A word of warning—this is a long article. So for those who’re impatient and just want a quick summary; it was an awesome experience, learned a lot, and definitely will be attending again for the next event. It wasn’t just about learning, it was about empowerment, unification, and bonding. I certainly made a lot of friends there! That was the summary—if you’d like details, read on. Otherwise, thanks for visiting!

Before I jump into my article, I’d like to state—I went there on a personal basis, not as a representative for Purple Communications. So anything stated here is of my own sole unique perspective. If some things I state ruffle some feathers, I apologize—but please remember: I tell it as I see it.

When I had first heard about DYUSA, my first thought was—it’s just another leadership camp. If that, even. I was already too busy with my job and college. I didn’t think it was worth checking out.

One day, a friend told me that I seriously needed a vacation; I hadn’t taken a vacation in years. Life was essentially taking a toll on me. That same day, a friend of mine told me about DYUSA. I had initially heard of it before, but this time the friend raved about how profound an experience it was, the kinds of friends you’d make from it, and most importantly, the new perspective on life it’d give you. I mentioned DYUSA to a couple of friends of mine—many had not heard of it, and those few who did were cynical. All of them suspected DYUSA was just an excuse to gather, have fun, and party hard. I mean, a group of yuppies? Right.

I thought about it for a while, and decided to go. Why? Two reasons: if the friend who recommended it was right, then I’m always up to a mind-opening experience. I love those kind of experiences—I’m not afraid of change, hell, I embrace it. And if the cynical friends of mine were right, that it was just an excuse to gather up and have a blast? Then I was fine by that too—I needed a vacation anyway.

I landed in Philadelphia, and headed straight for the camp expecting to see people standing around chatting, generally not really doing anything.

What I saw surprised me—everyone sitting attentively listening to two representatives from Sorenson speaking about what they had to offer to the deaf community. It was a Sorenson workshop. I watched the group for signs they were just being polite, listening without really listening. What I saw was enough to convince me that a college professor would kill to have those people in the professor’s class. Those people truly cared. They listened, fired questions at the representatives, demanded accountability, transparency, and explanations for various aspects of Sorenson’s past performance/attitude towards the deaf, and demanded to know Sorenson’s future aspirations. The entire time the representatives were taking heat, the people giving the heat were doing so in an extremely polite and educated manner.

Right at the workshop closing time, Ryan Commerson asked to say something before they concluded it. Ryan commended the representatives for having the guts to stand in front of the highly energized group, take criticisms and responding to them the best they could, and so forth. Ryan spoke for all of the group when he told the representatives that the group did not hold the representatives personally accountable, that the group understood that they simply were there representing Sorenson, that the group was deeply appreciative of their being there and for taking the heat.

Wow. That’s all I can say about the initial experience. Wow.

I was amazed at this—I had never seen anything like this- the way those people behaved with such respect, even while conducting a very passionate debate. Everyone actually cared.

This was the first time I actually wondered if I was out of my element. There were passionate thinkers, mover and shakers in the deaf community, people who actually make it a point of their existence to be influential in the political sphere.

Who am I? A tech support agent. I’m not even involved in the deaf community, nor political activism. Yes, I vote—but that’s easy to do and only takes a couple of minutes out of my time. Yes, I’m a member of MoveOn.org but only to the degree where I click on the obligatory links to sign petitions, pay them an annual donation amount, then literally move on. Yes, I donate to NAD on an annual basis, but that’s the extent of my involvement with NAD. Yes, I’ve fought against agencies such as the San Joaquin Blood Bank, and Nelnet for equal access for the deaf. But that’s only because I got burnt by the inequality of it when I attempted to use both agencies. In other words—unless it affected me directly and in an immediate localized manner—I usually didn’t bother actually becoming active in politics or activism. What I’ve done was nothing compared to what those people have done. Those people truly cared, and were selfless. So as I said earlier—for the first, and not the last time, I wondered whether I was out of my element. I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

As soon as the Sorenson workshop had been concluded, next came the NAD panel. I eyed my iPhone to see what time it was—it was well past 7. And yet there they are. Dressed casually, no less. I was surprised to see them there on a dressed down basis—it made them seem more humanized. They were there to learn more about DYUSA, and for DYUSA to explore the potential of establishing an ongoing relationship with NAD. Basically both organizations just wanted to see where they fit in the picture for each other. DYUSA explained more about who they were, why they existed, and so on. This was mainly for NAD’s benefit—but I benefitted from it as well since it was my first time there. They talked about deaf equality, activism, politics, unity, and bilingualism. With each statement uttered, it struck at the core of my being. It was as if someone was reading my mind—it immediately became apparent why DYUSA existed. NAD exists to unify the deaf for the better good of deaf people everywhere—DYUSA was similar to that concept with a single, but extremely important exception: it’s modeled for deaf youth. DYUSA was all about activism, getting out there, doing something. They eliminated parliamentary procedures for the most part, but retained the core concept to maintain some semblance of order. This fit in perfectly with the boundless energy of the youth.

I watched the faces of everyone who were listening or talking to NAD, and to my surprise—they were intently listening, and not only that—agreeing.

Let me repeat that. They were agreeing. They were actually agreeing.

I doubt I could even adequately explain to you why that was staggering to me—but I’ll try. There’s 42 people that I counted (not including NAD panel). Forty-two people of different backgrounds, different cultures, different ethics, different perspectives. And they all were in agreement. They were united. Every organization I’ve been in always has its’ factions, differing opinions on how things should be done (take republicans and democrats-they are nearly incapable of teamwork—this is why the democrats and republicans tend to fight for majority control of the house, senate, and white house—this allows them to control the agenda). There were no factions to be seen at DYUSA.

I err. I apologize, I err. I did see two factions: the vegetarians, and the omnivores. There was this mentality where when it was chowtime, the vegetarians would go get their chow first, and the omnivores had to wait until the vegetarians got theirs first. The DYUSA staff enforced this. I’m a semi-vegetarian myself—I do eat meat every once in a while, but am comfortable living without it. So when they stated this policy—my hunger made it a non-issue. Vegetarians go first, eh? No problem—I got in line for the chow and just made sure I abstained from the meat. Hunger issue solved. They were also huge on environmentalism, and they tended to look down at those who weren’t environmentally conscious. This had the side effect of marginalization. But the amazing thing is—in spite of this marginalization, even those who were marginalized just shrugged it off, and remained united, they remained involved. They continued to be steadfast in their passion for deaf equality.

Anyway, back to the NAD panel. The NAD panel also demonstrated a considerable degree of interest in DYUSA, but also displayed initial resistance to the idea of embracing DYUSA. So at that point, it was quite clear NAD would monitor DYUSA for potential future endeavors, had NAD’s blessing, but that’d be the extent of their involvement. I suspect NAD simply saw DYUSA as campers united towards a common purpose, not as an actual organization. But they appeared to be quite receptive to what we had to share with them. The panel discussion went way past its’ allocated time—and the panel didn’t even mind. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Only once the campus security came to us and asked us to please leave the building did we realize we had overextended our workshop—it was quite past 10 at that time. Everyone departed, and continued their conversations outside. I took this opportunity to peek in on several of those conversations, and to my surprise, they were still discussing what was mentioned in the panel, they were still talking about affairs that affected deafhood everywhere. This, I had not expected. I had assumed that once the day was done, the conversations would devolve back to ordinary day to day conversations about work, family, entertainment, and so forth.

When I spoke with several others, became apparent the other attendees were of the same mentality—DYUSA drastically altered their perspective, and they would be bringing it back home to apply towards their own respective deaf communities. Of retaining contact and an active role in DYUSA, I heard very little of. A few of the staff even argued that the camp should be changed from being annual to biannual. The staff seemed to want DYUSA to be seen as an organization, but also advocated strongly adopting the biannual camp approach. They seemed to be in favor of keeping all contact online, due to attendees being from all over the nation. I had personal doubts about this approach—I felt this would only enforce the camp mentality rather than increase the organizational mentality that they were aiming for. But in the end they agree to change it to a biannual basis. But in spite of this, it was crystal clear that even as a camp, everyone considerably benefitted from the camp, and would be bringing home quite a lot of knowledge and empowerment.

For this first day of DYUSA camp, even if that was just the one day—it was of a considerable impact on me. It provided me with a lot of food for thought. I also saw a couple of old friends there, and seeing them in their political capacity caused me to reevaluate my perspective of them to a large degree. I also saw a few people I only had heard of, but finally had the opportunity to meet. One I had unfortunately formed a negative opinion prior to meeting, but this was due to my general wariness and distrust of those who are in a position of power and influence. Those kind of people can basically make or break you. The power and influence they wield has a tendency to go to their head. This person had met; I had seen quite often in his films. At DYUSA, I finally got to meet him in person, and—damn. Never have I been so happy to be wrong—he wasn’t what I had expected at all. If anything, he was incredibly humble, and quite passionate about his beliefs. I quickly could see why people tended to attribute a lot of weight on his opinion.

At this point, I just realized the article I’m writing is quickly becoming a quite long one. So I’ll just wrap this up—don’t worry, I will be writing more on my DYUSA experiences.

So in other words—DYUSA made me reevaluate everything. Not just life, but everything. Politics. My beliefs. My perspectives. My involvement in the deaf community.

DYUSA was definitely not kidding when they said it was all about visual revolution—they definitely brought a revolution to how I see everything! If you ever get a chance, you definitely should go to one of DYUSA’s camps- it’s very enlightening!

For those who want the website link: www.dyusa.org

Until next time!