[stylist] learning braille

[Judith Bron]

Robert and all, I think we are missing the important point here.  Is our goal to get the entire world to read Braille or evoke equal respect from society because we are blind?  Here's a brief example of what I mean by evoking respect even though we are different.

My family eats only kosher foods.   For dinner last night I made meatballs in an Italian sauce.  I used ground beef, tomato sauce and Italian spices.  Now someone might say, "How can you make an Italian sauce without pork products?"  My religion forbids me from eating pork products.  Someone of Middle East descent might say, "How can it have been good if you didn't use cumin?"  I have a friend who is allergic to tomatoes and has developed her own sauce for meatballs without using tomato sauce.  All of us are different and there is no law that all of our eating needs be met the same way.  Let's take it a bit further.

When talking about "how nice" it would be if all children learned Braille to better understand folks without sight we are starting a journey down a slippery slope that can be extended in many dangerous directions.  No, not every one is forced to eat only kosher foods.  Not everyone should be commanded to eat pork and not everyone should be forced to live as if they too had an allergy to certain foods.  We're all different.  Realize that and respect the right of every individual to be different.  Everyone should not be required to read Braille, communicate with their friends via sign language, walk with a white cane or spend their life in a wheelchair.  Yes, there are people in society who are handicapped, but society has to learn to respect those things that make them different.  If a man in the grocery store sitting in the wheelchair asks a standing person to reach for the can on the high shelf they should do it with a smile on their face.  If a blind person asks where the rest room is answer him and ask if he can be of further assistance.  You get the picture.  

There are those in society who demand that all people subscribe to their religion.  They claim that if this isn't accomplished they will kill all people who reject their teachings.  We all know how these people are referred to.  We reject their premise that all people are the same and therefore must live the same way.  We can't "demand" that all first graders learn Braille and we can't command that a first grade class in the public schools learn Japanese because one child might be from Japan.  Let's keep excelling in whatever it is we do best and gain the respect and acceptance of society because we deserve it.  Judith