There is a blog over at DeafDC.com that says pretty much what you’ve said.

TC…You summed up your feelings about the needs of minority vs. majority: “The problem in my mind is that this is another case of a select group of people wanting the world to orbit around them.” and further: “Captions on the big screen is pushing the needs of the few ahead over the needs of the many.” Please consider that our form of representative democracy was crafted by the founders with a very very important principle….one that was central to the design of our Congress. They recognized that in a completely democratic system, there was the danger of hegemony of the majority…something called the “tyranny of the majority” by the Englishman, John Mills… Here is a somewhat lengthy excerpt from John Mills essay on Liberty: “Like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was at first, and is still vulgarly, held in dread, chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities. But reflecting persons perceived that when society is itself the tyrant — society collectively over the separate individuals who compose it — its means of tyrannizing are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development and, if possible, prevent the formation of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own. There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence; and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs as protection against political despotism. — On Liberty, The Library of Liberal Arts edition, p.7.”

Our founders built in mechanisms such as checks and balances in legislation to prevent monolithic, autocratic, of oligarchic dominance of government. To prevent social dominance of one group over others is more difficult, but still essential. Please consider this important point. For me, the essence of being a patriotic American is to uphold these ideals…even when they don’t directly impact me (I am hearing)…. I can’t turn my back on fellow Americans … I feel that we all have to make accomodations for each other to make this country great. It is more than just a good idea…it is also our law.

i wonder if there’s a place where the sign language would be the dominant communication and you would not be able to understand, and i promise that you will scream for the rights to have the interpreters. would you scream for the same rights to have voice interpreters? i think it’d be a great opportunity for you to taste your own medicine for criticizing Deaf people. i guess your opinions are well your own, but sorry to burst your bubbles, the lawsuit is reasonable. we cannot let ignorant people like yourself oppress other people, and you have nothing to argue.

TC trust me, if all the deaf people hate you, you must be doing something right.

Few Redskins fans are Deaf, TC? Is that what you think? I lived in Virginia, Maryland and DC for more than 25 years and I can attest that there are HUNDREDS of Deaf individuals who are fans of Washington Redskins!

Again, this is your misguided speculation based on your limited scope of Deaf people.

this is old… but i would just like to say that the MD/DC area has one of the LARGEST deaf communities in the nation. … because Gallaudet, and MD school f/t deaf & all that jazz.