[humanser] Person First?

[Merry Schoch]

Hello JD,

Thank you for the post.  I have been thinking of this speech as of late.  Perfect timing!

I will be writing you off list soon!

Thank you again!
Merry

-----Original Message-----
From: humanser [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of JD Townsend via humanser
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2015 10:21 AM
To: humanser at nfbnet.org
Cc: JD Townsend
Subject: [humanser] Person First?


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 


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