True enough, Miriam. No way can I pretend to know discrimination,
mental, physical, and Spiritual, to the same depth and degree as those
persons who have spent their entire lives as disenfranchised,
unwanted, hopeless Souls. On the other hand, does it make a
difference in how I see the World if I fall into pig poop up to my
knees, or up to my arm pits? Poop is still poop. While I have
experienced a measure of oppression, and at times a sense of being cut
off from my dreams, I have never been in such a hopeless state, with
no way out, and seeing nothing behind me or before me to give me even
a glimmer of hope. Even though I cannot have that first hand
understanding, still, I've walked and slept among those who have.
Mostly Pacific Coast Indians. In Seattle there was a large apartment
complex in the South End Slums. It was several rows of single story
apartments totally occupied by Indians who were just off the
Reservations or strung out on booze. Raised in hopelessness, they
fled to the City with a small amount of money given them if they
signed over their rights to return to the Reservation. I recall that
it was mostly around $3,000 per person. Enough so that it seemed a
small fortune back in the 50's. Especially since it was more money
than most had ever seen at one time. But it was Fool's Gold. A very
few found low rents and attended Trade School or Community College,
and grabbed onto a decent job. Most of them, young and untrained in
money management, blew their nest egg in a matter of weeks. And there
I found them, living in groups in the apartments they called the
Reservation. During harvest season for the various crops,
strawberries, beans, pie cherries, etc., they would be trucked off to
the fields to earn enough to buy a small supply of liquor. A few
worked in the Woods as helpers, and some managed to find temporary
work as extra hands on tramp steamers. But for the women, other than
the few who worked at wage minimum in the sewing rooms, they told me
that they carried their "little money makers" between their legs.
But back to my own first hand experiences that were no where close to
what these people faced. Newly blind at the age of 30, I entered a
world filled with hopeless people. All around me were blind people
hunkered down and meekly accepting their "lot in life". Especially
the young men. Most especially those born blind or blinded at an
early age. I won't go into any of the many studies on what causes the
emasculation of blind men, but certainly hopelessness plays a central
role. Blind men could not even hit the bar, tie one on and vent their
frustrations by ripping one another...and the bar, into shreds. Blind
men were patted on the head. Indians and Blacks were treated with
hostility, anger and fear. But pats on the head and sad, pitying
remarks can destroy a person's dreams just as if they were bully
sticks.
Incidentally, blind women fared a bit better. Especially those
possessing good bones. Women's role in our society is one of gentle,
soft spoken, willing to please. This worked in blind women's behalf,
while it pushed blind men even further apart from their sighted peers.
But whether beaten down physically, or beaten down Spiritually with
kindness, the end result is the same. My young blind associates all
knew that the best they could hope for was a job at the Seattle Light
House, maybe for wage minimum if they were lucky. Sure, there is a
difference between a brutal prison and a warm, friendly jail cell.
But trapped is still trapped. And the end result comes out the same.
Just to put a slightly different point on it, we are all trapped, to
one degree or another. Whenever we have a system of government that
depends upon exploiting some of its people, and disenfranchising them.
Working Class people were not better off under the new Republic,
despite what our history books would have us believe. What difference
did it make to a field hand, whether he paid a share of his crop to
the English overlords or the new American Overlord? He was still a
share cropper eking out a living. He had no vote under the King, nor
did he have a vote under his new Boss, Uncle Sam.
My many times great Grandfather, John Jarvis, born in what is now West
Virginia back in 1756, was such a man. He may even have been a poor
land holder. But he saw no difference between governments. Neither
one existed for his benefit. From John Jarvis to the present, we were
all Working Class folks. Subjects to the whims of the government.
Told to defend and respect our great nation, even though it could step
in and seize everything we had worked for. We had no say in shaping
the Laws of this nation. But that's getting off on another trail.
Suffice it to say, we do not like to think of ourselves as being
prisoners to the Ruling Class, with no options beyond what they allow
us. We get all gawgaw over the few who rise from rags to riches,
while we look away from the vast throngs of our people being pressed
down into the pig poop.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/25/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> The thing is, one can always find the similarities. Yes, we all get screwed
> by the system. But somehow, when I read analyses like this, it seems to me
> that the unique suffering of particular people is diminished. I've already
> stated my position about prostitution, that selling one's body for the
> sexual gratification of another, can be very dangerous if that
> gratification
> includes perversions and it has to be depersonalizing and demeaning because
> in order to do it, one must separate oneself, one's consciousness and
> selfhood, from one's body. All poor and working people are screwed by the
> system, but if one is black or brown, the inequities and indignities that
> one experiences are beyond what most white people have to deal with. And
> it's irrelevant when one is going through one's personal nightmare, that
> the
> inequities are a result of the divide and conquer policy of the powerful.
> Whatever arbitrariness and unfairness that you and I suffer in our lives as
> a result of an autocratic, bureaucratic mass society, our discomforts pale
> when compared with those of the unemployed, dispossessed, disrespected
> members of our society.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2015 12:53 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: I've Been a Prostitute for Almost 10 Years-Here's How I Feel About
> It
>
> The ramble I'd started, took a notion and went off somewhere by itself. So
> if it wound up on the list, please excuse it. And my body is still
> consumed
> by some alien bug, providing me with lots of deep hacking coughing and a
> fierce pain across the eyes. What a way to end a very relaxing and
> pleasant
> vacation.
> I know that the subject was Prostitutes, but in a broader sense, doesn't
> our
> corporate capitalistic system force all of us to be Prostitutes? Whether
> we
> enjoy our particular work, aren't we still being screwed?
> Perhaps there are some on this list who do not have to answer to a "higher
> power" for their sustenance, but most of us are "Owned" by others. Studies
> have shown that most Americans are not satisfied with their station in
> life,
> the work they are forced to do, where they must live, the people they have
> married, and on and on. So Prostitutes fit right in. If the majority
> don't
> like their work. We can write books on why people do not like their lot in
> life, but continue going along day by day. The question is, would a
> different system give more of us the ability to move into a place that is
> more satisfying to us? Our Corporate Capitalistic System is most certainly
> not working for most of us Working Class and Lower Class Americans. For
> starters, we might find life more meaningful and even more enjoyable, if we
> were involved in the planning and decision making part of our work. Same
> is
> true of our personal lives.
> While I enjoy my work as a rehab teacher, I have no say in how our contract
> is put together. We either sign it or look for something else to do. At
> 80
> years of age, I've come to a place where I no longer frustrate myself
> fighting to change this need of my "superiors"
> to control me. I simply sign the damn thing and we go about doing what we
> think is needed for our clients. In that sense we are no longer owned by
> the company. But we have not changed the system. We live in a world that
> is built upon control. And the method taught in controlling how we control
> others, is to use negative reinforcement.
> Trashing. Put downs. Belittling others.
> No wonder the majority of us are dissatisfied with our lot in life.
> And no wonder many of us go through life feeling very much like
> prostitutes.
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
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