We're all put together differently. Some of us consider constant
questioning regarding our blindness to be an imposition. Some of us
become annoyed. When very early on, I found myself giving "Smart"
answers to the same old questions, I realized that I was demonstrating
what is called a Passive Aggressive personality. About the time I
took the job as instructor in the Business Enterprises training
cafeteria , 1975, I made the conscious decision to turn even the
simplest query about blindness into an opportunity to educate that
person. In the earlier days, if someone asked, "How did you lose your
sight?" I might answer, "I didn't lose my sight, it was stolen from
me." But I decided to take this annoying, often repeated question and
run with it. "Interesting that you should ask", I would say brightly,
"I get this question often. Mine is a rather long story, beginning at
birth..." And then I would launch into a detailed account of how I
was born with cataracts and took them through several operations until
the final surgery in 1965 that left me totally blind. Each time I
took this approach, I would look for ways of making my story shorter
and more direct, ending with a question of my own. "Why did you want
to know?" After this began to bore me, I looked for different
approaches. "It's a very long story, but tell me this, do you really
want to hear how I became blind, or would you rather talk about the
barriers blindness brings with it?" Any question about my individual
blindness could be turned into whatever I felt like discussing,
because the other person had opened the door, and was usually too
polite to say, "Forget it!" Any time, anywhere someone approached me
with a personal question, I would silently tell myself, "Here comes
another educational opportunity. What do we want to teach today."
The man in the checkout line at the local supermarket would ask, "How
do you know if the clerk is giving you the right denominations in
return?" I might answer, "Each blind person handles such a situation
differently. And each situation is different. But in this present
situation, I was using you, without your knowing it. By holding up
each bill and repeating what the clerk told me, you were watching and
would have spoken up if the clerk made a mistake." People like being
complimented on their honesty and their caring enough to help another
person.
That might be the end of that lesson. I would ask myself if I were
satisfied, or what I might have said differently, or even if I had
made my point.
The other thing I wanted to say is that we Blind People are few enough
in number that we do stand out in a crowd, like it or not.
Understanding that behind our collective blindness we are very
different individuals, I can only suggest that my experience finds
that looking at myself as a teacher and at the public as people
wanting to learn about blindness, I avoid making it personal. Even
though I often use myself as the example. I see the people around me
as being about as human as I am. And they are all good, to some
degree or another. If they are mean spirited in asking their
questions, then they will have to show me. Otherwise I take them at
face value, and I begin thinking how best to provide some new
information to them.
But the truth is, we first must adjust our own attitudes. If we see
the public as rude, nosy people, invading our personal space, then we
will not have a good outing. But if we see the public as students,
seeking understanding, and ourselves as teachers, with something to
offer, then our day will be much brighter.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/21/17, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:
When I first found myself teaching sighted people about blindness I did
not consider myself very qualified. That was mainly because I was
freshly blind and didn't know much about it myself. My blindness may
have come on quickly, but it was still gradual and I continued to use my
residual sight as much as possible and as long as possible. This caused
a lot of people to assume that I was faking. Also, I think I was a
rather ubiquitous figure around town and people recognized me even if
they didn't know me. Then suddenly I turn up tapping my way around with
a white cane. Again, the automatic assumption was that I was faking. I
assure you that it got really tiresome really quickly to be constantly
explaining my situation. I still have some residual vision, but not
enough to be of any use and so I am accused of faking less frequently
now, but now and then they still do it. Nevertheless, it still never
fails that when I meet someone new the main topic of conversation is my
lack of eyesight. I have been tempted to mimeograph sheets with answers
to the most common questions to hand out. I do get tired of the same old
thing all the time and so I always try anymore to steer the conversation
elsewhere, but most people seem to find it incredible that I would be
interested in talking about anything but blindness.
On 6/21/2017 1:45 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Over the years I have heard the same comment many times. "I'm tired
of putting forth the effort", or, "I didn't sign on to be the public's
teacher about blindness". Since this is not something that bugs me, I
have to scratch around to try to relate...Hmm...Nope, I have to admit
that the best I can do is to say, "I hear you!" But in fact, it just
isn't something that I even think about. Explaining about blindness
to sighted folks is as natural to me as explaining that although I am
a White Man, I do not associate with the White Ruling Class. And I
also enjoy explaining to Religious people why I believe that our
religious beliefs are at the base of most of our social problems. But
as much as I enjoy talking about my positions on most any subject, I
equally enjoy hearing those of others...even though it may not appear
that way.
It's interesting to think that while I feel that I can relate to the
discrimination felt by a Black Man, or the fear felt by a person
crouched behind the shattered walls of their bombed out home, I can't
relate to a person who tells me, "I never cared to read". "What! Not
enjoy reading? Impossible!!!" And I struggle to feel what it is like
to be bothered by nosy people, poking into how I do this or that
because they can't relate to being blind. Oh me. Some things we just
have to accept.
Another thought just hit me. We saw a woman yesterday who is 92 years
old and has just recently begun losing her sight. She has other
issues, including hearing and dementia. She lives with her son and
her daughter, all share the home. The son is a very strange fellow,
indeed. As soon as we entered the house he asked me if I were blind.
Now I have to pause here and say that I have a sometimes odd sense of
humor. I said to this fellow, "I bet my long white cane gave it
away". He never missed a beat. "You been blind all your life? Is it
hereditary?" He continued firing one question after the next, never
reacting to my responses. So I began providing answers that had Cathy
wondering if I'd lost my mind. Still, although he bugged me, it was
not because he asked questions, it was because he was "center staging"
by running on and on. We were there to see his mother, not to listen
to his monologue.
When I was an instructor in the Training Center, students would say
from time to time, "I get sick and tired of having people ask nosy
questions. Just because I'm blind they think they can ask personal
questions." Back then my stock answer was, "You probably get upset
because you don't want to be blind, and their questions force you to
have to deal with it". While I never got hit, I did get a fair amount
of opposition to my remarks. But it was a good launching place for
discussion.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/20/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But each group has an experience that is specific to them. How each
group
experiences discrimination, is influenced by the history and culture of
that
group. You can point out what all of the groups have in common. However,
when you tell people that their experiences are like those of other
groups,
it feels to them like you are trivializing their specific experience.
The
organizers on the Left had better learn this if they are to be
successful.
Being a Muslim is different from being a Latino. As for being blind,
well,
I'm at a point where I just recognize and accept my rage at how
blindness
has affected my life both in real terms, and in terms of social
ingteractions with sighted people. But I also recognize that the sighted
people's actions toward me or lack thereof, are motivated by ignorance
and a
real terror of blindness. It really has nothing to do with me as a
person.
They don't even know me. I'm invisible. And I'm tired of putting forth
the
effort to attempt to remove their fear.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2017 10:45 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Palestinian Center for Human Rights: Gaza
True. We Blind Folk aren't shoved out of the way by angry White Folk,
or
hunted down and burned out of our homes, or awakened in the Midnight Hour
by
a bomb hurtling into our home. We don't have our farms seized, or made
so
unsafe that we dare not tend our crops. We don't have to travel out of
our
way in order to wait in long lines at check points, where we are
examined
like vermin, by coldly indifferent armed soldiers. Still, exclusion is
exclusion. Being cast into the Outer World, whether violently or
indifferently still has the same dehumanizing effect.
No, I have no real sense of what walking out my door wearing a Black
Skin
every day, and seeing the faces of the mostly White folk as I go about
my
daily activities...if I have any daily activities to go about.
And especially, I have no way of relating to an elderly grandmother
tending
her garden and seeing, as the last sight she will ever see, an object
hurtling toward her.
Still, many of my friends in the Washington Council of the Blind(WCB)
have
learned to compartmentalize the discrimination they feel as a blind
person,
and their view of the discrimination and oppression being experienced by
other minorities.
I used to consider these people as being self serving or self centered.
But
at this moment I see them as victims, no different than those people
around
them whom they curse and condemn.
Years back, when I worked on Seattle's waterfront in the Sweat Shop
named
Bartmann and Bixer of the Northwest, Incorporated, I would wander the
streets of that area known as Skidrow, or Skid Road. The bars along
First
Avenue were segregated to some degree or other. The Indians had several
bars they hung out in, often making a circuit walking from one bar to
another during a Friday or Saturday night.
The Negroes hung out in a couple of bars further down at the South end
of
First Avenue, and no Indian had better put his/her head in the door.
The
two groups hated one another. Both Blacks and Indians believed that
they
were better than the other. "But," I would say to any who would listen
to
me, "can't you see that you are both being treated the same?" But it was
as
if each minority did all it could to not be the one at the bottom of the
pile. Blacks, by being "better"
than Indians felt they had a measure of dignity. And Indians felt that
by
being "better" than Blacks gave them more stature in the eyes of the
White
Masters.
This need to feel superior is turned against us by the Ruling Class.
And so it is around the Globe. One People create a superior image of
themselves, and create an inferior stereotype of those they oppose.
Perhaps it is so much a part of our Nature that we'll continue until the
last two humans die in a life and death struggle. I watched a program
the
other night about the Silver back Gorillas. As the 35 year old dominate
male was finally bested by the younger, stronger male, I could see how
these
animals had survived because of their "survival of the fittest" that
kept
them a strong species. And yet, this strong instinct forced the old
leader
into fighting to the death, even though he might have fled into the
forest
and lived out his life in peace.
Humans are no different, except in one important way. Driven by our
"survival of the fittest" instinct, we have set in place an artificial
standard of what we consider to be the Standard for a Strong Species.
Possession is put in place of Strength. I could wax long and loud about
this wrong turn in the Survival Road, but suffice it to say that we now
see
at the top of our People, a weak blubbery, self focused creature. Or
maybe
we see something even worse. Donald Trump.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/19/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I used to think that being blind was what allowed me to identify with
members of other minority groups. Perhaps it did. But the differences
between being blind and being a Palestinian in Israel/Palestine or
being Black in America, are just too great. We, the blind, aren't
hated and reviled. Cops don't feel endangered by blind men and shoot
them. We're not incarcerated. I am, here in my apartment building,
socially isolated. But if anyone chooses to relate to me when they see
me in the lobby or the elevator, it is to offer help. It's a very
different dynamic.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2017 11:42 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Palestinian Center for Human Rights:
Gaza
There are no words for such heartless, cruel, cold behavior.
It's hard to wrap my head around what life is...or in the case of the
mother, was, like under this constant surveillance.
To a greater or lesser degree I can "feel" what it must be like to be
a racial or religious minority in America. Despite the "Free Pass" of
Whiteness, I am still a member of a small, ignored minority. While
being blind has some distinct advantages over being Black, Brown or a
Muslim, we blind people are faced with misunderstanding and ignorance,
and often mean spiritness. At least enough for us to "understand"
some of what other minorities face. But to live under constant threat
of death from a distance? To go about doing what must be done to
survive? To never know, when going to bed at night, if morning will
find your house and family still "safe"? To be bullied with no one to
turn to? And worst of all, to have no way out! Even this old blind
man
can dream of better days.
But to have absolutely no Light at the End of the Tunnel? To not even
have a Tunnel.
We Humans are such a contradiction. We can sore, like angels, to the
heights of compassion, and turn right around and become more cruel
than all of the Demons waiting to embrace us in Hell.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/19/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Life under Siege: Indiscriminate killing of farmers
Date: 18/06/2017
"Our life has turned upside down since my mother's death. With her
passing, we lost the backbone of the house." Hani Salem Elomor is a
married father of
3 children and resident of El Elfokhari neighborhood, Khan Younis,
whose mother Zeina was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in
2016 when she was working on the family's farmland.
The tree was planted by Zeina's family where she was killed by the
Israeli occupation forces Zeina was solely responsible for Hani and
his six siblings and the family's income is based on the 2 dunums of
land they own and where they plant wheat, which is located in
Elfokhari neighborhood, about 350 meters from the borderline line
with Israel. Supposedly, the farmland is outside of the buffer zone
implemented by the Israeli occupation forces, stretching from the
Israeli border 300 meters into the Gaza Strip. The buffer zone is an
area prohibited to Palestinians, which is illegal under both Israeli
and international law. According to the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA), the buffer zone takes up 17
percent of Gaza's total land, making up to 35 percent of available
farmland unsafe for Palestinians to use, with the areas nearest the
border fence being the most restricted. It is harshly affecting the
livelihood of tens of thousands of Gaza farmers, who rely heavily on
agriculture to provide for their families.
In addition, the Israeli occupation forces regularly enforce the
buffer zone and nearby areas with live fire, which is what Zeina
became a victim of.
In the evening of 05 May 2016, Hani received a phone call from his
brother Monzer, who informed him that their mother got wounded from a
shell by the occupation forces and that she was on her way to the
Gaza European hospital.
"I immediately rushed to the hospital and when I arrived there, I
could see my family members getting into the emergency room. I
followed them and saw my mother's dead body lying on one of the beds
with her face covered.
Unconsciously, I uncovered her face and saw the blood covering her
neck, shoulder, and right hand. The doctors informed me that she was
killed on the spot by the Israelis", Hani tells in vain.
Zeina was collecting hay on her farmland and filling it into bags to
move it to the house, when the occupation forces fired a rocket at
her, as her relatives that accompanied her tell. In the place of the
incident there were a number of other farmers working on their
farmlands. The area is very flat, the sight is obvious, and the
attack happened during day time, which is a clear evidence for the
arbitrariness of the killing. "There is an Israeli military tower
east of the land, about 350 meters away, so the occupation forces
could see with their bare eyes that my mother was a civilian, working
on her land to provide her family with an income. They shot her for
no reason", Hani emphasizes. "Ever since the end of the latest war on
Gaza, Israel allowed farmers to cultivate this zone using short crops
that do not grow higher than 80 centimeters, such as wheat and
barley, as it forbids them from establishing greenhouses or buildings
there", Hani highlights.
Enforcing the buffer zone by means of live fire constitutes a war
crime, as codified in the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome
Statute, prohibiting the targeting and severe injuring or killing of
a civilian or protected person. However, Israeli troops typically
enforce the buffer zone with live fire which often results in, inter
alia, the direct targeting of civilians and/or indiscriminate attacks.
Furthermore, preventing Palestinians from access to their land is a
violation of numerous provisions of international human rights law,
including the right to work, the right to the highest attainable
standard of living, and the right to the highest attainable standard
of health. Accordingly, the PCHR has filed a letter requesting the
military advocate general to open an investigation into the incident
on 30 May, 2016. A reminder was sent on 26 April, 2017 regarding the
complaint and PCHR received a response that the incident is under
treatment by the Israeli military prosecution for operational affairs.
"A year later, day by day we still go to our land and work the same
way as if our mother was still among us. The occupation forces tried
to frighten us several times, but they will not succeed and we will
never give up our land.
It belongs to us and we will not lose our sole source of income",
Hani emphasizes. "Until today, we don't know the reason why she was
killed; my mother was killed for nothing. We hope for accountability,
even though it has been a year since the incident happened and no
progress has been made in the case."
Public Document
**************************************
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