Deaf Blindness Awareness Week

By Nurse Diane

The Silence is deafening.... This is a saying that I have used, usually when it is so quiet.  Last year we had a tornado rip through my neighborhood in the middle of the night.  The storm knocked out the power and there were no lights, no sounds of air-conditioning units humming, no traffic, not even a chirp of a cricket.   There were no streetlights, no moon or stars shining in the sky.  All that was left was a feeling of aloneness and fear.   This sensation was brief.  Soon people began starting generators, driving vehicles and dots of light began to appear, and life returned to normal.

Those who suffer from hearing loss and loss of sight do not have the luxury of experiencing a brief occurrence then returning back to sound and sight.  These amazing people have learned to adapt, to change and use other senses to survive and excel in the world.  Probably one of the most famous of the deaf/blind community is Helen Keller.

Helen was not born deaf or blind, she contracted an illness when she was 19 months old, probably meningitis, which took her hearing and sight.  This also affected her ability to speak as well.  Fortunately, her family was able to provide a personal teacher, Anne Sullivan, who was able to live with Helen and work with her, teaching her what is now widely known as sign language.  Helen's life is depicted in the movie The Miracle Worker.  In this movie, the pivotal moment is where Helen realizes that the movement her teacher has been pounding into her hand is actually the word for water. The realization that she has learned something can be seen all over her face as she races around trying to learn as much as she can as fast as possible.

Helen went on to become a world famous speaker and author.  She helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), worked for women's rights, the suffragette movement, worker's rights, and was an advocate for people with disabilities.  She met with several presidents, and other famous people such as Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell and Charlie Chaplin.  Helen Keller showed the world that being blind and deaf did not prevent her from being a valuable contributor to society.  Today, people who are blind or deaf do not label themselves as handicapped, but impaired.  Loss of one sense does not alter a person's usefulness in today's society.  In fact their contributions have proved to enhance it.   Ludwig van Beethoven, one of he most famous composers of all time, continued to write and perform long after he lost his hearing at a young age.  Claude Monet, one of the world's most famous artists, continued painting after his eyesight began to fail.

The purpose of this week is to make everyone aware that the loss of one's sight or hearing does not define a person as handicapped or helpless, and just as these people have learned to adapt and use the abilities they have, so must the rest of us learn to adapt and learn how to communicate and assist those affected so that everyone will be able to function at the best of their ability.

Things you can do to help:

Take a sign language class

Read to the blind

Work with training assist dogs

Donate time and money

Shop for a friend or neighbor

For more information see:

http://www.nad.org/

http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Members.asp?SnID=1893595376

(Photos from Google) 

Celebrating Susan B. Anthony Day

(Google Image)

By Diane Forrest

Have you ever put a large bill in a stamp machine at your post office expecting it to kick out some one dollar bills in change only to hear the clanking of coins in the change dropper?  There is no need to fear, you are still getting your proper change, but instead of bills, you are getting a dollar coin.  These coins can be confusing, since they are silver in color and about the size of a quarter.  There is a difference though, instead of an image of George Washington, there is a picture of a woman.  This woman is Susan B. Anthony, the first of only two women who have had their likeness engraved on United States currency, the second being Sacagawea.  Who was Susan B. Anthony, and why was she important enough to have this honor bestowed on her?

(Google Image)

In 1820 a Quaker family in Adams, Massachusetts gave birth to Susan.  She would later be known for her role in fighting for women's right to vote.  Susan began her career as a teacher.  At age 26, Susan B. Anthony took the position of head of the girls' department at Canajoharie Academy, her first paid position. She taught there for two years, earning $110 a year.  Anthony called for equal educational opportunities for all regardless of race, and for all schools, colleges, and universities to open their doors to women and ex-slaves. She also campaigned for the right of children of ex-slaves to attend public schools.  She made the claims that there was no difference in the minds of girls and boys, and they should not be educated separately. In the 1890s Anthony raised $50,000 in pledges to ensure the admittance of women to the University of Rochester. In a last-minute effort to meet the deadline she put up the cash value of her life insurance policy. The University was forced to make good its promise and women were admitted for the first time in 1900.

(Google Image)

During the same time she started her teaching career, she became an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, arranging meetings, making speeches, putting up posters, and distributing leaflets. She encountered hostile mobs, armed threats, and things thrown at her. She was hung in effigy, and in Syracuse her image was dragged through the streets.  She went on to support and promote the 13th amendment abolishing slavery.

(Google Image)

In 1868, as a delegate to the National Labor Congress, Anthony persuaded the committee on female labor to call for votes for women and equal pay for equal work, although the men at the conference deleted the reference to the vote.  She then began to fight for women's right vigorously.  In 1869 the suffrage movement split, with Anthony and Stanton's National Association continuing to campaign for a constitutional amendment, and the American Woman Suffrage Association adopting a strategy of getting the vote for women on a state-by-state basis. Wyoming became the first territory to give women the vote in 1869.  She worked tirelessly going from state to state fighting for the women's right to vote.  She was arrested numerous times; however she was always freed to prevent her from being able to file appeals to have her issues reported on a grander scale.

(Google Image)

In 1853 Anthony began to campaign for women's property rights in New York state, speaking at meetings, collecting signatures for petitions, and lobbying the state legislature. In 1860, largely as the result of her efforts, the New York State Married Women's Property Bill became law, allowing married women to own property, keep their own wages, and have custody of their children.

(Google Image)

Susan B. Anthony died in 1906 at her home on Madison Street in Rochester. All American adult women finally got the vote with the Nineteenth Amendment, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, in 1920.

(Google Image)

Susan B. Anthony never married, never had any children, and spent her life fighting for the rights of women everywhere, claiming that they deserved the right to vote, and the right to earn equal pay for equal work, and the right to own property in their name, and have custody of their children.  She was the country's first "Woman's Libber", and she deserves not only to have a coin designed in her honor, but also this day, and the undying appreciation and respect of women everywhere