Thwack and Thwack Advise a Beauty Queen

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/362435/20120712/connor-boss-miss-florida-usa-photos-pageant.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/US/miss-florida-usa-contestant-legally-blind/story?id=16741255


News has reached RantWoman that Miss FL USA contestant Connor Boss is legally blind. Congratulations to Ms. Boss onher interest and achievements so far. But wait: RantWoman also reads that Ms. Boss tripped on the stairs in a pageant last year during the swimsuit competition.

At this point Ambassador Thwack and Deputy Chief of Mission Thwack insisted on weighing in!
First an introduction: Deputy Chief of Mission Thwack is the same length as Ambassador Thwack. She has the same kind of roller tip. She is the same colors, reflective white on top and red on the bottom as required by traffic laws. She is made of graphite instead of aluminum and folds up into 5 sections instead of 4. Ambassador Thwack takes up the whole bottom of a RantWoman Bag; Deputy Chief of MissionThwack is lighter and can sometimes hide out in a RantWoman purse assuming the RantWoman purse is not crammed full of all the sundry tools RantWoman sometimes travels with.

AmbassadorThwack gets to bang around in all sorts of outdoor environments; he is an honor student in the RantWoman school of Tact and Diplomacy. Deputy Chief of Mission Thwack spends most of her time indoors but this does notmean herlife is easy. Deputy Chief of Mission Thwack gets called into service at times when Ambassador Thwack would just go all Percussive Pedagogy on the situation: receptionists who think mere mention of public transit is proof one has just crawled out of the sewer, software marketing hacks who are sure their product is accessible but who have never interacted with actual accessibility issues, and other daily banalities in the RantWoman interpersonal amusement park
Deputy Chief of Mission Thwack studies tact and diplomacy with other teachers than RantWoman. Deputy Chief of MissionThwack is probably a better source of fashion advice than RantWoman but RantWoman assumes Ms. Boss has much better resources at hand.

Thwack andThwack applaud Ms. Boss' accomplishments. THwack andThwack agree that any blind person needs other traits besides blindness to succeed in life. AndThwack and Thwack are kind of insistent: there is NOTHING beautiful or distinguished about falling on one's face because one does not want to use a cane!

Deputy Chief of Mission Thwack remembers a flurry of email last year about fresh young faces at the WA School for the Blind who use canes in all kinds of colors around their school. When one goes out into traffic, drivers will have more than enough trouble seeing and understanding the customary white on top red on the bottom white cane, but indoors who CARES what color the cane is? The mobility assistance is the same regardless of the color.
Thwack and Thwack encourage Ms. Boss to grab onto this concept. Choose canes color coordinated with different outfits. Practice walking in time with the different music. See if a choreographer can turn the hand on should blind people chain up into a kicky dance number for one of those mass production moments this kind of pageant sometimes features. Again, this is not asking for pity, just working with opportunities!
But what does RantWoman know? Beauty pageants are REALLY NOT RantWoman's thing and she is doing the best she can to root for Ms. Boss anyway. GOOD LUCK!