[Missouri-l] [leadership] More on Patterson: Now he's playing the Blindness card, I guess...

[peter altschul]

Paterson: First The Race-Card
Now ‘Degrading Attacks’ Due To 
Blindness
October 25, 2009
pat4.jpg
Two months after playing the race card, Gov.
Paterson said on Saturday he has been
subjected to “degrading” attacks because he is blind.
Paterson complained about several editorials and
columns that he said negatively
referenced his disability as well his buffoonish
portrayal on “Saturday Night Live”
in which he is “bumping into walls.”
“Anything I did got associated with the fact that
I do have visual impairment,” he
said during a speech before the state chapter of
the National Federation of the Blind.
“That’s an insult.”
Perhaps still stinging from the furor he created
this summer when he claimed to be
the victim of a racist media trying to keep him
from running next year, Paterson
said he does not believe the criticisms of his
performance as governor is because
he’s blind.
“It’s not the reason that my decisions are
questioned.  That would happen to any governor,”
he said.
But he said his disability is “the reason that
you hear these hostile, nasty remarks.”
He said one editorial proclaimed after a top aide
left that he has no one left to
read to him.  He said another piece said someone
should take him to “touch” the buildings
at Ground Zero to prove the rebuilding had begun.
“Where is that anger coming from?” Paterson
asked.  “Where is that blatant hostility
coming from? And I’m not blaming the media here
because the media often just reflects
the attitude of society.”
The pieces were not exactly as he portrayed.
Paterson said he can take the shots,
noting that unlike 70% of blind people
nationally, “I have a job and I will be keeping
my job for four more years.”
But the attacks on him could influence how
others, particularly potential employers,
view everyday blind people.
“The society where that attitude, where that
anger, where that vitriolic conduct
is excusable when it’s raised on a governor,
think of what happens to an individual
that just got out of college and doesn’t have an
opportunity and is now sitting home
when they should be working.”
As for “Saturday Night Live” and their portrayal
of him “bumping into things,” Paterson
warned, “I’m going to bump into ‘Saturday Night
Live’ one day and they’re going to
get what’s coming to them.”
(Source:
NY Daily News


From:
http://theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/41060/Paterson:+Firs
t+The+Race-Card...Now+'Degrading+Attacks'+Due+To+Blindness.html

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