch the edge without going over, sure.
Like I said, I believe Ridor has done an incredible job bringing controversial and contrary viewpoints to the fore and let me stress this: THIS NEEDS OUR SUPPORT.
However, there’s a fairly clear line between bring controversial and being crass & rude and in this blog posting, he crossed over that line big time.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:03 am
rjstj13, actually, Jill Bradbury chose to have this conference. She could have saved herself a lot of trouble, but she did this for Gallaudet and for the community. That went above and beyond the call of duty. I feel this invalidates the point about her being a federal employee.
And yes, people, leave comments on his site, please. He needs to hear this again and again. It’s fine to be who he is, but these types of attacks are just wrong and he needs to hear it. Thanks, Neil!
February 7th, 2007 at 10:10 am
If a blog or vlog using vulgar and sexual languages, deafread should make a disclaimer that persons of age 17 and under be forewarned the site contains sexual languages. We do not need parents threating to sue because of the words used are of profound sexual messages which is not suitable for non-adults. A lot of bloggers are school teachers and they would want their students to follow up with D/deaf related events.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:25 am
People:
Jill Bradbury is, in fact, a public servant. All of us who work for the Federal Government are public servants, not private citizens. Ms. Bradbury is NOT a Private citizen-she gets paid with public money. She is -like all Federal employees’ are- bond by the same code of legal and ethics as a government employee.
We are public servants. You are mistaken in the notion that only elected officials are public servants. We serve the public-elected officials are voted in and out-we do the majority of the work. We risk our lives everyday for the public. Jill Bradbury is a federal employee per say- she is a public servant.
As far as Ridor goes-YOU complained about him -not me. I was only suggesting if you really want to do something about him-then don’t pay him!
February 7th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Also- your definition of “public servant” is one that most experts would not accept. Most experts would give the term “policy makers “to those people-there is a big different between “policy makers” and “public servants”
February 7th, 2007 at 10:46 am
To Cali:
Your point about about Jill not being a federal employee is confusion to me. I do not understand why you would ascosiate Jill going out of her way for this conference with her being a federal employee? Federal employees often go out of thier way to help the poor, the hungry etc. etc.
When Hurrican Kitena(spell?) hit, for example, it was the federal empolyees who risked thier lives. They are still down there, when everyone eles has left the region (media). When the FBI is called in, agents often do’nt sleep until they solve the case.
Federal employees often do go out of thier way.
I don’t understand your point.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:00 am
I’m sorry, but he totally lost my respect. He can’t even swallow and take it like a big man, which is apologizing or making ratifications.
I will always remember him for making a huge impact during the protest and one of the first bloggers to start spreading the disease for to-be bloggers or vloggers. But that’s the only respect he has for that and only that – in my eyes, anyway.
He is very good at providing entertainment, but that has been affected with his attacks and grudges - which is perfect example of his not willingness to put things aside for the best interest of the Deaf Community or Gallaudet.
There were things I didn’t agree with him, but I respected him…but if it was HIM, you better watch out. That is the message he’s sending out.
I’m sorry to say that he has been not part of the Deaf Unity and certainly not thinking for the welfare of future Deaf Community – especially Gallaudet’s welfare when he was asked not to say anything about the second demand being met.
If he truly did, he would have kept his word on the 2nd demand or not publicly attacking Jill or any other bloggers who also make important contributions to the Deaf Community because it would clearly hurt the Unity for all.
That tells you a lot about him. Sorry, Ridor.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:06 am
rjstj13: Maybe I’m not understanding you here but where does it become permissible to insult a person, regardless of their standing as a public figure or private figure?
Before I go further, yes: Ms Bradbury is a public servant in the sense that she is the indirect recipient of taxpayer money via Gallaudet but that does NOT make her a public figure. rjstj13: I suspect we are discussing semantics here and not
Here’s the definition of public figure. Perhaps it’ll help you understand where we’re coming from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_figure
I’m not clear on what you’re talking about in regards to your response to Cali. PEOPLE go out of their way to go above and beyond. The guys on my fire department do it daily and they’re not even paid by anyone. Cali was simply making the point that Ms. Bradbury could simply have sat back with a bucket of popcorn in hand instead of working on the C2I approach.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:50 am
If I read her statement correctly, Cali equals Jill as going beyond the call of duty as not being a public servant. I was just trying to show her that public servants DO often times go beyond the call. That is all. I do teach Public Administration at a well-known public university- so I know what I am talking here.
And yes-it does make Jill a public servant-just as much as you are a public servant.
I can insult you, for example,-and get away with it- because you are in fact, a public servant (a fireman-by the way- God bless you! Many thanks for your service…we need more people like you). Courts generally have a very high standard of free speech (the Free Speech Rule).
There are two exceptions to the Free Speech rule:
1) I am not allowed to say anything that would incite a riot or do bodily harm.
2) I am not allowed to liable you.
Also, Jill, because she teaches at a university, is considered a public figure. As such, the bar is even higher. I, myself, often get insults from a lot of people. But because I am a professor, I cannot, really, do anything about it…(other than remember who they are, and if they take my courses, I can place them in an unconformable position, Smile).
Now, please do not misunderstand me. I agree with many of you… Ridor needs to “shut” up a lot of time. He really does needs to be more respectful. But…other than stop giving him money… there is really nothing we can do to change his behavior.
Take care.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
rjstj13: Thanks for the kind words.
I’ll freely acknowledge that beyond withholding financial contributions, there’s not much we can do. However, calling attention to it (at the risk of emboldening his behavior), IS the right thing to do and I appreciate the folks who have commented here and on his blog on the matter.
After all, there’s a quote that I’m pretty sure I’m mangling: “the antidote to free speech is MORE free speech.”
February 7th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
One note: I’ve gotten some comments that have insulted Ridor personally. While we’ve taken issue with his choice of behavior and words, I will not condone personal attacks or namecalling.
Thanks!
February 7th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I agree that ad hominem attacks and personal insults should not be tolerated. These are not only hurtful but can divide the deaf community so as bloggers we need to have a social conscience. We need to encourage unity.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Ad Hominem and personal insults not only hurt the individuals, but also divide the deaf community, making unity difficult to accomplish. These attacks only reflect poorly on the person doing the insults.
Personally I have a high respect for Jill Bradbury’s brillant idea of providing an academic analysis on the impact of deaf blogging/vlogging on Gallaudet. I hope I’ll be able to meet her in person and that there will be more conferences to come.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Oh-yes, I totally agree with what Misha Zena and you said, neilmcd. I really could’nt agree more with both of you! SMILE, Hands waving!
Take care, both of you.
February 7th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I didn’t read that specific post until you brought this up. I’m very happy with your post and the comments above which were still respectful in light of a childish statement that is only designed to hurt a person.
I know that Ridor can be testy at times, but he went way over the line again. DeafRead is now in middle of developing guidelines and it’s likely that this issue will be addressed as well.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Good to know, Jared!
Ridor’s behavior was totally inappropriate and I’m glad to see us dealing with it!
February 7th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Jared; Thanks for the email.
Actually, this is food for thought. I think DeafRead should continue to post things like this. It serves the purpose of ensuring bloggers take responsibility for their words as opposed to someone posting defamatory comments on some remote corner of deaf-blog-dom.
-N
February 7th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
DeafRead Committee,
Please delete the orginal winner, as of Ridor, for the Best of the Blog 2006 Award so that we can vote again?
Neil, are you going to contribute Ridor again if he apologizes in public? I sure hope not…
February 7th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Just read this quick because I do not have the time. But please remember: It was not my comment. It was delivered to me by a certain friend in Washington after I asked him if he attended the vlog/blog conference. I thought it was interesting of him to slam Jill.
With or without DeafRead, RidorLIVE shall survive. After meeting hundreds of individuals at Gallaudet Protests, NAD Conference and Winter Deaflympics, I am totally convinced that the good numbers outnumber the bad ones. Many said that they bookmarked my site so that eacy morning, they click it first and foremost of all. To me, that is quite a huge compliment.
Why is that you guys think I’m angry? I have no time to be angry. I think several individuals can confirm this last night when I arrived from the Vienna Bistro in Downtown SLC, they asked me. Yes, I was annoyed that Jill Bradbury passed a judgment on me regarding my character. But that’s it. Only 75 people and 500 witnessed the event cannot be compared with the one in Salt Lake City’s 5,000 participants as well as livefeed of thousands for games.
I want to push the Winter Deaflympics to the next level — instead of being well-known in the Deaf Community, I want it to transcend both worlds. It was such disheartening that DeafRead.com decided to freeze its website for several hours all day long to bait people to get in C2I website instead of going ahead to add more entries on it all day long.
I find it biased and inane. But angry? Nah.
No time for that emotional outbursts. The dates that you listed occurs when I get tired of getting emails from various people asking me what I thought of the fiasco associated with that woman and conference.
Cheers,
R-
February 7th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Mookie, I disagree. Ridor, for 2006, probably had the best blog. It’s up to him to make sure that continues to 2007 with a new direction in favor of constructive postings.
I don’t want him to apologize. That’s not something I can do. All I want to see is an effort on his part to be a constructive blogger rather than a destructive one.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I agree with Mookie has good idea.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Whether you like Ridor or not, he had rightfully earned his award. The 40% of the voters voted his the best blog of the 2006.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Mookie, if we vote again, Ridor will win again. You are a bad loser. Accept the fact that Ridor has the best blog of 2006. I check on him and few other blogs every morning. We don’t have to agree with him or any bloggers but we are reading them like we read the newspapers whether we like to hear the Iraq or dirty politics… we keep buying the newspapers. Same for Blogs.. We read them… and decide to agree with them or not. Face it… Ridor is THE best blog in 2006. You can’t change the fact in the past. And we are in 2007. 2006 is behind us now. Mazol Tov to Ricky and many other winners!!
February 7th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
FYI folks: I’m traveling out of town on business the next few days so comments may not appear as quickly as they usually do. Be patient.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Im really happy to hear this being discussed. This is the way to heal….dialogue and “groupthink”
Personal attacks are never appropriate–period!
February 8th, 2007 at 12:32 am
After reading firefighter’s entry and all the comments below, I can’t help but be reminded of a point Supreme Court Judge Antonio Scalia made in the notorious Flynt v. Falwell case (the supreme court case that inspired the movie “The People vs. Larry Flyntâ€).
This isn’t a direct quote but I believe it captures the crux of what Judge Scalia was trying to say: “Bad taste isn’t illegal.”
Just as Flynt was entitled his right to publish a cartoon of Falwell losing his virginity to his mother in an outhouse, I believe Ridor and his friends are equally entitled their right to devise up humorous witticisms out of Jill Bradbury’s name. I’m not saying it’s morally right, but I’m damned sure it’s not illegal.
February 8th, 2007 at 4:24 am
“Walk” - No one said what Ridor did was illegal. (why do I think this has become a recurring issue in this blog?) Rather, they’re simply pointing out he’s not helping with a cause he often tries to assume as his own: “Unity”.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I thought the “brad-bury” line was kind of funny myself.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
rjstj, Neil hit the nail on the head when he addressed our discussion. Thank you for your explanation. I remain unclear on some parts of your discussion, and do not agree on what I understood, and my undergrad degree prepared me for admission to one of the best law schools in the country (no, I don’t practice law right now), so I have credentials to back me up, as you do. I guess we can agree to disagree.
February 8th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
But, Neil, admit this — s/he is right, like it or not.
R-
February 8th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
R- who is right?
Jill, you’re a bigger person than most of us would ever be. I’m not sure I would’ve reacted similarly.
-N
February 8th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
McD’s-
Just so I can be sure that I understand you right.
Ridor is bad for ‘unity’ because he voices his opinion with no frills attached. As opposed to people who agree with each other in fear of being criticized for being dissenters. Perhaps you’re right.
But know what; if you’re really right, then I want nothing to do with your ‘unity’.
I know that sounded abrupt. I want to be sure that people understand my point clearly. Yes, Ridor is coarse, unrefined, and goes completely overboard at times, however, his coarseness is absolutely necessary. Dissent can’t be presented in a nice little box with a pink bow on top.
Yes, he goes overboard sometimes but that’s the trade off we have to make. Take those many moments when Ridor goes overboard with a grain of salt, and listen in earnest when he’s absolutely right.
Besides, bloggers of Ridor’s species are like the Lernaean Hydra- cut one head off and two sprouts up. I don’t think we need two, three, or three hundred Ridors, the one we have fufills the Deaf community’s need seamlessly.
ps. It makes no sense when you host a blog/vlogging conference and don’t invite Ridor. His website was undeniably one of the biggest factors in the protest, it’s an insult to him when you consider all he’s done. Not only does it make no sense, it undermines the validity of the conference itself. I think he’s completely justified in his indignation.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Jill has integrity indeed.
February 12th, 2007 at 12:19 am
I’m referring to “Walk A Mile”’s comments.
You argued for unity. Well, I just had a conversation with few USDSF officials about that. They said that by hosting the vlog/blogging conference, they ultimately undermined the unity of Deaf community, especially with the one that was planned for years in advance.
You said that I undermined unity when I slammed the conference, well — others sees it differently.
But no big deal. Like I said, it was a making a mountain out of a mole (hill?) — whatever, I’m too exhausted at this point.
R-
February 12th, 2007 at 8:23 am
R-
I fail to see how USDSF folks could seriously consider the v/blogging conference as undermining unity. The simple truth is that not many people can afford to attend the deaflympics and the conference served as a function of unity simply on a different level than the deaflympics.
I SERIOUSLY doubt many people (if any), were seriously torn between attending the deaflympics and the conference.
(and yes: the expression is mountain out of a molehill)
Stay tuned.