[nfb-talk] Washington Post: Trump ordered Braille removed from elevators in Trump Tower according to execs

Thu Sep 13 20:36:55 UTC 2018

As voters in a democracy, we have an obligation to take it seriously 
when someone  says she witnessed the President do something unethical.

In this case, it was long ago. It is possible the witness is 
misremembering. She might even be making it up. But we rely on this kind 
of evidence all the time when forming our political opinions. And that's 
not bad. Eye witness testimony is admissible in a court of law. You 
should apply the same level of skepticism to this report as you would if 
it was said about any politician, like Hillary Clinton for example. You 
don't have to become a Trump hater just because someone claims that 30 
years ago he tried to get the braille removed from one of his buildings. 
But you shouldn't dismiss it out of hand either.

The President isn't perfect and as members of a democracy, we have an 
obligation to give careful consideration to reports that are critical of 
him.

On 09/13/2018 02:49 PM, Sherri Brun via nfb-talk wrote:
> I appreciate the posting of the article about the rejection of Braille signage.  I saw it first posted by my daughter on Facebook.
> 
> I would like to understand more about President Trump's base--why clear-thinking, intelligent people are so supportive of him.  His actions and morrals certainly do not fit the ideals I grew up with and was taught.  There is so much more I could say, but I won't.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jim Marks via nfb-talk
> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2018 3:03 PM
> To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List' <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Jim Marks <blind.grizzly at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Washington Post: Trump ordered Braille removed from elevators in Trump Tower according to execs
> 
> Set aside Trump’s disgusting lack of empathy and his ignorance towards Braille and how the code permits blind people like me to make our way in the world, and focus on Trump’s perspective.  According to Bob Woodward’s book, “Fear,” Trump defines power as fear.  Trump’s ideology is one of naked absolute power in which the elite benefit and the commoners serve the elite.  “Fear” includes plenty of references to Trump’s “Flat Earth Society” view of economics and nationalism combined with an uncompromising “Norman Rockwell” understanding of what it means to be an American.  Evidence to the contrary does not matter.  Larger morality does not matter.  All that matters for Trump are power and the fear it generates.  Trump sticks to his world view, and he seems incapable of learning and adapting.  Trump's rejection of Braille occurred years before the adoption of civil rights laws that mandate Braille signage.  Nonetheless, his mindset persists.  Thing is, this is not the America I know and love.  It’s not the America our ancestors fought for.  In short, Trump champions an amoral philosophy that inflicts lasting harm on core American values.  I still believe that Trump’s power will not prevail and that a kinder, more inclusive way of knowing and behaving will triumph in the end.  But we sure have much pain to endure before we set things to right.  Throughout the journey, we must reject the fear and insist on accountability.  I applaud those who resist Trump’s horribly misguided directives.  Regardless of anyone’s political perspective, Trump threatens what America has been and can be, yet the USA will again find its center.
> 
> 
> Jim Marks
> Blind.grizzly at gmail.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk <nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jack Heim via nfb-talk
> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2018 7:45 AM
> To: NFB Talk Mailing List <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Jack Heim <john at johnheim.com>
> Subject: [nfb-talk] Washington Post: Trump ordered Braille removed from elevators in Trump Tower according to execs
> 
>   From
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-asked-to-have-braille-removed-from-elevators-in-early-1980s-executive-says/2018/09/12/67d97548-b6a6-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9dd0be8d19d9
> 
> President Trump in the early 1980s asked an architect to remove Braille from planned residential elevators in Trump Tower in New York, saying blind people would not live there, according to a former longtime executive with the Trump Organization.
> 
> Barbara Res, a former vice president in charge of construction, made the allegation in an op-ed published Wednesday by the New York Daily News and in a subsequent interview with The Washington Post, in which she said the incident happened in 1980 or 1981 as Trump Tower was being designed.
> 
> According to Res’s account, an architect came to Trump’s office to show him designs for the interiors of residential elevator cabs in Trump Tower, which also hosts businesses. He noticed dots next to the buttons and asked what they were, she said.
> 
> “Braille,” the architect replied, according to Res.
> 
> Trump then told the architect to “get rid of it,” and the architect resisted, saying doing so would be against the law, she said.
> 
> “Get rid of the (expletive) Braille. No blind people are going to live in Trump Tower. Just do it,” Trump told the architect, according to Res’s account.
> 
> The use of Braille in elevators is now a requirement of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
> 
> The White House on Wednesday referred questions about the alleged episode to the Trump Organization, which did not immediately respond.
> Res would not disclose the identity of the architect to The Post.
> 
> Her anecdote was included in an op-ed that argued Trump frequently ordered underlings to do things that were impossible “to castigate a subordinate and also blame him for anything that ‘went wrong’ in connection with the unperformed order later.” She wrote that she was not surprised by revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear” and the recent anonymous op-ed in the New York Times attributed to a senior administration official. Both works describe a president whose orders are not always carried out by those around him.
> 
> Res, who was a Trump Organization executive from 1978 to 1996, said she learned not to always follow Trump’s orders.
> 
> “Some of them you follow,” she told The Post. “Some of them you don’t follow, and you just prepare to take what comes, if anything comes. And the others you fight.”
> 
> She said it was possible to convince Trump not to do what he was ordering her to do, but he would resent it and punish her later.
> 
> “When you win with him, you always pay some way,” she said.
> 
> “He was always saying to fire somebody, or to write this letter to the contractor and tell him this,” Res said, but she said she regarded these seeming orders as just Trump “blowing off steam,” and she wouldn’t follow them.
> 
> 
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