Anyone know Alex Chadwick of NPR (National) or Guy Nelson of local affiliate KUOW??

Thanks for the support, all. I had already left a voicemail for Guy Nelson before the piece aired, as Suzanne had heard the trailer and emailed me about it and the negative slant that was portrayed in the "teaser" they were playing. I have followed up with an email letter (the version to NPR national is in the Coffee Break thread). I'll just sit tight and hope that I hear from one of the contacts in hopes of being invited to come on the show and share the positive and well-ressearched counterpoint.

Aaron, yes, it is amazing the views that still persist about ASL in general. I used to teach Deaf kids and taught one year (notice only one year) in an Oral Program, which is an educational philosophy for educationing deaf kids in which signing is not used. Kids have to learn to use what hearing they have with their hearing aides and read lips. I had students with profound hearing losses who were very successful at this (and had amazing speech to boot) and kids with mild hearing losses who struggled. With improved digital hearing aides and cochlear implants an Oral approach is more possible than ever, but parents really need to decide on a case by case basis. It is quite the heated debate in Deaf Education. The thing that I found most interesting is that most of the Orak kids (jr. high) were learning ASL on the sly and often those kids go on to give up hearing aides, learn ASL and associate with the Big "D" Deaf community (people who use ASL and are very politically and socially involved in the Deaf community) once they become adults b/c they didn't feel like they fit in with the hearing community.

There is a great documentary about cochlear implants of a blended Deaf, deaf and hearing family called Sounds of Fury. A local deaf actor, Howie Seago produced it or was instramental in it's making. Anyway...there's your lesson on Deaf culture for the day. And no, Jacob and Carey...neither the parents nor the babies I teach now are Deaf, deaf or hearing-impaired in anyway. (That's an inside joke, all.)

Aaron, wow sounds like you'd have some interesting exposure to the Deaf community. I hope to meet you at an event soon!

Talk about Divine intervention....so as mentioned above Guy Nelson is the person I needed to get in touch with at KUOW. He's the News Director and is or was also filling in for the producer of the KUOW program I wanted to be on to share my counterpoint views on the nation NPR story they ran about ASL for hearing babies.

Well, last night before turning in I looked on my church's website to see what the topic would be for today's service and to see who the musicians would be. Listed among 5 guest musicians was Guy Nelson. How many Guy Nelsons could there be in Seattle?? I routed around a bit more on the KUOW site and found his bio page and sure enough, he's also a musician and actor. And he's a fellow "Cheesehead" to boot! I just about fell out of my chair!

Needless to say, I introduced myself after the service and gave him a copy of the email I sent to the station, as well as my current press release, etc. He said that he'd pass it along to the appropriate programming people and that he thinks it would be a great local story, if they haven't covered the topic yet. I don't think they have, so stay tuned!

You know what they say...ask and ye shall receive! But hey where's that winning lottery ticket I've been asking for?! ;0)

I'm still in search of anyone with connections to NPR national, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart. Oprah would be okay, too...but I'm a little over her. :P

Thanks, Judy. An additional odd, little "coincidental" twist....I went down to the Fremont market today after church to see Tara Smith and pick up a hoodie. I told her about the unbelievable week I'd had (the week involved some really crappy things and the negative NPR story was just one of a string of unfortunate situations) and no sooner did I finish my story than a young woman walked up w/a microphone and said she was collecting soundbites for an upcoming radio program and she asked us what we would grab if out homes were on fire. The three of us in the booth answered and she recorded our responses, and as she was walking away we asked her what radio show this was for and when it would air. She shouted back over her shoulder, "Day to Day on KUOW and it'll be on this Wednesday. " That is the local NPR show that I am trying to get on. SERIOUSLY SPOOKY!