[stylist] question

Wed Mar 25 00:45:40 UTC 2009

John, Were you ever sighted?  If so do you remember what it was like to see 
a child trying with all their might to fit a piece in a puzzle?  Do you 
remember the brilliance of a perfect rose?  Do you remember the beauty of a 
sunset?  I do.  Do I miss it?  Yes!  However, I am happy with myself and 
know I can do even better things with my limitations.  You will never 
believe that some people are happy being themselves even though that 
definition of self is not yours.  Think about it John.  Like I said before, 
you have a lot to offer the world with your talents.  Don't blow the whole 
thing by waging a war that doesn't have to be fought, or won.
----- 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 5:35 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] question


> 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
>>
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>>
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