[Ct-nfb] Question on Hierarchy of Sight

Wed Oct 1 00:26:10 UTC 2014

I hope your friend makes a full recovery. And we are not a blind person we
are persons who happen to be blind. We are people first and need to be
treated in that manor.

From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Justin
Salisbury via Ct-nfb
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 12:21 PM
To: Elizabeth Rival; NFB of Connecticut Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] Question on Hierarchy of Sight

Beth:

It strikes me that this might be an inappropriate time to begin accusations
about whether or not the car was a quiet one. I do not think that we are
ready to move on to the fault-finding type of analysis yet.

Right now, while my friend is fighting for his life, and while his wife
updates our Wisconsin affiliate via email, we are focused on our prayers
that he make a full recovery.

I believe that his wife's words are as credible as any news article and hope
that no one will discredit them as hearsay.

I decided that it might be appropriate right now to discuss the idea of why
so many people, when describing the accident, mention the fact that he and
his wife are totally blind. It's a tragedy because it happened to a good
human being, not because it happened to a totally blind human being with a
totally blind spouse.

I continue to hope that he will make a full recovery.

Yours,

Justin Salisbury

Sent from the iPhone of:

Justin M. Salisbury

Graduate Student

Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness

Louisiana Tech University

Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu

Twitter: @SalisburyJustin

On Sep 24, 2014, at 7:57 PM, "Elizabeth Rival via Ct-nfb"
<ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Justin, the question of was it a quiet car that hit him has not been
mentioned. Was there an article in the paper or is this all here say? Beth 

From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Richard
McGaffin via Ct-nfb
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 4:00 PM
To: Esther Levegnale; NFB of Connecticut Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] Question on Hierarchy of Sight

Good afternoon Justin,

First let me say that I'm having a bit of difficulty reading this e-mail. So
please forgive me if my response isn't correct. However I too was hit by a
car back a while ago. I fortunately was fine, although now I'm wondering if
that could be why my right knee is acting up, or it could be just old age.
Regardless getting hit by a car is no fun whether your sighted artificially
sighted or totally sightless. I will say in my case it wasn't that big a
deal. I was walking down the street, a car was backing up I heard the car in
the driveway & I stopped to let the car back up, it didn't move I stood
there for at least a half a minute and since it wasn't moving I decided to.
What happened next I'm really not sure. But I was it, knocked off my feet,
however I had the presence of mind to roll out of the way and get back to my
feet, with out any damage to my glasses or my white cane. the woman did get
out and ask if I was alright, and I seemed to be I told her I just got the
wind out of me. I then continued on my way. A couple weeks later. My sister
Mary & I were walking down Savin Ave. and once again the car seemed to be
speeding out of her driveway again. Now my sister is sighted, and if she
wasn't text messaging a friend, and walking slower than normal we both
would've got nailed. So it can happen to anyone sighted or blind. I don't
know if this helps or not, I'll reread the e-mail tomorrow when I can see
the monitor a bit better.

Rich

On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 1:51 PM, Esther Levegnale via Ct-nfb
<ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Hi, Justin,

It seems that no matter what we do, people focus on our blindness instead of
the real issue.  I've been hearing in the news lately (and these apparently
are sighted people) that there have been hit-and-run incidents here in
CT--and how about the poor, unfortunate woman from CT who was struck by a
bicycle in Central Park , had massive head injuries and passed away just
this past week.  Sight or lack of sight thereof has nothing to do whether a
person is struck by a vehicle.  As I said, and it's pretty sad, that
blindness comes into play first.  I'm sure this person you know didn't get
hit because, or in spite of, his blindness.  That's my take anyway.  Take
care and hope you're doing well.

Esther

Sent From Esther's Amazing and Very Awesome iPhone!

On Sep 24, 2014, at 1:19 PM, Justin Salisbury via Ct-nfb <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

Hi everyone,

I just read a message on another affiliate's email list about a member who
was hit by a car yesterday. He's a really nice guy, but the post introducing
the issue to everyone seemed to focus not on how great a guy he was but on
the fact that he and his wife are both totally blind. It gave me the
impression that it was worse for him to be hit by a car because of his total
blindness than it would be for a high partial or sighted person to be hit.
The reason I think it's terrible is because he's that kind of guy that you'd
expect to play Santa Claus for the children at a pancake breakfast, not
because of his total blindness.

Please excuse me if the subject line is ineffective, but I cannot help but
wonder if this has something to do with the hierarchy of sight, or maybe
some other social ideas about blindness. Why do you think someone would
focus on his total blindness in a message like that?

I'm choosing to have the discussion here instead of there because I want the
discussion to be separated from personal feelings about this guy, who,
again, is a great guy.

Looking forward to responses,

Justin

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