[stylist] question

Tue Mar 24 21:35:55 UTC 2009

Judith:

Oh, please.  Sighted is NOT better than blind.  It is just that those who
have sight are rewarded with more from society.  But EVEN SO, even with
society's favoring sightedness over blindness, I have often found blindness
to be better than being sighted in so many things.  In their over-dependence
on vision, sighted people neglect so many wonderful resources and potential
skills.  But it works all right for them to some shallow degree, but
whenever they hit an unusual situation or problem or lose something or
things don't go as planned or any number of other things, I've found that
they are often very weak, clueless, slow, lost.

Mayb e this is a deaf-blind perspective and not a blind one?  Maybe the
blind are the same as sighted people in their relying overmuch on one
sense--hearing--and in so doing experience disability more acutely when
encountering sight-related matter?  I don't know.  But let me assure you
that the other senses I had the privilege of cultivating are wonderful and
are better tools than full vison and hearing for many things.  Perhaps the
most important of them to me is kinethestics.

But the real bottom line is that we ALL are disabled in that we are merely
human and we ALL use our minds to overcome this universal problem.

Are you, then, suggesting that blind people's minds are not as good as
sighted people's minds?  Because that would be the ONLY explanation for
sighted being better than blind.  Otherwise, one wouldn't be better than the
other at all, just somewhat different.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Judith Bron
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 1:46 PM
To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] question

John, The reality, as much as you disagree, is that being sighted is better 
than being blind.  Terms like "visually impaired", "Visually challenged" or 
any of the like are legislated terms.  I can't see any better or worse when 
a bureaucrat describes my visual limitations.  I am what I am.  Like I said 
before, I have to take those limitations, do the best I can to do what I am 
capable of and continue striving to be the best me I can be.  I don't care 
how society looks at my limitations.  And, yes, they are limitations.  I 
have to be the one to deal with them.  Almost every person in this world has

limitations.  Some can create beautiful artwork, some can't.  Some can write

beautifully, some can't put together a cognizant statement either verbally 
or in writing.  Some have athletic prowess while others are happy being 
couch potatoes.  Some love to eat while others are skinny and physically fit

their entire life.  All "problems", all "limitations" when put in the 
perspective of the optimum and people all over the world live with them 
every day.  When was the last time you heard of the "art impaired" person? 
Or the person who can't sing one note without causing distress to the other 
person's eardrums?  Are there cultures for the tone deaf?  The person who 
can't draw a straight line?  John, deal with John.  Society has enough 
problems.  As a society we have a lot to deal with, but making John socially

comfortable isn't one of them.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
To: "'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] question

> Lori:
>
> I love the words blind and deaf.  I abhor anything with impaired in it.
>
> Although the definition of blind may say one who cannot see, and that's a
> negative description, we still have the opportunity to neutralize the word
> itself and have it convey something else entirely, into something that's
> cool.  Same with deaf.  We can take it and turn it around, and associate 
> it
> with culture, pride, ASL, all sorts of great and positive things.
>
> But you can't neutralize and turn around a term like sight impaired. 
> Tthat
> term does two very bad, bad, bad things.  First, it implies that sight is
> the ideal, that it's right, and what we SHOULD have, and that if we don't
> have it, we SHOULD want it.  This is society talking, "Sight is better."
>
> Second, the term implies that we're broken or we're short of the ideal, or
> we've fallen from the grace of what society says is normal.  This is very
> bad, bad, bad.
>
> Does NFB merely "prefer" the word blind?  It shouldn't.  it should embrace
> it absolutely.
>
> John
>
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG.
> Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.26/2020 - Release Date: 
> 3/24/2009
> 9:19 AM
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site:
> http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
>
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> stylist:
>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/jbron%40optonline.n
et 

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site:
http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>

stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/johnlee%40clarktouc
h.com

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.26/2020 - Release Date: 3/24/2009
9:19 AM

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.26/2020 - Release Date: 3/24/2009
9:19 AM