[Blindtlk] Inferiority complex withdisability vsnondisabledsociety

Thu Jun 3 17:05:03 UTC 2010

very well said.
I've noticed that most people who call them selves christians will be quick 
to judge you.
But we can't give up
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Graves, Diane" <dgraves at icrc.IN.gov>
To: "'Blind Talk Mailing List'" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Inferiority complex withdisability 
vsnondisabledsociety


> You know, if you think about it, there are actually some disadvantages to 
> sight. For instance, the majority of sighted people that I know tend to 
> judge people by what they see, what the person looks like. They might 
> write someone off who has the potential to be a very good friend, simply 
> because they don't like the way they dress, or their weight or whatever. 
> Sight tends to make people a little more superficial, I think.
>
> Of course there are the numerous advantages to sight, and yes, some things 
> are easier,. Some things are easier for us too, I think. For instance, 
> most of the sighted people I know are totally disabled without a light to 
> enable them to see what they are doing.
>
> The point is that you just have to deal with the hand you've been dealt. 
> You can either play it haphazardly because you are angry, or you can play 
> it was grace and learn how to be happy where you are. Please believe me, I 
> am preaching to myself here too. I have a lot of anger issues that I've 
> struggled with for years. But, having said that, I wish I could get back 
> all the time I spent stewing and immobilized by that anger and 
> frustration, and turn it into something productive.
>
> Do you know what I mean?
>
> Diane Graves
> Civil Rights Specialist
> Indiana Civil Rights Commission
> Alternative Dispute Resolutions Unit
> 317-232-2647
>
> "It is service that measures success."
> George Washington Carver
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
> Behalf Of Dewey Bradley
> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 9:14 PM
> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Inferiority complex with disability vsnondisabled 
> society
>
> 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
>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>blindtlk mailing list
>>>blindtlk at nfbnet.org
>>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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