<...ASL is very rich, there is a grammatical structure, and it seems to me there is a lot of information in the way something is presented, too. Hardly anything is presented by spelling.

One of my distant relatives is deaf, and uses ASL, which I don't know myself. What I found fascinating were ASL "puns," which combine visual and verbal in a way that cannot be translated into pure verbal language. Needless to say, I don't get any of them.

...My neighbor is one who is adamant that there is a deaf culture, and things like cochlear implants are not OK and designed to eradicate that culture. After having been around them I can see his point. Couldn't before, though, and don't know how much I agree. He does fine.

This sounds a little bizarre to me, and dangerously close to our current Culture of the Victim which seems to attract so many groups. Would a cure for AIDS eradicate an "AIDS culture?" I can't understand this kind of thinking at all. Maybe this helps him mentally get around some kind of complex about being "handicapped." Beats me.