[blindkid] Fwd: NY Times: Paterson's Exit Presents Worry With Each Step

Jim Beyer jim at riversedgehomes.com
Wed Dec 22 16:57:54 UTC 2010


What a pitiful shame. And Carol, you're right, it's like someone once said
regarding blindness skills, "Why do you want to make your child blind?"
Duh..

-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Carol Castellano
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 9:49 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Fwd: NY Times: Paterson's Exit Presents Worry With
Each Step

I think you are absolutely right; he is a product of his times, as we 
all are.  This is the part that really got me:

When Mr. Paterson was a boy, his parents were determined that he not 
be treated as disabled. Defying his doctors' advice, he never learned 
Braille, used a Seeing Eye dog or walked with a cane. Instead, he adapted...

  So it sounds as if he HAD a chance to learn skills.  It was his 
misplaced sense that the use of alternative techniques would make him 
disabled that really disabled him in the end.  Ironic--the very 
things that could have freed him are the things he rejected.  I sure 
wish people would pay attention to this kind of life lesson.

Carol


At 08:15 AM 12/22/2010, you wrote:
>Carol,
>
>This is exactly why I was not a fan of a blind governor. He is the product
>of a society that sets the bar low for others who see things from a
>different angle and or roll thru life a different way. in his day when
going
>to school the differently abled were asked, trained and taught to blend in
>as best they could. Is today any different? I listen to how our blind youth
>are not being taught braille in school, despite their individual level of
>visual acuity, are not being allowed to use their canes, or as is often
>argued, not allowed to get guide dogs until some perceived perception of
>immaturity or inability. The life choices which Paterson made are very much
>the same options left to the blind today. as a new entrant into the
>community I want to know what will it take for players on both sides of the
>fence to open their eyes to what is possible for all people of all
>abilities? Helen Keller once said the only thing worse then being blind, is
>being able to see and not have any vision. Where is the vision for a future
>full of hope, possibility , independence and accessibility? We have come so
>far yet traveled only a short distance. Peace.
>
>Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
>Founder
>My Blind Spot, Inc.
>90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
>New York, New York  10004
>www.myblindspot.org
>PH: 917-553-0347
>Fax: 212-858-5759
>"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
>doing it."
>
>
>Visit us on Facebook LinkedIn
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of Carol Castellano
>Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 7:30 PM
>To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
>Subject: [blindkid] Fwd: NY Times: Paterson's Exit Presents Worry With
>EachStep
>
>This is a sad story.
>Carol
>
> >Subject: NY Times: Paterson's Exit Presents Worry With Each Step
> >Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:10:50 -0500
> >
> >From: "Pamela Gaston" <Pamela.Gaston at dhs.state.nj.us>
> >To: <Bernice.Davis at dhs.state.nj.us>,    <Pam.Ronan at dhs.state.nj.us>
> >
> >
> >NY Times: Paterson's Exit Presents Worry With Each Step By MICHAEL
> >  BARBARO He worries about how he will make a living. He wonders whether
> >  people will value him once he is out of office.
> >But when he thinks about the future, David A. Paterson, the legally
> >  blind governor of New York, is most unsettled by something more
> >  elementary: how to cross the street.
> >For years, a small army of state employees has done for Mr. Paterson
> >  what his predecessors did for themselves: they read him the newspaper,
> >  guided him up stairs and around corners, fixed his collar when it was
> >  sticking up, and even grabbed a quart of milk for him at the
> >  supermarket.
> >"If I go into a grocery store, the state police come in with me," he
said.
> >"It's kind of like, hey, Governor, just tell us what you need and
> >  we'll get it for you. And, I know I have to adjust."
> >Many politicians who leave office struggle to adapt to civilian life,
> >  with its everyday letdowns and indignities - the sudden absence of
> >  solicitous aides and gun-toting bodyguards, jam-packed schedules and
> >  an ever-ringing telephone. But for Mr. Paterson, who can see nothing
> >  out of his left eye and only color and large objects out of his right,
> >  the transition will be extraordinary: after three decades in
> > government, he must now relearn  the basic routines and rituals of
> > living on his own.
> >In a wide-ranging interview, he spoke candidly, and at times
> >  emotionally, about how he was grappling with - and, in some cases,
> >  dreading - that change, saying he planned to enroll at a school for
> >  the blind that he last attended when he was 3 years old.
> >"I know it can be done," Mr. Paterson said, "but it's just the
> >  anticipation of it that gives me anxiety."
> >He also admitted to some concern about money and losing the lucrative
> >  perks that come with his post. He is looking for work in the business
> >  and academic worlds but has no job lined up, a fact that seemed to
> >  slightly nag at him.
> >He has sought the advice of former President Bill Clinton and former
Govs.
> >George E. Pataki and Mario M. Cuomo about how to cope with the loss of
> >  title and stature. Most of what they tell him boils down to this: "It
> >  gets easier."
> >He acknowledged previously unknown strains on his family that
> >  accompanied his elevation to governor, especially on his teenage son,
> >  who has hated almost every minute of his father's tenure. At one
> >  point, Mr. Paterson said, he even told the boy he was sorry for
> >  becoming the state's chief executive.
> >He divulged the ways he had been teasing the incoming governor, Andrew M.
> >Cuomo, since his victory in November. And he offered a mediocre
> >  assessment of his own skills as a manager, giving himself a B-minus
> >  over the last four years. He said he had been reluctant to pack up the
> >  governor's mansion and his own office, once gently scolding a staff
> >  member for rushing him out.
> >(His last day is Dec. 31.)
> >But looming over the interview was Mr. Paterson's obvious unease about
> >  what awaits him. He conceded that he had put off confronting his new
> >  reality:
> >he has yet to schedule with his 22-year-old daughter a long-promised
> >  practice run on Harlem's sidewalks, subways and streets.
> >When Mr. Paterson was a boy, his parents were determined that he not
> >  be treated as disabled. Defying his doctors' advice, he never learned
> >  Braille, used a Seeing Eye dog or walked with a cane. Instead, he
> >  adapted: he memorized the city's subway system by listening to the
> >  conductors' announcements, learned to follow the lead of strangers
> > at crosswalks,
> >  and developed a system for catching cabs that would keep him from
> >  mistakenly boarding a passenger car.
> >The system was not perfect.  He recalled an incident a few years ago
> >when, as a state senator, he  hailed what he thought was a taxi in
> >Manhattan. At the end of the
> >  ride, the driver refused to take his fare. When Mr. Paterson pressed
> >  him, the man explained: 'I am not driving a taxi. I just saw you
> > on the street and thought you  might need a ride.' "
> >His survival skills atrophied when he became lieutenant governor in
> >  2007 - and governor a year later after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid
>scandal.
> >Suddenly, he was chief executive of the state, with a huge security
> >  detail and a domestic staff at the governor's mansion.
> >"The reality is that I had a pretty good sense of my own independence.
> >  But over the last four years," he said, "I haven't been on the subway.
> >  I haven't crossed a street by myself. Haven't gone into a restaurant
> >  by myself."
> >Mr. Paterson, 56, said he planned to attend classes at Helen Keller
> >  Services for the Blind and, if finances permitted it, hire a full-time
> >  aide to help guide him for the first year, in part to deal with
> >  strangers he expects will still approach him.
> >"It would probably be good for me to travel with somebody, because,
> >  who knows, I may have more pardon requests," he said mischievously.
> >Though he did not rule out running for office again someday,
> >Mr.  Paterson, who has earned $179,000 a year as governor, said he was
> >  eager to earn a bigger salary in the private sector. That would allow
> >  him to put his son through college and to replicate, at least in some
> >  ways, the comfortable life he has grown accustomed to.
> >"You have a false income when you're governor, because you live in the
> >  executive mansion," he said, ticking off the perks: free meals, free
> >  transportation, free staff. "And, so, if you computed that out to a
> >  salary, it's probably twice the governor's salary."
> >He confirmed that he had met with administrators at New York
> >  University and Touro College to discuss taking teaching positions. He
> >  has spoken with executives at a local talk radio station, WOR, about
> >  becoming a substitute host. So far, though, he has not hammered out
> >  any contracts. In the meantime, he has filled out paperwork to begin
> >  collecting a state pension.  (With 27 years, he can collect about
> > $80,000 annually.)
> >"I am worried about money, because I am not a billionaire, in case you
> >  hadn't heard," he said.
> >His advisers - old friends, current aides and former chief executives
> >  - have encouraged him to think big. Mr. Clinton, for instance, asked
> >  him to consider running a foundation in Harlem that would employ
> >  youngsters and cut energy costs by painting the roofs of buildings
> >  white to reflect sunlight.
> >"You want me to make all the roofs in Harlem white?" Mr. Paterson
> >  recalled asking Mr. Clinton inside the former president's office
> > on 125th Street.
> >Mr. Clinton nodded. "Don't you think Harlem has become white enough?" Mr.
> >Paterson asked him.
> >Over the last few weeks, he has conducted a distinctly Paterson-esque
> >  farewell tour across the state, much of it over local AM radio,
> >  dispensing frank and funny observations about himself and his
> >  colleagues. He has compared the news media in New York to the
> >  corruption-riddled Tammany Hall, and declared that the quality of
> >  lawmakers in Albany has plunged over the last two decades. "I am sorry
> >  to say this," he added, impishly.
> >He even made light of his own multiple run-ins with state prosecutors
> >  and ethics investigators, telling the audience at a Bronx school the
> >  other night that when he saw all the people in their seats, he figured
> >  he had walked into a grand jury room.
> >He had only good things to say about his predecessor and his successor.
> >Asked how he planned to welcome Mr. Cuomo, he has said he had already
> >  swept one big obstacle out of the governor-elect's path: he made sure
> >  the faulty outlet above the sink in the master bedroom of the
> >  governor's mansion got fixed.
> >"I said, 'This is important stuff, Andrew,' " he recalled. "'You don't
> >  know what it's like when you need to plug something in, like an
> >  electric razor, and you can't.' "
> >He even weighed in on Mr. Spitzer's show on CNN, which has suffered in
> >  the ratings and has led to a debate about whether his co-host,
> >  Kathleen Parker, has been unduly sidelined by the ex-governor. If
> >  anything, Mr. Paterson opined, the show needs to revolve more around
> >  Mr. Spitzer to showcase his brilliance.
> >He said he was looking forward to having a more normal family life,
> >  recounting the difficulties his wife and his son faced once he became
> >  governor.
> >"I don't think anything about me being governor ever looked like it
> >  made him happy," he said about the boy, Alex, now 16. Asked how it
> >  made him feel as a father, he responded: "Very guilty."
> >He and his wife, Michelle, grew so frustrated by tabloid photographers'
> >trying to shoot pictures of them as they vacationed poolside at a
> >  friend's house in the Hamptons that they grabbed the family camera and
> >  took pictures of the paparazzi, who they said were trespassing.
> >"While we found that funny, and it's a great story to tell," he said,
> >  "the reality is it was very hard to sit back and say, 'So how have
> > you been?'
> >Because you are both under this constant pressure."
> >Reflecting on his tenure, he paused for several seconds.
> >
> >"Some things went well, some things went not so well," he said. "It
> >  was a privilege. It was an honor. I would serve. I would do it again."
> >Still, he could not resist a joke, cheekily recalling the suddenness
> >  with which he landed in the governor's office.
> >"I would like two weeks' notice next time," he said.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>Carol Castellano
>National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
>973-377-0976
>carol_castellano at verizon.net
>www.nopbc.org
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Carol Castellano
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.nopbc.org  


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