The Blind Guys

The monsoon season was just beginning. Get over it was a pretty nice day for me and I am anyway. All 18 birds landed at about the same time. We were really too worried about any activity because it was in the daylight and it easily hit during the day. We started a lot of mice to walk about 50 yards or something and one of them landed between me and another guy. I guess that lived pretty close to me or too much injured up to and that caused infection in my eyes. So. They couldn't cure the infection and they decided that if they let it go much longer that the infection would spread might spread around to my optic nerve only to my brain and cause brain damage or might even kill me so I had to remove my eyes. I was one of the roughest day in my life. His name is Mark TVA. He's 21 years old

and the last thing he saw before recoilless rifle shell exploded was the enemy's green. I think he was going to be like the blind. It wasn't too bad but I knew I'd never see again. And. I didn't care or do anything I wouldn't eat or talk to anybody or anything. And. I was just really depressed. I've been given pep talks and sermons along tell me you know in the world there are things you know you can still do things that you know what I could do I didn't really want to try to do anything. I was scared to try. Until I came here. I was here for three months and.

You know aberration. If I was. I just got sick and I didn't want everything to do with people I didn't want to. I knew I was one myself but I just didn't want to face the fact that I was blind and I want to be around anybody that was blanks that reminded me that I was one so I just got disgusted. And left. Oh I didn't know what I was going to do or want to do anything I just want to feel sorry for myself. But I left it. They wanted to come back I. Have to convince him that I was raised come back. My dad and I came up we talked to him. I got re-admitted. Have his damn well. I've often said to individuals I'll give you an example of one para. Look I'm blind and your child is blind therefore I can't afford to

play games with you as I might if you didn't have the personal concern but I want to I want to cut through the niceties and ask you directly do you believe that because you're slighted you're necessarily more fortunate than I am because I'm blind. Well this parent said to quote Damn you're damned right I do and I said OK let's see let's see if this is simply arrogance. The need of everybody to feel superior or if it's based on fact now I'll ask you since you're a man do you think that you make more salary. Well of course he might have right then and there stopped me but he was a young guy and I was gambling on the fact that I might make more than he did which I did. So he said well OK not that I said or I do think you have more friends do you think you have. More in the way of meaningful activity of the day that I can travel around to where I want to go independently and you can't and I said well I

didn't know that. Let us assume that I had no technique of what you would call independent mobility at all. I at least have some staff members working here so I could decide this afternoon that I was going to go to a let's say Cedar Rapids Iowa. I could get a staff member to go in the car. You try telling your boss this afternoon at 3 o'clock if you decided you're going to go to Cedar Rapids or CA get a loan and they said OK but my son may not have a staff and I said to him indeed he may not but I only point out to you that he had me and since you know he can't get his sight back he might get a stamp when Kenneth Jernigan was appointed director of the Iowa commission for the Blind in 1958 he inherited a staff of eight people in a three room office. Today the commission employs 80 as a building of its own in Des Moines and field offices in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. There are about 6000 blind people and I one half of whom are over 65

in 1959 there was no library for them. In 1970 the commission operates the largest library for the Blind in the world with over 190000 recorded and braille books 5000 blind Iowans use the library last year. 1059 there was one home teacher for the blind responsible for the entire state. Now the commission's services have expanded to include not only Home Teaching and counseling but more intensive day to day training for up to 30 live in students at the commission building itself. And in 1959 twenty six blind eye ones were rehabilitated. Eleven years later that figure has quadrupled. What are we really trying to do here at the center because you see I think most people think what a guy covers it or try to do is give him training in techniques where we are. But he does become an expert on blindness just because he's become blind.

He is going to think of blindness as he always has a side of well let us suppose that he has all the techniques in the world. And let's suppose he believes he can do it. But he has no incentive to go. He doesn't believe that there's a job down there for and he doesn't believe that he can have dates he doesn't believe that he can. Be accepted as a social equal. He has no motivation to go. He still won't go. The techniques. Believe he can do it and the motivation it takes all of them together. And we think all of the jargon that sometimes is talked about with respect to blindness or what it means is harmful but it creates the wrong impression. For instance some people say that blind This is a kind of dying one of the authorities of the field has said that well this is this is not our notion unless indeed every day is a kind of a dying in one respect or another.

This low lying area which a majority of people first. Because people just don't accept from blood and as well as it is so they don't claim people are dumb clucks the center corners. Thank. You. This is so so there is no.

Doubt that you. Could be the one where it took me years ago. Yeah yeah. Manual your inner join the commission staff in one thousand fifty nine. He was blinded in a baseball game at the age of 13. This new student was blinded 10 months ago in a car accident and it is his second day at the commission.

Q So. Where was it. For good. There you go. Do.

You have I think a real. Classic stereotype. Response. Other people to feel sorry for. You saying you know I can. There is a but but really he doesn't believe that. Although. I don't think you'll ever get him to admit it. The states that's. The thing is that. He's saying that. Being blind really isn't so bad but you know you can do this and that. But actually the business about how much money would you give. Is indicative. Is always a limitation. There's nothing positive being blind really. There's nothing catastrophic about it either. You get other people that go the opposite extreme and say you know. They paid X number of dollars to be blind. They're really better off.

They're lying in their teeth. Students at the center received two hours of travel instruction every day. It begins on the first day by learning canning technique. Inside the commission building. Later the student moves outside to home. Finally he graduates to the city. The students who are not totally blind and only about 20 percent of all blind persons are where sleep shades while traveling. It is felt that learning travel as a totally blind person will allow the student to more effectively use what Sidey hands in conjunction with the techniques he has learned the white cane now represents the blind man's escape from the tyranny of dependence.

Travel instructor Sylvia Johnson will speak it using a guide dog. It's good for some people but there are very few people who can't learn to use a cane and that's converse and that's not the way you have to feed it and so forth. Dog still has to be told where to go. A lot of people feel that when they see a blind person with a dog that the dog is taking the blind person where it wants to go. This isn't the case. You can't tell the dog to take me to such and such a store and expect him to do it you gotta tell him what to do. And if a person can learn to do they can to do the very same thing with the cane. When I first started. Traveling I. Was really afraid. You

know I didn't want to. I want to go on a street. And I didn't really use my ears at all I just kind of just wanted to. Get back inside. When I would get hit or anything I wouldn't really pay attention to where I was gone or what I was doing. But I use my hearing and smell I am walking like you can smell the drugstore stuff in there. Or bakeries or or a laundromat. I'm starting to pick up sounds better than I can. I really concentrate more now on travel than I did before. You just have to concentrate really cause you can start you can't. Daydream or anything or you get turned around or mixed up. You start one. Myself and Then. Very very. Few. When I assign a studio route I will give pretty

specific directions about where I was going to get that the person gets lost or gets disoriented out on the street. He knows what he's looking for and he knows what to ask for. You know people are kind of funny you know if you ask them if you're traveling with just the average person on the street doesn't know if you're going to Easton. They're very likely to tell you wrong. Very often people will see a blind person standing on the street corner. Perhaps the person looks confused or looks as if he doesn't know what he's doing. I think very often a person will stand listening to try to get his bearings and know exactly where he is. I think. I may be missing a corner and walking in the middle of the street or perhaps veering into the street traffic. Usually the person

is in the flow of traffic and will be able to correct himself or get out. People get very excited about this sort of thing. We had a student doing this one day and I was watching her waiting for her to meet her correction and then called in and said that you were just walking down the street and there's a lady following her and she. Was born 18 years ago prematurely. They put her into oxygen. They did that then she developed a condition called Fibro which more simply meant she was totally blind. I'm blind since birth right now. And. People have done I've never known and they think it's. I don't know I think it's dumb you can't do that. OK like

writing your name I've never written my name. I'm learning but I've never done it. It's hard for me because I've never seen letters I don't have any idea what you're talking about when you tell me letters that's just Greek to me. I got to feel like. You know why do I put the paper on my bed my right. Foot. I write with a pencil on my bed and I can feel the letters. Now I can write all the letters. Print all the letters I mean are in the air. But don't think didn't take me a long time. I don't know how long a mile is I don't block you. I know approximately how long a block is but it's a foot long. I don't know what you mean I don't know. I have no and color. Green I got to have an object like it's green like the grass you. That's a light green I think. Is that right.

That's true. For you. I want. You. To wait. Right. There. This is where. I don't. Waste. Time. Thank you. I am I. I am. Right thank you. Thank you. I do too. And they really mean Will. With me because I try and put in their place. If I could see and I met somebody

came in the last two of us natural and people. If they do understand. They help you because everybody needs help. You all need help you get lost you need to they try to meet and decide you meet some interesting people. We'll try. To. Get. To a I. Am going. To If. I. Can. The. USAA. A and. To a m. E n e n. S O

S. If somebody is real to me. Now live to please. I think I've learned a lot here in the training. You know I'm typing it all but I've learned more from different people than I have from training. Because I've had a lot of these things before haven't met before high school and typing in high school and I've had to travel in high school I've had all these things before. It's not new to me. And because I've had it since first grade. I mean I know how to write. I know how to read. Not I don't want to take anything away from the center's programs but I'm saying I have learned more from talking to different people in observation than I have from the training. And speaking particularly of Mr. Jernigan I what

I learned more from him than anybody it is sooner. We have these classes. We call them classes in philosophy. The purpose is to talk about matters dealing with blindness. Now in this class. We're dealing with. A camping trip recently taken by the students up to Clear Lake. And it developed on that trip that one of the students Debbie had not struck a match before. Here Debbie is approaching womanhood. She's been for a lifetime. Blind. Yet she's never struck a match. Why it isn't that important actually describe the match but the fact that she has not struck a match indicates some shelter. It indicates some lack of experience broadly. Each student here tends to have something that develops

that is a crisis a kind of a crossroads. She wants to be a medical secretary. She can already spell. She can do typing but what the should be successful as a medical secretary is partly but determined by whether she strikes this match today and meets that challenge even though she's afraid of it. You have not lit fires or imagining that as a whole. This is me giving the word job to both of you. Why don't you why don't we have something so you can say we were appreciative a little bit you strike a match up there. Yes you're right. Yes if you knew they could still be frank they're striking a match. Did you ever try to light a match when you heard it

all OK. But Larry cigarettes are on July 5. So you want to play with curiosity. I know I see. Well. OK but you know what. You have a guy sooner or later he's going to run into the situation. Candle lighting the lamp for the situation. Sometimes you get a lot of her like. Every time I want to do this. You don't know what you're going to fight for. You. Yeah. Yeah I like that you like you that your bro you should try to get. Yeah that was

what you're doing by doing. What you do you bend. When they dropped it to him Oh thank you. Forgive me. For you.

We're. Going to a thank you. Thank you. Yeah. But you know there are those who at times say that we brainwash people. My answer to that is. In one sense we do. We try to as far as their attitudes about blindness because it's as simple or as complex as this. That the blind person. Literally need not be any less competent any less fortunate any less happy any less productive than everybody else. And you can't you can't convey that thought. In the great pronouncements it must be conveyed in all the little things that make up living. Striking a match for water skiing or riding on a sled. Are walking independently down a street. Yeah well remember an individual who said well I really don't think I

want to go water skiing it's not that I think I can't do it I'm sure I could but I never was very active on outdoor situations and I've never ridden much like water skiing so we urged and pleaded coaxed and tried to shame him and all kinds of things. He got on the water skis. After he learned he could water ski it was hard to get him off. I shall never forget the first comment he made when he came into the bank. He said By God if I can do this I could make a living for my wife and my kids.