Jim Knipfel is a Wisconsin native who arrived in New York City many years ago via a stint in Philadelphia. Knipfel has a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which is a degenerative disease that leads to blindness. He's been writing a weekly column, Slackjaw, for more than a decade. Originally published in the New York Press, it can now be found online every Sunday at electronpress.com. In addition to his column, Knipfel has written a number of non-fiction novels -- his latest titled Noogie's Time to Shine: A True Crime Novel
was published this past winter (and a new one is already on the horizon).
Everyone's a liar, but but politicians lie or engage in disingenuousness more than most. Do you think Paterson is at a disadvantage or advantage when judging when people are full of shit? Oh, let me see. There was something on NY1 last week; there was a story about Paterson, specifically about his blindness, and I was both astonished and not surprised at all to see them trot out all of these old myths about the blind, and among them is that because he can't see, all of his senses are going to be developed to almost super-human levels. And they came just shy of saying that he plays the piano with almost as much soul as Ray Charles. And he'll be solving crimes, using his super-abilities.
That's a crock. In answer to your question, we can't hear any better than anybody else. I think we may listen more carefully to things. As far as detecting liars, I think that has less to do with blindness than any skills he's developed working with politicians for the past 25 years.
OK, So there's no X-Men-like quality that you've developed..? Well, I'm not saying that we don't have superpowers, I mean, we do; they're just not the ones that people might expect. And unfortunately, that's all I'm able to say about it at this time. Because we've synthesized this non-disclosure thing we take when we all join the club.
Do you think other politicians are at risk of underestimating Paterson--in the sense that when you condescend to someone-- [Laughing] I don't know what constitutes a better politician. Personally, I am suspicious of anyone who expresses the desire to hold public office. Anyway, sorry for interrupting.
Well I was asking if you thought other politicians were at risk of underestimating Paterson--in the sense that when condescending to someone as capable as you are, but with a disadvantage like not being able to see, it's like leaning into a punch with your eyes closed. Maybe? Just to be honest, I don't follow politics. I have no real interest in it. But I can pretty much guarantee that Paterson is going to get a free ride from the media, because no matter what he does, no one in the media wants to be accused of being the guy who badmouthed the blind man. As far as people underestimating him, maybe; I really can't say. They're not the brightest bunch up there [Albany], so it's entirely possible.
Well that segues perfectly into my next question, which is how much of a handicap--if I can use that word You can use cripple if you'd like.
How much of a handicap do you think blindness is, as opposed to say bad judgment (Spitzer) or outright stupidity (many many examples)? And I'm not equating blindness with bad judgment or stupidity. Mr. Paterson lost his sight at three months, at least according to the story that I saw. When something like that happens that early, it's simply a part of your character. You learn to work around it and it becomes more than just an occasional annoyance. So in that way--especially in his case--I don't see it as any handicap at all because it's something he's always worked with and worked around in one way or another.
In Mr. Spitzer's case he always may have had to work with bad judgment; I don't know. And Lord knows, a lot of people work with stupidity. I'd say blindness might be less of a problem than those two things, only because it doesn't impair the intelligence or the character of a person in the way those other things do.
Let's say that Paterson does a fair job of being the Governor for the next two and a half years. Just a fair job; he's not Superman, but New York doesn't suffer a complete meltdown either. Do you think he could be re-elected? Do you think New Yorkers would voluntarily elect a blind man as Governor? Yes. And for two very very crass reasons. I think they would. For one, he would get the pity vote. And I can tell you from my own experiences just walking around the streets, when I have the cane out, oh my god I just want to smack people. The pity just drips off them. Just this self righteousness that they're helping out the blind guy and that's their good deed for the day. I think that would work if [Paterson] was running for office too. Voting for him would be their good deed for the day. Granted, that's if he didn't completely screw up.
The other crass reason would be that people would be amiss in not wanting to elect a black Governor. The whole race issue--no one's really talking about that he worked with [former Mayor] Dinkins. That's like "Oh my god!" We'll see what happens. Race should definitely work to his advantage though.
You know, there's an interesting thing, just in regards to that issue. There's a very weird quote from Paterson in The New York Times, in which he said that his political handlers have always emphasized his blindness, and his belief was that they were doing this as a way of mitigating race. And he said that emphasizing the blindness, in a way, made him an honorary white man. The funny thing is that I've had exactly the opposite experience around here, maybe because I'm white. People will stop me on the street and come right out and say "Hey, I bet you play a musical instrument;" and part of me wants to say "Yowza yowza ma'am! I surely surely does!"
Are you saying that your blindness makes you an honorary black person, like people have a reverse Ray Charles thing for you? Yeah, there's that whole sub-genre of blind blues singers.
You don't play an instrument at all, do you Jim? No, not at all. Not even the kazoo. And I've tried; I've tried to play the kazoo and I just can't do it. So, there goes my backup plan.
Photo of Jim Knipfel by Debbie Egan-Chin
