[Blindtlk] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in the Dark"

[Gary Wunder]

Hi. I'm not the Newsline police, but at the bottom of any article it says 
this article is for personal use - so we can put it in Braille or keep it 
for ourselves. I'm not certain we have the right to forward this content 
without permission.

Gary


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marion Gwizdala" <blind411 at verizon.net>
To: "NAGDU List" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>; <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:41 PM
Subject: [Blindtlk] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in the Dark"


> Dear All,
>    Thanks to Cheryl Echevarria for finding and sending this article to me. 
> I have pasted it and my Letter to the Editor again.
>
> Fraternally yours,
> Marion
>
>
>
> Awareness Was the Main Course
> by Laura Reiley
> Published March 10, 2010
>
> ST. PETERSBURG
>
> You knew your plate had been set before you only by sense of smell. It
> smelled like beef, something braised and hearty. On your right a voice 
> asked
> what you do for a living. You turned and lobbed an answer in that 
> direction.
>
> Tuesday night was the Foundation Fighting Blindness's first Tampa Bay 
> Dining
> in the Dark event at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club. More than 
> 200
> people, dressed fancy and sipping cocktails, took seats in the main 
> ballroom
> and eventually donned something called a Mindfold face mask, impervious to
> light and lined with foam. The lights dimmed and as emcee Dick Crippen of
> the Tampa Bay Rays goaded the crowd, the group endeavored to enjoy "the
> first meal you will never see."
>
> Other senses were heightened, texture became paramount. But more 
> important,
> it gave all of the assembled a greater window into the world of the
> sightless. Many had come because their lives had already been touched by
> degenerative retinal diseases. Briana Pompilus, 24, was there as a 
> volunteer
> with her mother Veronica Floyd, 44, who was diagnosed with retinitis
> pigmentosa at age 22. Still driving now, eventually her vision will close 
> up
> as if looking through two drinking straws.
>
> Mary Lou Johnson Evans was there for a similar reason. Her 14-year-old 
> son,
> Josh, suffers from the same disease.
>
> One of the evening's speakers, April Lufriu, a former Mrs. Florida America
> pageant winner and president of the Tampa Bay area chapter of the
> foundation, spoke of her sister's retinal disease and, more haltingly, 
> about
> her two children's recent diagnosis.
>
> Degenerative retinal diseases affect more than 10 million Americans. As
> keynote speaker James Minow described it, the foundation's aim is to put 
> an
> end to retinal disease by replacing defective cells in the retina, 
> replacing
> defective genes and by developing new treatments to protect degenerating
> retinas. The obstacle? As is so often the case, it's money.
>
> According to Kim Marlow, regional director of development for the
> foundation, the evening in St. Petersburg will raise $100,000 for the 
> cause.
> The most successful Dining in the Dark event to date, in New York, raised
> $500,000 in a single evening.
>
> The evening's honorees, doctors James Gill and Stephen Klasko, were
> feverishly optimistic about conceivable cures for blindness. For those
> assembled, a half hour in the dark was a humbling, and bumbling, reminder 
> of
> the magnitude of the gift of sight.
>
> Laura Reiley can be reached at
> lreiley at sptimes.com
> or (727) 892-2293.
>
>
>
> March 11, 2010
>
> Dear Editor,
>
>
>            I am writing to comment on the article "Awareness Was the Main 
> Course" by Laura Reiley that appeared in the March 10 Metro section of the 
> St. Petersburg times. As a blind person, I often meet people who are 
> amazed by the fact that I can perform even the simplest of tasks. 
> Generally this attitude is based on their own experience attempting to 
> perform the same task without eyesight and failing at it miserably. It is 
> for this reason that most blind people are opposed to using the type of 
> simulation exercises featured in this article. Blindfolding a sighted 
> person and asking them to perform even a simple task does not, as the 
> article purports, give a person any awareness of what the life of a blind 
> person is like. In fact, such exercises only serve to reinforce the 
> misconceptions and promulgate the myths about blindness that create the 
> social, legal, and economic barriers that prevent us from achieving true 
> equality with our sighted peers. Those of us who are blind have developed 
> an array of non-visual techniques to perform activities of daily living, 
> such as eating, just as effectively as sighted people do using eyesight. 
> Blindfolding a sighted person and asking them to perform a task is like 
> putting someone in the cockpit of a jetliner and telling them to fly! 
> Lacking the proper skills, the results of both would be disastrous!
>
>            The real problem of blindness is not the lack of eyesight; 
> rather it is the manner in which we are treated as the result of the 
> misconceptions people have about blindness. If one really wants to find 
> out what life is like for a blind person, there is no need to don a 
> blindfold! All one needs to do is carry a white cane, the international 
> symbol of blindness,  and go about their everyday life. Then they would 
> feel the crushing insults  of public misperception that blind people, 
> except for those few who are believed to be amazing and extraordinary, are 
> innately ignorant and helpless. They would experience the waitress who 
> asks a five year old what the blind adult wants to drink. They would 
> encounter the librarian who admonishes them for going out alone, thus 
> exposing them to the hazards of opening a door. They would be confronted 
> by the Employer who inquires about who will bring them to work. They would 
> learn that even well educated doctors are so ignorant as to ask them who 
> bathes them! Though you might want to minimize these incidents away, they 
> are examples of the type of ignorance I - and other blind people - 
> encounter on a regular, almost daily, basis!
>
>            I am not asserting that eyesight is not beneficial nor that the 
> work of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is not valuable. What concerns 
> me is that organizations that assert they want to "serve the blind" do us 
> such a disservice by reinforcing the public misconceptions and fears that 
> create the problems we face. I am all for raising money to cure retinal 
> degenerative diseases, especially since the condition that has caused my 
> blindness, that of my 14-year-old nephew , and several other members of my 
> family is retinitis Pigmentosa. I am, however, opposed to creating the 
> type of fear and pity that results from blindfolding people for the 
> purpose of raising money! Such a practice is as offensive to me as a 
> black-faced minstrel would be to an African American! These misconceptions 
> are the reason fewer than 10% of blind children are learning to read and 
> write Braille, producing functionally illiterate blind adults. These fears 
> and misconceptions are the reason that the unemployment rate among the 
> blind is more than 70%!
>
>            The veracity of my concerns are supported by the numerous 
> inaccurate statements made by the author who has bought into the false 
> perceptions of the blind. Does she really believe that "other senses are 
> heightened" by taking away one's sight or "; texture became paramount" as 
> the result of simulated blindness? Does she really believe that 
> blindfolding participants "gave all assembled a greater window into the 
> world of the sightless"? Does she really believe that blind people go 
> through life "bumbling" their ways around or did she just irresponsibly 
> promulgate the pitiful stereotype in an effort to sell your newspapers 
> like the Foundation Fighting Blindness did to sell themselves and 
> selfishly generate  revenue with no concern about the social consequences 
> of their actions?
>
>            The belief that blind people are endowed with heightened senses 
> and special powers is a myth. Blind people simply learn to use their other 
> senses and alternative techniques to perform the tasks sighted people do 
> with eyesight. Like any skill, these techniques are generally not acquired 
> in a half-hour nor mysteriously and supernaturally endowed. However, these 
> skills enable blind people to function independently, efficiently, and 
> effectively. In fact, the average blind person can perform the same tasks 
> as their sighted peers as well, if not better, by employing these 
> alternative techniques. Our blindness is not the problem. The real problem 
> of blindness is the misunderstanding and lack of information that exists. 
> If a blind person is given proper training and opportunity, blindness is 
> only a physical nuisance.
>
>            In the future, when your paper is doing a story about 
> blindness, it would be helpful to get accurate information and the 
> perspective of a blind person who is qualified to speak to these issues by 
> being chosen by the blind to speak on their behalf. The National 
> Federation of the Blind is the oldest and largest organization of the 
> blind in the United States. We are not an organization that speaks on 
> behalf of the blind; we are the blind speaking for ourselves. For accurate 
> information about blindness or the blind, please feel free to get in touch 
> with me or visit one of our websites at
>
>
>
> HTTP://WWW.NFB.ORG
>
> Or
>
> HTTP://WWW.NFB-NAGDU.ORG
>
>
>
> Respectfully yours,
>
> Marion Gwizdala, President
>
> National Association of Guide Dog Users
>
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> 813-598-7161
>
> President at NFB-NAGDU.ORG
>
>
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