[Nfbsatx] Fwd: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in theDark"
Jose Martinez
jose.martinez07 at gmail.com
Sat Mar 13 23:56:24 UTC 2010
For your information
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Holley <holleymanor at verizon.net>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:15:28 -0800
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning
"Dining in theDark"
To: NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list <chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org>
Dear All, I am going to join in this discussion because I am a
contributor to FFB and have been for many years as well as CRF
(Choroideremia Research Foundation). I support their work and goals but DO
oppose the use of fear to raise funds. I have had more than one
conversation with their marketing officers about the use of fear. However I
think that having people be blindfolded for dinner can demonstrate the FACT
that one can eat successfully without vision. My wife has more than once
commented on the lack of light in some restaurants and I remind her that
most are 'dark' for me. I am going to use the blind fold idea to
demonstrate to first graders that life is okay without vision and ask
them to consider doing one daily task once while blind folded to see that
they can do it. The task might be brushing their teeth, bathing, making
their bed, etc. Wow, I'm tired.
Rick Holley
President, NFBV Eastern Shore Chapter
----- Original Message -----
From: "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net>
To: "NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list" <chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 8:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in
theDark"
>I have read with great interest the article and your letter which you sent
>to the newspaper, however I would take issue with your statement "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. ." I would contend that as
> stated in my book "dealing With Vision Loss," published 2007 through
> Author-House and also available from my website
> http://www.dealingwithvisionloss.com that the problem is that most seeing
> folks when confronted with either a blind-fold experience or with dealing
> with with a person who is blind can for the most part, only think of how
> it would be for them or how they would react if they lost their vision or
> a large portion of it. The problem is not blindness, but their perception
> of it, from their perspective. Sure, it is easy or easier for most of us
> to say that blindness is insignificant, but look at what we know, the
> education we have received, the training, the adaptive aids we have
> learned to use.
>
> Fred Olver
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Marion Gwizdala
> To: NFB Chapter presidents
> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 7:55 AM
> Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in
> theDark"
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
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