October is White Cane Awareness Month in Massachusetts.
At Tuesday night’s town council meeting, resident John Morgan spoke about the importance of white cane awareness in the town and beyond, and related some of his experiences.
Morgan has been a Winthrop resident for about 50 years, and is one of 130,000 people in the state with some type of vision impairment.
“I’d like to start off with something different, my trip down here this evening was very interesting and I’m happy that I could make it,” said Morgan. “As a blind person, I was taught to use my cane in a way that was the safest of possibilities. I did not follow that rule this evening, I got distracted and ended up in the middle of the street.”
Fortunately, Morgan said there was someone nearby who was able to help him out.
“I just want to point that out before I talk about the white cane,” he said. “Everyone has an obligation to their safety.”
The white cane is an important tool for those with vision impairment, Morgan said.
“It is not a stick, although some people call it that,” said Morgan. “This identifies a person who is blind in almost every country in the world. If you see someone with a white cane, that indicates that that person is blind.”
Morgan said there is a white cane law in the state that Winthrop’s Gerry DiFranza wrote and got passed at the State House. The law states that if you see a person with a white cane or a guide dog attempting to cross in a crosswalk you must stop.
“That doesn’t happen all the time, and the more people know about white cane law, hopefully the more people will obey it,” said Morgan. “Gerry did a lot of work on this, he spent years of his own time and he got it passed basically by himself, and I’m here to follow in Gerry’s footsteps.”
Oct. 15 is the 60th anniversary of White Cane Day, which was established by a proclamation from President Lyndon Johnson.
“We have come a long way, but we still have some distance to go to get the education to people to know what a white cane is,” said Morgan.
Council President Jim Letterie thanked Morgan for raising awareness and for his service to the town.