[Ohio-talk] The Urgency of Optimism

[Cheryl Fields]

Jordy, I just read this article and it is really great. Thanks for
sharing... Blessings, Cheryl

On 3/12/17, Jordy Stringer via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 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!
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-- 
Wishing You All the Best,

Cheryl E. Fields


A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human
life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will
never sit.
--D. Elton Trueblood