Ignorance can be found up and down the entire IQ scale. I think it's
harder to understand it when we are talking with someone we think is
above average intelligence.
Of course being blind more than 52 years and spending most of my
adulthood in the field of Work with the Blind, the stories are
endless. I swear that for some folks the word Blind activates a
switch that shuts their brain down. The waitress who poured me coffee
and announced, "Careful, it's hot", also poured Cathy's coffee, right
out of the same carafe, but never warned her to be careful. Is that
because sighted folks can "see" the heat rising?
Then there was the woman at the hotel desk who told us we'd need to
sign the register. Since I was closest I took the pen. The woman
suddenly became aware that I was blind...my white travel cane gave me
away, and she took my hand and put the pen tip on the line. That was
all right, but what came next makes me chuckle every time I think
about it. "Start here and go to the right". I wanted to ask her how
many blind people had signed by going to the left.
And just because someone is blind does not make them imune to showing
their ignorance.
One of my students needed to take care of some business at the King
County Court House. He had proven himself to be a decent traveler, so
I told him that he would need to catch the #7 bus and get off at James
Street. "How will I know it's the #7 bus? I'm blind." That was one
comment that always got under my skin. "Of course you're blind.
That's the reason you're here!" But instead, I patiently said "If the
driver opens the bus door and does not announce the bus number, you
might want to ask. Most bus drivers can speak." Talking with
students, I might say, "I saw the Mariner's game on TV last night".
"Heard. You mean heard, not saw," a student invaribly would announce.
I would explain that we use the common expressions even though we are
unable to actually "See" the TV. And sure enough, within a day or two
some new student would announce to another, "Well, I'll be hearing you
later." And then they become indignant when I suggest that most
people will know that they are blind without them having to make an
issue out of it. Following this logic, a deaf blind person should
say, "I'll smell you later".
Oh well, the fellow said to me, "Ignorance is bliss". And I thought,
"And that comment proves the point exactly."
Carl Jarvis
On 6/26/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My classic story took place when we were on vacation in St. Thomas. We were
on the beach, relaxing in lounges, reading braille books. Someone else on
that beach, a man, began chatting with Fred. At some point, he mentioned
that he was a psychiatrist which, I suppose is neither here nor there. But a
bit later he said, "Can I ask you something about that book you're reading?"
Fred said he could and then he asked, "How do you know where you are on the
page?". I don't remember Fred's answer. I don't even understand the
question!
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2017 12:24 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Palestinian Center for Human Rights: Gaza
Nice? A fellow over on the ACB Chat List told me that I'm a Classic Passive
Aggressive. It was not meant as a compliment. Most of my early life was
focused on pleasing others...especially Mother. As a newly blind person, I
tried not to offend offensive people when they asked nosy questions about my
disability. Then I advanced to giving "smart mouthed" answers. Finally I
decided that since this natural curiosity of people was not going to change,
I'd try to figure out the shortest and smartest ways to "educate" them.
In the OTC, I reminded my students that this constant nosy questioning was
going to happen...forever. How they handled it would depend on their own
personality. But I said that resolving how they answered these questioners
would make a difference in their own lives.
So I arranged speaking dates with various elementary schools. I would
select certain students to go with me and tell the children how they became
blind and what that meant in their lives. My thought there was to help
newly blind students to talk about blindness and how it affected them, in
order to become more comfortable with the subject.
Then we would field questions from the children. I would also ask them what
they would do if they woke up totally blind. Many children said, "I'd call
for my mother", and also many said, "I'd kill myself".
The questions they would ask were mostly serious questions about the
students who were presenting. "How do you find your way around your house?"
But some of the questions were silly. "How do you know you're not putting
on your wife's panty hose?" one smart kid asked me.
The class began to titter. "That's a very good question", I said.
That stopped the giggles, and the children listened to see just how such
silliness could be a good question. "Many people think that when you become
blind, you also become stupid. But that's not the case.
Blind people are just as capable of telling their under ware from their
wife's by touch. Do you think you would make that mistake if you were in a
dark room and picked up your under ware and a pair of your mother's panty
hose?"
Assuming a role as "Teacher" is just my own way of dealing with nosy people.
The other day, in the entrence of a restaurant, a woman asked me if I
didn't become frightened by crowds like the one here in the entrence.
Instead of answering, I asked her if she became frightened under the same
conditions. "Of course not. But I can see", she said.
"Yes", I answered, "But you are a woman, and I wondered how a woman would
react to a crowded, noisy place". She walked away from me without answering
me. But Cathy said she gave me an "Ugly" look as she left. Maybe I
embarrassed her, and most likely she didn't get my point, but I felt better.
And maybe one day this woman will stop and reflect on this notion that we
can ask rude or personal questions of a total stranger simply because they
are blind.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/25/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Which goes to show that you are a much nicer person than I. Years ago,
I was in a department store with my guide dog and a woman said to me,
"How did you get like hat?". I thought she was asking a very rude
question. I answered, "That's a very personal question.", and I walked
away. I don't think that the fact of my disability gives people a
right to be rude. I think that people should show some discretion.
While we were considering becoming involved in a transracial adoption,
I was given a ride to a medical appointment by a volunteer. She had
three children. Two of her three daughters had blonde hair like she
did. The third was several years younger and looked very different.
She had light brown skin and very curly black hair. I was really
curious about her. I really wanted to know if she had been adopted and
from where. But I didn't ask because I felt that it wasn't any of my
business.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2017 12:51 PM
To: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
Cc: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Palestinian Center for Human Rights:
Gaza
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
**************************************
Follow PCHR on Facebook and Twitter For more information
please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8
2824776 - 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza
Strip.
E-mail: pchr@xxxxxxxxxxxx, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
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