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

Mon Aug 9 00:55:12 UTC 2010

Hello Jan,
Thanks for saying what I am really thinking and trying to communicate. I have Gratitude for it has done for me and what it continues to do for all blind people, however, I am by nature a outspoken person and will speak out in areas where I disagree. Dave is it not appropreate for me to disagree with the NFB on this list or is it ok to openly speak about our differences even though I have benefit from some of the NFB's programs? Isn't a healthy debate good for democracy?

Anmol
I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.
Hellen Keller

--- On Sun, 8/8/10, jan wright <jan.wrightfamily5 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: jan wright <jan.wrightfamily5 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Blind-international-students] introducing myself and comments on your discussion
> To: "Blind International Students Mailing List" <blind-international-students at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Sunday, August 8, 2010, 7:31 PM
> Hi Dave,
> I think that there is one thing that you may not realize.
> 
> Lots of nfb members (both international and American)
> don't "Always" agree with the NFB.
> This is just as it is in political parties.
> Does that make us "not supporting" because we don't agree
> with a stand
> that the nfb took?
> I do agree that if people receive assistance from the NFB,
> that they
> should uphold their ideals.
> However, there is a line between support and compromising
> one's values.
>    Yes, I agree that when someone receives
> assistance, there should be
> an unspoken support for what the organization stands for:
> as a whole.
> But, I also agree that one not need feel obligated to
> support each and
> every stance that the NFB has: just because of a
> scholarship or
> another type of assistance.
> Gratitude seems to be an interesting and fluid concept.
> It probably is quite difficult to weed out those who just
> "want a hand out."
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/8/10, Guido Corona <guidoc at austin.rr.com>
> wrote:
> > Uhrn.... I am not sure the issue of non tactily
> identifiable currency is
> > such a particular problem.  I have lived in North
> America for 35 years...
> > first in Canada, then in US.
> >
> > During all this time, I have been shortchanged only
> twice, by taxi drivers
> > in both cases.  In one of these cases, my sighted
> wife was present, and she
> > did not catch the swindle either.
> >
> > I have found that, universaly, kindly asking the other
> party to tell me
> > which bills have what value, solves all currency
> identification issues.  I
> > then fold bills according to their values, and place
> them in 4 different
> > slots in my billfold... And no, I never make
> mistakes.
> >
> > And no, having to shop every few years for a billfold
> with enough slots for
> > my liking is not something that I deem to be a
> violation of my basic uman
> > rights under the US Declaration Of Independence, US
> Constitution, ADA,
> > Section 504, or otherwise.
> >
> > Please note that Canada uses embossing for tactile
> identification of
> > currency... Works splendidly... until a bill is a few
> months old, after
> > which markings become flat and unreadable.
> >
> > Sometimes there are simple and remarkably low
> impact/cost
> > socialization-based workarounds for certain
> accessibility problems.  I can
> > only praise NFB's pragmatic approach to the entire
> issue.
> >
> > Finally, in the current context, raising the Blind
> Drivers Challange is what
> > we call a Red herring... or a distracting argument,
> extraneous from the
> > discussion at hand. Perhaps it's an interesting topic
> to debate by itself,
> > but it does not add any value to the current debate on
> currency recognition.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > g
> >
> > Guido D. Corona
> > Email: guidoc at austin.rr.com
> > Home office: (512) 996-9187
> > Mobile: (512) 466-1322
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: blind-international-students-bounces at nfbnet.org
> > [mailto:blind-international-students-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Anmol
> > Bhatia
> > Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2010 6:21 PM
> > To: Blind International Students Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [Blind-international-students]
> introducing myself and comments
> > on your discussion
> >
> > Hello Dave,
> > Let me clarify myself. I never thought that NFB is
> against bringing
> > identifiable currency, but where I have a problem is
> its     priorities. For
> > me personally identifiable currency is far more
> important than the Blind
> > Driver Challenge and far more realistic in achieving
> then a car that a blind
> > person can drive.
> >
> > You are right that groups such as the NFB and ACB may
> not know what people
> > with disabilities need, but the advantage that groups
> such as NFB and ACB
> > can bring by participating in various disability
> coalitions is that they can
> > represent the needs of blind people who make up a
> large population of people
> > with disabilities.
> >
> > Finally I never ment to say that all blind people
> should work together, but
> > the two major blind organizations should find more of
> a common ground and as
> > I stated the members of each respective organizations
> have greater
> > differences with each other then the two major
> organizations have with each
> > other. So the organization back and forth seems silly
> and does not seem to
> > accomplish anything for blind citizens. True we have
> political parties in
> > this country just as they do in my country, however,
> it is unfortunate but
> > blind people can not aford to have the luxury of being
> divided like
> > Democrats and Republicans because our challenges our
> to great and our
> > community is to small.
> >
> > Having said all that, I commend the NFB on its work of
> making a difference
> > for blind people around the world including myself. I
> was fortunate to
> > attend the NFB convention for the first time on a
> scholarship and I was
> > impressed in being around so many blind people. So I
> do commend NFB on its
> > work but I do have some differences like any person
> should have with any
> > organization. So please understand that I am not
> trying to have it both
> > ways, but simply stating some of my differences. I
> invite you to participate
> > in the international students conference call next
> Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
> > eastern time.
> > Also to all members please  forgive my grammar
> mistakes in my previous
> > email.
> >
> > Anmol
> >
> >
> > I seldom think about my limitations, and they never
> make me sad. Perhaps
> > there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is
> vague, like a breeze
> > among flowers.
> > Hellen Keller
> >
> >
> > --- On Sun, 8/8/10, David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> From: David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
> >> Subject: Re: [Blind-international-students]
> introducing myself and
> > comments on your discussion
> >> To: "Blind International Students Mailing List"
> > <blind-international-students at nfbnet.org>
> >> Date: Sunday, August 8, 2010, 4:44 PM
> >> 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
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Blind-international-students mailing list
> >> Blind-international-students at nfbnet.org
> >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org
> >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get
> your
> >> account info for Blind-international-students:
> >>
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org/an
> > molpbhatia%40yahoo.com
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blind-international-students mailing list
> > Blind-international-students at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your
> account info for
> > Blind-international-students:
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org/gu
> > idoc%40austin.rr.com
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> > Version: 9.0.851 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3058 -
> Release Date: 08/08/10
> > 01:35:00
> >
> > No virus found in this outgoing message.
> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> > Version: 9.0.851 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3058 -
> Release Date: 08/08/10
> > 01:35:00
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blind-international-students mailing list
> > Blind-international-students at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your
> account info for
> > Blind-international-students:
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org/jan.wrightfamily5%40gmail.com
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-international-students mailing list
> Blind-international-students at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your
> account info for Blind-international-students:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blind-international-students_nfbnet.org/anmolpbhatia%40yahoo.com
> 