NEW YORK: People who cannot see are likely to be among the most careful observers of the man who will replace a disgraced Eliot Spitzer as governor of New York.
When David Paterson takes office on Monday, he will become the United States’s first legally blind governor to serve more than a few days. His rise to governor has served as a great source of inspiration to blind Americans, many of whom believe his newfound power will make the country more open-minded about disabilities.
Mr Paterson succeeds Eliot Spitzer, who resigned on Wednesday after being exposed as a client in a prostitution ring.
“We don’t see a lot of people with disabilities in positions that important,” said Suzanne Ressa, marketing and development director at the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults on Long Island.
“He could be a great role model to all those individuals who are transitioning into the work world, because he’s saying, ‘Yeah I’m making it happen.’ You know, ‘If I can hold this leadership position, so can other people.’”
Although estimates vary, there are approximately 10 million blind and visually impaired people in the United States, and about 1.3 million of them are legally blind, according to the American Foundation for the Blind.
David Paterson, who lost sight in his left eye and much of the sight in his right eye after an infection as an infant, joins a minuscule fraternity of blind politicians to attain high office. Thomas Pryor Gore was totally blind and served as a senator from Oklahoma from 1907 until 1921 and from 1931 until 1937.
Minnesota had a blind congressman and senator, Thomas David Schall, who served from 1915 until his death in 1935.
There has been one other legally blind governor in US history. Bob Cowley Riley, who lost his left eye in WWII and later lost vision in his right eye, served 11 days as governor of Arkansas in 1975. He had been lieutenant governor and finished the term of Dale Bumpers, who moved on to the Senate.
The 53-year-old Paterson is the state’s first disabled governor since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was stricken with polio several years before he was elected in 1928.
Though his sight is limited, Paterson, who spent 20 years in the state Senate before becoming lieutenant governor, walks the halls of the state Capitol unaided. He recognises people at conversational distance and can memorise whole speeches. He has played pickup basketball games, once ran the New York City marathon and can read for short periods of time, though aides usually read to him.—AP
NEW YORK: People who cannot see are likely to be among the most careful observers of the man who will replace a disgraced Eliot Spitzer as governor of New York.
