[Blindtlk] fw: seeking applicants for the Main Menu team

[Chris Nusbaum]

Wonderful post, Gary! I believe I contacted you to be an NFB 
mentor for my neutral list, and I think you would be a wonderful 
mentor for us! I just can't remember if I emailed you about that.  
* Smile! I'll email you with more details.  Merry Christmas to 
you and your family!

Chris

Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year!

"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The 
real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that 
exists.  If a blind person has the proper training and 
opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical 
nuisance."
-- Kenneth Jernigan (President, National Federation of the Blind, 
1968-1986

 The I C.A.N.  Foundation helps blind and visually impaired youth 
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 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Wunder" <GWunder at earthlink.net
To: "'Blind Talk Mailing List'" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:24:33 -0600
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] fw: seeking applicants for the Main Menu 
team

Hi Jewel.  Striving for inner peace is indeed a worthwhile 
pursuit.  It is one
in which I join with you every day.  I don't think anyone was 
being critical
of that.  My take on what was being said was that, from a 
distance, all
strife looks foolish.  From the heavens, why would humans war 
among
themselves? Why would humans divide themselves into small groups 
and then
contest over resources that would go further were there but a 
little
cooperation.  From a distance, how can there be hunger in one 
part of the
world and obesity in another? How can one part have so many 
resources and
another have nothing but sand--or should the question be how one 
part of the
world can have the gold under that sand and the rest of the world 
be so
dependent on it.

I do not want to stand for the promotion of strife but suggest 
that when one
is involved directly and not viewing at a distance, what seems 
petty
suddenly becomes as important as ones livelihood and even his or 
her life.
How often have we Americans laughed at people in the middle east 
with the
thought that, if they are constantly at war, this is what they 
deserve.  It
is easy to think that way because there is then no complexity.  
We can just
remain above the fray and write-off those engaging in them as 
somehow
foolish and just a bit less blessed with common-sense than the 
rest of us.
By not understanding their arguments, we, quite unintentionally, 
dehumanize
them.

Mike has said he will answer any questions about differences 
between our
organizations off list, and I agree it would do little good to 
use the list
to try to air them here.  Even if we did a stellar job at 
covering them, we
would, at best, be using an NFB list to tell the story, and this 
in itself
would be enough to make many question the objectivity of what 
they read.

On Christmas day, let us all struggle for inner peace and 
acceptance of
those who think and feel differently from us.  My grandson came 
to me with a
take on an observation I thought I knew well.  He said, "Never 
judge another
man until you've walked a mile in his shoes." Then he said, 
without missing
a beat, "If you then want to judge him, you'll be at least a mile 
away, and,
you'll have his shoes." Okay, not the funniest joke I've ever 
heard, but
pretty good for a nine-year-old.

Merry Christmas,

Gary



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