Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth. This is a new ASL Radio Show. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alex Abenchuchan. I’m a fully capital-D Deaf individual. Fully capital-D, even though I’m aware that this sign for “individual” with an I is SEE. Is this sign for “individual” better? Rephrasing now: I’m a fully capital-D Deaf individual. I have a Deaf family. I graduated from Gallaudet University. I have a Deaf wife. My dog is… hearing. But you could say that he’s Deaf. Hearing, yes, but “Deaf”. He understands the ASL command for “sit”. He has Deaf instincts. My dog. I have two cats and they both are… not Deaf… Oh. I’m unpacking right now. Excuse me. (Coughs) My capital-D Deaf identity is shrinking— no, I’m okay. Animals don’t count. Okay, moving on.
What is this ASL Radio Show, why did I start it? I’ve always cherished the Deaf community. At Gallaudet, I was surrounded by a plethora of Deaf people and their minds and opinions. At the cafeteria, there was nonstop interaction of this. Ah, there I go again with the SEE sign for “cafeteria”. Um, the dining place at that building— the cafeteria. We had conversations that went on all night. Same at the dorms. We had discussions with professors where we analyzed Deaf issues and Deaf thoughts. It was the zeitgeist culture that held the Deaf community together at that moment and time of the world. The Deaf community’s place on Earth at any given year or month, the process that we all live through has always been there, but without much documentation. This process often isn’t filmed, recorded, or shared. There’s some kind of division there, which is natural, considering that the Gallaudet students are still young and the professors are busy teaching.
Looking at the hearing standards of media, they have The New York Times newspaper with a full staff and a reporter for each article. They don’t need AP or Newswire. They have real individuals for each story, flying all over the world. Washington Post, CNN, USA Today, Drudge Report, Huffington Post. These are prestigious standards and high expectations. Even on a state and city level, hearing people have good newspapers. For example, The Dallas Morning News is one of the top city newspapers. There are more standards on websites and various other places. There’s a range of top-notch standards to smaller and offbeat newspapers to niche groups. What does the Deaf community have? We have nothing. We have DeafNation, which is an exposition and a website featuring cool stories around the world, but that’s more of a special interest within its own community , which is good but not the full representation of the daily zeitgeist. As for iDeafNews, they report on what happens to Deaf people, but they don’t carry that Deaf substance and expression. Okay, what else? Deaf Newspaper, that’s okay. Moving on. We have Ricky Taylor’s blog, which is gossip for Deaf people, much like TMZ, and he’s good at it. He’s done it for a long time now and that’s his thing. But where is the discussion of the overall Deaf interaction and Deaf contribution to the world? I’d like to know who the movers and shakers are within the Deaf community, at this moment, right now. I don’t see anybody doing anything about this. I happen to have the opportunity to do this and I feel like it’s the right time to start this ASL Radio Show.
Thinking of names, I decided on The Daily Moth. Why moth? Deaf people have a tendency to always gather underneath the light or in the kitchen. Deaf people love light for better visuals, for the sighted. For the Deaf-Blind, they might still need the light because that’s where the Deaf people are. See the eye spots on the moth’s wings on our logo? The logo was designed by a Deaf person named Tim Woodford, who lives in Washington DC and is a talented artist. He visualized this design, with the wings representing our hands. Wings are the most important body part to the moth as hands are to the Deaf person. Moths are also deaf! For real, they are. Just like us. That’s how the name, The Daily Moth, came to be.
The premise of this show is every morning at 9 AM, Austin time. I live here now, so 9 AM my time, there will be a new 10-minute show. You can watch it on the website www.thedailymoth.com, on the YouTube channel, which you can subscribe to, and the Facebook page, The Daily Moth. Click ‘like’ on the page for new shows to pop up in your newsfeed and to boost the numbers on my page, which could potentially help this show continue. For now, I am the only host, but it is my goal to include other people and interviews. There you have it, The Daily Moth! I hope you’re excited. I’m excited. Let’s get this thing up and flying, like a moth. That’s all for tonight.