[Blind-international-students] introducing myself and comments on your discussion

[David Andrews]

Hi Anmol:

I have been following this discussion with interest.  There have been 
lots of good ideas.  However, I also feel like some people here want 
to have it both ways -- as we would say in America.  That is they 
want to benefit from an association with the NFB, and they want to 
use what the NFB has to offer, but they are not willing to support 
the NFB to they extent that they receive support.

I apologize if I offend anyone -- but I just want to be honest here.

Below I think you misrepresent some NFB positions.  We are not 
strongly opposed to identifiable currency, as you say, but we don't 
consider it to be our highest priority.  We also don't think many of 
the proposed systems will work, or are likely to be adopted.

You are right that we traditionally have not been very active in 
coalitions.  In large part this is because we do not know what other 
disabled people need, and others do not know what blind persons want 
and need.  We can not represent them -- and they can not represent 
us.  This is not to say that we don't participate in coalitions, such 
as the Reading Rights Coalition among others.

Finally you say all blind people should work together ...  These are 
nice words, but unrealistic.  In your country, is there only one 
political party?  Why doesn't everybody just work together, after 
all, don't they want the same thing.

It is only natural that people will disagree, think things should be 
done in different ways, want different people to be in charge etc.

Dave

At 04:37 PM 8/3/2010, you wrote:
>Hello Jan,
>I do believe in the basic philosophy of the NFB of braille 
>education, independence, the right of blind individuals to teach 
>other blind people and defeating the false immage and attitudes that 
>sighted society holds towards blindness. However, my main issue with 
>NFB has been that it sometimes goes to far. For example, I have yet 
>to understand why NFB is so opposed to legislation which would make 
>US currency excessable to the blind. Managing one's finances is a 
>fundamental right of all Americans and even though technology does 
>exist which can read papper currency and one can should find their 
>method of managing their money, a blind are forced to depend on the 
>honesty of sighted individuals to know how much money they have and 
>this itself goes against the NFB philosophy  of independence. Also I 
>do have some disagreement with NFB philosophy of total independence. 
>I am a farely independ person but I think that at times it is ok to 
>ask for help. As a student
>  at the Arkansas School for the Blind I was thought by my hoste 
> mother who was blind and by my teachers that it is ok to ask for 
> help and as a adult I have found this to be so true. I consider 
> myself to be a independent and confident blind adult but I still 
> ask for help when I need to. Another good point you bring up is NFB 
> does not seem to work with other disability organizations. Last 
> week when attending the National Council on Disability Summit I was 
> surprised not to see any officials  from NFB or ACB. This is not to 
> say they were not there. There were alot of people who I did not 
> meet. So someone from the NFB and ACB may have been there and I 
> just did not know about it. However, I think both NFB and ACB 
> should strive to work with any or all blindness related or 
> disability organization. Blind people can only be put on back 
> burner if we let ourselves do so and blind community is a large 
> enough community within the disability community that if we unify
>  and assert ourselves we can be the most powerful disabled 
> comunity. This brings me to another point! I think the infighting 
> between the NFB and ACB is really silly! Both organizations have 
> alot of value to contribute for the blind community and frankly it 
> seems to me that the differences between is not that much! It seems 
> to me that there is more difference within the membership of each 
> organization then there is between the organizations. Another words 
> members of NFB and ACB have differences with each other more then 
> NFB and ACB have with each other.Some have compared us to Democrats 
> and Republicans, fair  comparison but the blind community is to 
> small and our challenges to great for us to be Democrats and 
> Republicans. As you know by now I am a person with strong oppinions 
> and not afraid to share them  regardless of who I piss off or 
> anger. lol I may  never be  invited to another NFB convention! lol
>To answer your question about blindness organizations in other 
>countries, on MIUSA's webcite there is a link which list all the 
>disability organizations around the world. You can select which 
>country or disability or both you wish to view and a list should appear.

                         David Andrews:  dandrews at visi.com
Follow me on Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/dandrews920