I am so sick of teaching random citizens about guide dogs, blindness, that I don't need a wheelchair or assistance walking up a jet way, how I can dial a telephone, how I can pee into a urinal without missing - you name it, that I can almost explode.
An anecdote: In Harvard Square, the rapid transit terminal has both bus and subway connections. I was working in Watertown (one town to the northwest of Cambridge, and I rode a bus to work. After getting down the stairs, I started walking to the indoor bus stop. Some random do-gooder came upon me and said, "You're going the wrong way." I made the assumption that he was someone who took the same bus as me and that somehow I had become disoriented. No such luck - this bugger led me to the subway where I proceeded to start hitting him with my cane as I had missed my bus and would need to wait another half hour for the next one because of his moronic assumption. Sometimes violence can feel real good. cdh On Nov 30, 2009, at 4:17 PM, Mark BurningHawk Baxter wrote: > I love conversations like that! It's a rare treat for me when > someone comes up and says, basically, "You're different from me and > that fascinates me, and I want to learn." Usually what I get is > "You're different from me and that makes me afraid, so I'm going to > control what I fear so that it can't hurt me." > > Growing up, I was taught that "It's your task to educate the sighted > about the blind." In adult life, I realized that not only was this a > pointless and thankless task, but it was a very heavy cross to bear, > one that I had not asked for. Now, when someone is courageous enough > to confront me as different and therefore stimulating, I feel > privileged to talk to them; the rest of the people I don't bother > trying to educate, because all the words in the world will not > convince a scared or superstitious or xenophobic person to change > their thinking patterns. Spent a half an hour with such an individual > explaining how blind people use a computer or a dog, and they'll still > shriek in panic and grab at you when stairs are present, or start > talking to people around you about what you need, etc. Being cute and > female never hurts, either. :) > > > Mark BurningHawk Baxter > > Skype and Twitter: BurningHawk1969 > MSN: burninghawk1...@hotmail.com > My home page: > http://MarkBurningHawk.net/ > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
