[humanser] Person First?

[JD Townsend]

Hello List:

As a psychotherapist I acknowledge the importance of words and how our 
identities & perceptions are flavored by our words, those spoken, those 
perceived, and those written.

NFB President Kenneth Jernigan spoke on the subject in “Blindness, Is 
Literature Against Us?”.  This speech changed my view of blindness in the 
1970s.  Rereading it in 1980 I, again, began to see myself differently.  I 
had graduated from Boston University in 1980 with a MSW degree and moved to 
New Jersey.  I got lots of job interviews, but no job offers.  After the 
re-read I stopped seeing myself as a blind person seeking employment and 
began to see myself as a social worker with skills to offer.  Within the 
next 2 weeks I had 3 job offers.

Viewing myself as a person with blindness or as a blind person didn’t 
matter.  It was seeing myself as a person complete in myself that mattered.

You can listen to this, to me, amazing speech at:
    https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Video/Blindness_Is_Literature_Against_Us.wmv




JD Townsend LCSW
Helping the light dependent to see.
Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System