Who was I today? In the morning I talked to three men working at a construction site in Manhattan, alerting them to the fact that they’d closed off the sidewalk without imagining accessibility for detouring pedestrians. They seemed hostile at first, then oddly they decided I was a good samaritan and later, when I passed their site, they had put in a ramp. Who was I today? I stuck my neck out with strangers, tried to do the right thing on behalf of other people with disabilities. And it was early in the morning in New York and raining.
In the afternoon I realized that both political parties in the US are using nostalgia. Romney’s version is a cross between the homey stage set of “It’s a Beautiful LIfe” and the singing Disney dwarves, happy to go to work with their lunch buckets and mops. Obama’s is an admixture of the New Deal and Bill Clinton’s reakpolitik, therefore insufficiently insistent on taking the fight to the GOP. He has a chance tomorrow night.
Political nostalgia demands irony and the voters don’t have enough of it to go around.
Who was I today? I talked to someone about disability and the arts and teenagers, imagining a program for kids with disabilities. So I day dreamed a bit. I did some of my day dreaming out loud.
Who was I today? I wanted to be someone larger than myself. I wanted to make a difference. I wasn’t nostalgic. I wanted to walk ahead with my head up high like my guide dog does.
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Planet of the Blind 
Thank you.
Who was I today? The video I helped to make of extraordinary ordinary parents of children with disabilities has over 8,000 hits. I hope you’ll watch it and tell me what you think.
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