Planet of the Blind

I am teaching a film course this summer at the University of Iowa. I imagine that for one or two students the sight on day one of a blind professor entering the classroom (replete with a guide dog) was a minor surprise.

I like to think this was a "minor" surprise because I choose to think that we have come a long, long way as a nation when it comes to how we think about people with disabilities in general and blind people in particular.

When I say that I "like" to think these are the new conditions I’m really saying that I’ve learned to see the glass as being just a little more than half full.

That’s a position rather than a verifiable condition. I recognize the difference.

Speaking on behalf of blind and visually impaired people I know that the struggles that we face are steep and often quite enervating. Doors lack Braille signage; guide dogs are misunderstood by store owners or cab drivers;audio and video technologies are not properly accessible for blind users; the blind have a higher degree of unemployment and a greater likelihood of not matriculating in higher education. There are so many problems. The way forward still appears steep, even in the 21^{st century in America.}

Last evening Katie Couric of CBS News interviewed Governor David Paterson of New York about his experiences over the past 100 days—a traditional period of political "seasoning" in the United States—yet her questions were largely focused on the Governor’s blindness.

The conditional nature of blindness became the true subject of her presentation: Governor Paterson’s "vision"for New York was not under discussion. His assessment of the state’s economy or its pressing difficulties when it comes to assisting the eroding middle class were not part of the interview.

Instead Katie Couric wanted to know how the Governor processes information.

I think the glass is more than half full but really, after almost two centuries during which we have understood in western societies that blind people are indeed literate and therefore are capable of reasoning, this line of questioning or observation was really out of step with the times—"our times"—and by turns, such reporting does a disservice to the blind at large. I wish this wasn’t the case. I like the glass with more Malbek grapes in it. I like the notion that the broader American public is better informed and better educated about disability than this CBS interview would suggest.

And So I choose to imagine that we are farther along the road when it comes to thinking about disability in cultural terms.

In my film class this week we looked at one of the foundational American films concerning blindness—" The Miracle Worker" which is still a great film. That movie introduced to the broad American public the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. Sullivan fought hard to teach the young Helen Keller the very precepts of language—the foundations of consciousness. That was a profoundly important story "then" and it’s a important story "now"—save with this one difference. We know that the blind and the "blind-deaf" can read, correspond, "talk" and play like other citizens.

We do know that, don’t we?

Let me continue to think the glass is at least a little more than half full.

S.K.

I saw the report this morning about the death of Esmin Green who died in the emergency room of a New York City psychiatric hospital.

Her death was preserved on surveillance tape. If you’re a sighted person you can watch the video at ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5284151&page=1

This is horrifying footage for it shows two security officers and a doctor walking in and out of the emergency room where Mrs. Green was lying "in extremis" on the floor. They ignored her very presence and she subsequently died. It is no exaggeration to say that this woman’s death is a direct result of the corrupt behavior of the hospital’s staff.

Was her race the problem? Was her mental illness and her race the problem? Was her status as an American in question because her home country was Jamaica? Was she the wrong height or weight for medical care? Was she forced to wait for 24 hours in the emergency room because she was insufficiently personable, convenient, clean, soulful, wise, or articulate?

Only the corporate ownership of this Brooklyn psychiatric facility can explain how a human being, a fellow child of God could be treated with such inhumane inaction. 24hours awaiting a bed! And left alone to die on a floor.

Already we hear that the doctor in question has been relieved of his duties. I should say this is not enough. Prison time and the loss of a medical license is the bare minimum for such terrifying behavior.

Or will the perpetrators of this offence against morality and medical ethics be allowed to "walk" because , after all, in American health care circles "you get what you pay for?"

Esmin Green was mentally ill and awaiting a bed.

What did those hospital employees say to themselves upon seeing Mrs. Green on the floor after a full day of waiting for care? Did they say like Scrooge:

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

S.K.

Continue reading “Of Medicine and Scrooge”