[nagdu] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in the Dark"

Thu Mar 11 21:14:07 UTC 2010

So much language in this article really upsets me.  bumbling, fumbling, 
lobbing a response in the general direction, suffering from this disease? 
That just sounds so painful and will scare so many more people about 
blindness.

I'm not feeling too elequint, but I'm not impressed.

Meghan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marion Gwizdala" <blind411 at verizon.net>
To: "NAGDU List" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>; <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:41 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in the Dark"

> Dear All,
>    Thanks to Cheryl Echevarria for finding and sending this article to me. 
> I have pasted it and my Letter to the Editor again.
>
> Fraternally yours,
> Marion
>
>
>
> Awareness Was the Main Course
> by Laura Reiley
> Published March 10, 2010
>
> ST. PETERSBURG
>
> You knew your plate had been set before you only by sense of smell. It
> smelled like beef, something braised and hearty. On your right a voice 
> asked
> what you do for a living. You turned and lobbed an answer in that 
> direction.
>
> Tuesday night was the Foundation Fighting Blindness's first Tampa Bay 
> Dining
> in the Dark event at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club. More than 
> 200
> people, dressed fancy and sipping cocktails, took seats in the main 
> ballroom
> and eventually donned something called a Mindfold face mask, impervious to
> light and lined with foam. The lights dimmed and as emcee Dick Crippen of
> the Tampa Bay Rays goaded the crowd, the group endeavored to enjoy "the
> first meal you will never see."
>
> Other senses were heightened, texture became paramount. But more 
> important,
> it gave all of the assembled a greater window into the world of the
> sightless. Many had come because their lives had already been touched by
> degenerative retinal diseases. Briana Pompilus, 24, was there as a 
> volunteer
> with her mother Veronica Floyd, 44, who was diagnosed with retinitis
> pigmentosa at age 22. Still driving now, eventually her vision will close 
> up
> as if looking through two drinking straws.
>
> Mary Lou Johnson Evans was there for a similar reason. Her 14-year-old 
> son,
> Josh, suffers from the same disease.
>
> One of the evening's speakers, April Lufriu, a former Mrs. Florida America
> pageant winner and president of the Tampa Bay area chapter of the
> foundation, spoke of her sister's retinal disease and, more haltingly, 
> about
> her two children's recent diagnosis.
>
> Degenerative retinal diseases affect more than 10 million Americans. As
> keynote speaker James Minow described it, the foundation's aim is to put 
> an
> end to retinal disease by replacing defective cells in the retina, 
> replacing
> defective genes and by developing new treatments to protect degenerating
> retinas. The obstacle? As is so often the case, it's money.
>
> According to Kim Marlow, regional director of development for the
> foundation, the evening in St. Petersburg will raise $100,000 for the 
> cause.
> The most successful Dining in the Dark event to date, in New York, raised
> $500,000 in a single evening.
>
> The evening's honorees, doctors James Gill and Stephen Klasko, were
> feverishly optimistic about conceivable cures for blindness. For those
> assembled, a half hour in the dark was a humbling, and bumbling, reminder 
> of
> the magnitude of the gift of sight.
>
> Laura Reiley can be reached at
> lreiley at sptimes.com
> or (727) 892-2293.
>
>
>
> March 11, 2010
>
> Dear Editor,
>
>
>            I am writing to comment on the article "Awareness Was the Main 
> Course" by Laura Reiley that appeared in the March 10 Metro section of the 
> St. Petersburg times. As a blind person, I often meet people who are 
> amazed by the fact that I can perform even the simplest of tasks. 
> Generally this attitude is based on their own experience attempting to 
> perform the same task without eyesight and failing at it miserably. It is 
> for this reason that most blind people are opposed to using the type of 
> simulation exercises featured in this article. Blindfolding a sighted 
> person and asking them to perform even a simple task does not, as the 
> article purports, give a person any awareness of what the life of a blind 
> person is like. In fact, such exercises only serve to reinforce the 
> misconceptions and promulgate the myths about blindness that create the 
> social, legal, and economic barriers that prevent us from achieving true 
> equality with our sighted peers. Those of us who are blind have developed 
> an array of non-visual techniques to perform activities of daily living, 
> such as eating, just as effectively as sighted people do using eyesight. 
> Blindfolding a sighted person and asking them to perform a task is like 
> putting someone in the cockpit of a jetliner and telling them to fly! 
> Lacking the proper skills, the results of both would be disastrous!
>
>            The real problem of blindness is not the lack of eyesight; 
> rather it is the manner in which we are treated as the result of the 
> misconceptions people have about blindness. If one really wants to find 
> out what life is like for a blind person, there is no need to don a 
> blindfold! All one needs to do is carry a white cane, the international 
> symbol of blindness,  and go about their everyday life. Then they would 
> feel the crushing insults  of public misperception that blind people, 
> except for those few who are believed to be amazing and extraordinary, are 
> innately ignorant and helpless. They would experience the waitress who 
> asks a five year old what the blind adult wants to drink. They would 
> encounter the librarian who admonishes them for going out alone, thus 
> exposing them to the hazards of opening a door. They would be confronted 
> by the Employer who inquires about who will bring them to work. They would 
> learn that even well educated doctors are so ignorant as to ask them who 
> bathes them! Though you might want to minimize these incidents away, they 
> are examples of the type of ignorance I - and other blind people - 
> encounter on a regular, almost daily, basis!
>
>            I am not asserting that eyesight is not beneficial nor that the 
> work of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is not valuable. What concerns 
> me is that organizations that assert they want to "serve the blind" do us 
> such a disservice by reinforcing the public misconceptions and fears that 
> create the problems we face. I am all for raising money to cure retinal 
> degenerative diseases, especially since the condition that has caused my 
> blindness, that of my 14-year-old nephew , and several other members of my 
> family is retinitis Pigmentosa. I am, however, opposed to creating the 
> type of fear and pity that results from blindfolding people for the 
> purpose of raising money! Such a practice is as offensive to me as a 
> black-faced minstrel would be to an African American! These misconceptions 
> are the reason fewer than 10% of blind children are learning to read and 
> write Braille, producing functionally illiterate blind adults. These fears 
> and misconceptions are the reason that the unemployment rate among the 
> blind is more than 70%!
>
>            The veracity of my concerns are supported by the numerous 
> inaccurate statements made by the author who has bought into the false 
> perceptions of the blind. Does she really believe that "other senses are 
> heightened" by taking away one's sight or "; texture became paramount" as 
> the result of simulated blindness? Does she really believe that 
> blindfolding participants "gave all assembled a greater window into the 
> world of the sightless"? Does she really believe that blind people go 
> through life "bumbling" their ways around or did she just irresponsibly 
> promulgate the pitiful stereotype in an effort to sell your newspapers 
> like the Foundation Fighting Blindness did to sell themselves and 
> selfishly generate  revenue with no concern about the social consequences 
> of their actions?
>
>            The belief that blind people are endowed with heightened senses 
> and special powers is a myth. Blind people simply learn to use their other 
> senses and alternative techniques to perform the tasks sighted people do 
> with eyesight. Like any skill, these techniques are generally not acquired 
> in a half-hour nor mysteriously and supernaturally endowed. However, these 
> skills enable blind people to function independently, efficiently, and 
> effectively. In fact, the average blind person can perform the same tasks 
> as their sighted peers as well, if not better, by employing these 
> alternative techniques. Our blindness is not the problem. The real problem 
> of blindness is the misunderstanding and lack of information that exists. 
> If a blind person is given proper training and opportunity, blindness is 
> only a physical nuisance.
>
>            In the future, when your paper is doing a story about 
> blindness, it would be helpful to get accurate information and the 
> perspective of a blind person who is qualified to speak to these issues by 
> being chosen by the blind to speak on their behalf. The National 
> Federation of the Blind is the oldest and largest organization of the 
> blind in the United States. We are not an organization that speaks on 
> behalf of the blind; we are the blind speaking for ourselves. For accurate 
> information about blindness or the blind, please feel free to get in touch 
> with me or visit one of our websites at
>
>
>
> HTTP://WWW.NFB.ORG
>
> Or
>
> HTTP://WWW.NFB-NAGDU.ORG
>
>
>
> Respectfully yours,
>
> Marion Gwizdala, President
>
> National Association of Guide Dog Users
>
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> 813-598-7161
>
> President at NFB-NAGDU.ORG
>
>
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