[Community-Service] Do you know what today is?

[Darian Smith]

Today is convention eve!

 I know it isn’t an official holiday but consider what we are about to do together starting tomorrow.
 We are about to do something that we as members of the National Federation of the Blind have never done.  We are about to convene the largest  gathering of blind people ever gathered in our history, if not in our world’s history.
 Yes it is a virtual event, but consider for a moment how many people are going to join us via computer, tablet, smart phone, landline and how for some this will be the very first time they will have ever  participated in a national convention. 
If you are reading this and you are one of them, Let me be among the first to welcome you to our movement.

 I hope that you find something that interests you during this week.  I hope you find something that truly  resinates  with you this week.  Above all, I hope that you find something powerful this week, a reason to connect, a reason to stay and a reason to achieve those dreams that you never thought you could.
 to those of you who are  returning to convention, I am so glad to be returning with you.  May.  The message we  receive from these events and presentations remind us that we  have accomplished so much individually and together and that we can still accomplish much more.  We can encourage the next generation of our federation family, we can educate society about who we truly are and what we can truly do and, most of all, we can be reminded of the power we have to seek success in the face of low expectations, the power we have to make our dreams come true, even if we alone believe that they are worth fighting for, and  that in the words of June Jordan “we are what we have been waiting for”.
 I am so very excited because  looking at our  convention agenda, I see within it, the power we have gained, the power to influence  government, private business  and non-profit.
 We have gained the power to  help people gain the non-visual skills to move forward with confidence, the resources, to gain employment, and the  things that help facilitate  our full participation  in society in all the other ways which are enriching and empowering.
  Best of all, this is power earned, we have earned  it together  and  we keep it by continuing  to do what we have always done over the past 80 years of our  founding and collective organizing.
 It could be a super power that  we leverage, or, it could even be a power leveraged in order to do super things.
 Either way, welcome to the place where if virtual, or in person, we transform  dreams into reality.
… Power up.
  Darian