MR.LOVETT AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

There is another important issue, which aches the CISS a great deal and which requires immediate attention and action by the CISS Member Nations.

Several days before the year of 2001 went into history, i.e., on December 23, 2001, I
sent a Letter to the Editor of the  just-inaugurated CISS e-News. In that Letter , a copy of which was e-mailed to the six non-English-speaking members of the current CISS Executive Committee ( Messrs. Renzo Corti, Ole Artmann, Vojtech Volejnik, Dogan Ozdemir, Lennart Edwall and Chou Tung ), I expressed my deep concern and reservations
about the way Mr. John Lovett wrote his President's Message column on the CISS Number 201 e-News  ( please log on to  www.ciss.org  E-NEWS ).
Because the e-News is supposed to be a  democratic forum of free opinion  and idea exchange, I do still hope that the Editor will publish such an important Letter  in the next Number 202 issue of the CISS e-News soon.

Before going any further, let me caution  you that the purpose of  this ongoing material of mine is not in creating an international English language writing  contest between the adversaries in the still pending lawsuit matter  at the USA District Court in Baltimore, state of Maryland, USA. But it is about the very relevant issue related to the use of English  as an official language of the CISS.
Personally, I must be honest and straight with you that in my lifetime I myself made and do still make mistakes in my various writings, albeit English language is not my first and native tongue ( English, in fact, is my fourth language I learned to write, read and speak ).

Now, let me share with you the basic points of my December 23, 2001 Letter to the Editor:

- I  warmly applauded the creation of the CISS e-News on the CISS website;
- I extolled its excellent webpage design done by Miss Heather Lightfoot, a current world
record holder in the women's hammer throw and 2001 Deaflympic Summer Games champion in  the event;
- I, however, felt uneasy at the way Mr. Lovett wrote his President's Message for the first e-News column, which was filled with more than 16 English language grammatical errors in it.

In addition, that Mr. Lovett's column was accompanied with a nice photo, in which the Presidents of the IOC and CISS were posing together along with the third man ( Mr.  Gilbert Felli ), whose first name was incorrectly spelled as Gilberti in the caption.
On that photo caption as well  as throughout his entire column message, Mr. Lovett also failed to formally identify as to who Mr. Felli really was ( for example, what kind of a position  Mr. Felli occuppies in the IOC ). Where was Mr. Lovett's professionalism,
acumen  and esteem toward Mr. Felli, who, as the IOC Sports Director, has been a positive force to our deaf sports cause in the IOC circles in the last few years?
Few of you may recall that Mr. Felli, by the way, was an encouraging presence at the CISS Congress sessions in 1997 ( Copenhagen, Denmark ) and 1999 ( Davos, Switzerland). Mr. Felli also was receptive to the CISS when the IOC graciously agreed to allow the CISS to hold its EC meeting on the very IOC building premises in Lausanne, Switzerland,  in May, 2000.

As for the  key issue of my Letter to the Editor: the many grammatical errors committed by Mr. Lovett in  his own column. Let me state that since 1995, when Mr. Lovett unopposedly assumed the CISS Presidency, I had been very  patiently tolerant with Mr. Lovett's uncreatively and poorly-penned columns  published in the various CISS Bulletin issue pages. As a leading contributing  writer for the CISS Bulletin before my abrupt friendship rupture with Mr. Lovett and Dr. Donalda Ammons in July 21, 2001, I also closely monitored the work of  Dr. Ammons, who acted as the Bulletin Editor ( note: to my best memory and belief, in the years of 1994-1995 Mr. Lovett had his brief stint as the CISS Bulletin Editor, while in the summer of 1995 Dr. Ammons has single-handedly assumed the editorial  responsibilities of the Bulletin ).

Not to offend Mr. Lovett, for certain reason, and in order to encourage him to move forward with his uneasy CISS leadership work duties, I warily and tacitly chose to rationally take the "do-nothing attitude" toward  Mr. Lovett's questionable work as a writer. But, in order to maintain balance, another CISS official - Dr. Ammons - was not accorded such a treatment by me. She, as I clearly understood, took the editorial duties in the CISS for a sole reason: she knew English.. Very sadly and unhappilly, I was the one who often criticized the inept work of Dr. Ammons  as the Editor. The reality  was that Dr. Ammons, in spite of her flamboyant English and of the fact that she was the much-publicized recipient of the 1996 USA Deaf Sports Federation Hall of Fame Award in the area of Leadership/Sports Writing, lacked the prior experience, expertise  as well as  her innate talent in the area of sports journalism.    That was and still is how  and why Dr. Ammons was and still is unable to appropriately cope with her editorial duties in the CISS.
To this day, I do vividly remember a rare, secret and door-closed meeting involving the three - Mr. Lovett, Dr. Ammons and myself, which was held during the afternoon hours of April 9, 1999, at the magnificient Gallaudet University Kellogg Conference Center office premises in Washington, D.C., USA. At that meeting, among the other things, I raised the issue of Dr. Ammons' incompetent work as the Editor ( to substantiate this fact, I have a memo letter from Mr.Lovett himself, in which he  acknowledged such  a meeting on April 9, 1999 ).

Back to Mr. Lovett's e-News column. His column, I must be blunt, was disorganized  and it was written  in an unprofessional and tasteless manner! What was puzzling the most was that Mr. Lovett's collaborants, accomplices in the CISS and co-defendants in my lawsuit case  - Dr. Ammons and Mr. Jerald Jordan, another recipient of the 1970 USA Deaf Sports Federation Hall of Fame Award in the Leadership/Sports Writing category - have apparently done nothing in "protecting" Mr. Lovett: the two did not obviously  help Mr. Lovett in correcting his own grammar and improving it before the Lovett  column along with his own smiling face photo portrait  was released to the worldwide audience via  the CISS website.

In one sentence, I dare to say that Mr. Lovett, unlike his predecessor, Mr. Jordan, possesses the  English language, whose level, very regrettably,  is tantamount to an average middle or even primary school grader! This is in spite of the sound and clear fact that English is Mr. Lovett's  primary tongue at his birth!

Now, can Mr. Lovett justify his own remark made before a huge assembly of the foreign delegates and guests at the recent  37th CISS Congress proceedings in Rome, Italy,
" Of the 8 CISS EC members, only Ammons and I know English well"?

Writing an important comunication message  for the important international organization like the CISS is of a paramount significance! Everybody knows that the President of the CISS is supposed to be a role model for each deaf sports leader - young or old - in many different ways, including in the areas of communication and writing!
Therefore, not to bellittle, degrade, embarass and ridicule our deaf sports leader's and deaf author's intelligence, especially in  the eyes of the non-deaf world, it is very vital for the CISS President in office - a supposed role model and  supposed good image maker  for all of us everywhere - to produce his written communication  message like the President's Message in the e-News, in a professional, concise and clear English language grammar  manner!

What shall be done now in order to solve the issue  of the CISS President's questionable linguistic abilities?

Well, in my Letter to the Editor, I proposed to use one of the two things:

- to utilize the service of a  professional proofreader and word/sentence corrector for the CISS on a salaried basis, or
- to have  Mr. Jordan, a superb English language writer, Gallaudet University's honorary doctorate degree holder  and retiree to help in assisting his successor, Mr. Lovett, in the area of writing.

Will Mr. Lovett heed to the above?

If it does not work either way, then there is another option  for Mr. Lovett: how about taking private tutoring in the area of English language writing in his modern and tranquil hometown of McKinnon, Victoria, Australia?

Finally, will Mr. Lovett, unlike his predecessor, Mr. Jordan in 1978  ( if you recall of my previously-written December 26, 2001 material titled  THE USA-AUSTRALIAN PRESENCE AND INFLUENCE IN THE CISS AND HOW IT BEGAN,  in which Mr. Jordan was the one who was very reluctant  to learn French, one of the two official languages of the CISS in 1978 ) have his own desire, motivation and incentive to improve and master his English language grammar skills?

There is  a famous old saying, "It is better to learn too late than never!"


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