Try seeing your practice through my blind eyes
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Forest Hills: I’m a legally blind patient who routinely experiences exasperation at doctor appointments, surprisingly even at eye doctor appointments! A lesson for all practicing ophthalmologists and optometrists to learn: You and everyone else in your practice should take “Dealing With a Visually Impaired Person 101.” No more “it’s over there,” “take this,” “here,” etc. No more vague directions/comments. Instead, use: “In front of you,” “behind you,” “to your left,” “to your right,” “I am handing you,” etc. — precise directions and comments. Always tell your patient exactly what you are doing before doing it during every part of the visit, and always ask, “Do you need any help?”
Putting on a blindfold for a few minutes would help you and your staff to understand what your patient deals with 24/7. All these accommodations cost nothing, take very little time and go a long way to making the patient feel comfortable and calm.
The patient has obligations, too. Tell your eye care professional and staff how they can help you: “May I take your arm?” “You need to speak slower/louder,” “can you turn on a light until I am seated?” “I have X diagnosis, have you treated patients with my condition before?” As a patient, come prepared with names and dosage of medications you take, other health conditions, etc. These may impact your current situation.
Added bonus: building your practice by positive word of mouth, and stellar internet reviews! Sherry Rogers
Ad break
Hewitt, N.J.: Have to love the NFL’s playing with words: “administrative timeout” instead of calling it what it is: five minutes of annoying commercials.
Dennis Puccio
Not logical
Forest Hills: Re the Hall of Fame, with the inundation of sports betting, how is Joe Jackson, who was never proven to be part of the White Sox scandal, not reinstated? How is Jeff Kent, one of the best second baseman in history, not in the Hall? OK, one more: How is Bud Selig, the enabler of the performance-enhancing drugs era, in the Hall as well? This is why the baseball HOF has sadly become a meaningless joke.
Stew Frimer
Suspicious circumstances
Dallas: Two dads are demanding answers to the mysterious deaths of their sons, the three Kansas City Chiefs football fans were found in the backyard of a friend’s home after a football watch party held at Jordan Willis’ house. His lawyer says he fell asleep on the couch after his friends left and did not realize they were all dead in his back yard until two days later. Police say they do not suspect foul play and are not treating what happened as a homicide. Duh! It is a scientific fact that alcoholic intoxication actually preserves human life when humans accidentally fall asleep in the snow. Will the police have to now suspect homicide when the toxicology reports are made available? Leo M. Crowley
Plates discrepancy
Brooklyn: Re “Salaam’s odd runin with NYPD in Harlem” (Jan. 28): The only question I have is, if the vehicle that Councilman Yusef Salaam was driving was owned by him, why is it registered in the state of Georgia? Insurance rates are much lower there than New York City! I’m tired of subsidizing vehicles in NYC with out-of-state plates. Getting individuals to pay the proper premium will help the city and state collect lost revenue. Registration, usage and sales tax are just a few. John Franzitta
True threat
Manhattan: Dear Leonard Greene: Please repeat Sunday’s column (“An American mystery,” Jan. 28) every day until November, because you are as prolific and erudite as can be, belittling those who can’t “see the forest for the trees” — or more realistically, those “millions who want to back the guy who promises to be a dictator for a day”! You know, as all of America does, that he won’t stop there! He can’t let go of the idea that he is a god and wants retribution against all who defamed him! Let’s not forget his first day in office when he lowered taxes for the wealthiest in America! Hopefully, if he gets the job again, he will be the first to take bleach as a cough and COVID medicine! Good luck to us all. Tony Warren
Driven by fear
Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J.: To Leonard Greene: With all due respect, many don’t understand America anymore. On a daily basis, hundreds are robbed, beaten and defiled all across our once-great country. Yet, the legal system has become a revolving door. One minute you are in custody; the next, back on the streets to again break the law. The powers that be are afraid to act and reestablish law and order. Those who were attacked live in fear. The voters have a choice, poor as it appears now. The victims have no recourse. Robert Stiloski
Indecent Don
Manhattan: In 1954, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who claimed that communism had infiltrated the U.S. Army (and many other institutions, including Hollywood), bullied and harassed defendants during the Army-McCarthy hearings to the point where he became a national figure. He personified hatred and mean-spiritedness. This went on for many months until Joseph Welch, the chief counsel for the Army, spoke his famous quote: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” I was a child, but I remember watching it on television. And those very words apply to the infamous Donald Trump, who has not only no sense of decency but no sense of anything or anyone but his sorry self. Welch’s words ended McCarthy’s powerful grip on America. If only it would be so for Trump. Marcia Epstein
Sense of reality
Bronx: Regarding the tone-deaf letter from Voicer JoAnn Lee Frank, it’s ironic that she feels Nikki Haley can’t accept defeat “even when it’s staring her in the face.” I seem to remember Donald Trump after the 2020 election not being able to accept defeat, and still not able to four years later. I should add that Haley got 43% of the votes in New Hampshire, which tells me that 43% of Republican primary voters want an alternative to Trump.
Mary Ann Guarneri
Minority takeover
Brooklyn: The claim that the U.S.A. is not a democracy but a republic is being increasingly advanced by conservatives who are hellbent on undermining our federal democracy. They understand that a majority of the American people support women’s reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights, separation of church and state, and free public education, all of which conservatives oppose. Most Americans are also against taxpayer funding for religious schools, which conservatives embrace. The best way to thwart majority rule on these issues is to limit the right of the people to engage in the democratic process to defend their views. This is exactly what Republican governors and Republican-controlled state legislatures are now doing across the country in a variety of ways, especially on the matter of abortion rights.
Dennis Middlebrooks
Based on suffering
Carpinteria, Calif.: Do you know why the Zionist press keeps it secret that most Zionists are Protestant? In the preface to his book “The Jewish State,” Theodore Herzl stated most bluntly the following: “Everything depends on our propelling force. And what is our propelling force? The misery of Jews.”
Matt McLaughlin
Continued presence
Margate, Fla: Voicer John A. MacKinnon is apparently unaware that the Jewish people have resided in and around what today is Israel since at least 1400 BCE, more than 1,000 years before anyone had ever heard of Christianity or Islam.
Richard Sherman
Fiscal irresponsibility
Great Neck, L.I.: Year after year, Congress is unable to pass a full fiscal year federal budget. There is a series of stopgap partial funding continuing resolutions to keep Washington open. This wasn’t always so. There was a time when Congress held budget hearings for each department during the summer. A real balanced budget was adopted during an open process. The public, watchdog groups and media were afforded sufficient time to understand the full contents prior to adoption. Full federal budgets were adopted on time prior to the start of any new federal fiscal year on Oct. 1. We need new incentives for the president and Congress to do their jobs on time. For next year’s federal budget, dock them a day’s pay for each day a complete balanced budget is not adopted on time by Sept. 30.