Re: Senator Hayden's office responds to concerns

Comments:
: : Thank you for your response. It is good to be able to excahange points of view, certainly did imply a criticsm of your prespective, but I was not hurt by your position. If anything, I am encouraged that you clarrified your position. It just so happens this is asubject taht IS important to me, and does have implications for the whole thing of driving with BiOptics and partialy vision. : : You it is a funny thing, that there are so many people who cite safety as a concern when people with visual diabilities drive: and yet, we grydingly respect the right of other people to drink and drive, to have unprotected sex, to chance brininging conceiving children in the course of gaining sexual pleasure. There is a double standard for people with low vision, no matte how responsible or thoughtful they may be. Just look at Hayden's position. : BIOPTIC BOB: Thanx for your reply. I was somewhat rash in responding to Sen. Hayden's staffer, : as I was when I initially replied thinking that BiOptic lenses might be banned in California. : After I wrote it, I realized that my initial response to Sen. Hayden's office could be misconstrued : as thinking that it is OK to automatically ban anyone beyond a certain arbitrary threshold from driving. : I haven't forgotten my high school experience of seeing all my friends get licenses except myself. : It was excrutiatingly painful. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I know there is some point : where vision is so low as to prevent safe driving, but I think it is different for each individual : and that is why I think that 20/200 should be only a benchmark, NOT a be all and end all. : In Alabama, 20/60 IS a be all and end all point that is enforced to the letter. : I just posted a follow-up to my "Calling All Alabamians" message stating that I am : willing to help ANYONE in the State of Alabama, regardless of visual acuity, who feels : confident that they can drive. : Alabama has some new legislators and a new governor. Before he took office, Gov. Don : Siegelman decided to keep a retarded citizens' shelter open, pending an investigation. : His predecessor, Gov. Fob James, was going to close the shelter. I don't know what Gov. : Siegelman's position on low vision driving is, or if he even has a position, but I think : that his action with the retarded citizens' shelter shows that he is more sensative to : those with disabilities than his predecessor. : Sen. Hayden's bill has generated a lot of responses. Can anyone post a copy of it on : this Website? I would be curious to see it. If the bill would use 20/200 as a benchmark : only, I could accept it. If the bill states that 20/200 is a be all and end all, I go on : record as opposing it. BRANDON D. HUNT

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