[Colorado-Talk] Thoughts on the motto living the life you want.

[Dianna Alley]

I also have never ben a person who lets anyone define my importance.  I am glad I have never ben that way too.  It helps me as a person.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dianna Alley <dianna24 at earthlink.net> 
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2020 10:21 PM
To: 'NFB of Colorado Discussion List' <colorado-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: 'Jenny Perdue' <jlperdue3 at gmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Colorado-Talk] Thoughts on the motto living the life you want.

I actually agree with you.  I was a member in Georgia, but have chosen for myself just to be an individual.  I do not need the federation or any other organization deciding what it means to live the lives we want.  I will give credit where credit is due though Georgia did let me do a few things that I think helped me realize that I don't need an organization per say.  All they did was let me go a few places and speak on some issues, but for me that helped because it taught me to have a voice even without them.  I think that is perfectly ok.  I think conventions can be good, but they talk about the same stuff every year pretty much.  Frankly that gets boring.  Remember though we are on an NFB list so a lot of people may not take kindly to our views.  Keep being an individual and thinking for yourself.  Also computers now are reasonably priced.  You also don't have to be a perfect user even blind to use them these days.  I also agree you should be able to get training regardless of you going to school or getting a job because like it or not if you have no clue how to use a computer then getting a job is not going to happen anyway.  Going to school will be more complicated too.  It makes more since to get training first.  You should also not have to go to a center to get this stuff done.  We live in communities.  We should be able to stay in our communities to get any service we need.  I thought that is what pro choice means.  A lot of times people go to the centers and stuff because they feel there are no other options.  That is sad.  The centers can be great for some people, but sometimes they are shoved down people's throat and that is not positive.  I also don't need my voice celebrated because as long as I am doing what I should do for myself as well as my child in my case that is what counts.  Then I am living the life I have been dealt and working on some of the life I want.  Focus on living what life you have been dealt while trying to get some of what you want in life.  Then in my opinion you are accomplishing life itself.  That is what counts.  You are also achieving things a long the way.  That counts for something right there.  It sounds to me you might need complementing more than celebrating.  That is ok.  We all could use complements sometimes.  It helps us feel better as people.  Everyone needs them blind or not.  That is being human.

-----Original Message-----
From: Colorado-Talk <colorado-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jenny Perdue via Colorado-Talk
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2020 8:37 PM
To: colorado-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Jenny Perdue <jlperdue3 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Colorado-Talk] Thoughts on the motto living the life you want.

Dear Colorado talk,

Earlier in the month, Kevin asked us to write things about living the life you want. Yes, I could’ve answered this privately. However, I wonder though, if more people feel like I do then we know.

The national Federation of the blind motto is living the life we want. Which, is a great motto. But at my very first NFB convention. I soon discovered that living the life I wanted would never be laudedor celebrated or even acknowledged by The national Federation of the blind either within a convention, or, any other format.

Let me explain why I say that. I was born and raised in a time where if you had vision you had to use it whether or not it was viable or not. So, my education fell through the cracks even though I asked to learn braille repeatedly over my education. I taught myself braille in 1999 at a rehabilitation center for the blind in Daytona. By myself. With no help. Just me and my determination to learn but I wasn’t given the opportunity to learn as a child.

There are a lot of us out there in the same position. I’ve heard the stories. Oh you can do it, go back to school. Well, at 46 with maybe a six grade education, having taught myself braille. And don’t know Nemeth code. School is just not an option for me.

OK, that’s the backstory. Now, as a 46-year-old woman. I also have health issues. So working is not an option for me. Which means, no mobility training, no computer, no computer training, or anything else I might need because I’m not valuable enough to receive training because I’m not working or going to school or planning on doing either or.

So, now I come to my point. Though I have these challenges. And a lot of us do. I volunteer at the Humane Society here in Grand Junction. As far as I know, I’m the only blind person that I know anywhere in the country who was allowed by a shelter to volunteer.

My Specialty is working with cats or kittens that have been traumatized, or feral. Or for whatever reason that their behavior and trust and a human being is not there yet. Which, has helped several cats and kittens become adopted because I worked with them and taught them how to trust people again. Or even for the first time. That’s important right, that’s valuable right? But do we see that in our conventions. No.

We see John does a lawyer, we see DJane doe Jane doe has the most successful DEP vending in the state. Awesome, kudos, wonderful things.

However, those people were given way more opportunities than a lot of us are. What I do with the animals and others do for volunteerism is just as valid, and just as important, and should be celebrated just as much as a scholarship winner for college. I didn’t exactly get that option. A lot of us didn’t. So why do we feel like If we didn’t go to college, CCB, have a successful career, we are not as respected or validated within the national Federation of the blind community. And that includes nationally.

Bring in money and status does not make a person successful. It does not prove that blindness doesn’t have to be an obstacle. What proves that, or people who do the best they can with what they got. What proves that is the fact that for me, I’m the most well known volunteer at that shelter. I’m also the one they come to before cat is adopted to say farewell. I’m the one they come to when a cat is so Farrell or so frightened that it could lash out, and I’m the person that they know will spend hours with an animal to gain trust and make them adoptable.

The amazing thing is, people the shelter feel it’s valuable, people at the shelter see what a blind person can do, we are celebrated and appreciated. They even bought a braille label order to label the signs so that I would be more comfortable there The foster families for the animals, the people that come in and look at adopting a cat or kitten, I know the cats and kittens better than the adoption counselors do. Again, very valid, respected.

The question is, why isn’t that felt in the blind community within the national Federation of the blind. It just doesn’t.

I came out of that convention more depressed than I had ever been in my life. Well, in a long time :-) I felt like my life didn’t matter. Because all the kudos all the celebration went to people who are successful. Who don’t have the health trials I do, who didn’t have crap for education, who don’t even have a computer because we’re not valid enough within broke rehab to deserve one if we can’t work. Have no equipment. No mobility training since I went totally year and a half ago because I have too many health issues to work but not too many to get training.

I’m not trying to sound like a pity party, because that’s not it. I have a great life. I just wish my life At what I do with it in the parameters of health, lack of education, lack of computers, lack of equipment, lack of training Was just celebrated.

I knew a lot of blind folks who have tons of opportunities who sit on their butt and do nothing. And get everything they could possibly want as far as equipment goes. Fine, I’m glad they can. But when the most prominent and respected blind organization that works for equality only makes a huge deal about people who are bringing in the dough, and have a status, what is that exactly say to me as a blind person who is supposed to matter to the national Federation for the blind.

So, I guess what I’m saying is, you can live the life you want, you can also live the life you’re dealt. And handling that stuff for Grace doesn’t seem to matter. So, I just figured I would express it.

I will never go to another convention. I already feel like I’m not good enough sometimes, I most certainly don’t need it in the blind community. Much less and NFB. I am a member still, because I know that there are people like me too. We may not get the notice of a credit, but we’re here. I just don’t have to have it shoved in my face that I’m not important or valid in in the organization.

I hope the other people who feel the way I do will read this, I hope that you will know that you are important. You may not feel like it, you may not feel that the NFB feels like it, but you are. We all are.

Maybe if we help each other out more, instead of shoving everybody’s success in the faces of people who aren’t that fortunate People like me would Feel like we were An equal and respected  part of it or like we matter.

Maybe the NFB needs to think about those of us who still need to function in life. Who still need a computer, who still need training, those things don’t disappear because you don’t work. So instead of spending a bunch of money on conventions that celebrate everybody’s good fortune and make quite a few people feel like crap. Maybe we should start helping those of us who didn’t have the opportunities and make the national Federation of the blind really the voice of the blind. I haven’t heard my voice yet 

Jenny

Sent from my iPhone
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