[stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 80, Issue 25

[Kerry Thompson]

[Since Sunday night I've been trying to send this message, but something 
always goes wrong. Hope it takes this time!]

Jim, I missed you on the phone gathering and hope all is, if not well, 
at least as well as can be expected with your wife. Please give her my 
best and know that you both are in my thoughts and prayers.

Robert and everybody, it was a very enjoyable gathering. Thanks for 
being so nice about my coming in late.I've contacted Rob Sawyer, 
multiple award winning novelist and member of SFWA (the Science Fiction 
and Fantasy Writers of America). Haven't heard back from him yet, which 
isn't surprising given the time of year. When I do hear back, one way
or the other, Robert, I'll let you know.

---

Robert, thanks for passing along the recipes, I think. Reading them made 
me very hungry, especially Jim's meat loaf. I love meat loaf!

Without reading the article on Gov. Paterson I'll just say that some 
people are conditioned to think that being blind or partially sighted is 
somehow dirty and disgraceful, something to be hidden. My own mother 
used to think - and for all I know still does think - that "You don't 
look blind" was a compliment. I was also discouraged from learning to 
read braille or acquiring any other blindness skills. Maybe Gov. 
Paterson was raised in a similarly wrong headed environment.

Justin, I agree. Whatever Paterson's failings as a blind person and/or 
as governor, it is very important that the nation and the world see that 
a blind man *can* be governor of one of the largest, most important 
states in the union. We need to keep chipping away at the perception 
that we are helpless, useless and unemployable. The more things we do, 
especially the more things in the public square, the better for us as a 
group, a community and the better for society at large.

Solidarity and Peace,
Kerry