Normally, we don’t preview what’s coming up on A Cuppa at the Mosens, Mushroom FM’s global call-in show, quite this early in the week. But the conversation we’d like to have this week is so important, yet so difficult, we want to give you plenty of notice.
We’ve been moved and inspired by the Me Too social media hashtag, which has shed light on how widespread sexual abuse and harassment is in our society.
On this week’s show, we’d like to look at the question of bullying, harassment and abuse from a blindness perspective. If you get a bunch of blind people of a certain age in a room, the accounts of abuse at schools for the blind are heart-breaking. People talk of abuse perpetrated by those in authority, as well as by other students where supervision was poor, and little follow-up occurred.
In mainstream schools, there are stories of blind kids being bullied who dare not speak up, because they fear consequences from their peers.
As adults, some of us have felt at risk when we can hear that someone is on our property but we can’t see them. And if we are unfortunate enough to be the victim of a violent crime, sometimes police can be dismissive because we can’t give them any kind of description of the attacker.
Just as with the “Me Too” hashtag, if we band together and share our experiences in a safe and supportive environment, perhaps we can use difficulties in the past to build a better future. We encourage you to share your experiences with us. As well as discussing how we can ensure that these issues are taken seriously, we’d like to discuss how you move on from a traumatic event such as this, and put your life back together.
Since this is a call-in show, our preference is still to hear your voice and have a discussion. But we’re dealing with a difficult subject, so for this show only, we will accept your email contributions. You can email jonathan at MushroomFm.com before the show starts. If you would like your contribution to be anonymous, please make that clear in your email and you have our word that we will respect that.
Whether you call or email, we urge that you take care not to identify individuals by name or by any means that could defame someone else.
A Cuppa at the Mosens is heard live at 7 PM US Eastern time on Thursdays on Mushroom FM. You can call in on the phone, or using the Zoom Cloud Meetings app. You can find details about how to participate at http://MushroomFM.com/cuppa.