[stylist] Article about NFB Braille Monitor editor, Barbara Pierce

Wed Jan 21 22:37:58 UTC 2009

thanks for sharing this Donna.  that is a very good article.
what publication is that from?
jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 08:54 AM 1/21/2009, you wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>The article copied below is posted at:
>http://www.chroniclet.com/2009/01/21/woman-devotes-life-to-helping-the-blind_122/
>Donna Hill
>
>Woman devotes life to helping the blind
>John Light | The Chronicle-Telegram
>Contact John Light at 329-7148 or
>ctnews at chroniclet.com.
>
>OBERLIN — Barbara Pierce retired as president of 
>the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio 
>last November. Her work, however, is far from finished.
>
>Pierce, a resident of Oberlin, has been actively 
>helping blind people for more three decades. She 
>talks passionately of her work and of the issues she has
>championed, although she feels that not nearly enough progress has been made.
>
>Pierce moved to Lorain County to attend Oberlin 
>College in the early 1960s but she did not 
>become involved in the federation until 1974, when she came across
>its literature. After reading it, she said she 
>had a new appreciation for the struggles that 
>she and other blind people faced daily.
>
>“I realized, if I was honest with myself, that I 
>talked a better game than I lived. I pretended 
>that I was comfortable using a white cane and doing what
>I needed to do to take care of my family and so 
>on,” Pierce said. “But I found that here were 
>people who were living boldly the life that I only sort of
>pretended to live. 
 Here were people who were doing what I didn’t dare to do.
>
>“And then there were other blind people who 
>absolutely were being discriminated against — 
>having their children taken away from them, being told that they
>couldn’t rent houses or rent apartments. 
 I 
>just simply hadn’t had the hard time that a lot 
>of people had, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m not pulling my weight.’
>”
>
>Within a few months, Pierce founded the Lorain 
>County Chapter of the National Federation of the 
>Blind of Ohio. And 10 years later, in 1984, she was elected
>president of the National Federation of the 
>Blind of Ohio, a position she held until last 
>November, when she chose not to stand for re-election.
>
>Pierce also serves as editor of the National 
>Federation’s monthly publication, The Braille 
>Monitor, a position she plans to continue at least through the
>end of the year.
>
>But while being heavily involved in her work at 
>the state and national levels, Pierce has 
>remained active locally as an advocate for inclusiveness in Lorain
>County, said Brian Wilbert, Pierce’s friend and 
>the pastor of Oberlin Christ Church.
>
>“You’re not going to get Barbara focused on 
>handicaps or physical challenges,” Pierce said. 
>“You’re going to get Barbara talking about how inclusiveness
>is a way of life. 
 It’s not just one thing, it’s everything.
>
>“I don’t see her ever really retiring. I see her 
>letting go of some of the administrative stuff, 
>but I don’t see her ever really giving up helping people.
>People call her that want to speak to her 
>because they have a child that’s been born 
>blind, or they themselves have gone blind and they want to know what
>it’s like. She’s there to help people make that kind of transition.”
>
>Sherry Ruth, Pierce’s successor as president of 
>the Lorain County chapter of the National 
>Federation of the Blind of Ohio, relied on Pierce when she first
>lost her sight.
>
>“I was very unsure of myself as to what I would 
>do with the rest of my life,” Ruth said. 
>“Barbara was a major inspiration to me by the way she traveled
>independently and the way she kept her home, always baking and cooking.”
>
>Pierce takes a direct approach to helping people cope with becoming blind.
>
>“I get them to tell me what bothers them,” she 
>said. “If they can’t dial a telephone, I can 
>teach them over the telephone how to dial a telephone. You put
>yourself in the other guy’s position and you try 
>to think, ‘OK, what is it that bothers this 
>person, and what can I suggest out of my experience that will
>help get them grounded, let them know where to start?’ ”
>
>When asked how blindness affects someone’s life, 
>Pierce replies that it doesn’t make the individual feel deprived.
>
>“When you’ve never had it, or you’ve lost it 
>early on, or you’ve lost it gradually, you fill 
>up the rest of your sensory world with the data that you have
>that do come in,” she said. “The world is full 
>no matter what your experience of it is.”
>
>Contact John Light at 329-7148 or ctnews at chroniclet.com.
>
>
>--
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