Letter to 100 Prominent Deaf Americans

From: DEAFSPORTLAWSUIT - Aug 10, 2004

August 10, 2004

LETTER TO 100 PROMINENT DEAF AMERICANS

SUMMARIES:

*Letter to 100 Well-Known Deaf Americans ( the names include 41 doctorate degree holders, 13 Deaflympic Games Champions, a college President, a deaf Hollywood movie actress, a priest, a former President of the World Federation of the Deaf and others ).

*Dispute Over Selection of an USA Representative to the CISS Executive Committee for the New 2005-2009 Year Term.

*The Pinchas-Scoggins Letter Exchanges.

*Eight ( 8 ) Questions to Scoggins and No Answers.

*Scoggins' Version of the "USADSF Family"?

*USA as a Dream Land for Immigrants: Is There Any Deaf Foreign-Born Person in the Executive Position in the USADSF Administration?

*Discrimination and Cronyism in the USADSF?

*A Hard Lesson for the Two CISS Autocrats-Anarchists Mr. Jordan and Dr. Ammons.

*Shall the USADSF be Sued , Too?

*August 10, 2004 is the 80th Jubilee Anniversary of the CISS/Deaflympic Games' Founding.

Attention:
Dr. Glenn Anderson, Dr.Yerker Andersson, Dr. Ben Bahan, Jed Barish, Dwight Benedict, Dr.Thomas Berg, Dr. Eugene Bergman, Martina Bienvenu, Dr. Frank Bowe, Dr. Philip Bravin, Nancy Bloch, Dr. Barbara Boyd, Dr. Bernard Bragg, Pastor T.M. Bucholtz, Dr. Bummy Burstein, Dr.Bo Byun, Dr. Simon Carmel, Richard Caswell, Jack Cooper, Mary Cordano-Dall, Dr. Harvey Corson, Mark Corson, Al Couthen, Joe Dannis, Bill Davidson, Dr. Bob Davila, Carl Denney, Sharon Dror, Dr. Lindsay Dunn, Alexander Ewan, Dr. Alexander Fleischman, Dr. Larry Forestal, Rabbi Fred Friedman, Dr. Gertie Scott-Galloway, Dr. Jack Gannon, Dr. Mervin Garretson, Reed Gershwind, Yevgenia Gertsovitch Gertz, Terry Giansanti, Elijah Gold, Jim Goodson, Bruce Gross, Dr. Lawrence Fleischer, Dr. Richard Harris,Robert Hawkins, Dr. Patricia Hughes, Dr. Alan Hurwitz, Dr. Jay Innes, Dr. King Jordan, Michael Kaika, Ray Kilthau, Billy Lange, Camy Lange, Al Lepre, Dr. Jeff Lewis, Marlee Matlin, Robert McClintock, Jim McFadden, Kathy McLeod, Tim Medina, Dr. Deborah Meranski, Ronda Jo Miller, Matthew Moore, Mark Morales, Bobbi Baim-Maucere, Jimmy Newsome, Dr.Ronald Nomeland, Mary Lou Novitsky, Myrna Aiello Orleck, Dr. Carol Padden, Dr. Robert Panara, Nancy Bloom-Rarus, Dr. Steven Rattner, Scott Recht, Vance Rewolinski, Richard Roehm, Dr. Jeffrey Rosen, Dr. Roz Rosen, Ken Rothschild, Nancy Mahoney-Rowley, Joel Silberstein, Judy Slomovic Gunter, Bobby Skedsmo, Iosif Schneiderman, William Schyman, Wayne Shook, Dr. Peter Seiler, Sam Sonnenstrahl, Dr. Ben Soukup, Richard Suiter, Dr. Carolyn Stern, Dr. Ron Stern, David Stout, Barry Strassler, Dr. Larry Taub, Dr. James Tucker, Dr. Frank Turk, Peter Wolf, Al Van Nevel and John Yeh.

copy to: the Board of the USA Deaf Sports Federation ( "USADSF" ) -             homeoffice@usadsf.org

Re: The CISS EC Candidacy Dispute

Dear Colleagues,

I am addressing this e-mail letter to each of you because I perceive each of you as an important, fair-minded  and impartial personality who has contributed significantly to the betterment and advancement of our deaf world cause in various ways - deaf education, culture, arts, theatre, folklore, religion, law, sports, media, medicine, motion picture and business. In my own view, you are also a recognized advocate and lifelong fighter for equal and just rights of every deaf citizen. Moreover, many of you, as I do know, fortunately had the CISS/Deaflympic Games connection - directly and indirectly - before.

The main aims of this ongoing communication are twofold:

1. to describe the manner I am being treated by the USADSF, and
2. after getting famliarizing with this communication below, what kind of action shall further be taken upon.

As you may be aware that soon, i.e., this coming January 5, 2005, the 39th CISS Congress will take place in Melbourne, Australia. There the elections for the new CISS Executive Committee ( herein, "CISS EC" ) will be held.

Owing to these facts, throughout this year I exchanged  a great deal of  communication - via the e-mail - with Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, the current President of the USADSF.

In our various correspondences  we discussed a number of issues. However, one issue related to the request to consider my name as an USA candidate for the CISS EC for the new 2005-2009 year term was prominently brought up in our communication.

Unfortunately, Dr. Scoggins has taken an irrational, one-sided, unjustified and uncooperative stand with me on this issue.

Allow me to present below the relevant contents of our last  July 4 and 5, 2004 communication exchanges, in which the CISS EC candidacy subject was raised.

On my July 4th letter to Dr. Scoggins I wrote, among the other things, the following sentences, in which eight ( 8 ) different questions were presented to her:

"As I see now, the USADSF has not chosen its nominee or candidate for the 2005-2009 CISS EC position yet.Since it is still an open question, will I be ever given the opportunity to be considered as one of those candidates? As you wrote in your e-mail message to me dated February 6, 2004, the sentence such as,

"If Donalda ( Ammons ) decides not to continue, then the USADSF Executive Board will nominate someone within the USADSF family."

What is your definition of the USADSF family?

As an USADSF member in good standing, am I a part of the USADSF family, am not I? In addition, you know my long-time and very dedicated  involvement with the deaf sports.You know that many years ago I was an Art Kruger protege and confidant ( you or the USADSF Board may evaluate and judge the kind of work I did with the AAAD Father by viewing, among the other things, the Gallaudet University Library archives which have the extensive Kruger-Pinchas correspondence materials ). Can not you or your Board recognize and appreciate my long-time and comprehensive experience, expertise and work on behalf of the deaf sports in the areas of leadership, administration, writing, interpreting, translating as well as my rampant  knowledge of the CISS/Deaflympic Games history? Could it be possible because I am not an USA-born profoundly deaf person, you and your Board are automatically and prejudicially ruling out my candidacy as an  USA Representative to the CISS  EC position? Or, do tell me in this great and prosperous land of immigrants, how many are there deaf foreign-born leaders in important positions in the current USADSF structure?

Thus, am I QUALIFIED to be considered  to be a candidate? Do you  mean that you and the USADSF have a candidate who has better credentials than mine?

Bear in mind, in the event your Board denies me the chance to be considered for the candidate position in an open, democrating, fair, free of bias, prejudice and favoritism manner, then I envision that there will be MORE PROBLEMS for certain CISS incompetent leaders and anarchists and even for the USADSF in the near future!"

Then, the next day, on July 5th, I received Dr. Scoggins' response, which, among the other things, produced her statements such as,

"I am sorry. I cannot comply with your below requests. Please be aware that I will not answer any more of your emails in the future."

You now see that Dr. Scoggins had evaded to answer specifically all eight ( 8 ) questions I posed to her in my July 4 communication.

In addition, the USADSF office has in its files my updated five-page long resume. Upon your request, I will be prepared to provide my such a resume, so this way you may independently review and better judge my long-time and ubiquitous "sports background."

After reading all the above, including my resume,  do you think that as a naturalized and law-abiding USA citizen and USADSF member in good standing, I am treated fairly and humanely by the USADSF President?

Does the USADSF embrace - albeit, covertly - the policy of ethnic bias or discrimination or cronyism, does not it?

Could it be possible that the USADSF is retaliating against me because in the recent times I have as an independent-thinking writer brought up to the world's attention my many exclusive stories - truthful, accurate and factual ones ( but some of them unfavorable ones to the USADSF's view ), which, as a result, infuriated certain USADSF officials,  including the latest one titled WAS THE 2004 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY RUNNER A DEAFLYMPIC GAMES MEDAL WINNER IN 1973?

Or, is the USADSF snubbing me by denying me the opportunity to be considered as an USA candidate for the CISS EC position on the basis of my national origin?

For your information, according to the CISS Constitution rules10.2.7.6 and 10.2.7.6.1, September 5, 2005 should be the deadline date to submit new proposals, including the name of a CISS EC candidate, for the 39th CISS Congress' agenda to the CISS Secretariat.

In retrospect, do consider a serious lesson of the very, very unpleasant incident.

On July 21,2001, at the 37th CISS Congress session a clique of deaf autocrats-anarchists from the CISS ( among them, were the two USADSF members - Mr. Jerald Jordan and Dr. Donalda Ammons ), in their personal self-interest and to the detriment of our deaf sports movement, orchestrated a well-planned and "behind-the-scenes" scheme against me, the then mixed resident/citizen of the USA and Uzbekistan: they denied me the opportunity to participate in the election process for the CISS EC. These anarchists did so in violation of various CISS Constitution rules. This included the fact that these anarchists committed a fireable and appalling offense: they, through their tactics of cover up, chicanery, dishonesty, intimidation, suppression, manipulation and mesmerizing, succeeded in denying all the CISS Congress delegates and non-English-speaking CISS EC members their constitutional right to deal and solve the disputable matter - my removal as an Uzbekistani candidate to the CISS EC - internally. As a result of these blatantly improper acts, since September 17, 2001 and to this minute, Mr. Jordan and Dr. Ammons as the massive abusers of both CISS and American judicial systems have been getting heavy slaps on their faces: their very costly and nerve-wracking legal case is still far from being over. That is, an appeal contesting the decision by a state of Maryland-based Judge in my defamation lawsuit matter against these two deaf Maryland-based defendants-collaborators is pending plus another lawsuit at a different and non-Maryland state venue is in the works.

Since the USADSF and its leader, Dr. Scoggins, are unwilling to deal with the now-outstanding and disputable matter - consideration of my name as an USA Representative-candidate to the CISS EC  - in an appropriate and just manner, what action shall, in your own opinion, be taken upon in order to solve this dispute between the USADSF and myself?

Shall we attempt to solve the dispute internally or shall we go to the court of law?

Before doing anything, I would like to receive your feedback first.

In the meantime, I want to express my gratitude to each of you for your concern, time, understanding and patience.

Sincerely Yours,

Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas

P.S. By coincidence, exactly 80 years ago today, i.e., on August 10, 1924, the first Deaflympic Games were inaugurated in Paris, France.
Happy 80th Birthday to the grand family of the CISS /Deaflympics!