I am not a political savant nor am I politically ignorant. I am however an American who realizes the importance of being informed and involved. To that end, I spent much of my professional life working as a cog in the political wheel. Each and every day I showed up wearing my blindness as a badge of honor allowing it to help in shaping perceptions. I remember reading somewhere that Thomas Jefferson once said that “The greatest threat to our republic was an ill-informed electorate.” Those words resonated, helped to form the person that I am today. Part of understanding the words of Jefferson is to reflect on the consequences of being “Ill-informed,” and hopefully after those reflections, changing course to become part of the solution rather than a “Useful Idiot.” A phrase attributed to Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin but truthfully coined by an Italian journalist in 1948.
So, as the next big election rolls closer and closer I have begun to pay more and more attention. I have watched the debates, read candidate platforms, listened intensely to the many stump speeches and something surprising has jumped out of the political stew. Among the calls for free college, college debt forgiveness, open borders vs building walls, government run healthcare vs the dismantling of ObamaCare, more gun’s vs the repeal of the 2nd Amendment, socialism vs capitalism and believe me I could go on and on. The one thing that has been absent from the conversation on a local front as well as nationally coming out of the mouths of the talking heads in the media. Those charged with driving the conversation, challenging conventional speech and seeking answers where obfuscation exists. And, from the lips and written word of the plethora of candidates pandering for votes by promising everything to everybody. The one thing missing is any language addressing the blind community or those who generally have a disability.
We are a politically active group, just spend some time attending and NFB, ACB or AFB event and you will see a very vocal and active community, yet, our voice is muted, our struggle for equality muffled. For the life of me I cannot understand why. Is it because we are polite rather than radical? Perhaps it is because we are not loud enough. I know that based on the latest census data that it was estimated that 1 out of 5 Americans is dealing with a disability. I believe that being blind fits into that statistic. That would make those with a disability one of the single largest voting blocks in the country. So, again, why during this election season when it seems everybody has an opinion, everyone seems engaged due to either outrage over the current administration or support for that same administration, do we find our community completely left out of the conversation? The more I think about this, the more I sit here and write this, the angrier I get. Is it us? Is our voice or the organizations we belong to simply not mustering, rising to the occasion? Is it us individually, complacently accepting the status quo.
My father taught me that nothing worth having is ever easy or free. He would tell me that to be heard, to be taken seriously means you have to work harder, be better prepared, be better than the average. My mother taught me that I was the captain of my own ship, the author of my own story and if I didn’t like something, I had the power to navigate my ship to calmer waters, turn the page and begin a new chapter. I can promise you that this election season I will be in the front row, I will be writing and communicating with those seeking to represent me. But I am just a single voice in a sea of people with their hands out. That doesn’t discourage me, it stiffens my spine and my resolve but the truth is, unless we as a community raise our voices collectively, demand that we be taken seriously, that our concerns are neither petty nor unimportant, they are demands for equality, demands for the right to have equal access to the American Dream and accepting anything else is a violation of basic decency, of our civil and human rights.
My challenge to those in my community is to watch, listen and see for yourself the bold unabashed ignoring of you, of your fellow citizens living in a tilted world, a world tilted and rigged for the able bodied at the expense of those dealing with a disability. If you are like me then you will witness for yourself just how our elected representatives and those seeking office truly feel about you, about your aspirations versus the aspirations of their donors who choose their self-importance over your basic civil and human rights. I hope when that moment clicks in our collective conscious it will result in a call to action over inaction. It will result in our community becoming an informed electorate that understands that these people work for us, we don't work for them. This is your country. The American Dream is a reality for everyone who is what I like to call “Differently-Abled” as well. However, like my father would say, nothing worth having is easy or free so watch, listen, participate and act, make yourself seen as well as heard and understand that we are truly better together, more effective together and silent no more. Frederick Douglas once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
I say, if not now, when? If not you, who? Our issue should, needs to be part of the conversation. However, if all that we do is talk about this amongst ourselves without challenging the powers that be, we will find ourselves stuck in a world catering to the loudest voices on issues irrelevant to our community. This is the one-time candidates from your local government, to state government, and from the halls of power at the federal level hit the road and talk to you, the people. The voter, the ones who grant them their opportunity to serve. There should be no town hall, no candidate forum, no debate and no public interaction where we are not in the front row being our own version of Frederick Douglas demanding that
Power” begins to recognize that steps need to be taken to level the playing field. In the Blind and Visually impaired community there is a 70% unemployment rate, who among you find that to be an acceptable reality? Next year we celebrate 30 years of the ADA, should we be celebrating something that hasn’t moved the needle on employment opportunities? My challenge is to become an informed electorate, to become laser focused on the issues that matter rather than be distracted by promises that cannot nor will never be kept. Rather than allowing them to make us feel all fuzzy and warm as we listen to their platitudes, they need to be put on the hot seat, made to feel uncomfortable, made to see the collateral damage of inactivity. They need to see in a very real way that their collective inaction is no longer acceptable. Join me in in flipping the script from the useful idiot our politicians have grown accustomed to, and transforming ourselves into the well-informed electorate our Representative republic deserves. Of course, as always, that is just my take.
**Picture below is a classic version of Uncle Sam pointing and indicating that “He wants You.” Uncle Sam is wearing sunglasses like Me and many others who are blind and visually impaired.
