[Nfbk] Article fro St. Petersburg Times

[Nickie]

Dear All,

> Pasted below is an article that appeared in the March 10 issue of the

> St. Petersburg (Florida) Times concerning a fund raising event for the

> Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Letter to the Editor I wrote.

>

> fraternally yours,

> Marion Gwizdala, President

> National Association of Guide Dog Users

> National Federation of the Blind

> 813-598-7161

> President at NFB-NAGDU.ORG

> HTTP://NFB-NAGDU.ORG

>

>

>

> Awareness Was the Main Course

> by Laura Reiley

> Published in the St. Petersburg Times

> 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

>

>

>

>

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> Chapter-presidents mailing list

> Chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org

> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org

> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for

> Chapter-presidents:

>

>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org/goodfolk
s%40charter.net

>

>

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

>

>

>

> No virus found in this incoming message.

> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

> Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2741 - Release Date: 03/12/10

> 03:42:00

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> Chapter-presidents mailing list

> Chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org

> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org

> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for

> Chapter-presidents:

>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org/holleyma
nor%40verizon.net



_______________________________________________

Chapter-presidents mailing list

Chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org

To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Chapter-presidents:

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org/njp%
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20100313/bc53b117/attachment.html>