[Colorado-Talk] my thoughts on living the life you want

Wed Jan 8 00:00:20 UTC 2020

First of all, I want to wish everyone here a very happy new year!  My hope
is that 2020 will be outstanding for all of us.

Next, I want to thank Jenny for raising the topic of what our tagline "live
the life you want!" really means.  I appreciate everyone's thoughtful
comments about how it should be interpreted and implemented.

Before I delve into the substance of my comments, I want to give you a
little  background which helps to form my perspective.  I first joined the
NFB in 1986, and I have had the honor and privilege of being a very active
member and leader on many different levels.  As part of that experience, I
served on a committee which was formed in 2013, maybe even late 2012, whose
purpose was to develop our plan for celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the
Federation.  After some discussion, we decided that it was time to rebrand
our messaging so that we could more effectively communicate who we are.  One
part of that rebranding was changing our tagline from  "we are changing what
it means to be blind" to the current "live the life you want!"  Beyond just
the tagline, we developed a comprehensive brand architecture which has many
elements that would serve as an excellent focal point for future
discussions.  In any event, I mention all this because I think I have some
idea of what we intended regarding the message we were attempting to
communicate.

Ever since I have been involved in the NFB, there has been this conception
that the NFB only supports and celebrates the "super blind" and that if you
don't go about blindness in a very specific manner, you are not really
living the life the NFB endorses.  I emphatically and whole heartedly
believe that this misconception is not true!  There is no such thing as a
model Federationist, and there certainly is not one, singular script from
which we must all lead our lives.  

The idea of "live the life you want!" is that your blindness should not hold
you back from pursuing your dreams and ambitions.  Undeniably all of our
dreams and ambitions  are limited and somewhat governed by the realities we
face, whether those are financial, educational, , health based, or
otherwise.  There is no one way to live the life you want.  It doesn't
matter if you are pursuing a high stakes profession, working from home,
volunteering in the community, or not working at all.  Our main message is
that whatever you are doing with       your life, your blindness should not
be the chief reason holding you back from whatever brings you fulfillment
and purpose in life.  Our one minute message, another creation of our
rebranding, brings this point out.

"The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back."

A key part of this message is that we are raising expectations.  That has
both an external and internal aspects to it.  On the external side, we are
working to convince the general population that they can and should expect
more from us.  All of us often run into very low expectations held by the
public.  Pretty much every time I travel to and through an airport somebody
tells me how amazing I am for simply putting one foot in front of another.  

On the internal side, we should encourage one another to become the best
versions of ourselves that we can.  Doing so must always be done with love
and understanding.  Every year that I am in the Federation, I learn so much
from our members on how I can lead my life in a better way, a new technology
trick or something that enhances my independent travel or whatever it might
be.  I certainly haven't figured it all out, and I know that some times I do
in fact let my blindness limit me in a way that isn't truly necessary.  

Regardless, we must accept people where they are in their lives and be ready
to encourage them to achieve more when that is appropriate.  This is what we
aim to do at our centers.  We work with people from all walks of life and
who have a wide variety of challenges.  No student's program is or should be
the same.  We have some general policies and expectations, but same are
always adjusted to the individual student.

Living the life you want is all about independence and freedom.  As our
founder Dr. tenBroek so eloquently  put it, we have a right to live in the
world.  That means we have the right to be free and independent and to
determine our own destiny.  The exact mechanism we use to achieve that
freedom and independence is not the key issue, but rather that we  know and
believe that we have the right to achieve it.  I think the Federation's best
speech regarding independence is the Nature of Independence by Dr. Jernigan
from the 1993 Convention.  If you haven't read it, I encourage that you do
so.    It is available through our national website.

Before closing this out, I want to address another point Jenny raised in her
original message, the idea that perhaps we some times focus and emphasize
success stories based on traditional notions of success and that we don't
celebrate other forms of achievement.  I think this is a great point, and we
should endeavor to paint a more comprehensive picture.  Convincing an animal
shelter to let you volunteer despite your blindness is just as important as
someone winning a national scholarship based on academic achievement at the
highest level.  Both are part of living the life we want.

In closing, I want to share two other element from our brand architecture,
the Brand Promise and Value Proposition.  I do this because, for me, it so
eloquently sums up why I am involved in our Federation.  "Together with
love, hope, and determination, we transform dreams into reality.  I am
filled with hope, energy, and love by participating in the National
Federation of the Blind because my expectations are raised, my contributions
make a difference to me and to others, and I can celebrate the realization
of my dreams with my Federation family."

Warmly,

Scott

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