Michele, I have nothing but respect for your position. There's a chapter in my memoir, Life After Deaf, that acknowleges the Deaf community's attitude about CIs. But as someone who had 62 years of natural hearing, I was a bit old to be reinventing my life. Trust me, however, I did try to learn ASL and speech reading. I am lousy at it. Implants were the right choice for me. And besides, I can make myself totally deaf anytime I wish.