[BlindTlk] Strange Stuff

[Mark Tardif]

Alright, friends.  I’m going to tell you something that will either leave you laughing or crying, and it is to demonstrate that no matter how well educated you are, if you are not familiar with blindness, well, you can still come across as, to put it politely, not the brightest light in the room.  The other day I saw a doctor I had never met before.  He had never spoken with someone who was born blind, and I suspect he had never spoken with any blind person.  Anyway, he saw my long white cane and, get this, asked if this was my “eye stick.”  Yes, that was the term he actually used, “eye stick.”  I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to just moan with sadness, but one does need to remember manners in this situation, so I told him that we call it a long white cane and told him what it was for.  He actually asked a number of good questions about blindness, which I thought was good, but it was clear that he needed much educating.  He seemed surprised I can actually walk around town independently.  I guess we have a lot of work to do, still, to put it mildly.  Also, I must say that while people up here are often extremely nice and courteous, they seem to pride themselves on being quite insular, even more than the rest of Maine, which is my state incidentally.  I say that because along with the term “eye stick,” I’ve often heard some very strange and, frankly, primitive ideas that I won’t actually go into here, but I do often think that holds us back in a lot of ways.  Anyway, I just thought I would share that bit of strangeness.       
Mark Tardif 
Nuclear arms will not hold you.