"Extrovert", you touched on an interesting point, Miriam. Extroverts
are probably poorly equipped to tell Introverts how to cope with Life.
Two very different approaches. And unless one is skilled in how to
interact, it's possible to do more harm than good. What little I know
on the subject was learned at the expense of my early students in the
Orientation and Training Center. Of course I was a Soldier in the
NFB's Blind Army, marching in lock step to the orders of President
Kenneth Jernigan. So in the mode of, "One Size Fits All", I would
gather my students together and head out for the South Center Mall, a
crowded sprawling mass of shops and inside and outside walkways. The
purpose was to demonstrate, by putting my students on the front line,
that we could both find our way around this maze safely, but locate
the shops we wanted, and learn what was in them. I would march my
students into the open entrance of a shop and ask them, "Can you tell
what is inside?" We would sniff and crane our ears trying to
determine what was before us. If we were not able to tell, I would
march them inside and call out, "May we have some assistance here,
Please?" Usually a clerk would scurry over, fearful that a bunch of
blind people would trash the merchandise trying to find their way. We
would then chat a bit, finding out what was sold, and deciding if any
of us wished to buy. And then we marched off to the next shop.
Always some of the students hung back unwilling to behave so boldly.
In my ignorance and my "training", I assumed that they were simply
uncomfortable with their blindness, and in time they would "come out
of their shells". Who knows how many people's potential progress I
damaged by this, "Only one right way" philosophy.
Cathy is an introvert. No shrinking violet, just an introvert. She
would rather sleep in, wake up slowly, have a quiet cup of coffee,
maybe some toast, stare at the birds outside, and follow it all up by
snuggling down with a good book. All the while I am jumping about,
preparing to "Do Stuff", and driving her to distraction. I grin when
I think of what would have happened if Cathy had been my student, and
I tried to march her into a shop she did not want to enter. Her
Italian side would come out...oops, that's a negative stereotype.
But in spite of it all, I mean my "extrovertness", I am a reader, too.
We, my two sisters and I, were raised in the public library. And each
night before we headed for bed, Mother would settle us down by reading
from the exciting children's tales, like Mary Popins, The Adventures
of Alice in Wonderland, The Water Babies, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
Finn. Even after becoming blind in my left eye, I could walk along
the street reading a paperback. And after I became totally blind I
took to Talking Books like the old duck took to water.
But whether an introvert or an extrovert, each of us have something to
share, with those who understand the value of sharing. Have you ever
written your life's adventure for others to read? You, like me, have
wandered through most exciting times. I finished reading my great
grandfathers journal, describing his travels around the Eastern part
of Washington and Northern Idaho, in a day when Grizzly Bears were a
bigger threat than Humans. His blunt and open prejudices help fill in
a picture of how "Rugged Individuals" dealt with their world.
My folks produced a book of their memories. Cathy, my younger sister
and I had it finalized and published. We had thirty six copies
printed, and gave my sisters and myself 12 copies each to distribute
as we chose. But best of all, I have safe and secure in my desk
drawer, my dad reading each of their writings, so I could also "read"
the book.
It's on my To Do List to put these tapes in order and have them put on
cartridges for my children and grand children.
Here in Washington, the Washington State University Library has a
collection of books, like my folks, and papers like my great
grandfather's. Such collections as this give flesh to history's
bones.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/22/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
Well, I'm overwhelmed by your activities. I need a lot of sleep. Bed at 10
and up at 5 and awake during that time? I'd never survive that. But I never
could deal with early mornings at all, although I'm wide awake and energetic
at 11 pm. But yes, since I am housebound and have no grandchildren, I have
lots of time to read, although these days, I can fall asleep reading in the
afternoon. The other thing is that reading has always been one of my
favorite things. My mother and aunt read to me when I was a child. In
school, I was in a sight conservation class where there was a closet of
large print books. I spent days and days reading them. I manipulated so that
I could avoid going to my regular class because it was boring and one had to
sit still and not talk, so I spent more time than I should have in that
sight conservation class where I read books, fed the turtles, watered the
plants, and drew pictures. That's why, when the "free school" movement came
along in the sixties, I understood and supported it. But that's a whole
other subject. Anyway, I'm not an intellectual, and there are limitations to
what I wish to read and what I can understand. But the books that I have
read, provide a depth of understanding of things that, I don't think, one
can manage to get in any other way.
I read your descriptions of your life with wonder and envy because I am not
healthy, have so many disabilities at this point, and have never been an
extrovert.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2017 12:15 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Dick Gregory
Miriam,
You are much more of a reader than I. Time restraints being what they are,
I do a great deal of skimming. Although when some new twist or concept
raises its head, I do slow down. But I don't do many of the hour plus You
Tube presentations, and I skip over several great internet publications.
Looking back I recall that much of my concentrated reading was between the
hours of Ten and Two, hours that this old man needs to be flat in bed
getting up the strength and courage to face another day. I turn in most
nights at ten and wake up at five. While I dress and shave and stuff like
that, I listen to Amy Goodman. Six finds me making coffee and toast, or
some sort of cooked cereal...unless Cathy does up bacon and eggs. I get on
line around seven and by eight thirty I usually prepare for the days
clients. We hit the road around nine, arriving at our first client's door
between ten and ten thirty. We see only one or two folks in the afternoon,
arriving back home by four or five. As I get older I find that I can't wait
too long to draft a report on the days activities, then there are the calls
to be made, new clients to chat with and schedule, resources to hunt down,
orders to be prepared for the appliances we've spent the day promising to
people. While I wrap up the office stuff, Cathy stops her work and does a
fine dinner...which we promptly consume.
We mostly eat around seven, watching the mindless Wheel of Fortune and
Jeopardy, or chatting. Then I do a bit of reading on-line, running off at
the fingers, and generally having a good time. We keep a Talking Book on
the headboard and usually we can count on one of us still being awake after
half an hours reading. So, as you can guess, I'm nowhere near as quick as I
was in my younger years. And I expect that in a couple of years more I will
realize that I'm not as fast as I was at 82.
So this is a long winded round about explanation why I continue to listen to
Richard Wolff. Yes, he does sound a bit pompous, like the old school master
peering down his long aristocratic nose at what he believes to be slightly
dull students. But I do still gain things to ponder. The same is true of a
program I've listened to for several years. The Media Project. It's a
collection of three people, usually an editor, a professor and the head of
the NPR station in Albany.
They discuss the media. It's a laid back chat, but it gives me another
insight. I ran across a rebroadcast from a Seattle station about 4:00 in
the morning. I found it on-line and check in at least a couple of times
each month. If it were an hour program I'd probably skip it, but I think
that a half hour sitting in with some folks that have given me the feeling
that I'm with old friends, is worth it.
The other thing that is troubling to me, since I was trying to pull up the
names of the people on The Media Project, is that I'm struggling to pull
familiar names, dates and events up from wherever they have been tucked. I
avoid public speaking other than presentations about our services. Since
splitting my Braille finger, my ability to read fast enough to speak from
notes, is no longer reliable.
Do these signs of advancing age trouble me? Of course they do. But I also
know that becoming upset will only make life unpleasant for me and those I
love. So I adjust. And I have learned to let go of some tasks that I held
near and dear. For years I edited the WCB Newsline, and in later years
stayed on the state-wide Newsline Committee. I bowed out of that committee
last year. I am no longer on the various state committees that used to keep
me dashing into Olympia or Seattle.
It's been several years since Cathy drove me to the Bainbridge Island Ferry
on the first leg of another trip. Today we ended a three day visit with our
eleven year old grand daughter, taking her to dinner at the Olive Gardens in
Silverdale before taking her home to Gig Harbor.
I do believe that at my age I am learning balance. Balance is the key to a
happy, successful life. As we stayed chatting with our daughter and her
husband, Elizabeth, our four and a half year old grand daughter wrapped
herself around my right leg and shouted up some little girl noises that her
daddy translated for me. "Grampa Jervis, I want you to come to my birthday
party...okay?" Elizabeth and I have bonded! Just like Cathy and Gracie,
the elder sister. "Of course I'll be at your birthday party. When is it?"
I replied with enthusiasm. "October nineteen", she chirped...October, and
already she's planning? I can see several years ahead of us entertaining
little girls who arrive with their Planners under their arms, chock full of
the things that they and grandma and grandpa are going to do.
And I'm smiling.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/21/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have to admit. I've given up on Richard Wolff. Basically, it's
because he bores me. He has a message, which I've heard, and he keeps
repeating it in different permutations. And he does seem to be talking
to his audience as if we were all rather slow witted. He takes what
his guests say, and repeats much of it in simpler language for his
mentally deficient, uneducated audience who, he is sure, needs
everything simplified. So, after several weeks, I decided that I'd
prefer to listen to something else or read a book, rather than listen
to Richard Wolff. Other podcasts have also been discarded. But I just
found a new one, which I find interesting, Citations Needed. It
involves Adam Johnson from FAIR and another guy whose name I really didn't
catch, who talk about how the media presents information.
Counterspin does that and it's a FAIR podcast, but it's beifer and
slicker.
This podcast was mentioned on Counterspin and is relatively new. What
I'm realizing is that a lot of the material covered in these podcasts
is familiar to me, but I like podcasts that present the material in an
interesting manner. I've finally figured out that The Dig, the Jacobin
podcast, is, well actually, Jacobin is the magazine of the Social
Democrats of America. At least I think so. The podcasts can be very
interesting if the person being interviewd is interesting. Sometimes,
they're very sort of academic. There's been a series on Latin America,
packed with information, but sometimes, my mind wanders. The podcasts
to which I listen, from different sectors of the left, diverge
somewhat in their opinions, and there's some quarreling among factions
about some things. Sometimes, I'm clear about where I stand. Sometimes,
not so much.
Miriame
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2017 2:44 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Dick Gregory
I suspect people's dialect and speech pattern can be offsetting to
some folks ears. I had a bit of that feeling when I began listening
to Richard Wolff. Not only the accent, but how he paced his words and
left me with the feeling that he was talking down a bit. But I
totally appreciate his points of view. He's been on Thom Hartman's TV
show several times. Maybe he'll move Thom a bit more toward the Left.
And speaking of how we talk, Thom Hartman has that bland, all American
voice. It never gets in the way of my listening to what he has to
say. But that does not make him right all the time.
Regarding Dick Gregory, I agree that much of his material was aimed at
a Black audience, and they got the message and the humor. Which was
the whole point of his routine. Bill Cosby's routine was aimed at me,
and others like me, and he was very skilled at it. While I can find
the man disgusting, I still can listen to his routines and chuckle
over the pictures they bring into my head.
It's hard to keep the talent of an individual separate from their
actual selves. People want to know all about the folks who entertain
them. Red Skelton was not a nice man, but to a small boy listening on
the radio, he was very funny. Grandpa McCoy, Walter Brennon, was
about as Racist and White Supremist as they come, but I never confused
the delightful characters he played, with the man. The man who built
our house did a grand job. But it turned out that he was a stogy
ultra conservative. While he had bad political judgement, he built one
Hell of a decent house.
So I tip my hat to Dick Gregory, the comic I did not personally find
so funny. The people he reached with his humor needed him far more than I
did.
And also there is the fact of this man turning from what could well
have provided him great financial security, to give all of his support
to those people needing him.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/21/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
I just finished listening to Democracy Now. Gregory's humor is very
different from Kosby's, I think, because it wasn't solely humor. At
least in the material I just heard, all of the humor included
definite social messaging, most of it, directed at black audiences.
In a way, it was a kind of preaching. And in he end, he was a social
activist because his humor was scene as disruptive to the social
system. Amy said that he was not allowed any more entertainment
platforms because of his activism. Any messages that Kosby had for
black audiences, came straight from the white man, just as Obama's
messages did.
As for Jerry Lewis, I don't remember any discussion about him at all.
Perhaps people in different parts of the country, perceived him very
differently. This reminds me of an interchange with a midwestern guy
from the DB Review list, that I had yesterday. It had to do with a
podcast called, Just The Right Book. The woman who hosts it, was an
attorney doing some sort of financial stuff, but she ended up owning
a bookshop, or maybe it's a small chain of bookshops in Connecticut.
She's really very sophisticated and business savvy, but she's in her
sixties and has a very heavy New York, probably Brooklyn or Bronx
accent, and I'm sure her background is Jewish. My internet friend
said that he listened to the podcast a few times, but he was very put
off by the way Roxanne talks, so he stopped listening. Actually, I
also find her manner of talking rather irritating, but not so much
that it would cause me to stop listening. I'll listen to an episode
if I'm interested in what she's talking about.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2017 11:30 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Dick Gregory
My sense that Dick Gregory was not as entertaining as some of the
later Black Comics, like Bill Cosby, was not meant to detract from
his central role in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies as a Civil
Rights Advocate.
Gregory, in my opinion was far more of an influence through his daily
life than was Bill Cosby, over whom I absolutely fell off my chair
laughing. But Cosby used his enormous talent to satisfy his own
greed, while Gregory used his talent to open doors for all Blacks and
people of Color. Amy Goodman had an hour with clips out of past
interviews with Dick Gregory on this morning. While my respect for
him grew, I still found his humor to be not so funny.
As for Jerry Lewis and my claim that many people saw in him a
negative stereotype of a NYC Jew, That was my recollection of years
of hearing people talk about him. People who "loved" the man, even
as they made cutting remarks.
Maybe I read more into all of that, just because I never, ever liked
anything about Jerry Lewis.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/21/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wanted to add to this conversation because there was a piece
regarding Dick Gregory on Unauthorized Disclosure that I heard this
morning. I do think that Carl's and Roger's posts have sold him short.
There was an amazing interview with Dick Gregory held in 1964 on a
public radio station in which he responded to the interviewer's
rather naïve questions, with excellent imply phrased explanations of
what it means to be black in America and also, some predictions
about the reactions of white people as they begin to comprehend that
they are a minority of the world's population with less power than
they're accustomed to. There was also an excellent little stand up
comedy bit about what it was like for a black person to order food
in a restaurant in the South. Additionally, Gregory has a history
of working for a variety of causes of which you would approve,
starting in the 70's.
Miriam
