He walks! He talks! He's blind!

So who makes the most negative impact on our blind image? 

Jade Ewen's poor blind parents  or Governor Paterson? 

I submit that it is neither of them, nor any other individual popping up in the Media. 

It is the Media that we should be jumping all over. 

They just love to do the sloppy, sentimental, poor blind, story. 

You know as well as I do that for every stumbling, slobbering sightless Soul, or bumbling blind buffoon  that is showcased by the Media, we could trot out a dozen positive, self reliant, independent role models.  Look, the Media is in the business of making money.  They show the public what it wants to see, or what the Ruling Class happens to be pushing this week.  But that's another rant for another day. 

So the Media is not going to show the public some average blind schlup going about his/her business in an average sort of way. 

Why does a blind man make bigger news when he climbs Mount Everest?  Not because he climbed the mountain.  Lots of skilled climbers have achieved that distinction with barely a ripple in the Media.  But this man is Blind.  Blind.  Blind is the word that sells the story.  Think of it folks, a Blind Man climbed a ladder!  A Blind Man tied his shoe strings!  The story sells because of what the public believes about blindness.  It is not about the man.  It is not a story about a singer caring for her helpless parents, or a governor worrying about his next job.  It is all about our historical blind stereotype. 

Here in my state of Washington, I have been in and out of the public eye for many years.  And for most of those years I have considered myself to be a fairly decent blind role model.  No reporter has ever sought me out, saying "Carl, you lead a pretty normal life.  We'd like to showcase you as an example of how the average blind person goes about living life."  The only times I have been mentioned in the Media have been as the Angry Blind Activist, or the Blind spokesman.  And very honestly I would go some distance to avoid being featured in an article.  Too many times I read my own words twisted by some reporter who was so stupefied by the fact that a blind man could actually speak, that he just wrote down what he wanted me to have said. 

The only reason anyone would write about my life is to oo and ah over the amazing blind man who clears his own trails and cuts down his own firewood and actually can wash windows and vacuum the floor and do the laundry.  Wow folks, ain't it something?  He walks, he talks, he's a blind man!  And it's so brave of this poor simple blind man to go on with his sad, lonely life, etc., etc., etc. 

Face it.  It's a bigger fight than most of us want to believe.  But the only way to make inroads into this deeply ingrained blind stereotype is through collective action.  Let's quit worrying over the folks being trotted out by the Media, and let's figure out how we are going to showcase ourselves in a more positive image. 

 

Curious Carl