[stylist] learning braille

Mon Nov 16 21:58:53 UTC 2009

Agreed.  I don't want to speak Spanish, and I don't expect the people of 
Greece to speak English.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] learning braille


> And there is the rub for all this multiculturalism.  When in Rome, do as 
> the Romans do.  If you live in The U.S., speak English, learn our history 
> with its good and bad.  What mostly there is good because most of the bad 
> we have corrected.
> Barbara
>
> Snow is God's way of reminding us that beauty can be found even in the 
> coldest hearts.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 11:31 AM
> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [stylist] learning braille
>
>> Barbara, Sign language and braille as options would be fine, just don't 
>> make them mandatory.  I disagree with Spanish being shoved down our 
>> throats.  I resent it when a sales person in a store can't answer my 
>> simple question about merchandise in English.  My resentment grows when 
>> they point their finger in the direction of what I want.  They can point 
>> all day, but I still won't find what I'm looking for.
>> Don't many deaf people read lips?  I've communicated with many deaf 
>> people because they read lips.  People who are blind communicate with the 
>> spoken word.  This is America.  Our language is English.  I can't expect 
>> to walk into Greece and expect the clerk in the store to speak English.
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
>> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 12:02 PM
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] learning braille
>>
>>
>>> Gee, I would agree with you and yet why is it that our children are 
>>> having Spanish shoved down their throats?
>>> I think that at the age when foreign language is an option in school, it 
>>> should be sign language and braille.  (Or at least have them included as 
>>> options.)  Any foreign language speaker can learn English.  A deaf 
>>> person will never learn to talk and hear what's said and a blind person 
>>> will never learn to read print.
>>> I do understand about that slippery slope and maybe this would be headed 
>>> down it, I don't know.
>>> Barbara
>>> Snow is God's way of reminding us that beauty can be found even in the 
>>> coldest hearts.
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
>>> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 10:30 AM
>>> To: "Stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>>> Subject: [stylist] learning braille
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
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>>>
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>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
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