[Blindtlk] FW: Awareness was the Main Course

Fri Mar 12 13:22:45 UTC 2010

Steve,
    I do not agree that such a practice helps others understand what it is 
like to be blind; rather, it merely shows them what it is like to lose their 
eyesight! Through proper training and opportunity, blindness is a physical 
nuisance. these participants did not have the advantage of such training. 
They were simply made to feel sorry for us! Such feeling of pity only serves 
to reinforce the stereotypical attitudes of the helpless blind person who 
needs the almighty doctor to cure the blindness. So, give us lots of money 
so we can help these poor, unfortunate souls get their eyesight back.

Marion Gwizdala


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve P. Deeley" <stevep.deeley at insightbb.com>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] FW: Awareness was the Main Course


>I think it gives sighted folks a greater found appreciation of what it is 
>like to be blind.  They are not looking down their noses at blind folks.
>
>
> Steve
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 8:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] FW: Awareness was the Main Course
>
>
>> Wow!  There was nothing positive at that dinner.  Everyone talked about 
>> the
>> negatives they see in their own experience or that of loved ones.  So, it
>> seems all they were there for was to pretend they understand what it's 
>> like
>> to be blind and to be thankful they aren't blind.  Not a good thing to
>> thrust on people.
>>
>> Cindy
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jewel S." <herekittykat2 at gmail.com>
>> To: <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:48 PM
>> Subject: [Blindtlk] FW: Awareness was the Main Course
>>
>>
>> Here is the original St. Petersburg article. I think the Letter to the
>> Editor was a bit harsh, but does hit on some very good points,
>> including the fact that Foundation Fighting Blindness uses blind
>> people to create pity from sighted people to raise funds. It's a sad
>> state when a blind person has to talk about how depressed and angry at
>> the world they were when they went blind to raise funds. Of course,
>> they don't -have- to, as NFB chapters all over the nation raise funds
>> by showing people what we -can- do. Our local chapter is doing a
>> Pancake Breakfast with Applebee's, and I am going to suggest that we
>> not be so wary about being the servers...take the plunge and serve the
>> breakfast. We -can- do it, and the sighted people who attend will be
>> impressed and pity us, but maybe it'll teach them that we can do
>> anything a sighted person can do, sometimes even better, because we
>> use more than one sense to do the task.
>>
>> Without further ado, the original article:
>>
>> Awareness was the main course.
>> By LAURA Reiley Times Staff Writer 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. 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..
>>
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