Insight Is No Handicap

Jim Dickson may be blind, but he has much keener insight into certain matters than has William F. Buckley, the conservative political commentator and dilettantish yachtsman, who exhibited remarkably poor taste in dismissing Dickson’s attempt to sail alone across the Atlantic Ocean as a waste of time. Sailing is not for the blind, the unctuous Mr. Buckley claimed.

Dickson, 41, of Washington D.C., is laying over in Bermuda with his 36-foot sloop after weathering a storm that threatened to scuttle his adventure. Much of his special gear, including computer and electronic equipment with artificial voices, was disabled during the blow, and Dickson will decide soon whether to continue.

In an exchange with Dickson on television, Buckley called his effort a futile exercise, saying that there are some things that the blind should not do. “People who know anything about sailing know it is an experience which can’t possibly be apprehended unless you can see,” he said.

Buckley sails big chartered boats with hired crewmen on ocean-going voyages and then makes money by writing books about his cruises. His style of sailing includes lots of stimulating intellectual companionship, fine food, a hefty wine locker, classical music and even books on tape--all amenities that provide considerable excitement for senses other than sight. Of course, his boats must sail through the dark of night and fog and storm, when sight may not be as vital as good sense and when arrogance can reap bitter rewards.

Dickson’s response: “Who are you to say because I can’t see, I can’t enjoy something or do something?” Indeed. Dickson and others like him are pushing back new frontiers of their own every day, just as Columbus and Magellan did in their time, and John Glenn and Neil Armstrong not so long ago. The ocean spray and wind hit his face just the same. The tiller feels no different. The sails flail and snap as the boat tacks to a new course. The smell of landfall is just as sweet.

Man’s ability to chart new waters often depends on his capacity for seeing into his own heart and assessing his own desires. In that sense Jim Dickson and others like him suffer no handicap.