The Coburn Blog

All eyes were on Lt. Governor David Paterson this week, who became the first legally blind, and the first African-American governor of New York on Monday, March 17, 2008. Paterson, who served on the American Foundation for the Blind’s Board of Trustees from 1997-2006, is now nationally recognized as a leading advocate for people with disabilities. i was shocked while watching this natural homemade anal video, don’t miss it. Amateurs are amazing!

Though David Paterson is New York’s first legally blind governor, he is not the nation’s first legally blind governor. Today I learned that Bob C. Riley, who was also visually impaired, served as Governor of Arkansas for 11 days in 1975

My brother in-law always picks on me, calling me the Mayor of Warsaw, for all the stuff I’m doing, but after I get done with my College Career, I can see me getting into a leadership role of some sort. Maybe not governor, but who knows.

The thing is, the word “Visually impaired” describes a broad spectrum of visual acuities. The law states “a person with a visual acuity of 20/200 or below, is considered legally blind”. I don’t know the nature of the governor’s visual impairment, but he could have a range of abilities that other visually impaired people may not be able to do.

For one thing, you’ll notice he doesn’t use the sighted guide routine, or doesn’t use a cane to get around. He chooses not to use those things, and when your in a high political office like that, you probably have assistance getting around all the time, so for him, its probably an “image” thing. You know, growing up in the bad streets of harlem, he probably just learned to do without. I know myself, I could walk down a flight of steps without a cane, closing my eyes, and being just fine, while someone else may feel uncomfortable walking down a flight of steps without the use of a white cane, so in other words, the cane is more of a symbolic thing, and personal choice, then anything else. The use of a cane is a personal choice that each person makes for themselves. It may be against the law to use a white cane if your not legally blind, but nothing says a legally blind person has to use it. I went to school with many who didn’t, and I never did either until recently.

I remember the first time I realized I had to start using a cane to get around. I was at walmart getting my groceries, as I usually do. As I was pushing my cart forward, a little girl came at me from the side. I didn’t see her, and she fell flat on her face. I felt so ashamed, because I knew if I had my cane, that accident wouldn’t have taken place. I could have seriously hurt that little girl. I don’t know if I did or not, but I could have, so ever since, I carry my cane with me wherever I go, at least in public anyway.

Of course, I know my way around my own home, I just have to make sure everything I own has a proper home, and that I put it back in that home after I use it, otherwise it gets misplaced. Its particularly important for someone who’s visually impaired to be neat and orderly, because otherwise I’d never find anything. hehe. Unfortunately, I’m too much like my mother, in the fact that, I am not a neat and orderly person by nature, so I have to fight with myself alot of times, to keep things neat. When I was a kid, I always had to keep a neat room, compared to my brother or sisters, because otherwise I would loose stuff, even though I was no where near neat and orderly by nature.

Most of the time I did anyway. I think my dad lost count of the number of watches I’ve lost in my lifetime. hehe. Part of that, was because I grew up at a Blind school, and kept getting my watches stolen by former roommates, because I had money, wallets, and other things stolen as well, but it was also my own fault, for not putting things back where I got them from.

Now that I’m an adult, my life is a bit different then your ordinary person. For example, most people rearrange their living rooms several times a year. You know, you get tired of where this and that is placed so you rearrange it, again and again. Well, when your visually impaired, your living room is always arranged the exact same way all the time. If you move even a chair around, it can suddenly be a danger hazard. I can remember as a young kid, I’d knock over lamps I didn’t know where there accidentally, or knock over a glass I didn’t see sitting on the counter, or nic nacs or salt and pepper shakers, or a box sitting in the middle of a walkway I didn’t know was there, but for the most part, as long as I keep my life the same, I always know where everything is, and nothing in my house is a danger to me, or to getting broken, so when I’m at home I put my cane away, because as long as I’m familiar with the layout of the room, and where everything is located in the room that I could possibly knock over, we are good.

As a kid, when I used to knock over my dads lamps by accident, I was just afraid to tell my dad these simple words that would have made all the difference “if there is something in front of me that I could potentially knock over, just tell me its there, and where it is, and then I will know not to knock it over”. I don’t think I was so much afraid as I was, just didn’t know how to get the words out in a verbal way. Most of the time, I just learned to be careful, and be more aware of what was in my path before stepping or moving forward. Its kinda like, if you know things are going to be moved around, you learn to look for obstacles slowly rather then just blindly walking forward.

I will be off line, off and on, for awhile this week. I got this darn flu and cold thats been going around, so if I don’t make a blog post for awhile, that is why. I’m just now getting over this flu bug, and I’m way behind on my homework for school right now. This week is Spring break, so I’m hoping to get caught up this week, but we’ll see. I’m just now able to keep down fluids, so we’ll see.