Hi Miriam,
Yes. I do understand. But I'm also driven to do what I can do to
prevent our clients from killing themselves, or others.
Because of our Capitalist System, we are constantly struggling to make
gains in conditions for older folks. We gain a little ground, and
some corporation swallows it up and triples the cost, or shuts it down
as unwanted competiition.
We arrived where we are today, as much through Greed as through
Compassion. One day we enter a new senior facility full of all sorts
of amenities. A couple of yuears pass buy and some national
corporation buys the facility and begins cutting services iuntil the
building is falling into disrepair and the staff only work part time.
We fight for door to door transportation. We finally begin to see a
system that meets the basic needs of Seniors and Disabled folks. Then
the next budget cuts funding, and it becomes harder and harder to
arrange for basic transportation. But we got ourselves into this
mess, and we'll need to be the ones to get us out. The Ruling Class
finds ways of diverting our tax dollars, insisting that we can take
care of our own special needs. Let churches and volunteer services
pick up the services being cut from our budgets.
It's taken many years to come to such a social mess. It's going to
take a long time to get out of it...if we have enough time.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/19/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
The thing is that we have a society which has been organized to depend on
individually owned vehicles. Becoming old, finding that one's health isn't
as good as it was, losing some eyesight, some hearing, becoming forgetful,
all of that is terribly hard for people in a world which worships youth and
beauty. And then their independence is taken away. Being unable to drive in
our world means for most people that that you are like a dependent child. I
understand why they will hold onto driving for as long as they can.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2019 8:20 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Attempted murder
Roger and Miriam,
I'm assuming that your adventure happened at the time you still had decent
vision.
But it brings to mind many, many stories Cathy and I have heard from older
clients who just can't face the fact that their sight has dimmed to the
point that they should quit driving. Because of never having had decent
vision, I grew up knowing that driving after dark, or at dusk, or on grey
rainy days, would endanger both myself and anyone within striking range. So
I seldom drove, and as a result I did not miss the freedom which so many of
our clients missed. Even so, because I learned to drive with only one eye,
it took a great deal of energy to "see" all that was going on around me.
Also it took considerable luck.
"Oh, I can see distances just fine," they tell us. "It's just up real close
that things get fuzzy." We patiently explain the impact on the Retina, and
how our brain can trick us into believing we're seeing more than we really
do see, but they are wanting to believe that they are the exception. "Even
if you do see distances well enough", I insist, "what you miss is the
ability to see quickly enough to avoid disaster in an emergency". And in
today's heavy traffic that is a daily event.
One dark winter evening a year ago, Cathy and I were coming home after a
rather long day. We came off highway 101, onto Snow Creek Road, our county
gravel road, and made the long sweeping right hand curve up a steep hill.
Suddenly Cathy hit the brakes. I felt the thump. "Oh God!" Cathy groaned,
"I hit a deer. It just jumped from the hill right into our path". After
driving that road since 1987, this was the first encounter we'd had with a
deer...or anything other than a suicidal bird. As many miles as she's
driven, and as sharp as her night vision is, there was no way of avoiding
that deer. Our headlights confused it and it bolted for the far side of the
road, and the safety of the forest. It rolled and then jumped up and dashed
into the brush. Hopefully it was just bruised, not damaged fatally.
But our new Toyota Tacoma had over $1,000 damage to the grill. That repair,
which, thankfully, was covered, reminded me of how cheaply today's vehicles
are put together. Inside our truck we feel safe.
But when one bump can cause so much damage, what would we look like if we'd
struck an oncoming vehicle at 25 miles an hour, each?
Carl Jarvis
On 4/19/19, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I didn't hit him. He jumped out of the way just in time. That image of
him that I have burnt into my brain was the sight of him in mid leap.
---
Christopher Hitchens
“ What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without
evidence. ”
― Christopher Hitchens,
On 4/19/2019 9:18 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Other people might not have laughed in that situation. I've never
driven a car, but if it were me, I'd have been horrified that I'd
inadvertently hit someone whom I hadn't seen, relieved that he wasn't
hurt, and terrified about being arrested. I suspect that if you were
African American, he probably would have arrested you for attempted
murder, and you might not be here to tell the tale.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2019 10:10 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Attempted murder
Since I was using attempted murder as an example of how one could be
charged with a crime when the intended crime was not committed I
reminded myself of the time a cop threatened to arrest me for
attempted murder. I tell you this only because I thought you might
find it amusing. In retrospect I do. I was driving along once at
night. I came up to an elementary school on my left and sitting in
the parking lot was a police car with its blue lights flashing, its
headlights on and a door standing open. There was no cop in it nor
outside of it that I could see. That made me curious and so I was
looking at it wondering what was going on. As I passed it I returned
my eyes to the road just in time to see the cop. The image I saw was
burned into my brain and I still recall it in detail.
Right there in my headlights was an airborne cop. He was actually in
the air above the road with arms and legs spread out, with a
flashlight also in the air and detached from his right hand by
several inches, and a look on his face that could only be utter
panic. I hit my brakes just in time to avoid hitting the stopped car
that was partially in the road and partially in a deep ditch. I could
see that the car was stuck and that the cop had been directing
traffic around it, but because I was distracted by his cop car with
all of its lights flashing I did not see him until too late. It was
his leap that I caught part of in my headlights that saved him, not
my application of the brakes. The application of the brakes only
saved me from hitting the car. Once I had stopped here came the cop
from the foliage that he had leaped into. From his mouth came a
flurry of invectives each of which was preceded by the words god damn. It
was god damn idiot, god damn moron, god damn fool and god damn everything
else.
Between the god damns he threatened to arrest me for reckless
driving, attempted murder and numerous attempted other crimes. Even
while all this name calling and threats were going on I was hard pressed
to not laugh.
What struck me as so funny were all the leaves and twigs adorning his
uniform and his hair too. He must have landed in a real thicket.
Amazingly enough, though, he finally said that he had other things to
deal with other than me and he told me to get out of there before he
really did arrest me. I left without even a ticket.