[Tall-Corn] Mary McGee Letter to Editor in Sunday Des Moines Register

[David C. Hammel]

Changes to Department for the Blind would be harmful

Usually, smaller government means more efficiency and fiscal responsibility than large government. Once in a while, when planning government realignment, legislators do harm to some of the people they’re trying to help by consolidating administrative agencies. This is one of those times.

I'm a retired attorney who’s lived in downtown Des Moines for almost 50 years. I’ve practiced in my own firm, worked for an insurance company and a bank, and worked as an independent contractor serving as a policy analyst at the Iowa Department for the Blind.

I write because House Study Bill 126 and Senate Study Bill 1123 with Division 13 as currently drafted, if passed, will be bad law, pure and simple.

I’ve been a blind Iowan all my 67 years and I’ve greatly benefited from the services I’ve received from the Iowa Department for the Blind, an executive branch agency. We blind Iowans have an amazing history because Dr. Kenneth Jernigan left us a marvelous gift: a codified right to a voice in the services, which can make or break our hopes and dreams of career and lifestyle, that the Department provides. Our present Commission for the Blind structure grants us the opportunity and responsibility to ensure that the person directing the agency knows about blindness, cares about services to blind people, and will always be duty-bound to defend and support the interests, well-being, and success of our minority group, regardless of political affiliation.

If these bills become law, our Commission for the Blind will be composed of optometrists, fully-sighted 'experts' who’ve never lived blind, friends of the governor’s staff, and campaign supporters who know nothing of blindness and don’t care about services they’ve never needed. Blind people are the experts on blindness. We know what services we want and need. I zealously oppose Division 13.

I’ve paid state and federal taxes for many years; thus, I’ve been paying my elected officials to make wise decisions. The future of true equity and full inclusion of blind people in our state depends on their doing so now in the Iowa House and Senate. If they fail to decide this matter wisely, they will disregard and ignore a minority group of Iowans who will remember and vote accordingly.

— Mary McGee, Des Moines

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