| Greek scholar, politician visits AU
Photo by Jeff Watts
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Greek parliamentarian Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous delivered a lecture titled “Attitudes Toward the Handicapped from Ancient Greece to Modern U.S.A.” Tuesday evening as part of the Washington College of Law’s guest speakers series. It is a topic Bernidaki-Aldous, a former classical literature and ancient
history professor, knows much about on many levels. She lost her eyesight at age three following an accident, but she did not allow her disability to dictate her life’s path. Bernidaki-Aldous attended several universities in the United States where she earned numerous degrees, including a PhD in classics from Johns Hopkins University. Her dissertation is considered by many to be one of the greatest of the twentieth century, and it led to her book, Blindness in a Culture of Light: Especially the Case of “Oedipus at Colonus” of Sophocles. Bernidaki-Aldous, who became a member of the Greek parliament last year, recounted her personal story and compared Greek society, both ancient and modern, to America’s. “In both, the ideals of Western humanity constitute the fundamental part of human relationships,” she said. “The overview of life is the same. We believe in the individual, in human rights, and democracy. “Not all people are the same,” she said. “Handicapped people still continue to be individuals with their own abilities and aspirations. Every human being is unique. The greatest problem is discrimination. People asked me if I knew I was pregnant when I was pregnant. People have admired me for dialing a phone number, but if they admire me for dialing a phone number, how can they admire me for being a good university professor? “Worse than the worst handicap is the hurting feeling that derives from the exclusion that can come from ignorance.” —MU |
