One Can Make a Difference by Ingrid Newkirk Page A

lives hateful thoughts, cruel words, and violent actions. Cultivate hopeful thoughts, sweet speech, and kind actions. Let go of the need to exploit and hurt others to feel better about yourself. Whatever you want in this life you can have if you first provide it for someone else.Work for the freedom of others, and you yourself will become free. Don’t wait for a better world. Start now to create a world of harmony and peace. It is up to you. It always has been!

JOHN GARDNER
    A Vision of Physical Loveliness
    John Gardner was in his late forties when he became blind. He wasn’t prepared for it to happen. What he knew was that, somehow, he had to continue in his career as a physicist, although that wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, if it hadn’t been for his experience and effort, it might well have been impossible. John is an example of when “the blind leading the blind” can mean something extraordinarily positive.ViewPlus, the company he started, provides new tools for people with disabilities, including what some people are calling “the new Braille.”This advanced system allows the blind to access data in many different forms and has revolutionized the field. When John lost his sight, he discovered what else was missing and set out to fill the gap. His determination to succeed is a terrific example of the power of one.
    I ’d never had good vision. In fact, I was born with one functioning eye and I’d had glaucoma since childhood, but nevertheless I could see. I drove a car for thirty years! I like to joke that I didn’t just get in and aim it, I drove it. I had absolutely no idea that I would go completely blind. Then, in my mid-forties, my functioning eye began giving me a lot of trouble.There was a problem with swelling, and fluid built up behind the eyelid. I had to put drops in it to keep the pressure down, but in the end that wasn’t working. My doctor recommended a common operation to implant a pressure valve, and so I said, “Yes.” The risk of something going wrong was tiny, so tiny I never even thought about it. You don’t make decisions based on a one-in-a-million chance. After the surgery, the doctor made some calls, and most ophthalmologists he spoke to had never seen someone go in for such a minor operation and wake up blind before. But that’s what happened to me.
    I was already physically weak at the time, because pressure on your eye affects your whole body. I had lost twenty-five to thirty pounds and become as thin as a rail over the previous two to three months. It sounds odd to say, but I was so happy to be feeling better with the pressure gone that at first the fact that I was blind didn’t register. I just wanted to rest and get well. It took several months from the time when I woke up in the hospital to the time that I knew that I would definitely never see again. No one wanted to tell me I was going to be blind forever. When that realization hit, I became very depressed, knowing I wouldn’t see my future grandchildren’s faces, or the sunrise, the sunset, the cities in Europe and Asia that I loved. Then, I thought of some people I knew who’d suddenly become disabled and how they were sour, bitter, and withdrawn. I felt sorry for them, but I didn’t like them. I knew I didn’t want to get like that. So I decided I wouldn’t.
    At the time I went blind I was a tenured physics professor at Oregon State University, running a physics research group of ten to twelve students and postgraduates and visiting faculty. All of a sudden, I wasn’t there to provide guidance. It was September and our funding agency was threatening to cut off funds as they do at the same time every year, except this time I found myself fighting that recurring battle from my hospital bed. I remember thinking, “I could do without this!” Luckily, my colleagues stepped up to the plate and said,“We’ll take your