Back in the 40's, when K through 8th grade was known as Grade School, our teachers actually looked us in the eye and said, "We live in a classless nation".
But in High
School our social studies books listed: Working Class, Middle Class, Upper Middle Class and Upper Class.
Sounded pretty classy to me.
But my dad took me out to the countryside and introduced me to another class, the Forgotten Class. These were the migrant workers, the field hands, the transient workers, the people who put the food on our tables. They lived in something between a rabbit hutch and a chicken coop. On another field trip, Dad took me to the mud flats in Seattle and introduced me to the unemployed men and women living in cardboard shacks in a place they called Hooverville.
It was not until I turned 30 and became totally blind that I came to know the Invisible Class, the blind and disabled folks.
Two Americas? John Edwards didn't look hard enough.
Today, besides adding the Invisible and Forgotten Classes, I would put in one more, The Empire Builders, AKA Ruling Class. These include the super human first class corporate Americans as well as the CEO's of the international mega corporations that buy and sell our politicians.
So, when it comes down to getting an education for blind people, the deck is really stacked against us. Since we're invisible, we are going to have to make alot of noise to receive any attention.
Curious Carl
No comments:
Post a Comment