Kevin Clark "I have a dream..." Part 1: June 1995 You know, I'll never forget how I learned about SignWriting. It was through a friend of mine, Kathy Say. She mentioned SignWriting. And at first I was mystified, naturally, never having heard about it before. She told me that it was a writing system that can be used to document signed languages. This piqued my interest. So, I went to the DAC meeting - The Deaf Action Committee meeting that she invited me to attend. And right there, at that meeting I learned so much, wow! I could see the many benefits of SignWriting. For example, it could be used in the Educational setting, or used to preserve signed language, or quite possibly be used to write ASL to one another, eventually becoming the written language for ASL. Clearly, there are many benefits to writing our language. Using "Stacked SignWriting" seemed more natural to me and easier to read and write in comparison to the English order of writing from left to right. Really, the Stacked style is easier to read and write - And I'm sure that once you use it, you too will agree!

Part Two: Thanksgiving 1998 I would like to share my dream with you... After seeing Little Toyko in downtown Los Angeles I became inspired. I visited a museum called the American Japanese Museum where all of the shops are owned by Japanese people, the hotels, everything. All of the signs are written in Japanese, as well as English. My dream is to create the exact same kind of community, where Deaf people can run their own businesses, malls, and hotels, and all the signs would be written in SignWriting in ASL. In other words, we would have a Deaf American Museum and everything would be written in ASL....And we could also set up a deaf school teaching kids in SignWriting etc.. You know..it will give deaf people good opportunities to run businesses and to make a living out of it just like others do in the American Japanese Museum. So that's what I am dreaming of....To reach this dream, I need to have a good plan, and people's support. Kevin Clark kclarkcsun@aol.com

Part One above was signed in ASL by Kevin Clark in 1995 on the video entitled Deaf Perspectives on SignWriting, Video 2. The English text is a word-for-word transcription of the English voice-over on the video, by interpreter Pasch McCombs. Part Two above was written in English by Kevin Clark in 1998.