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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hi, all:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In an effort to gradually clean out my inbox (down now to 1070 or so from 7000-something a couple months ago—yay), I discovered a conversation you had been having about the portrayal of blindness, and how the writing world also responds to blindness. Donna, of Applebutter Hill fame, if you’re still on this list—I am so grateful for one of your comments, particularly: that one difference between the progress of blacks and that of the blind has to do with the fact that blacks, while sorely abused, were valued in ways blind folks still are not, in our society—that thinking of us as capable of managing a home, raising kids, or whatever else, is still anathema—we are relegated to positions of either making sighted folks grateful for what they have (i.e., sight), or of giving them opps to do good. You voice a thought I hadn’t dare speak aloud, these days! I very much appreciate that I am not the only one whose mind has taken this direction. I would be interested, too, in thoughts from anyone who is blind and also black: do you see any truth to this line of thinking?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sandra<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Something is wrong, I know it, if I don't keep my attention on eternity. May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif'>(Mary Oliver) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>