Revolution

by Maurice Peret

From the Editor: Maurice never sends me anything that is dull. As he notes in this article, my task is often to figure out whether what he has to say should appear in the pages of the Braille Monitor, a magazine dedicated primarily to issues of blindness, or whether it should appear in a magazine that openly discusses the pros and cons of economic systems and where capitalism is not so revered that one dare not say anything negative about it. You can imagine that with a title like “Revolution,” I thought that I might soon be writing to Maurice saying thank you but no thank you. I decided differently, and I hope you concur with my decision.

I’ve been thinking about the subject of this article for a long time. Without wishing to preempt my friend and Braille Monitor Editor, Gary Wunder, who usually provides a thoughtful introductory word or two, I recently underwent a career transition and radical relocation. My wife, Lou Ann Blake, and I moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to Honolulu, Hawaii, in February 2024 so that I could accept a position as Orientation & Mobility Therapist III with Ho’opono Services for the Blind, New Visions Program. Notwithstanding the problematic title, this was an incredible opportunity for me to return to my element, teaching independent cane travel to blind and low vision students attending a Structured Discovery adjustment to blindness program. For those familiar with the core classes in such a program, in addition to cane travel, they include Braille and technology, personal home management, industrial arts, and what we here on Oahu like to call the Business of Blindness (BOB) class which addresses the emotional, intellectual, attitudinal, and philosophical implications associated with blindness.

On the same day that we recognized Dean Georgiev, immediate past Ho’opono New Visions program supervisor, now retired, for his many years of dedicated service to Hawaii’s blind and low vision consumers, I conducted my inaugural BOB class on the topic of revolution. Yes, you read that correctly—revolution. I can just hear Gary groan as he once again has to determine whether or not and how my topic is relevant to Braille Monitor readers or related to blindness. Indulging his and your patience, I make my case.

With background theme music from Tracy Chapman singing “Talkin’ ‘Bout Revolution,” students and staff began by defining what we mean by revolution, explored its historic and social heritage, and yes, we brought the subject home to what it means in our program and in our individual lives.

Merriam-Webster provides several definitions for revolution, but these are the two that I selected:

• An activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation.
• A fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm.

It was noted that while the term revolution has arguably been overused and perhaps even trivialized, history shows us that we are generationally all inheritors of a revolutionary past and legacy. An understanding of history helps define who we are and where we come from. I observe that Hawaii is rich in a wide diversity of nationalities, languages, cultures, and culinary traditions. People seem to enjoy talking about their familial and community backgrounds. In our Business of Blindness class, we talked about the revolutionary heritage that led to the incorporation of Hawaii as the fiftieth state.

The Hawaiian democratic revolution of 1954 was preceded by multiple labor strike actions by sugar plantation workers. The overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, with no small hand played by US federal agencies, established the Republican Party as the purveyor of an oligarchic imposed semi feudal agricultural working conditions for impoverished workers on the island. Alliances between the minority Democratic Party with quiet support of the Communist Party of Hawaii vied for support of labor, resulting in the Democratic Party winning a majority in the legislature, and ultimately leading to statehood in 1959. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Revolution_of_1954/

In the event that you are curious, the Hawaiian translation of revolution includes hoʻokahuli aupuni or kipi.

[The editorial staff of the Monitor was indeed curious, and here is what we found:

The Hawaiian phrase "hoʻokahuli aupuni" or "kipi" refers to an overthrow of the government or a rebellion. In the context of Hawaiian history, such terms are often associated with significant political and social upheavals. "Hoʻokahuli" means to overturn or upset, and "aupuni" refers to government or kingdom. "Kipi," on the other hand, directly translates to rebellion or revolt. These terms are deeply rooted in the historical context of Hawaii, particularly relating to events such as the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, which led to significant changes in the island's political, social, and economic landscape.

Now back to Maurice.]

We also took note of our American revolutionary heritage, from the one in 1776 that liberated colonial peoples from the rule of King George of the United Kingdom, the attempted British pushback in 1812, the second revolution which eliminated the system of chattel slavery, and the revolutionary movement that ended Apartheid-style legal, racial, Jim Crow segregation in the United States.

Other revolutions were mentioned such as the industrial and digital revolutions that completely transformed how we live, think, and learn.

The very presence of students and staff in this discussion, along with the celebration of Georgiev’s and others’ professional legacy, was the direct result of a kind of revolution in the blindness field. The history of the organized blind people’s movement represented a paradigm shift in how adjustment to blindness training is provided in the United States and how blindness and disability, itself, is perceived in society. Ho’opono Services for the Blind was transformed from a more traditional medical model and vision-centered approach into a consumer-based, Structured Discovery certified model of rehabilitation.

Finally, we discussed the revolutionary epiphany that often occurs in our individual lives, especially during training, when the universe of possibilities opens before us as we perform tasks and projects we could otherwise not have imagined. We shared stories about how adopting this revolutionary perspective on blindness confronts societal attitudes that are on the whole inaccurate, insufficient, and even sometimes harmful to the equality, opportunities, and security of blind and low-vision people.

Our personal home management instructor, Kyle Laconsay, for example, recounted how she had to win the confidence of her fellows to become the elected president of her local Lions Club. Kyle explained that, while she was well-known among the local Lions, participating in many of its activities, when it came to her serving in this leadership role, doubt seemed to cloud her prospects to pursue this important opportunity. Suffice it to say that she was successful in convincing the club to elect and even reelect her to the executive position. It is the nature of society to advance and evolve, and change is often turbulent and traumatic.

The blind people’s movement in the United States has established the gold standard for the provision of adjustment to blindness training, raising expectations, and smashing through arcane access barriers in all areas of engagement. With much more work to be done, the students who come through these training programs stand to transform not only their own lives but to become stakeholders, revolutionaries if you will, in uprooting what the greater society believes about us. Why shy away from the concept or characterization of a revolutionary? To borrow a time-honored lyric by the late, great jazz poet, Gil Scott-Heron: “While the revolution will not be televised, it may well be livestreamed.”