Blind

Hank Dekker, bidding to become the first blind person to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, hopes to start for the journey for the second time Monday or Tuesday.Dekker had to turn back less than 200 miles into the trip 12 days ago because of electronics failures and a three-inch crack in the hull of his 30-foot sailboat.Dekker had planned to leave this week, but repairs are being made to his boat in Atlantic City, N.J., and are taking longer than expected."The boat was struck by lightning," said Pat Maurer, public information coordinator of the National Federation of the Blind, the Baltimore-based organization that is sponsoring Dekker's trip.

At the edge of the Inner Harbor yesterday, Jim Dickson was talking about the time he sailed solo from Rhode Island for Europe -- only to settle for Bermuda when his autopilot went dead.He was sure he could have crossed anyway, but not so precisely as he would have liked. "I knew I'd find Europe. I just didn't know if it would be Scandinavia or Spain."Jim Dickson is blind, and as soon as he puts together enough money he plans to try that solo Atlantic crossing again. Yesterday, with seven other blind sailors, he was racing a more modest course -- off Fort McHenry, in the Baltimore Regatta for the Vision Impaired.

KENNETH Jernigan, who died this week at 71, was a visionary. Blind at birth, he helped sighted people to see it is wrong and irrational to discriminate against the blind."

Hoping to boost job opportunities for the visually disabled, Blind Industries and Services of Maryland is planning its first meeting offering companies information on advantages of hiring the blind."

CLIFTON, N.J. -- He surely felt his own tears, but the Rev. Michael Joly may have been the only one of the 500 people at St. Philip the Apostle Church yesterday who was unaware of the tears on the faces of his family and his parishioners.Father Joly, 28, who was ordained Saturday, has been blind since he was 5 years old. His fellow priests at St. Philip the Apostle say he is the only blind man they know of to become a Roman Catholic priest.Presiding at his first Mass on Sunday was an emotional triumph for Father Joly, a man who could not see, yet took on an education and a calling that are highly dependent on reading.

Dennis Winters of Eisenhower Golf Course posted a 27-hole total of 105 yesterday and won the annual Assistants championship for the Northern Chapter of the Middle Atlantic PGA at the Suburban Club.Frank Blind of Diamond Ridge GC and Wayne DeFrancesco of Woodholme CC tied for second at 107 in the field of 68. Last year, DeFrancesco, the MAPGA's Player of the Year, defeated Winters in a playoff for the Maryland Open championship at Congressional CC.There was a tie for fourth at 108 among Marty Novak, Maryland Golf & CC; Joe Rahnis, Rocky Point GC; and Bill Rice, Cumberland CC.Dennis Winters 105; Frank Blind 107; Wayne DeFrancesco 107; Marty Novak 108; Joe Rahnis 108; Bill Rice 108; Jamie Childs 109; Glenn McCloskey 110; Mark Evenson 111; Ted Kaufman 112; Steve Hord 112; Phil Henry 112; Bill Gombert 113; Steve WenPetren 113; Brian Dorn 113; Dean Wilson 113; Gary Hurt 113; Sean Fishbeck 114; Greg Stark 114; Joe Franz 115; Paul Erdman 115; Chris Hlavay 115; John Reese 115; Dean Stout 116; Ed Miller 116; Steve Cramer 116; Kyle Warfield 116; Tim Butler 116; David Long 116.

A survey has found that a remarkably high proportion of Baltimore nursing home residents are blind, prompting researchers to suggest that eye conditions are often neglected or passed off as inevitable problems of aging.In a study of 499 residents, investigators at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health found that 17 percent were blind -- a rate that is many times higher than that found among elderly people in the surrounding community.Even more striking was the estimate that 40 percent of the blind residents suffered from ophthalmological problems that were either treatable or preventable.

The recession has taken no prisoners: Hutzlers, Zales, Ames, Macy's and other retailers have either gone under or reorganized under federal bankruptcy laws. But one Maryland retailing chain is bucking the trend -- and plans to expand.The chain is the federally funded Randolph-Sheppard Vending Program for the Blind. Over the next few years, the program plans to add seven outlets to the 82 cafeterias, food stands and newspaper/magazine stands operated by the blind in government buildings in Maryland.

"Color-Blind: Seeing Beyond Race In A Race-Obsessed World" by Ellis Cose. Harper Collins. $24.By naming his book "Color-Blind," Ellis Cose had me worried for a minute that he may have joined the ranks of those engaged in America's latest scam: conservatives who insist that America is now and indeed always has been a color-blind society.But Cose put my mind at ease in his introduction. After quoting House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich praising the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1996 Republican National Convention and Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster invoking King's name in ending affirmative action in state agencies, Cose quipped:"Martin Luther King Jr. would probably be more astonished than anyone to hear that conservatives now claim him as one of their own."

Starting tomorrow, in movie theaters across the nation, kids get to laugh and howl at blind-guy humor. It's the slapstick of Leslie Nielsen as the legendary "Mr. Magoo" in the Disney feature film treatment of an animated character who was deep-sixed two decades ago.I know, I know: Mr. Magoo wasn't really blind. He was nearsighted, too vain to wear his eyeglasses. But, draw the lines anyway you like, folks, the Goo Man was funny because he could hardly see; he stumbled his way through life and misunderstood his surroundings.