[Blindtlk] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in the Dark"
Marion Gwizdala
blind411 at verizon.net
Fri Mar 12 12:57:39 UTC 2010
Dear All,
Sections 107 through 118 of the copyright act (
title 17, U.S. Code) allows for what is known as "fair use". We are not
disseminating the article for a profit, only for educational purposes.
Fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Foret jr" <rforetjr at comcast.net>
To: "Gary Wunder" <gwunder at earthlink.net>; "Blind Talk Mailing List"
<blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in the Dark"
> Oops, well, there goes that then. In fact, Gary's right. We don't have
> premition to forward any newsline content or put it up on the list; which,
> as I see it, amounts to illegal distribution.
>
> Thanks for the reminder.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!
>
> E-Mail:
> rforetjr at comcast dot net
>
> On Mar 11, 2010, at 3:08 PM, Gary Wunder wrote:
>
>> 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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>>
>>
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>
>
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