So let's quit selling the idea that any of us humans are independent. We're all interdependent to one degree or another. To say that I just voted independently is silly talk. Even though I say it, too. But what I did was to vote privately, using an AutoMark voting machine. To use this machine I needed to have Cathy independently drive me to Port Townsend to the courthouse. We took the independent elevator to the auditor's office and independently requested the headphones to the AutoMark. Then we drove to the nearest restaurant and independently ordered dinner.
I know that it is good PR to say that we are the Independent Blind. It sends a much needed message to the folks who believe that the absence of eyesight deprives people of their brains. But we need to remind ourselves that it is just that, a PR tool. In fact, accommodating my needs as a blind man makes me interdependent.
For example, I want all paper money to be marked in such a way as to allow any blind person with normal sense of touch, the ability to tell one bill from the next.
But I also understand that the person using any one of the gadgets that are now on the market, making identification of paper money possible, are just as "independent". For me, the issue is to find the method that makes it possible for the greatest number of blind people to "independently" identify their paper money.
We blind folk just love to pick nits. Do dog guides or white travel canes make a person more independent?
The list is endless because we keep focusing on our need to show the world, as well as ourselves, that we are truly independent.
I think that there are two words that cause blind people great grief.
Independent and normal.
I am neither independent nor am I normal.
As a member of the human race, I am interdependent in all sorts of ways, both with my fellow human beings as well as with Mother Earth. And as far as normal goes, I have no idea what that means.
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----From: Mike FreemanSent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 9:48 AMSubject: Re: [Wcb-l] finally did itIt's a sad day for the blind when using an amanuensis is seen as not acting
independently. I think we'll rue the day when this notion gained currency.
Mike Freeman
-----Original Message-----
From: Wcb-l [mailto:wcb-l-bounces@wcbinfo.org] On Behalf Of debby phillips
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 1:00 AM
To: Randy Tedrow; wcb-l@wcbinfo.org
Subject: Re: [Wcb-l] finally did it
hey Randy, congratulations on being able to vote independently!
Good for you! Debby
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