[nabs-l] Security in ourselves, acceptance in others

[Daniel Romero]

I think the reason why this might go down is because of the view that
we get from the public in general. Most people who are sighted are not
used to a blind person. You have to understand that one blind person
being seen is a huge thing. They're now reliable for what a person
thinks about blind people. They are the ones setting an example. So if
you have a blind person who smells bad, rocks, pokes their eyes or
just do not have the proper skills, the outside person will make an
assumtion and say that all blind people are like that. i'm not saying
it's right for blind people to call out other blind people with a
skills set that is lower then theirs, they're just calling them out
because they are representing blind people. It puts a bad label on us
blind people who do take care of ourselves, have the skills to be
independent and succeed. like i said, i'm not saying it's right but I
don't think us who do have the skills want to have a negative
conotation. Not all blind people poke their eyes, rock, hop,
twitch,bump into everything, smell bad, do not clean their own
clothes, or anything like that. So to be part of a group that's going
to display such a view that is negative to the public, we fall right
behind that. Am I making sense?