[NAGDU] tools to clip nails

[Cindy Ray]

They are well intentioned comments for sure, and I'm not sure the person
making them really imagines how damaging they can be, but they do have
subtexts, and we come to believe them ourselves sometimes. Once when I was a
student at the Iowa Commission for the Blind back in thee renaissance
period, we were cooking a meal for some very important women. I was truly
afraid I would make some kind of mess in front of them because I was blind.
I hadn't been there really long. The executive director of the Commission
knocked over a glass of iced water. I was under the table cleaning it up and
so happy that a sighted guy had spilled the water and not I. I was smilling
when I came out, and the guy said, "Cindy, damnit it, quit smiling." That
was the beginning of my education that we do all make mistakes, we don't
need comforted because we made the mistake as a blind person, it isn't a
compliment to have someone say even sighted people make mistakes but,
rather, a condescension. We do have to be able to differentiate between real
compliments and the ones based on the fact that people are amazed that we
function in the real or some other world. But we do have to be careful to
not get too happy about even sighted people make mistakes, or it is hard for
sighted people to cut the dogs' nails, because the end of that sentence is
and without sight it is impossible.
Cindy Lou Ray
cindyray at gmail.com


-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Buddy Brannan via
NAGDU
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 10:44 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Buddy Brannan <buddy at brannan.name>
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] tools to clip nails

Yes, but there it is again. "Even sighted folks make mistakes". It's that
pesky word "even". There, too, the implication is absolutely in the
statement. That it's been missed underscores just how pervasive this
attitude is. And really, it has nothing to do with which side of the bed one
gets up on. Lest anyone think I'm negative all the time or looking for a
slight where none is intended, i should also point out that, yes, of course
I take such comments in the spirit in which they were intended, but that
doesn't mean I don't also recognize the subtext. . 

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: 814-860-3194 
Mobile: 814-431-0962
Email: buddy at brannan.name




> On Apr 14, 2017, at 9:38 AM, David via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> That's interesting.  I don't think it says that at all.  I think it says,
"Hey, I can do this.  Even sighted folk make mistakes."
> 
> I guess some things we see depend on which foot touched the floor first
this morning.
> 
> David and Claire Rose in Clearwater, FL
> 
> On 4/13/2017 4:26 PM, Julie Johnson via NAGDU wrote:
>> Yes, let's do explore the statement: *How "even sighted people cut too
short*
>> 
>> To me it says that we shouldn't even try
> 
> 
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