[blparent] Interesting Trip to the Fair

[Deborah Kent Stein]

I know it can be exhausting to relive and rework these episodes.  Still, it 
might be a good idea to write a letter to whoever was in charge of the fair 
and describe what happened.  The task of educating the world is unending, 
but when something as egregious as this occurs, I think we need to speak up. 
Silence is a tacit acceptance that it's just the way it's going to be.

Debbie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at msn.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 8:56 PM
Subject: [blparent] Interesting Trip to the Fair


> Hi.  Gerald and I took Stephen and Sarah to the county fair for opening 
> night.  Overall, we had a great time.  Sarah rode her first roller 
> coaster--a small one for kids--and just about split her face, she was 
> grinning so big.
>
> But something interesting happened at the carousel.  Sarah and Stephen 
> picked out the horses they wanted to ride, which were next to each other. 
> The horses were three across, with Sarah on the outside and Stephen in the 
> middle, so I took the inside one, closest to the center of the carousel.
>
> The guy who ran the carousel came over and asked Gerald,  "You're going to 
> stand next to her, right?"
>
> Well, both of us thought he was talking about Sarah, so Gerald said yes, 
> he would.  He positioned himself next to Sarah, at the outside of the 
> carousel, presumably so she wouldn't fall off the horse or try to stand up 
> or something.  The ride started, but it stopped after only a few rounds, 
> and the operator came back over.
>
> He wanted Gerald standing next to me, if I was going to ride a carousel 
> horse!  It didn't matter that I'd just ridden a ride that spun me six ways 
> to Sunday.  It didn't matter that I was a grown-up, and that my 
> three-year-old daughter could sit on the slowly bouncing horse 
> independently.
>
> We all got off the ride, and three out of four of us had a bad taste in 
> our mouths.  Thank goodness, Sarah was too young to follow the 
> conversation, but I guess she'll catch on soon enough.
>
> I'm choosing to focus on the good time we had for the rest of the night 
> and not dwell on the incident.  But man, we have a long way to go toward 
> equality!
>
> Jo Elizabeth
>
> "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, 
> unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into 
> advance."--Franklin D. Roosevelt
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