Blindness

When Cheryl showed us the trailer for the movie Blindness, I was rather intrigued. At first, I thought the movie looked really good. The first minute or so of the trailer looked very interesting. It did seem controversial, but I still really thought it looked good. It made me think about what it would be like if I went blind overnight. As the trailer continued, though, my opinion changed. People in the movie who become blind are shown as being quarantined and animalistic. I was pretty appalled that this could be acceptable for a big screen movie. I did a little reading up on the issue and found that, as Cheryl had described, blind people of America do not approve of this movie, nor would I expect them to. I think it is disturbing that a big screen movie like this with so many popular actors is out that makes a particular population of people - in this case, blind people - feel like they have to defend themselves as human beings. "Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: ...We are not helpless children or immoral, degenerate monsters; we are teachers, lawyers, mechanics, plumbers, computer programmers, and social workers." (http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=368)

Perhaps people involved in mainstream media should act more as leaders, models and people to look up to, rather than instigate controversy that harms many citizens of our country.