Why should we cherish ASL?

I want to express my thoughts about our crown jewel of our culture, the gem we hold most dear, American Sign Language. ASL has been our language since Clerc and Gallaudet formed it during their fifteen days maiden voyage aboard the Mary Augusta, coming to America to set up the first permanent school for the Deaf, American School for the Deaf in Connecticut in 1817. Since its' formation, people have tried to completely eradicate ASL, through a variety of means. I will explain how people tried to completely erase our beloved language and why it is still alive centuries after it was first formed.
In the first 62 years after American School for the Deaf was founded, a ripple effect was striking America, more Deaf schools was established in many states. ASL was primarily used in the schools. There were many Deaf administrators and teachers at those schools. In 1864 National Deaf-Mute College (Gallaudet University) was founded by Gallaudet's son, Edward Miner with a purpose of better training Deaf teachers and administrators.
A storm was brewing. Alexander Graham Bell advocated the use of Oral Method which called for exclusion of ASL. Edward Miner Gallaudet, like his father, believed that Deaf children had the natural rights to choose their preferred mode of communication. Gallaudet strongly advocated the use of Sign and speech. In 1880, a conference occurred in Milan, Italy. Five American delegates attended. The delegates were Edward Miner Gallaudet, Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, Isaac Peet, James Denison, and Charles Stoddard. Despite protests from the sign language advocates that attended, it was resolute that sign language should be outlawed and that an oral education program should take its place. The effects of the conference were drastic. Deaf schools started to follow suit and prohibited ASL. How they ensured that ASL would not be used was terrible. They used harsh forms of punishments. From a slap on the hand by a ruler for signing in the classroom to having your head held underwater if you mispronounced a word incorrectly. Some was even placed in a dark closet for signing too. Many people remember going through some of those things. Deaf children used ASL in secret in the dormitories at night or had secret gatherings in which they passed ASL to the younger generations. It was because of that ASL is still alive. Deaf people resisted oralism through that form. Eventually Oralism gave way. But educators who was against ASL would not give up nor recognize ASL as a true language even though William Stokoe Jr.‘s study on ASL pointed out the characteristics that enabled ASL to be a true language. Educators scrambled ASL and put it in exact English word order and made that modified language in a code known as Signing Exact English or Seeing Essential English abbreviated SEE. SEE is not a language and will never be a language. Educators later blended ASL and SEE, thereby forming PSE, Pidgin Signed English. PSE is another code which is not and never will be a language. Nevertheless, ASL prevailed, despite the heavy efforts by Audiologists and Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to erase ASL and completely replacing it with Oralism.
In conclusion, we must hold fast to our crown jewel, and fight for ASL for our posterity’s sake. We must never forget what the Deaf generations that preceded us did for us, the current generation and continue the fight to keep our flame alive so the future generations can see the bright benefit of our treasure, ASL. We must prepare to hand down the tools to the next generation to fight and protect ASL until we succeed. We must never give up our culture, our language for the sake of Deaf History. Please bear in memory what George W. Veditz said "As long there are Deaf people on Earth, we always will have sign language"