[Ohio-talk] The Urgency of Optimism

[Jordy Stringer]

For your convenience.


Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jordy Stringer <jordystringer83 at gmail.com>
> Date: February 27, 2017 at 3:18:03 PM EST
> To: n8tnv at att.net
> Subject: The Urgency of Optimism
> 
> The Urgency of Optimism
> As promised
> An Address Delivered by
> Marc Maurer
> at the Banquet of the Annual Convention
> of the National Federation of the Blind
> 
> 
> 
> Much has been written about the balance between optimism and
> pessimism–as if these two approaches to living were opposite, mutually
> exclusive but equally viable methods of thought.
> 
> McLandburgh Wilson said:
> Twixt the optimist and the pessimist
> The difference is droll:
> The optimist sees the doughnut
> But the pessimist sees the hole.
> 
> Frederick Langbridge said,
> “Two men look out the same prison bars:
> One sees mud and the other stars.”
> 
> However, some imaginative thinkers have suggested that optimism is not
> simply a way of looking at a set of circumstances, but a positive
> element of power.
> 
> William James said, “Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”
> 
> Nicholas Murray Butler said, “Optimism is essential to achievement,
> and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.”
> 
> Colin Powell said, “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
> 
> For optimism to be an element in the acquisition of power, it must be
> more than a cheerful cast of countenance. Rather it must consist in a
> commitment to bringing into being a future containing elements of
> possibility that have not been a part of the past. Optimism and
> reality may (properly understood) be inseparable. If reality signifies
> all that has currently been created, this measure of existence is
> frozen in time. If, on the other hand, reality denotes both that which
> has been built and that which can be brought into being, the potential
> for growth encompasses a much more magnificent formulation of life
> than would otherwise be comprehensible. In other words, the grandest
> understanding of reality incorporates the optimistic anticipation of
> innovative thought, and it also implies commitment and effort.
> 
> Anais Nin said, “Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the
> actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the
> highest form of living.”
> 
> Douglas Everett said, “There are some people who live in a dream
> world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those
> who turn one into the other.”
> 
> Although a goodly number of Americans have been pessimistic (Henry
> David Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go
> to the grave with the song still in them.”), ours is an optimistic
> nation. We have traditionally held the view that we could conquer the
> frontier, govern our futures, or invent the tools for our own success.
> There is even an American expression for this faith–“Yankee
> ingenuity.”
> 
> Just as individuals have a life cycle, the theorists tell us that
> organizations do. They are established; they grow; they mature; they
> prosper for a time; and they cease to exist. At least a part of the
> reason for the continued existence of an organization depends on its
> optimism. Every organization must possess a purpose and the faith that
> the purpose can be achieved. When that faith dissipates, the
> organization dwindles, becomes dormant, and ceases to be.
> 
> As we have observed in the National Federation of the Blind,
> leadership is one vital element of progress. As an organization must
> have faith in its future, the leaders of the organization must be
> optimistic. Pessimism signifies atrophy. Operating the same old
> program in the same old way will not encourage growth. Optimism and an
> openness to imagination must be a part of the leadership. Every
> organization is faced with the same imperative: build or wither, grow
> or die. The openness to imaginative thought and the faith to believe
> that better, more effective programs can be created are part of the
> spirit of the National Federation of the Blind.
> 
> Reflections on optimism and discussions about blindness are rarely
> found in the same place. People who write or speak about blindness
> often grieve, sometimes weep, and frequently employ the most dismal
> descriptive words to signify the potential for blind people. It is
> extraordinarily rare for somebody to write or think, “Oh good, a whole
> bunch of blind people!” In fact, a convention of blind people is, in
> the minds of many, an anomaly–almost a contradiction in terms. At
> conventions people are supposed to have fun. But, if most of the
> people at the convention are blind, how ineffably dismal could this
> be? Adding one miserable life to another in thousands of iterations
> simply magnifies the horror of it all. Blind people who are optimistic
> about their future–they must be deluded or liars. How could any
> substantial group of people wake every day facing the disadvantages
> that blindness brings and at the same time maintain optimism in their
> hearts? Is there any group so naïve as to take this position?
> 
> Well, one group of this character does exist. We have created it. It
> is the most powerful force ever established in the field of work with
> the blind in the United States, and it has a purpose that will not be
> abridged or thwarted or denied. That purpose is hard to achieve but
> simple to proclaim–it is that the blind will have recognition, that we
> will be known for the vital human beings we are with all of the
> talent, the energy, and the joy that we possess–that equality must and
> will be ours. The organization we have created, the organization that
> carries this banner, the organization with the optimistic drive to
> change our lives for all time is the National Federation of the Blind.
> 
> Some people depict the blind as unemployed, isolated, frequently
> uneducated, and beset with characteristics denoting inability. The
> assertion that this summation is reality is made by some of those
> dealing with programming for the blind. A senior official of the
> Department of Education responsible for rehabilitation of the blind
> said within the last few years that the 70 percent unemployment rate
> for blind people has remained unchanged for decades.
> 
> Why, I wondered, has this figure remained so high? Do blind people not
> want to work? Are blind people lazy, lackadaisical loafers who are
> turning down good jobs so that they can continue to receive government
> benefits, or has the system failed? Are rehabilitation programs
> unequal to the challenge? Are the programs conducted by the Department
> of Education unproductive? Is the 70 percent unemployment rate for
> blind people an indication of a lack of leadership?
> 
> “Not on your life,” said this high official in the Department of
> Education. “This rate of unemployment is an indicator that blind
> people cannot achieve success unless they are among the most talented
> 30 percent of the blind in society. Continuing to spend money on
> programming for the blind,” he said, “is a waste of state and federal
> resources.” Rehabilitation for blind clients costs more than
> rehabilitation for those with other disabilities. Therefore
> specialized programs for the blind should be eliminated because they
> cost too much. Never mind that these programs produce positive
> results, create tax savings by limiting the number of people receiving
> federal and state support, and bring trained and talented blind people
> into the workforce. They should be eliminated because they cost too
> much, he told me. This federal official in the Department of Education
> gave up on 70 percent of the clients assigned to the programs he is
> expected to supervise. He thinks that handing out government benefit
> checks to blind people is better than training them to work for their
> own lives. With such an attitude, with such a failure of optimism,
> with such a lack of faith in the clients the Department of Education
> is expected to serve, it is not the least bit surprising that the
> programs of this department are failing.
> 
> Sometimes it appears that certain officials of the Department of
> Education are seeking to punish the blind for demanding equality.
> Sometimes it appears that these officials are saying, “You can demand
> equality if you want to, but if you do, we will cut funds from your
> programs. If you do as we say–if you behave as we require–if you are
> docile, subservient, properly grateful blind people–we will grant you
> a modicum of support. However, if you want to be pushy, obnoxious, and
> uppity; if you want to be demanding and insistent, you will be sorry.”
> 
> Fortunately, though the Department of Education is responsible for
> making policies regarding programs it conducts, it has no power to
> make policy for the blind. We of the National Federation of the Blind
> determine our own policy and create our own destiny. Those who serve
> in government are responsible to the people who put them there, not
> the other way around. The blind of the nation have a right, perhaps
> even a duty, to examine the performance of the officials who are
> selected to conduct the programs to serve us. Those public officials
> are responsible to us to demonstrate that they have served well enough
> to continue to remain in office, and we demand an accounting.
> 
> At the time of the founding of the National Federation of the Blind in
> 1940, almost no blind people in America were employed. By the late
> 1950s estimates were that 3 or 4 percent of the blind of the nation
> had jobs. By the mid-1970s this estimate had increased to 30 percent.
> In certain programs the number of blind people who receive employment
> after training is above 80 percent, and some approach 90 percent. What
> makes these programs successful? They listen to the blind; they are
> responsive to the needs and wishes of blind people; they learn from
> the organized blind movement; they form partnerships with the most
> powerful entity dealing with blindness in the nation. Do officials in
> the Department of Education know these facts? Do they care? Have they
> studied the factors that are part of the success for the most
> productive programs?
> 
> Those who believe that inability or isolation or dismal despair
> describe our lives do not know us and cannot speak for us. We are the
> blind, and we will make our own way and live our own lives. We will do
> it with the support and encouragement of those who understand the
> reality we face. We will welcome partners from government or private
> programs for the blind who have the faith to believe in us. We will
> conduct our activities with the fundamental faith that blindness
> cannot inhibit our progress and with the optimism to know that we can
> face whatever obstacle may come. But above all else we will build our
> own future, and nothing on earth can stop us!
> 
> One of the elements necessary to the public acceptance of the blind as
> equals in society is a correct understanding of what blind people are.
> How are the blind perceived almost a decade into the twenty-first
> century?
> 
> A report circulated by Fox News in May of this year describes an
> incident in which a blind man was refused the opportunity to ride on a
> roller coaster because of blindness. The report says that the blind
> man had already ridden the roller coaster three times that day. When
> the owner of the amusement park discovered that the blind man was
> seeking a fourth ride, management refused. Management personnel said
> that safety requires a person to assume certain positions during a
> roller coaster ride. These positions can be anticipated only by those
> who can see well enough during the course of the ride that they can
> anticipate the twists and drop-offs before they happen. Furthermore,
> if the roller coaster were to malfunction, management said, a blind
> person could not easily escape from the contraption without danger.
> 
> The denial of the opportunity to participate in the experience of
> riding a roller coaster is an example of the idiocy that blind people
> often face. The blind man in question had already ridden the roller
> coaster three times without incident or injury. The owner of the
> amusement park ignored the evidence. He had already decided that blind
> people were not welcome. Evidence was irrelevant.
> 
> Of course evidence is not required from the sighted. If sighted people
> need not provide any evidence of their capacity to ride, blind people
> should not be expected to provide it either. Nevertheless, the
> evidence was there. Consequently, this is a case in which double
> discrimination has taken place. I am pleased to say that we in the
> National Federation of the Blind assisted in giving this case the
> publicity it deserved, and the amusement park owner has changed his
> mind. The blind are welcome to ride.
> 
> In 1997 the Portuguese Nobel Prize winning author José Saramago
> released the English version of his novel, entitled Blindness. The
> premise in this book is that the members of society become blind
> unexpectedly, totally, irreparably, and instantly. The description of
> society as an increasing number of its members become blind is one of
> filth, greed, perversion, and vice. Blind people are depicted as
> unbelievably incapable of everything, including finding the way to the
> bathroom or the shower. Saramago wants a world view that serves to
> offer an allegory for the worst description he can possibly imagine.
> He selects blindness as his metaphor for all that is bad in human
> thought and action. He describes the blind as having every negative
> trait of humanity and none of the positive ones. He argues that this
> is an allegory for a picture of the reality of the world today. The
> book was used as the basis for a movie of the same name, which has
> been shown at the Cannes film festival this spring. The only positive
> element to the release of this film is the almost universal reaction
> of the critics that it is a failure.
> 
> The depiction of the blind in this movie is fundamentally flawed for
> two reasons. First, blindness does not denote the characteristics the
> author attributes to it. The capabilities of those who become blind
> remain essentially the same after they lose vision as they were before
> they lost it. Although the loss of any major asset (including vision)
> will bring a measure of sadness to some and despair to a few, it will
> also stimulate others to assert their will. Blindness can be a
> devastating loss, but it also has the power to galvanize some to
> action. The reaction to blindness is not the least bit
> one-dimensional. Therefore the description is false.
> 
> In addition to this, the viciousness attributed to the blind is
> inconsistent with the assertion of incapacity. Viciousness demands
> both venality and ability–at least organized viciousness does. To say
> that the blind are completely incompetent and to assert that they have
> the ability to organize for the pursuit of vice is a contradiction in
> terms.
> 
> But leave the internal inconsistency. The charge that loss of vision
> creates a personality alteration of sordid and criminal character is
> in itself sordid and defamatory to an entire class of human beings. To
> give a man who writes such foolishness the Nobel Prize for Literature
> belittles what has often been regarded as a prestigious award. For as
> long as I can remember, certain comedians have thought it good sport
> to make fun of the blind, and as pernicious as this may be, most
> authors have not sought to make us objects of fear and revulsion.
> 
> The description in Blindness is wrong–completely, unutterably,
> irretrievably, immeasurably wrong. That such falsity should be
> regarded as good literature is revolting and amazing. We know the
> reality of blindness, we know the pain it can bring, we know the joy
> that can come from correcting the misinformation about it, and we are
> prepared to act on our own behalf. We will not let José Saramago
> represent us, for he does not speak the truth. He does not write of
> joy or the optimism of building a society worth calling our own. We
> do, and we will.
> 
> On November 13, 2007, an article appeared in USA Today entitled,
> “Blinded by War: Injuries Send Troops into Darkness,” which describes
> the incidence of eye injuries to military personnel facing enemy
> combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan. This article indicates that
> current conditions for combat cause a higher proportion of injuries to
> the eye than in previous conflicts. Though the article is quite
> sympathetic to the troops who are blinded, it contains a reiteration
> of many of the myths and stereotypes that have inhibited progress for
> the blind during the course of recorded history. Brief portrayals of
> the lives of three soldiers are part of this writing.
> 
> Here are excerpts from the article: “About 70 percent of all sensory
> perception is through vision, says R. Cameron VanRoekel, an army major
> and staff optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in
> Washington. As a result the families of visually impaired soldiers
> wrestle with a contradiction: The wounded often have hard-driving
> personalities that have helped them succeed in the military. Now
> dependent on others, they find it difficult to accept help.”
> 
> I interrupt to say that though the army major may not know it, blind
> people do not necessarily lead lives of dependency, some blind people
> have hard-driving personalities, and the old story about visual
> perception being the primary method of learning is a myth of long
> standing but little credence. However, there are other pieces to the
> article.
> 
> “Even now, more than a year after her husband’s return from Iraq,”
> [the article continues] “Connie Acosta is taken aback to find her home
> dark after sunset, the lights off as if no one is there. Then she
> finds him–sitting in their Santa Fe Springs, California, house,
> listening to classic rock. Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta was blinded in a
> mortar attack twenty-two months ago. He doesn’t need the lights. That
> realization often makes Connie cry. ‘You kind of never get used to the
> fact that he really can’t see,’ she says. ‘He has no light in his life
> at all.’”
> 
> Again I interrupt. If the article is merely reporting that this
> soldier is blind, I would have no argument with the fact. However,
> more is implied than the fact of blindness. The meaning is much
> broader and much more devastating. The spiritual, the poetic, the
> inspirational, the romantic aspects of life are no more for this
> combat victim, implies USA Today. Of course USA Today is only a
> newspaper. Its reporters have no extensive experience with blindness,
> and its editors have not studied in this realm or learned what reality
> is for the blind. Personnel at the newspaper have lived with the myth
> of deprivation, and this is what they report. They cannot comprehend
> that something else might be at least as important.
> 
> Is it really fair to say for those of us who are blind that we “have
> no light in our lives at all” with all of the unspoken implications
> contained in this phrase? Is sight essential for poetry? Can there be
> no inspiration without the visual sense? Is romance a thing of the
> past? Is the song of the spirit only a faint echo in the lives of
> blind people when compared with that robust clamor which thrills the
> inner being of the sighted? When blindness comes, does it invariably
> signify meaningless emptiness? This is what the article would have us
> believe. Consider what the reporter says. “Nothing in the house can be
> moved [the article continues]; he’s memorized the location of every
> chair and table.”
> 
> The final segment of the article poignantly sums up the grief. This is
> what it says: “The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro
> says. ‘I’ve had dreams where I know I’m blind and, guess what? I’ve
> regained my vision,’ he says. Reality floods back each morning.
> ‘There’s not a night that I don’t pray and ask God, when I wake up,
> that I wake up seeing.’”
> This is the report from USA Today about the prospects for blinded
> veterans. The only good news is the dream of waking up seeing;
> everything else is bad. To imagine a life consisting in its primary
> elements of waiting from the time of each waking moment for the next
> hour when sleep can be coaxed to disguise the reality of daily
> existence with a dream world is to accept despair. What we say to this
> soldier, to USA Today, and to all human beings who have become blind
> is: “Don’t you believe it!” Your reporter has missed the good news.
> Blindness is indeed a loss, but it is the loss of sight only, not the
> loss of the ability to live. Nobody can give us hope unasked, and
> nobody can create for us the kind of spirit that will give meaning to
> what we do or who we are. However, the hope is abundantly available
> for those who seek it; the joy is part of the world we can build; and
> the future is as bright with promise as any imagination that exists or
> has ever existed. This is what our experience has demonstrated; this
> is what we know; and this is the story that should have been reported.
> 
> Incidentally, I get a little tired of the argument that 70 percent or
> 80 percent or 83 percent or 90 percent of all information comes
> through the eye. The implication is always that, although blind people
> have some information, we have only 30 percent or 20 percent or 17
> percent or 10 percent of that which all other people have. This is
> false, and I find myself annoyed with the necessity of responding to
> this idiotic notion repeatedly.
> 
> I am told that the beginning of this argument came from an
> advertisement in 1923 put together by Thomas Edison. He was trying to
> sell film projectors to school systems. In an effort to sell his
> projectors, he said that “83 percent of all knowledge comes through
> the eye.” I wish he had found a better way to sell projectors. Though
> I presume sighted people might learn 70 percent of all they know by
> using their eyes, I also recognize that this is not the only way to
> learn. All of us learn through such senses as we have, and we learn
> through using such mental capacity as we possess. Sense impression is
> necessary for learning, but it is only one element in the process.
> Identifying and manipulating information involves pattern recognition.
> Sometimes visual observation helps in recognizing patterns, but other
> ways to recognize them also exist, and imagination is at least as
> valuable.
> 
> Even though I have been thinking seriously about the subject of
> blindness for almost forty years, I am still amazed by some of the
> things that people believe about blindness. When I read articles like
> this one, I think to myself, “Did you say that, did you really say
> that, how could you say such things about the blind?” Can you really
> think that our lives are meaningless, or empty, or without romance or
> poetry or passion? Have you observed any of us for more than a moment?
> Do you know the struggle that we face to gain recognition for our
> talent? Have you heard the ripple of our laughter or the cadence of
> the song we sing? If you believe that romance and passion are possible
> only through the eye, your experience lacks perspective and
> imagination. Love, joy, a fascination with the arts and sciences,
> exploration of the unknown, and the unquenchable determination to
> build a better life for ourselves and for others–these we claim as
> belonging to us, belonging to the human spirit which is ours. In your
> reporting you have not included these factors as a part of our lives,
> but we know that we possess capacity, and we will not let you forget
> it.
> 
> To give perspective to the thought of blind people and romance,
> consider the testimony of a Federation member who, as a college
> project, decided to find out how blind people fall in love. Here is a
> portion of the notice that this student distributed to a number of
> blind people in the Northeast:
> 
> This year I am a senior, and I will be working on an honors thesis
> investigating the attraction and courtship process for individuals
> without sight. The purpose of this project is to explore ways in which
> blind individuals use senses other than sight in choosing partners and
> in maintaining intimate relationships.
> 
> It is argued that sight is the most important factor in how people
> fall in love. What about those of us who lack the benefit of eye
> contact and visual cues? I want to explore the roles of other senses
> in the process of falling in love. This question is of great personal
> interest to me because I was able to experience ‘love at first sight’
> when I met my future husband, despite the fact that I could not rely
> on my sense of sight. I am very interested in investigating the
> variety of ways that visually impaired individuals fall in love.
> 
> These are statements from the notice created by the student. She takes
> for granted that blind people have romantic interest, and she seeks
> less to know whether it exists than how it operates. I suspect that
> the research has already been concluded. However, if more evidence is
> required, I will let you know.
> 
> The National Federation of the Blind receives unsolicited proposals to
> support, endorse, or help to promote individuals, books, films, or
> projects about blindness on a very regular basis. Some of these make
> sense and get our support, but others have no redeeming social
> importance.
> 
> A few months ago we received a proposal that the National Federation
> of the Blind become a promoter of a project known as “Charlesville,” a
> housing community to be built in Georgia adapted to the specialized
> needs of the blind. The slogan of Charlesville, which gives an idea
> about the project, is: “A Community Where the Blind Can Really See.”
> The promoters plan to construct 164 homes for the blind in a housing
> development along with a theater, places for other small businesses, a
> supermarket, playgrounds, and a “work facility.” The proposal, laid
> out in a substantial notebook, contains statements such as,
> “Homes…will have Voice instructions to assist the Blind in being able
> to see in their homes, as well as in their outside yards,” and “The
> streets will be designed to have Voice controls to assist the Blind in
> seeing where their neighbors live, their playgrounds are, as well as
> their work facility.” One other statement in the notebook is, “Our
> firm has been given the ‘Vision of Creating Home Ownership, and
> Employment’ in Charlesville where the Blind can see themselves become
> normal independent citizens of our great country.”
> 
> Such are statements from the planners of Charlesville. And you thought
> you were normal; you thought you were independent–not unless you live
> in Charlesville. Move to Charlesville or you’re not even a citizen of
> this great country of ours, according to the movers and shakers of
> Charlesville.
> 
> I spoke with the people who sent this proposal to the Federation. They
> told me that they understood the problems of blindness; they
> sympathized with the plight of blind people; and they wanted to
> construct a living community in which the blind could have an
> experience of home as close as possible to that which is experienced
> by the sighted. With this in mind they imagined that specialized
> technology would be installed which would explain to the blind the
> interiors of their houses. Other technology would explain what was in
> the neighborhood. The explanations would include audible descriptions
> of where each neighbor lived and where each nonresidential building
> could be located. Special blind-friendly technology to control the
> streets would be one of the features of the community, though what
> this technology would do had not yet been completely planned.
> 
> The mind boggles at what might be incorporated in the audible
> descriptions of the neighbors. It is tempting to try to offer certain
> imaginative examples, but those that you have already constructed are
> no doubt equally good. I confess that I found myself intrigued by the
> notion that the streets themselves could be controlled. What would a
> human being want the streets to do? Although I did not express these
> thoughts to those visiting the National Federation of the Blind, I
> wondered if they meant that control gates would be installed at street
> crossings similar to those used for railroad crossings. When a blind
> person planned to cross the street, the press of a button could bring
> down the control arms, halting traffic and providing a tactile railing
> or fence for the blind person to follow from one side of the street to
> the other. Indeed, the concept of controlling the streets tickled my
> fancy. I wondered if I should suggest to these planners that they
> build their community so that a blind person stepping out for a walk
> could instruct the streets to go downhill. Maybe the new slogan for
> Charlesville could be, “The Community for the Blind: Where All the
> Streets Go Downhill.”
> 
> Those creating the community thought that having sighted people to
> assist the blind with their medications might be useful as well as
> having individuals dedicated to leading the blind from place to place.
> The planners wanted to know if I had any suggestions for other
> specialized technologies or services, and they asked for a grant of
> more than a million dollars.
> I doubt that it will come as a surprise that I decided not to get the
> checkbook. I was polite, but I wondered if the people making the
> proposal had read any of the Federation’s literature. We do not
> recommend that the blind be segregated from society. We do not believe
> that specialized homes are required for the benefit of the blind. We
> do not recommend that communities be built to isolate the blind even
> with voice-controlled streets, whatever this might mean.
> 
> The concept of a segregated community is not merely offensive but also
> dangerously socially irresponsible. Some years ago in Japan, Dr.
> Kenneth Jernigan, who was totally blind, and Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan
> were walking along the sidewalk. A bicyclist almost struck Dr.
> Jernigan. In the brief heated discussion that followed the
> near-accident, the bicyclist said that a portion of the sidewalk had
> been set aside with tactilely raised identifying marks for the blind.
> This is where the blind should be, the cyclist said. Implied in the
> statement is the further thought that blind people should not be
> permitted outside the specialized areas designated for the blind.
> 
> Some people have advocated for a special college for the blind. The
> argument is that the needs of blind students are sufficiently
> different from those of other students that a college designed to
> serve the blind would be a significant advantage. Books could be
> provided in Braille or in recorded form. Blind people could have
> assurance that the lectures, the handouts, and the laboratories would
> be designed to ensure accessibility in nonvisual ways. However, we in
> the National Federation of the Blind have never endorsed such a
> concept; we have actively opposed it. No matter how useful it would be
> to have Braille books and tactilely labeled laboratory equipment, a
> college for the blind would segregate and isolate the blind from
> society rather than integrate us into it. We want to be a part of the
> society in which we live. We want to attend the colleges and
> universities of our own choice. We want our intellectual capacity to
> be recognized for the value that it has. We want all colleges to
> understand the necessity of making their educational curricula
> accessible to us and useable by us. We will fight for our right to be
> included in all aspects of community life. We oppose segregation for
> the blind, we oppose all schemes that would isolate us from the
> communities in which we live, and we promote full integration of the
> blind into society on the basis of equality. We demand equality of
> opportunity for all blind people, and we will settle for nothing less.
> 
> Sometimes people ask me how I approach blindness. It is as much a part
> of me as dozens or hundreds of other characteristics. I don’t forget
> it, but I don’t concentrate on it either, most of the time. Other
> people often magnify this one characteristic out of all proportion to
> what seems reasonable to me.
> 
> In the early 1980s I was conducting a law practice in Baltimore,
> Maryland. Each business day I traveled to my office, very often by
> bus, and each evening I returned home, using the same method of
> transportation. One summer evening I was standing at a bus stop in
> downtown Baltimore. I was dressed in a suit, which is my customary
> work attire. I had a briefcase with me, which is almost always a
> companion of my travels. I was also carrying a can of coffee. I had
> run out of coffee at home, and I needed this can, which, fortunately,
> I had on hand at the office. The evening was warm, and the bus was
> late. Because I had remained in my office to complete some work, the
> rush hour had already passed, and I was feeling weary. The breeze came
> off the hot asphalt and did little to dissipate the warmth. I was the
> only one at the bus stop, which suited me because I could review the
> events of the day without having to worry about fellow bus passengers
> or other distractions. A person came up to me and peered at me from
> one side. Then the person walked around to my other side and peered
> again. I was standing next to the pole that had the bus stop sign on
> it. My briefcase was sitting on the ground next to my left leg, I was
> leaning on my cane, and I had the can of coffee in my hand. After I
> had been examined from both sides, a man’s voice said to me, “Where’s
> the slot?”
> 
> “What?” I asked.
> 
> To which my companion responded, “Where do you put the money?”
> 
> Although I was startled by these questions, I realized suddenly that
> he wanted to put some change into the canister I was holding. He
> thought I was begging. What else would a respectably dressed blind man
> with a briefcase and a coffee can be doing?
> 
> “This is my coffee,” I said, and my companion left.
> 
> Sometimes we let others make us believe that blindness matters more to
> us than reality would suggest. Sometimes we let fear of the unknown
> control us, and we attribute the fear to blindness.
> 
> One of the presentations that I have made as president of the National
> Federation of the Blind deals with the topic of getting lost. I have
> been lost many times, and I expect to be lost many more. In my younger
> days I thought that being lost was bad. However, I have learned that
> accepting the uncertainty of being lost means that I can find new
> places, meet new people, have new experiences, and expand my horizons.
> I also tell other people it is perfectly all right to be lost. How
> different is this attitude from the one that I found on the Internet
> recently. Here is what one blind person said:
> 
> If I don't know a state, I won't take buses anywhere. Why on earth
> would I wish to get lost? I wouldn't even know how to tell the
> transportation where I wanted to go. I would ask others if they are
> going the same way I wish to go. If not, there isn't any reason to go
> there then. I would just stay home where I know I could get help if
> needed and not feel afraid of getting lost.
> 
> Many of us may have faced this kind of fear as part of learning who we
> are, and many of us may face it again. Nevertheless, with the support
> of one another we know that we can solve the problems that come to us,
> large or small, dramatic or mundane. Though I sometimes find myself in
> unfamiliar surroundings, I never find myself without capacity, and I
> never encounter a day in which my colleagues in the Federation are not
> willing to help me if I need it. I realize that I have the ability to
> learn what I need to know to get from the place where I am to the
> place where I need to be. Furthermore, I will always want to know what
> we can do to build a brighter, more productive future. I will always
> want to know what is around the next bend in the road or over the
> summit of the next hill. I will always want to know what I can do to
> bring joy to my friends. I will always want to know how I can show
> them that there is excitement in being lost.
> 
> Optimism is an element in the acquisition of power, and the power once
> derived fosters optimism. The power of optimism stimulates the
> optimism of power. Optimism is one element of our faith. It is
> inherent in all that we say and all that we do. Because it has come to
> be such an integrated part of our thought process, we sometimes fail
> to recognize the urgency of optimism.
> 
> For all time blind people have been regarded as dependent,
> incompetent, and subnormal–some would even describe us as subhuman.
> However, we know better than to accept such a description of us, for
> it is false. We have decided to correct the error of the authors who
> tell us that we are base and unhuman, of those rehabilitation
> officials who write off 70 percent of us as fundamentally incompetent,
> of the newspaper reporters who tell us that our lives are empty and
> meaningless, and of the amusement park operators who believe that we
> can’t even ride a roller coaster. We have made this decision because
> we know the strength which is within us, we share the spirit that is
> part of us, and we feel the determination to create the factors that
> will shape the future.
> 
> Who can tell us what our lives will become? Nobody can do this except
> us. There are those who would like to dismiss us, but we will be
> heard. There are those who would like to instruct us, but from our
> experience we have gained more information than they can hope to
> accumulate. There are those who would like to control us, but if they
> try, they will do so at their peril. Partners we seek from every
> aspect of public and private life, but those who would seek to dictate
> to us what our lives should be will be tolerated not at all.
> 
> As we face the struggles of the time to come, we know with absolute
> certainty that we will take whatever action is necessary to confront
> those who would stop our progress or belittle our ambitions. We will
> make whatever sacrifice is necessary; we will pay whatever price is
> required. We will demand the equality that must and will be ours, and
> we will never cease our efforts until we have it. We have the will, we
> have the strength, we have the optimism. The future belongs to us; we
> will make it our own!