Asleep At The Wheel

This month, we celebrate the 200^th Anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille who gave to the world a method whereby blind human beings could read, correspond and from their cocoon of blackness have a real relationship with the world. It is essential that children, born blind, learn Braille in spite of modern technology. If I had known, at my early age, there would be such a lackadaisical attitude on the part of science and technology I would have learned braille.

Of all the breakthroughs in the world of technology, absolutely nothing has been done for the blind. When I have talked with scientists who know something of blindness research, and there are very few of them, they tell me that the only research being done to improve the life of blind people involves genetics. As a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected medical officer, I was promised by the VA, that I would be furnished with a reading machine. There are such things, machines which will read to you correspondence, books, magazines etc. Fifty years later, I am still waiting. I hope the new blind of the recent wars, young men and women who should be treated better, will be supplied with such technology. I must hire someone to read everything that comes my way.

I never had one minute of rehabilitation which would have greatly assisted me in my lifestyle...taking care of myself in my own house...learning to use a white cane more effectively...learning to do house work easier, cooking, laundry, etc. I came back, was just thrown to the dogs, have never been approached yet about the service of a dog although I know there are citizens who have a dog for assistance.

I learned early and I continue to learn, almost daily, just how little the government and the citizens of this country care for the country's largest minority (estimate 32%) the disabled. Most of the disabled will say nothing, their families will say nothing, because in this time of political correctness and “big brother watching” they are so afraid they will lose whatever pittance in the form of a government check that may be coming their way.

Good luck! My pension, with VA, has never been established. It took 30 years for me to get the housing adaptation allotment which should go to every 100% disabled veteran... particularly blind veterans. It took 30 years for the VA to approve the security system for my house. The greatest threat to a blind citizen: living alone. For all those years, I used cement blocks against the entrance doors to my house to give me some time on the phone to get help in case of a break in. My windows are all nailed shut.

There is no one for the disabled person, particularly the blind person, to go to for assistance. My senator, Senator Burr, on Veterans' committee, my representative, McIntyre, armed services committee. The only concern of the blind veterans association (BVA) is their desire for you to pay a membership charge. In fact, several times, in calling BVA for assistance as with your congressional representative asking your address, they want to know if you are a member and your dues are paid up. It is these big salaries, for well-paid employees that are the concern of those who should be concerned about the veteran, the citizen soldier.

At the veterans hospital in Durham, where I went many times over many years, I merely made the suggestion to the chief of staff that, like the Duke Eye Center directly across the street, and where I had spend much time as a patient, at my own expense, trying to save a shadow of vision in one eye, “it would be nice to have a volunteer to help blind patients get around the maze of clinics and other territorial boundaries in such a large facility”. The response, from this person, by phone to me, “we are just waiting for you to die”. My last time at this hospital, the doctor looking in my records said, “there is a notation here that you are a trouble maker.” From that time to this, the so-called representative of the blind at that facility has never contacted me. One representative there, Julia Roberts (not the movie star), arranged for me to get a “talking watch”. She could not understand why VA so abused and so neglected blind veterans. Perhaps, it was because she was concerned, that her stay there was very short.

Across the street, at the Duke Eye Center, during the Vietnam War because, again, VA and Duke were trying to save a smidgen of vision, I was in a room on the second floor corner, closest to VA, a patient of doctor Banks Anderson Jr. A black attendant (this during the height of the Vietnam protests) spat on me in the bed. Which was worse, a black woman spitting on me in the bed or a chief of staff, years later, “waiting for me to die”?

Over the years, as an activist for the disabled, particularly veterans, I have been told, in no uncertain words of the callousness from both the federal and state level. For instance, I know the state furnishes funds to the NC State Commission for the Blind to assist blind citizens. I have been a totally blind citizen most of my life. I have lived in the house where I am sitting now, most of my adult life. Only once, in all those years, has the Commission for the Blind ever been to my house. I heard on the radio, that a radio could be obtained from NPR which would read the newspaper to blind people. I called the station and told them I would like such. Showing up at my front door, the first time ever, was Becky Koziah of the NC State Commission for the Blind with a radio which lasted a few weeks. It has been non working for years. I have talked with elected legislative representatives, as well as the State Attorney General, about such treatment. These people are just paid to sleep. Unless you pay a lobbyist to interdict them or smooze them in some manner, nothing will happen. The very thought of young children, the poor and disenfranchised of the world being treated so harshly, just because of a disability, is almost more than I can comprehend. God must have a special place in hell for these hypocrites. “[Ye] serpents, [ye] generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33)

It is too late for me. Twenty seven times in the psalms, our blessed lord states, “the mercies of the lord endures forever”. On the radio, in print, I appeal to those who have the authority, to those who make big salaries from the largest of government and private sources...memberships, grants etc. to become alert to the most forgotten word in the English language...concern. Become concerned about the disabled, who live with terrorism every day of their life. Become concerned about those of us who worked long and hard in school and went to serve this country, only to have the country dis-serve us.

I did not learn to read braille. I did not get a reading machine and, was DENIED services from the library for the blind in Raleigh; although I appealed both locally, Raleigh and ADA, for such service. Blind people cannot use cell phones, I talked at length with lawyers at FCC and FTC about this problem. They assured me that it would be brought to the attention of the manufacturers of cell phones. As you well know, everyone, including children, have a cell phone attached to their body. Everyone, except blind people. Finally, I do have one that I can speak into and get a few emergency numbers. If you are not able because of your own work and investing...not because of any money given to you by government, to hire someone to drive you, read for you, etc., God help you. This applies to the veteran as well as the citizen born blind...many of whom I have known. At least, when born blind, staying at the school for the blind, you are more acclimated with rehabilitation and other resources than the veteran, the elderly—losing vision because of disease—are ever exposed.

You will not hear much about Louis Braille during his bi-centennial. You will not hear much about the Blind Veterans Association. Don't disturb any veterans group from their lethargy, their cocktail parties where they are concerned about future promotions. These folks are asleep at the wheel.

In the early 60s, standing with the state president of a large civic club, I was in full military uniform, when he handed to a state senator, money to get legislation passed. Is this what our democratic republic has come to? Are you too, asleep at the wheel?