[Nfbf-l] THE GINGHAM DRESS

[Mark Tardif]

Good story.  And I agree with you to an extent, but I think a certain amount 
of that is human nature and frankly how we are socialized from day one.  And 
I notice it in some of us who are blind, too, although perhaps not as much. 
For example, when I lived in Connecticut, I would sometimes take part in 
group interviews with potential job candidates.  Once we had someone who 
didn't sound too promising, and when my sighted colleagues told me how he 
was dressed, I immediately agreed with them that we should not hire him.  It 
was amazing how quickly I responded to his looks, even though, frankly, 
there was plenty of other reason why we did not hire him.  Also, I notice 
with myself, as a blind person, I tend to react immediately to a person's 
voice.  For example, when I was doing customer service, we would talk to 
people all over the country.  If I heard someone with a real, back woods 
redneck kind of accent, regardless of the fact that I knew nothing about 
him, I would conjure up stereotypes, most of them negative, like you 
wouldn't believe.  Sure it is wrong, I agree with you, but I think it's hard 
to get beyond how we are socialized, it is subtly engrained in us since 
childhood.

Mark Tardif
Nuclear arms will not hold you.
-----Original Message----- 
From: Alan Dicey
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 5:53 AM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: [Nfbf-l] THE GINGHAM DRESS

THE GINGHAM DRESS
This just goes to show that you can't tell about people on how they are
dressed.
That is one of the troubles in the world sighted people judge people by
their appearances.  Blind people judge from the inside out.

THE GINGHAM DRESS
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walked timidly without
an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.  The
secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no
business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge .
"We'd like to see the president", the man said softly.
"He'll be busy all day", the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait", the lady replied.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally
become discouraged and go away.
They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to
disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.
"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave", she said to him!
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously
didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and
homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.  The president, stern faced
and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year.  He
loved Harvard.  He was happy here.  But about a year ago, he was
accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him,
somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched.  He was shocked.
"Madam", he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who
attended Harvard and died.  If we did, this place would look like a
cemetery."
"Oh, no,' the lady explained quickly.  'We don't want to erect a statue. We
thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes.  He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun
suit, then exclaimed, "A building!  Do you have any earthly idea how much a
building costs?  We have over seven and a half million dollars  in the
physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent.  The president was pleased.  Maybe he
could get rid of them now.  The lady turned to her husband and said quietly,
"Is that all it costs to start a university?  Why don't we just start our
own?"
Her husband nodded.  The president's face wilted in confusion and
bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling
to Palo Alto, California, where they established the university that bears
their name --  Stanford University -- as a memorial to a son that Harvard no
longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who
they think can do nothing for them.
---- A TRUE STORY by Malcolm Forbes
"People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did."
"But people will never forget how you made them feel."


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