[blindlaw] I'm Confused - RE: Canes and Blindness along with thechanging color of the cane

[Mark BurningHawk]

Can't resist:

I, personally,would like to switch the color of my mobility tool  
because I want it to be *ONLY* that; a mobility tool.  I frankly don't  
like the associations attached to the white cane as a white cane, nor  
do I like the color and its connotations of surrender and  
helplessness.  I don't like the construction o the cane as is,  
designed above all else to be light and to vibrate easily, allowing  
for sensitivity to surfaces.  I also think that a cane should serve  
more than just one purpose as a tool, and in earlier posts I have  
pointed out that, as a weapon, for one example, the cane as designed  
now fails utterly.  I can speak from experience to say that sometimes  
a weapon is a good thing to have--no where did Lao Tsu say "Speak  
softly and carry a long, slender, flimsy stick." :)

Since I find the whole concept of using a long poking / tapping device  
to find out about your environment to be archaic and clumsy, very  
narrow-minded thinking, if I am ever forced to adopt such a strategy,  
I would like said device to serve more than just that poking/tapping  
purpose.  I also do *NOT* want attention drawn to me over blindness,  
as I don't identify myself as a "blind man," but rather as a man; I  
just happen to be blind, and that only some of the time--the rest of  
the time, I just can't see.  It's this image I prefer to put forth,  
however misunderstood it might be, to the world; not that of a person  
who demands the world take note of him as possibly needing help,  
possibly allowing himself to be led about by the hand, and signaling  
that he accepts a second-class status.  That's my position on the  
whole color thing, and my reasoning for the posts I sent last week.  I  
am not advocating for one second that blindness should be ignored or  
is something to be ashamed of, but neither is it something to identify  
with or be proud of in its own right.  Who out there says, "When I  
grow up, I want to be a blind person!"  Being proud of overcoming  
obstacles created by others' opposition to / fear of blindness is  
another thing altogether.

Mark BurningHawk
Skype and Twitter:  BurningHawk1969
Home:  Http://MarkBurningHawk.net/
Namaste!