[Blindtlk] FW: Awareness was the Main Course

Sat Mar 13 08:16:20 UTC 2010

Well said.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] FW: Awareness was the Main Course


> But, it doesn't really give them an appreciation of what it's like to be
> blind, at all.  The only thing they know is, they can't see, they're
> fumbling around with utensils or their food, and they'll be relieved when
> they can take the sleep shades off.  If they were to have any sort of
> appreciation of what it's like to be blind, they would have to wear sleep
> shades for an extended period of time and go through a training center to
> learn how to function without sight.  Until they do that and actually
> experience the alternative techniques we use and spend time without being
> able to remove the sleep shade, they'll never "understand" what it's like 
> to
> be blind.
>
> Cindy
> ----- 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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>
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