[nabs-l] negative traffic

Thu May 21 16:03:50 UTC 2009

Hello all,

I don't comment much on lists in general, but I felt the need to voice
my thoughts on this issue. There are negative people everywhere, in
both organizations. I had the pleasure of atending the ACB convention
last summer, and met some wonderful people. I had the chance to
partake in some good dialogue about issues such as Braille literacy
and different aproaches to rehabilitation, whichis the issue where
most people took issue with the NFB. I made some friends there that I
will stay in contact with, and had a great time.

That said, I will say that in general sessions and seminars, there
were very negative remarks made about the NFB, by name. Often, they
were refered to as "the other organization," but usually they were
used by name. Sometimes, these comments were not even related to any
particular issue, just made to get a response from the croud. I have
been to many national conventions of the NFB, and while I would never
say that I have never heard NFB members make disparaging remarks about
the ACB, (we all know that would make meeither a liar or oblivious,) I
have rarely if ever heard the ACB attacked in a public forum just for
the sake of taring them down. I've heard some of the philosophy
refuted, but never in a way that made me uncomfortable.

Part of what contributes to the "negative" feelings between the
organizations is the lack of information. I can't tell you how many
people I met at the ACB convention who had large misconceptions and
wrong ideas about NFB philosophy. I have experienced the same on the
NFB end of things. I admit, I didn't know much about them until I went
to a convention. I think the hope lies in us, the younger generation.
Bitterness runs deep in the older generations in bothorganizations for
reasons that are hard for us to understand. Yes, we indure
discrimination and face difficulties with the general public every
day. But imagine what it was like to be blind in the 60's or 70's when
we weren't even permited to fly alone. We have a long way to go, but
we've come a long way due to the older generation of both
organizations. We'd all do well to remember that.

-Briley

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 10:28 AM,  <daydreamingncolor at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sarah,
> You've got it. I've seen the comment, negative traffic, negative
> energy... but is that to say the NFB doesn't have it ourselves? Lets
> just take a look at California... Angela, help me out, our state board
> has some pretty steady negative energy flowing through it, and yet
> they've pulled togetherright? They may not like each other, may not
> think the same, may not even view anything the same, but they can pull
> together and work together when itsnecessary, to better our state...
> Why not try it on a bigger scale?
> Aziza
>
> On 5/19/09, Sarah J. Blake <sarah at growingstrong.org> wrote:
>> Joseph,
>>
>> I regularly attend ACB conventions and would take exception to your
>> assertion that 3/4 of ACB traffic is negative toward anything. That is a
>> pretty negative statement in itself. I wasn't going to comment on it; bt
>> this is the kind of un-constructive comment that prevents dialogue. I see a
>> lot of NFB members emailing with the signature, "We must be the change we
>> wish to see in the world..." Why not put it into practice...? Then again,
>> maybe the division doesn't bother you. If you like it, put it in positive
>> words for us. I disagree with Arielle's points, but I appreciated her
>> positive spin on the benefits of having two organiations.
>>
>> In reality, whenever you put thousands of people together, many of whom are
>> over 55, there will likely be a good deal of negative energy unless there is
>> a concerted effort to build positive energy. The very nature of dealing with
>> blindness issues is that some negative energy must be dealt with. Regardless
>> of how many blindness skills we have, how many gadgets we have to enable us
>> to do xxx, or how accessible the environment is, things will take longer and
>> be more cumbersome and we will always battle negative attitudes; and it is a
>> pain in the behind. Part of what happens at conventions is that people
>> realize, "Hey, someone gets it." Part of what happens is that someone will
>> confront someone about the fact that they need to grow up and stop being
>> such a whiner because we all live this. Part of what happens is that we
>> wrangle about what on earth to advocate for--and we can't agree because
>> despite having blindness in common, we all cope just a bit differently. It
>> does create negative energy, regardless of which organization a person
>> belongs to. I suspect there is negative energy in every advocacy
>> organization in existence. In fact, I took a leadership course this spring
>> in which there were only six participants. We did mock controversies; and
>> you would be amazed at the negative energy that was generated!
>>
>> Sarah J. Blake
>> Personal email: sjblake at growingstrong.org
>> http://www.growingstrong.org
>>
>>
>> I'm protected by SpamBrave
>> http://www.spambrave.com/
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/daydreamingncolor%40gmail.com
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/brileyp%40gmail.com
>