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Meet the Blind Month: Myth Busting

As do most people when put into a new or different scenario, and in particular one that I don't have much personal knowledge about, I felt awkward this past Saturday afternoon when I initially approached the informational table for "Meet the Blind Month", at the corner of 9th and Mass. St., in downtown Lawrence.

My main concerns were that I would ask a question that my friends, who are blind, would find stupid, or worse yet, insulting. But I also remembered a time thirty years ago when one of my closest friends, who happens to be black, invited me to her house for a Tupperware party, and I was the only person in attendance who was white. I remembered how awkward I had felt, but it had also given me pause to consider that she had been coming into my world all of the time, just as my friends who are blind are doing each and every day. With that knowledge behind me, I summoned up the courage to ask some of the questions I had wanted to ask, but didn't know how. I started then, as I will begin today, by saying that I hope not to offend anyone, and if I do, please know it is done out of ignorance and nothing more. The important thing is to get the conversation started.

One of the things I thought would be of interest to the population in general was which sayings people who are blind might find offensive, since our culture has so many different sayings that revolve around blindness. I am going to give some examples and I want you (the reader) to give thought to the meaning behind the word to determine if you think the saying would be positive, or negative in the mind of someone who is blind.

The following are a list of such terms. Feel free to make comments on which ones you feel are negative and/or positive, and please give your reason why.

Hunter's blind; blind spot, double blind study; blind ambition, blind justice; blindsided, blind in poker; blind in the Bible (as a picture of spiritual ignorance), blinds (the kind in your house that you open and close); blind drunk, blind faith, blind rage, racially blind; blinded by the light, blind in the Bible (John 9) made blind purposely by God for his purpose, going blind due to masturbation, blind love.

As someone who works with young children, some of whom have special needs, I have been trained to refer to children as the person they are first: an example of this is that a child has autism rather than someone is an autistic child.

In reference to the above, it is with interest that I note that the people I know wish to be simply referred to as blind. Their blindness isn't who they are, it isn't their sole being, but rather it is another bump in their road. Perhaps, it is something that makes their journey through life different from someone else's journey. It doesn't mean their journey is more difficult, or easier, than another person's journey. They do not care for the "politically correct" terms that people who are not blind want to give them. Examples of these are: visually impaired, differently abled, visually challenged, handicapable.

Over the rest of "Meet the Blind Month", I will be sharing profiles of people in our community who are blind, some information about the technology they use, and their sense of humor!

Joke: A blind man with a seeing eye dog walks into a store then stops. Suddenly he begins swinging his dog around by its tail! The manager rushes up and says, "Sir, put that dog down! What are you doing?" The blind man answers, "Oh, no problem. I'm just looking around."