[Blindtlk] Inferiority complex with disability vsnondisabled society

[Dewey Bradley]

Some times its a blessing to be blind.
If I wasn't blind, I think I would be dead or in jaill or worse.
When I was growing up, I lived out in the country, "The people I hung out 
with are all in for life for DUI's, or dead.
If I were to get my sight back, I would be fine, but back then all there was 
to do was get drunk and drive around in the woods.
I have an ant that's in a wheele chair, she put her self there drinking and 
driveing, and she is mad at the world.
So theirs nothing wrong with being blind
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Inferiority complex with disability vsnondisabled 
society


> Peter,
>
> Most of us probably deal with some of the very feelings and questions that 
> you raise here from time to time.  While it is true that we need to deal 
> with feelings along
> these lines, one also has to try to determine which questions have answers 
> at all.
>
> First, forget about comparing yourself with what you would have been with 
> vision.  The reason I say that is that none of us can truly know what we 
> would have
> been.  For example, had I been sighted, I could have done things that I 
> cannot do as a blind person, there is no arguing that.  In my case, 
> though, had I been
> sighted, I would very likely have served in the military, a duty I am sure 
> I would have performed to the best of my ability, but who knows if I would 
> have survived.  I
> wonder if I would have finished college, and while I would likely have 
> gotten a good job, I don't honestly know if it would have been as good as 
> the job I managed to
> get because I had to apply myself.  You can't just assume that if you had 
> sight that everything else would be the same plus the bonus of vision. 
> Other things may
> have gone wrong.  They may also have gone right, but you don't know for 
> sure.
>
> People do not enter this world all having the same set of tools.  It is 
> easy for us to think of ourselves as being like everybody but without 
> sight.  That is just not an
> accurate way to look at things.  There is no "everybody".  People are all 
> very different and one has to look at the whole person.  While I would not 
> claim that
> blindness does not make things harder, I also have seen sighted people who 
> have had to struggle more than I do.  Sight doesn' magically make 
> everything better,
> and it is a trap to let oneself think that it does.
>
> Each of us has to live our lives using the tallents and abilities we were 
> given.  We all indulge ourselves by wondering what we would have been if 
> we had vision, but
> it isn't much different than wondering what it would be like to win the 
> lottery.  Sighted people dream of what they might have accomplished if 
> things would have been
> different, too.  all of us dream of what might have been, but in the end, 
> we need to figure out how we can do the best we can with what we have at 
> our disposal.
> We need to evaluate our tallents and make choices accordingly.  If we 
> qualify for some help from the government, we need to figure out how to 
> make the best use
> of that help.  It is only wasted if we let ourselves waste it.  Finally, 
> we need to help each other.  All of us who are blind have that blindness 
> in common.  We can learn
> from one another and we can give each other strength.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> On Wed, 2 Jun 2010 06:12:06 -0500, Peter Wolfe wrote:
>
>>-- 
>>Peter
>>Webmaster
>>http://www.darkstruggle.com
>>webmaster at darkstruggle.com
>>alternative e-mail
>>sunspot005 at gmail.com
>
>>To Blind Talk:
>
>
>>   It's me Peter here and I would like to know what other blind people
>>out there think of this topic. I suffer from a inferiority complex
>>ever since I was a young child before knowing of my dormant vision
>>heredetary disease. It's like you know you might be good and you might
>>have heard it from others but you feel abandoned by those same people.
>>I always look at other people like what they must have had that I
>>didn't have as a child living in abdject poverty as a child. Then, I
>>point out intellectual minor flaws cause of a broken family,
>>uneducated parents, U.S overall poor educational standards and
>>differences from area to area, learning environments, and no real
>>positive role modles like having family members that have gone to
>>college. So, now I'm in college and am getting to a point of
>>quitlistening to people cause they can't understand.
>>    Secondly, I measure myself through a overall scope like I am and
>>who I could have been if I were sighted like the rest of overall
>>society. When I was a child, I wanted to be a astronomer, computer
>>scientists, mathmatitian, psysist and such. Now, I look at all of the
>>wasted years like twenty-four years of only having a two year minor
>>associates degree and having changed my major three times at a major
>>four year university and pressure of picking that special major. I
>>want to have upward mobility with security without too much strings
>>attached and so much stress to pick. I often think of how to compete
>>with other undisabled furuter applicants or my degree becomes out of
>>date cause of stalls or something and am loke I screwed up. I wasted
>>government money, family money, time, energy and etc that could have
>>been spent on something better than little old me.
>>    Thirdly, I blame myself for things beyond my control. Public
>>transportation, screen reader issues, paperwork, independence issues,
>>communication barriers in participation, entertainment fun and etc. If
>>I could only see to understand what others are doing I could be on the
>>same par of them. The same playng field cause I have had vision I miss
>>it even more. Does this make sense to anyone else on the list? The
>>thing is that I don't like is that nobody usually does at all cause
>>they sadly think I'm making excuses to drop out or change my major a
>>million times.
>>    Fourthly, I look at the outcomes too much like the quarter of
>>gainfully employed blind people in the U.S. The often times
>>incompetent government workers from multiple sectors, inadaquate
>>research availible, unaccessible government resources, unwillingness
>>for overall society to change for universal accessability and etc is
>>appalling and hard for me. I want to change life but I can't even
>>adapt to this disappointment. Imagine going from practising driving
>>and going legally blind in the span of a few months. Couple that with
>>deep family problems and a incompetent government and you get me. Now,
>>I am becoming religious in a catholic sort of way cause it's my life.
>>    Fifthly, I try out new things to constantly disappointment myself.
>>The old times is what I say like the majority of us formerly sighted
>>people think. The psychologists and others can't understand the
>>frustratiosn wheling up inside of me. The sin of anger, and envy and
>>blasophemy at times occurs cause I wish that I wasn't who I am right
>>now. Overall society is being burdened by my tremendous weight and all
>>I can do is lash out in anger. The fear of the unknown like most is
>>strong but even stronger with us blind people and especially someone
>>of my variety. Adapting a whole new prospective like playing real
>>visual games like Mortal Combat or Final Fantasy and none of this beep
>>bs you know? These visually impaired games are far too simplistic and
>>I hate to complain it's hard to measure up. Nothing is the same as it
>>once was anymore.
>>    Sixthly, the feeling of alienation and osterizing myself in
>>overall society cause of the ultimate question for us blind people
>>when it comes to terms of help. Are they helping us because we are
>>human or our disability? This is a questions you often don't want to
>>ask cause you don't want to be rude but I'm putting on the table.
>>People often times forget that you can't see and you constantly must
>>educate over and over like over again about your vision. In my former
>>house, family members would leave chairs, clothes and crap where I
>>constantly ran into it even though they knew that I am blind. Another
>>thing the books on tape and othr arciac means should been gotten
>>transfered years ago and it makes you wonder about advocacy on our
>>ends here. The accessability of our currency should have happened
>>decades and anything for us takes forever. It makes me depressed
>>because the prospects of things in a sitable measurable way to the way
>>it was is like a pipe dream or somehting. Where independence, freedom,
>>respect and etc as a normal american is too far for me to reach
>>anymore. The sense of powerless gets strong man.
>>     Seventh, the adaptation too religion has been tough as well like
>>the customs, traditions, respcts, manners and roles of being a
>>christian can be tough. The habits are hard to overcome especially not
>>being born into a religion can be tough. You naturally revert at times
>>of confusion or of low self-esteem to your natural state. Mine is
>>depression, anxiety, hate, envy, and all of that nice stuff.
>>     Eightly, the amount of time for things like preperation has been
>>hard to deal with for these years of blindness like setting up public
>>transportation, waiting for a taxi or friends, mobility traning or
>>orientation, sighted assistance on appointments (e.g. computers) and
>>other things is tough. The amount of shear energy you guys have to
>>master like me is astounding and is a blessing/curse of being blind
>>cause we have a built up endurance but short in gas you know? Well, I
>>just worry all of the time about things I can't change. For example, I
>>often times feel like I could have been better off being born in
>>another country like in Europe, Canada, Australia or Britain or some
>>place like that where disabilities could have more of a progressive
>>aim to it. Other times I would like to move there were diversity is a
>>mainstay and the thoughts lurk in my mind like you can't do it or it's
>>visual.
>>    Finally, thanks for any ideas on defeating this issue. It's gotten
>>bad so much in the past where I performed self-infliction and
>>attempted suicide. I've been put on medicine but it's pointless too
>>and counsuling is dumb. The anger management therapy and the private
>>counsuling without having a person like one in a million it's
>>worthless to me. It's like being in a cage when other people poke fun
>>at your suffering or something and no similar animals like you around.
>>People the ones that become successful ostercize themselves and have a
>>superiority arrogance complex cause at one time they had somebody help
>>them so why not try to help your fellow man? What happened to Love Thy
>>Neighbor? Seriously cause people think of generalizations of us like
>>lazy, welfare recipent, handicapped, poor, uneducated and etc. We are
>>a nation or people rather that doesn't motivate those that don't llook
>>the build of education but that in itself is misleading of the
>>american population. Anybody can have an education just need time and
>>energy and motivation but I lack in these areas myself right now. I
>>especially like multiple backgrounds from young to the old about this
>>issue and I know that I am not the only one that is out there. I'm not
>>sorry for the length either cause these words have been in me too long
>>and if I held them any longer I will burst. Thank be to God and any
>>prayers you may have about this issue with any advice as well. By the
>>way, sometimes I revert to a class structuralist prospect on
>>economics, background, life experiences, and not necessarily a victim
>>mentality just understanding more than anything is what I need. A
>>person that has walked the streets is prefered.
>
>
>>sincerely,
>>Peter
>
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