Saturday, October 13, 2012

Raising more cane

Ann, Bonnie, Ken, Chris and anyone else,
 
Sighted or blind, shoving our way upstream is not only rude, it causes traffic jams.  This has nothing to do with whether one is wishing to keep their cane, it is a matter of courtesy and consideration. 
At 77 I am now at that wonderful place in life where my daily travels are planned around the location of the next rest room. 
This is due to both frequency as well as urgency.  If you do not know what I'm talking about, be happy. 
So when I fly, which is as seldom as possible these days, I make certain that I'm at the airport early.  Just before time for boarding, I make a pit stop.  On long flights of 3 hours or more I do need to travel down the narrow, often crowded aisle to the toilet.  I hold my travel cane in a position close to my feet in order to alert others that I am blind.  I certainly am not going to get lost or accidently turn down some side road on an airplane.  Usually, when travelling alone, I will trot off to the toilet one more time just prior to landing.  Often in strange airports the lavatories are not quickly located, and as I say urgency can become an embarrassing event.  So I do all I can to make certain that my needs are taken care of, by me.  I understand the stress of working folks.  Airlines will not employ more people than absolutely necessary to do the job.  And too often they hire too few. 
So the flight attendants are under pressure and I don't want to add to it. 
Having said that, these same flight attendants have been trained.  They do know how nervous many of us are over the thought of sitting at 30,000 feet in a heavier than air object, hurtling through space at 3 or 4 hundred miles an hour. 
So when one of these trained, professional attendants reach out and grab my cane and snap...yes, snap, "You can't have that with you", I resist.  Is that really being thoughtless or rude on my part?  Am I putting my need for independence ahead of good manners? 
Or am I exercising my right to be treated in the same manner as all passengers.  If my cane can become a missile, show me prior to boarding the statistics and the rules.  That cane is right out in full sight from the moment I enter the airport so it should be pretty obvious that it is going to be accompanying me on to the plane.    Identify how many passengers have been injured by flying fiberglass canes.  Show the number of canes that were proven to be carrying explosives.  And what about carry on baggage?  How often we hear of someone who managed to smuggle guns or explosives on board in their luggage, even after all the inspections at the gate.  Why allow any carry on baggage?  Think of what a  big holler would go up if all of us had to line up and wait at baggage for our carry on luggage.  That would be seen as an unnecessary inconvenience.  Just as I see seizing my cane and tucking it away so I have to wait for that harried attendant to finally remember that I am the last body on the plane. 
Being nice and giving in has not changed this foolishness.  At some point we must stand up, or we'll go to our grave being pushed to the back of the bus...I guess with us blind folk it would be being pushed to the front of the bus. 
 
 
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 4:45 AM
Subject: RE: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

Hi all,

 

Ken, the issue is that she expected to buck oncoming traffic in order to reach the bathroom.  This is unwise and is disruptive because it delays the departure of the plane.

 

Ann P.

 

 

Ann K. Parsons

Portal Tutoring

akp@portaltutoring.info

http://www.portaltutoring.info

"All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT

 

 

From: acb-l-bounces@acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces@acb.org] On Behalf Of Ken Metz
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 6:21 PM
To: 'Chris Coulter'; 'Carl Jarvis'
Cc: 'Acb List'
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

 

Hi Chris and all.

 

Perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but how difficult is it to find the restroom on a plane if you just ask how many rows and which side the restroom is on to get there on your own?

 

KEN

 

From: acb-l-bounces@acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces@acb.org] On Behalf Of Chris Coulter
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 10:38 AM
To: Carl Jarvis
Cc: Acb List
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

 

I guess the way I look at this is that although I expect to be able to get around independently with my cane I also believe that all people, in this case on a plane, are working together and must accommodate each other. The airline staff may need education about us and our canes or dogs and so we give it to them but if they won't budge then I believe that the way to keep things moving is to say that they can store the cane in a locker and when I need to go to the restroom I'll ring the call bell so someone will bring it to me. You're right; no one needs to escort us if no one else is being escorted but sighted people ring the call bell for all sorts of reasons. Maybe that kind of cooperation would get us a lot further than insisting stubbornly that it's my way or the highway. Well, in some cases, like Laurie's it turned out that when she insisted she was the one who had to hit the highway. 

We tell sighted people they have to understand us and we're right to tell them that but we also need to put forth a little understanding, too.

Chris

On Oct 11, 2012, at 8:24 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:

 

Chris,

I just responded to Jessie on this subject so I'll be brief. 

For you, the folding cane is the appropriate choice. 

For me, the solid fiberglass cane is the tool that works best for me. 

Even in severe turbulence, and the overhead doors fly open, the cane is less apt to fly out than are the heavy carry on bags.  Allowing the flight attendant to seize my cane allows this person to have control over me when control over me is not needed.  Why do we blind people allow ourselves to be pushed and shoved without pushing back? 

A major piece of being a first class citizen is having the ability to stand firm and insist upon being treated as first class citizens. 

People who allow themselves to be pushed about will be pushed about.  We tend to make victims out of our elderly, our children and our disabled.  We do it because they allow us to do so.  Well, let's take children out of this, since they need to be pushed around...like in strollers.  But the rest of us need to quit acting like victims.  We just reinforce the pushers belief that we need pushing. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

----- Original Message -----

To: J.Rayl

Cc: Acb List

Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 6:08 AM

Subject: Re: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

 

Well, I never had a problem using a folding cane on a plane but I haven't flown since way before September 11th, 2001. I haven't a clue how I would be treated now, although, as usual, it wouldn't stop me from using my folding cane and then folding it up when appropriate.

Chris

On Oct 11, 2012, at 5:45 AM, J.Rayl wrote:

 

Well, I really do not see what is so difficult about the concept of being asked to stow your cane in a safe place on a plane.  Its not like you need to hold onto it, or that you are using it on the plane.  Its not like someone else is likely going to take it?  Now I"m sorry, if my dog can be stuffed down underneath a seat, get her butt kicked by the bratt or adult in back of us and her nose kicked by the bratt in front of us a gazillion times, not be able to see a dang thing that is really going on, have her ears fill up with pressure and deal, have her bladder fill up and have to deal, be thirsty, etc. I'm sure, just very sure, your cane can ride where ever its stowed for the duration of that plane trip until its back all safe and sound in your little hand.  And if you're really that lost without it, take control of your life and use a folding one which you can fold up and put in your own carry on where you can know right where it is, get it and put it away.  <geesh>

I just really, really do not see the big deal of all this: security checks, etc., etc.

Some of you act as though its the invasion of a lifetime.  <LOL>  

And, its likely only to get worse--not better.

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 8:11 AM

Subject: Re: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

 

Oh, I agree. Take a government agency, add people who take their jobs absolutely literally and you get insanity. What really astonishes me is that there are still people in this world who don't know what the white cane is for. The only thing I can think of in stories of discrimination against the blind involving planes is that someone actually believes the person with the white cane is posing as a blind person and the attendant or security person goes into Superpatriot mode.

Chris

On Oct 10, 2012, at 9:00 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:

 

Chris,

 That  scenario is so off the wall crazy that it has to have come from the mind of Homeland Security.  Where else outside of Alice in Wonderland could such insanity be hatched? 

But in fairness, long before we declared war on Terror and began terrorizing our own people in our efforts to keep us safe, see what I mean?  it's crazier than Alice in Wonderland, airlines were practicing being stupid.  I must have wrestled with a dozen shapely flight attendants over the right to retain my solid fiberglass travel cane.  

"This could become a missile in case of severe turbulence", I was told.  "I could become a dangerous missile, too", I told them.  But no amount of logic, humor, begging or throwing a hissy fit could sway them from their preprogrammed course.  

And it has become ten thousand times worse now that we are really being protected.  I had a fellow spend about twenty minutes feeling up the seams of my jeans in the San Diego     airport last year.  "Are you finding something there?" I asked him.  no answer.  "What are you expecting to find?"  I tried laughing about it.  Still no answer.  But each time I commented, he bent to his task and began all over again.  "Would you like me to take them off so you can turn them inside out?"  No answer. 

"You know, if you keep this up we're going to have to begin dating".  Finally, as the line behind us began snarling that they were going to miss their flight, another person arrived.  This one had a brain between its ears.  "Keep them moving," she ordered in a tone that suggested torture if he did not. 

But it must have worked.  My jeans did not burst into flame and the plane landed safely in Seattle.  Around that same time across the United States a coupled of fellows proved that it is still possible to smuggle a device of mass destruction aboard a commercial plane. 

Someone did not check their jeans closely enough. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 1:25 PM

Subject: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

 

I want to begin by saying that what I'm writing in this message shows  
a real lack of training on the part of the airline staff. It's just  
something to be aware of.
My husband, who keeps up with how criminal minds work and how plane  
security is handled gave me something to think about when I told him  
about the article and video about Laurie and her inability to get from  
here to there on the plane.
According to Jon, staff on airlines are trained to look for scenarios  
that can happen when suspected terrorists are on a plane. It goes like  
this: Someone comes onto the plane. This person could be posing as a  
blind person or could actually be blind. The "blind" person needs to  
go directly to the bathroom. Someone has left a gun in the little  
bathroom. Our person with the white cane then comes out; gets to her  
seat; then asks to trade seats with the person sitting next to her.  
Somehow the weapon gets from the blind person into the hands of  
someone who is in line with the new seat.
Let me be clear: I don't think Laurie was doing this but the airline  
staff was probably trained to look for just this type of scenario and  
wouldn't let it go. Even before I knew about this possibility I never  
had a problem sitting in a window seat and never asked to trade seats  
with anyone. It just never occurred to me to do that. It might have  
been the courteous thing to do but it may have triggered a whole chain  
of events that didn't need to happen. We'll never know if the  
flapdoodle happened because of post 9/11 training or not but things  
like this come up with sighted passengers and it shouldn't happen to  
anyone, blind or sighted. Airline staff shouldn't behave like robots;  
they should be observant human beings.
Chris
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