First Legally Blind Governor In U.S. History
first legally blind governor in U.S. history
David Paterson to become new New York governor By Reuters / March 12, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Lieutenant Governor David Paterson was set to become the state’s first black governor and the first legally blind governor
in U.S. history, after the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer Wednesday.

Paterson, 53, became New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor in November 2006. He has been legally blind since childhood, with only partial
sight in his right eye.

Spitzer resigned after media reports linked him to a prostitution ring. He said Paterson would take over Monday.

The following are some facts about Paterson:
Paterson was born in Brooklyn to Portia and Basil Paterson. His father was the first non-white secretary of state of New York and the first African-American
vice chair of the national Democratic Party.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University, graduating in 1977, and completed his law degree at Hofstra Law School in 1982.
Paterson became a public servant in 1985 when he began representing Harlem in the New York State Senate, according to the New York governor’s Web site.
In 2002, he became the body’s minority leader, the first non-white legislative leader in New York state history.
In 2004, he became the first legally blind person to address the Democratic National Convention.
In 2006, Paterson was elected New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor.
Paterson ran the New York City marathon in 1999.

Paterson, an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School for International and Public Affairs, lives in Harlem with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, and their
two children. Additional information from a New York Times article FROM January, 08

“As a disabled person, there’s certain times that I don’t want to appear to need that much help. When I was in college, when I was at Columbia, I had a
professor - I actually Googled him, he passed away in 1986 and his name was Basil Ruch, and he was a professor of history at Barnard College, and he showed
me a picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt being carried into the 1932 Democratic convention. And he said that Roosevelt by 1932 was still able to walk
a certain distance, but not quickly, and he wanted to walk in, he wanted the country to see him standing, and but what happened was, when he started to
walk, and he got toward the end, he was starting to be a little jittery, that a bunch of supporters, thinking they were helping him, grabbed him and picked
him up and carried him in. And you see in this picture - and I couldn’t really see it, but he described it to me - he has this stern, angry look, because
they messed up his moment. And I know what he was feeling. Because sometimes you want to project a certain amount of strength. And you can project it if
you’re a woman, you can project it if you’re disabled, you can project it, but often the people who love you don’t see the need for you to project it.

I remember when I was in the D.A.’s office, and I conducted a hearing and it had to do with a stalker who was bothering this woman. And I got to feeling
when the woman saw me holding the file up to my face and that kind of thing, and the stalker’s looking at her, and she’s kind of - I got that she didn’t
really know if I was able to handle this. And I went over to her and I said, “Listen, just in case we lose this hearing, don’t worry, because when he goes
outside, I’m going to kick his butt.”

I said that to her because I wanted her to know that I’m in charge of her case. And that’s what I’m saying about projection.”

Q: Did you always think, with your disability, that you could follow your father into politics, or was that something you came to over time?
A: When I was 10 years old I watched Robert Kennedy speak at the Democratic National Convention and I wished I was him. And I think, again, there was that
family connection - he was following in the footsteps of John, Hillary follows in the footsteps of Bill, so I always relate to that, you know, kind of
family member who has to deal with that shadow. When I was in college, though I had academic ability, I don’t know that I was all that socially developed,
or had a real difficult problem asking people for assistance, and had a lot of problems as a result of that. And I think as I had more problems, my ideas
about being in politics, or following my father dwindled. I didn’t see myself as - I think my self-esteem really suffered from that. …

Q: In terms of your vision, how much can you see?
A: I am legally blind in my right eye, and totally blind in my left eye. I’m looking at Armen [Meyer, a press aide who was in the room]. I know he has
a white shirt on, I know he has a tie on, but from this distance I can’t tell you what color it is. I think it’s a darker color. … When I am in places
where I am familiar, I will appear to see better than in places where I’m not. If I walked around my house, and you didn’t know, you’d probably think I
have no vision problems. When I say I saw something, it’s more like I sensed it. So when I said that we were on a plane with the Clintons, and we’re all
eating pizza, I knew that I was eating pizza and I knew they took pizza off the tray, so I assume they’re eating it. I think people’s perception of me
sometimes is that I see more than I actually do. But I play basketball, and I’ve done things that people with my vision aren’t supposed to do. I’m in this
interesting sort of zone between the sighted and the unsighted, and have never really met anyone who I visually relate to, I’ve never met anyone who is
kind of like me. … My truest disability has been my ability to overcome my physical disability. So in other words, as soon as people see that I can be
independent, then they hold me to the standard that everyone else is. So I remember once I told the airlines that I had a sight problem, and they put me
on this bus to go to a hotel because there were no other flights out of the airport that night, and I gave up my seat to everyone got on and they passed
me, and then like this 90-year-old woman, who was trying to get up the steps, and I couldn’t take it anymore so I helped her up the steps, gave her my
seat and took another seat. First stop, the bus driver tells me to get off. And I know that he’s doing this now because he thinks I have no problem. He
goes, “Go that way.” And I almost fell in the wishing well in front of this hotel. That’s because he saw me able to fend for myself. And I think that’s
been my greatest disability, that as I’ve overcome my physical disability, it just leads to other problems. So I think I have now learned - and I’m not
doing this to be deceptive - but I don’t act the way I did when I was 17, like I can do everything myself, because I realized the minute I do that, no
one helps me. So I learned to be a little more pragmatic about life.

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