7:00pm October 10, 2010

➸ Why I Use a White Cane to Tell People I Am Deaf

What I’m saying is that many people are more comfortable relating to me and accommodating me if they can be absolutely certain that I am who I say I am, a deaf-blind person. And they are not absolutely certain that I am that person until I bump into a wall or shape my hands into what is to them an incomprehensible language. In other words, I must make myself completely alien to these people in order for them to feel that they understand me.

Perhaps my experiences are not surprising considering the general attitude toward the “less fortunate” that permeates the country these days. The backlash against affirmative action, welfare and Social Security recipients seems to stem from the mistaken belief that the country is overrun with sneaky ne'er do wells who will take every opportunity to cheat the government (as if the government provides funds to protect these “less fortunate” out of compassion and trust and that somehow the cowering beast has risen above its master).

Government officials, the public, and the media incessantly gripe about all the people who are pretending to need assistance in order to finance their drug habits or send their children to posh private schools or retire to Florida. Or the people who are victimizing hapless entrepreneurs by forcing businesses into bankruptcy just because some crip wants to use the bathroom. Or all the people who are cheating the Division of Motor Vehicles by falsely using “handicapped parking” permits.

Maybe I’m naive. Maybe there are a million people like that out there. But I don’t think so. Even if there are thousands of people cheating the pity-patrol, there are thousands more who are cheating on their income taxes (probably the same people who are raising a fuss about welfare).