[nabs-l] Braille Vs Technology: is there room for only one in town?

[David Andrews]

For one I thought the New York Times article 
about Braille was quite good.  On the whole, it 
was balanced, even though we might not always 
like what it said.  In our zeal to promote 
Braille, in the NFB, I do think we sometimes make 
people feel like they are on the outside.  The 
one thing the article, and people generally don't 
do is talk about how Braille is one tool we have, 
so is audio, so are computers etc.  People tend 
to paint very black and white pictures, then 
declare those who don't match those pictures as 
losers.  It is a grey world out there.  There 
isn't just one answer or solution.  I use Braille 
all the time, and it is a part of my success.  I 
also use computers, love my Stream, use human 
readers, OCR, the KNFB Reader etc.  There isn't just one answer.

Dave

At 10:31 AM 1/6/2010, you wrote:
>What I'm about to say may sound harsh, but here 
>it goes. Literacy matters, and those who have 
>the capacity for literacy need to be able to 
>read the written word for success. that does not 
>mean that those who are, by means of some 
>disability, unable to read won't be successful. 
>Quite the contrary. But reading definitely makes 
>a difference in the lives of those who can do 
>it. For the sighted, reading means print. For 
>the blind, reading means Braille. That does not 
>mean that either group shouldn't make use of 
>audio materials or other technologies to access 
>the printed word. However, these new 
>technologies should not be an excuse not to 
>learn to read. Those who feel disenfranchised or 
>chastized by certain members of the federation 
>because they don't use Braille even though they 
>could ought to give Braille a second thought 
>rather than complain that support for Braille is 
>unyielding to the point of exclusion. Yes, 
>learning to read is painstaking and challenging, 
>but that doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't 
>be done. granted, if there is a disability that 
>really does prevent written literacy, then the 
>circumstances are totally different. But for 
>most blind people, that simply isn't the case. 
>Does that mean that non-readers should blame 
>themselves for not reading Braille? No. There 
>may be a number of reasons why Braille isn't a 
>part of their lives. However, there are 
>sufficient resources available to individuals 
>wanting to learn that there really is no excuse 
>not to. Respectfully, Jedi Original message: > 
>Darian, > What it makes them is statistically 
>far less likely to be employed, > for one 
>thing.  That alone should convince parents and 
>teachers the > importance of Braille 
>education. > Joseph > On Mon, Jan 04, 2010 at 
>07:40:41PM -0800, Darian Smith wrote: >> I hope 
>individuals don't mind my playing devil's 
>advocate  focused >> upon the statement "braille 
>readers are leaders". >>   What does this  make 
>those who arn't very good braille readers, >> 
>don't want to know, or  don't know braille? >> 
>Do you feel the Organization  (the nfb) frowns 
>upon  non-braille 
>readers? >>  respectfullly, >>  Darian >> On 
>1/4/10, Kerri Kosten <kerrik2006 at gmail.com> 
>wrote: >>> Hi: >>> Just thought I'd share my 
>opinions for what it's worth. >>> I was taught 
>braille, and am very good at reading it. >>> 
>However, I admit with devices like the Victor 
>Reader Stream, I really >>> don't read in 
>braille much. I have a Pacmate notetaker with a 
>braille >>> display, so I could and probably 
>should download more books and read >>> them 
>digitally, but just listening to a book on the 
>tiny stream is >>> much easier than lugging 
>around a note taker and reading on a braille >>> 
>display. >>> So, I admit even as a great braille 
>reader I don't use braille as much >>> as I 
>should. >>> I do use it at my work though, for 
>when I write previews I take my >>> notes in 
>braille and that helps tremendously...so it 
>definitely has >>> it's uses and children should 
>definitely be taught it. >>> Braille readers are 
>leaders! >>> Kerri+ >>> On 1/4/10, Beth 
><thebluesisloose at gmail.com> wrote: >>>> Wow.  I 
>admit to having been taught Braille as a child 
>and my vision >>>> teacher was wonderful, but it 
>doesn't surprise me that a lot of >>>> today's 
>children are not taught that way.  Braille 
>readers are >>>> leaders, they say. >>>> 
>Beth >>>> On 1/4/10, Darian Smith 
><dsmithnfb at gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> This >>>>> 
>Listening to Braille >>>>> By RACHEL AVIV >>>>> 
>Published: December 30, 2009 >>>>> AT 4 
>O’CLOCK each morning, Laura J. Sloate begins 
>her daily reading. >>>>> She calls a phone 
>service that reads newspapers aloud in a 
>synthetic >>>>> voice, and she >>>>> listens to 
>The Wall Street Journal at 300 words a minute, 
>which is >>>>> nearly twice the average pace of 
>speech. Later, an assistant reads The >>>>> 
>Financial Times >>>>> to her while she uses her 
>computer’s text-to-speech system to play 
>The >>>>> Economist aloud. She devotes one ear 
>to the paper and the other to the >>>>> 
>magazine. >>>>> The managing director of a Wall 
>Street investment management firm, >>>>> Sloate 
>has been blind since age 6, and although she 
>reads constantly, >>>>> poring over the >>>>> 
>news and the economic reports for several hours 
>every morning, she >>>>> does not use Braille. 
>“Knowledge goes from my ears to my brain, 
>not >>>>> from my finger to >>>>> my brain,” 
>she says. As a child she learned how the letters 
>of the >>>>> alphabet sounded, not how they 
>appeared or felt on the page. She >>>>> 
>doesn’t think of a >>>>> comma in terms of its 
>written form but rather as “a stop on the 
>way >>>>> before continuing.” This, she says, 
>is the future of reading for the >>>>> blind. 
>“Literacy >>>>> evolves,” she told me. 
>“When Braille was invented, in the 19th >>>>> 
>century, we had nothing else. We didn’t even 
>have radio. At that time, >>>>> 
>blindness >>>>>  was a disability. Now it’s 
>just a minor, minor impairment.” >>>>> A few 
>decades ago, commentators predicted that the 
>electronic age >>>>> would create a postliterate 
>generation as new forms of media eclipsed >>>>> 
>the written word. >>>>> Marshall McLuhan claimed 
>that Western culture would return to the >>>>> 
>“tribal and oral pattern.” But the decline 
>of written language has >>>>> become a reality 
>for >>>>> only the blind. Although Sloate does 
>regret not spending more time >>>>> learning to 
>spell in her youth — she writes by dictation — 
>she says >s >>>>> she thinks that >>>>> using 
>Braille would have only isolated her from her 
>sighted peers. >>>>> “It’s an arcane means 
>of communication, which for the most part 
>should >>>>> be abolished,” >>>>> she told me. 
>“It’s just not needed today.” >>>>> 
>Braille books are expensive and cumbersome, 
>requiring reams of thick, >>>>> oversize paper. 
>The National Braille Press, an 83-year-old 
>publishing >>>>> house in Boston, >>>>> printed 
>the >>>>> Harry Potter >>>>>  series on its 
>Heidelberg cylinder; the final product was 56 
>volumes, >>>>> each nearly a foot tall. Because 
>a single textbook can cost more than >>>>> 
>$1,000 and there’s >>>>> a shortage of Braille 
>teachers in public schools, visually 
>impaired >>>>> students often read using MP3 
>players, audiobooks and >>>>> 
>computer-screen-reading software. >>>>> A report 
>released last year by the National Federation of 
>the Blind, >>>>> an advocacy group with 50,000 
>members, said that less than 10 percent >>>>> of 
>the 1.3 million >>>>> legally blind Americans 
>read Braille. Whereas roughly half of all >>>>> 
>blind children learned Braille in the 1950s, 
>today that number is as >>>>> low as 1 in 
>10, >>>>> according to the report. The figures 
>are controversial because there >>>>> is debate 
>about when a child with residual vision has 
>“too much sight” >>>>> for Braille >>>>> and 
>because the causes of blindness have changed 
>over the decades — in >>>>> rrecent years more 
>blind children have multiple disabilities, 
>because >>>>> of premature >>>>> births. It is 
>clear, though, that Braille literacy has been 
>waning for >>>>> some time, even among the most 
>intellectually capable, and the report >>>>> has 
>inspired >>>>> a fervent movement to change the 
>way blind people read. “What we’re >>>>> 
>finding are students who are very smart, very 
>verbally able — and >>>>> illiterate,” 
>Jim >>>>> Marks, a boardd member for the past 
>five years of the Association on >>>>> Higher 
>Education and Disability, told me. “We stopped 
>teaching our >>>>> nation’s blind 
>children >>>>> how to read and write. We put a 
>tape player, then a computer, on their >>>>> 
>desks. Now their writing is phonetic and 
>butchered. They never got to >>>>> learn 
>the >>>>> beauty and shape and structure of 
>language.” >>>>> For much of the past century, 
>blind children attended residential >>>>> 
>institutions where they learned to read by 
>touching the words. Today, >>>>> visually 
>impaired >>>>> children can be well versed in 
>literature without knowing how to read; >>>>> 
>computer-screen-reading software will even break 
>down each word and >>>>> read the 
>individual >>>>> letters aloud. Literacy has 
>become much harder to define, even for >>>>> 
>educators. >>>>> “If all you have in the world 
>is what you hear people say, then your >>>>> 
>mind is limited,” Darrell Shandrow, who runs a 
>blog called Blind >>>>> Access Journal, 
>told >>>>> me. “You need written symbols to 
>organize your mind. If you can’t feel >>>>> or 
>see the word, what does it mean? The substance 
>is gone.” Like many >>>>> Braille 
>readers, >>>>> Shandrow says that new computers, 
>which form a single line of Braille >>>>> cells 
>at a time, will revive the code of bumps, but 
>these devices are >>>>> still extremely >>>>> 
>costly and not yet widely used. Shandrow views 
>the decline in Braille >>>>> literacy as a sign 
>of regression, not progress: “This is like 
>going >>>>> back to the 1400s, >>>>> before 
>Gutenberg’s printing press came on the 
>scene,” he said. “Only >>>>> the scholars 
>and monks knew how to read and write. And then 
>there were >>>>> the illiterate >>>>> masses, 
>the peasants.” >>>>> UNTIL THE 19TH CENTURY, 
>blind people were confined to an oral 
>culture. >>>>> Some tried to read letters carved 
>in wood or wax, formed by wire or >>>>> outlined 
>in felt >>>>> with pins. Dissatisfied with such 
>makeshift methods, Louis Braille, a >>>>> 
>student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth 
>in Paris, began >>>>> studying a cipher >>>>> 
>language of bumps, called night writing, 
>developed by a French Army >>>>> officer so 
>soldiers could send messages in the dark. 
>Braille modified >>>>> the code so that >>>>> it 
>could be read more efficiently — each letter or 
>punctuation symbool >>>>> is represented by a 
>pattern of one to six dots on a matrix of 
>three >>>>> rows and two >>>>> columns — aand 
>added abbreviations for commonly used words 
>like >>>>> “knowledge,” “people” and 
>“Lord.” Endowed with a reliable method 
>of >>>>> written communication >>>>> for the 
>first time in history, blind people had a 
>significant rise in >>>>> social status, and 
>Louis Braille was embraced as a kind of 
>liberator >>>>> and spiritual >>>>> savior. With 
>his “godlike courage,” Helen Keller wrote, 
>Braille built >>>>> a “firm stairway for 
>millions of sense-crippled human beings to 
>climb >>>>> from hopeless >>>>> darkness to the 
>Mind Eternal.” >>>>> At the time, blindness 
>was viewed not just as the absence of sight 
>but >>>>> also as a condition that created a 
>separate kind of species, more >>>>> innocent 
>and malleable, >>>>> not fully formed. Some 
>scholars said that blind people spoke a >>>>> 
>different sort of language, disconnected from 
>visual experience. In >>>>> his 1933 book, 
>“The >>>>> Blind in School and Society,” the 
>psychologist Thomas Cutsforth, who >>>>> lost 
>his sight at age 11, warned that students who 
>were too rapidly >>>>> assimilated into >>>>> 
>the sighted world would become lost in “verbal 
>unreality.” At some >>>>> residential schools, 
>teachers avoided words that referenced color 
>or >>>>> light because, >>>>> they said, 
>students might stretch the meanings beyond 
>sense. These >>>>> theories have since been 
>discredited, and studies have shown that >>>>> 
>blind children as >>>>> young as 4 understand 
>the difference in meaning between words 
>like >>>>> “look,” “touch” and 
>“see.” And yet Cutsforth was not 
>entirely >>>>> misguided in his argument >>>>> 
>that sensory deprivation restructures the mind. 
>In the 1990s, a series >>>>> of brain-imaging 
>studies revealed that the visual cortices of 
>the >>>>> blind are not >>>>> rendered useless, 
>as previously assumed. When test subjects 
>swept >>>>> their fingers over a line of 
>Braille, they showed intense activation >>>>> in 
>the parts of >>>>> the brain that typically 
>process visual input. >>>>> These imaging 
>studies have been cited by some educators as 
>proof that >>>>> Braille is essential for blind 
>children’s cognitive development, as >>>>> the 
>visual cortex >>>>> takes more than 20 percent 
>of the brain. Given the brain’s 
>plasticity, >>>>> it is difficult to make the 
>argument that one kind of reading — >>>>> 
>whetheer the information >>>>> is absorbed by 
>ear, finger or retina — is inherently better 
>than >>>>> another, at leastt with regard to 
>cognitive function. The architecture >>>>> of 
>the brain is >>>>> not fixed, and without images 
>to process, the visual cortex can >>>>> 
>reorganize for new functions. A 2003 study in 
>Nature Neuroscience >>>>> found that blind 
>subjects >>>>> consistently surpassed sighted 
>ones on tests of verbal >>>>> memory >>>>> , and 
>their superior performance was caused, the 
>authors suggested, by >>>>> the extra processing 
>that took place in the visual regions of 
>their >>>>> brains. >>>>> Learning to read is so 
>entwined in the normal course of child >>>>> 
>development that it is easy to assume that our 
>brains are naturally >>>>> wired for print 
>literacy. >>>>> But humans have been reading for 
>fewer than 6,000 years (and literacy >>>>> has 
>been widespread for no more than a century and a 
>half). The >>>>> activity of reading >>>>> 
>itself alters the anatomy of the brain. In a 
>report released in 2009 >>>>> in the journal 
>Nature, the neuroscientist Manuel Carreiras 
>studies >>>>> illiterate former >>>>> guerrillas 
>in Colombia who, after years of combat, had 
>abandoned their >>>>> weapons, left the jungle 
>and rejoined civilization. Carreiras 
>compares >>>>> 20 adults >>>>> who had recently 
>completed a literacy program with 22 people who 
>had >>>>> not yet begun it. In >>>>> 
>M.R.I. >>>>>  scans of their brains, the newly 
>literate subjects showed more gray >>>>> matter 
>in their angular gyri, an area crucial for 
>language processing, >>>>> and more white >>>>> 
>matter in part of the corpus callosum, which 
>links the two >>>>> hemispheres. Deficiencies in 
>these regions were previously observed in >>>>> 
>dyslexics, and the study >>>>> suggests that 
>those brain patterns weren’t the cause of 
>their >>>>> illiteracy, as had been 
>hypothesized, but a result. >>>>> There is no 
>doubt that literacy changes brain circuitry, but 
>how this >>>>> reorganization affects our 
>capacity for language is still a matter of >>>>> 
>debate. In moving >>>>> from written to spoken 
>language, the greatest consequences for 
>blind >>>>> people may not be cognitive but 
>cultural — a loss much harder to >>>>> avoid. In 
>onne of >>>>> the few studies of blind 
>people’s prose, Doug Brent, a professor 
>of >>>>> communication at the University of 
>Calgary, and his wife, Diana Brent, >>>>> a 
>teacher of >>>>> visually impaired students, 
>analyzed stories by students who didn’t >>>>> 
>use Braille but rather composed on a regular 
>keyboard and edited by >>>>> listening to 
>their >>>>> words played aloud. One 16-year-old 
>wrote a fictional story about a >>>>> character 
>named Mark who had “sleep bombs”: >>>>> He 
>looked in the house windo that was his da windo 
>his dad was walking >>>>> around with a mask on 
>he took it off he opend the windo and fell 
>on >>>>> his bed sleeping >>>>> mark took two 
>bombs and tosed them in the windo the popt his 
>dad lept >>>>> up but before he could grab the 
>mask it explodedhe fell down asleep. >>>>> In 
>describing this story and others like it, the 
>Brents invoked the >>>>> literary scholar Walter 
>Ong, who argued that members of literate >>>>> 
>societies think differently >>>>> than members 
>of oral societies. The act of writing, Ong said 
>— the >>>>> ability to revissit your ideas and, 
>in the process, refine them — >>>>>  transformed 
>the shape >>>>> of thought. The Brents 
>characterized the writing of many 
>audio-only >>>>> readers as disorganized, “as 
>if all of their ideas are crammed into a >>>>> 
>container, shaken >>>>> and thrown randomly onto 
>a sheet of paper like dice onto a table.” 
>The >>>>> beginnings and endings of sentences 
>seem arbitrary, one thought >>>>> emerging in 
>the >>>>> midst of another with a kind of 
>breathless energy. The authors >>>>> concluded, 
>“It just doesn’t seem to reflect the 
>qualities of organized >>>>> sequence and 
>complex >>>>> thought that we value in a 
>literate society.” >>>>> OUR DEFINITION of a 
>literate society inevitably shifts as our 
>tools >>>>> for reading and writing evolve, but 
>the brief history of literacy for >>>>> blind 
>people makes >>>>> the prospect of change 
>particularly fraught. Since the 1820s, 
>when >>>>> Louis Braille invented his writing 
>system — so that bliind people would >>>>> no 
>longer be >>>>> “despised or patronized by 
>condescending sighted people,” as he put 
>it >>>>> — there has always been, among blind 
>people, a  political and even >>>>> moral 
>dimension >>>>> to learning to read. Braille is 
>viewed by many as a mark of >>>>> independence, 
>a sign that blind people have moved away from an 
>oral >>>>> culture seen as primitive >>>>> and 
>isolating. In recent years, however, this 
>narrative has been >>>>> complicated. 
>Schoolchildren in developed countries, like the 
>U.S. and >>>>> Britain, are now >>>>> thought to 
>have lower Braille literacy than those in 
>developing ones, >>>>> like Indonesia and 
>Botswana, where there are few alternatives 
>to >>>>> Braille. Tim Connell, >>>>> the 
>managing director of an assistive-technology 
>company in Australia, >>>>> told me that he has 
>heard this described as “one of the advantages 
>of >>>>> being poor.” >>>>> Braille readers do 
>not deny that new reading technology has 
>been >>>>> transformative, but Braille looms so 
>large in the mythology of >>>>> blindness that 
>it has assumed >>>>> a kind of talismanic 
>status. Those who have residual vision and 
>still >>>>> try to read print — very slowlly or 
>by holding the page an inch or two >>>>> from 
>their >>>>> faces — are generally frowned upon 
>by the Nationaal Federation of the >>>>> Blind, 
>which fashions itself as the leader of a civil 
>rights movement >>>>> for the blind. >>>>> Its 
>president, Marc Maurer, a voracious reader, 
>compares Louis Braille to >>>>> Abraham 
>Lincoln >>>>> . At the annual convention for the 
>federation, held at a Detroit >>>>> Marriott 
>last July, I heard the mantra “listening is 
>not literacy” >>>>> repeated everywhere, >>>>> 
>from panels on the Braille crisis to 
>conversations among middle-school >>>>> girls. 
>Horror stories circulating around the convention 
>featured >>>>> children who don’t >>>>> know 
>what a paragraph is or why we capitalize letters 
>or that “happily >>>>> ever after” is made 
>up of three separate words. >>>>> Declaring your 
>own illiteracy seemed to be a rite of passage. A 
>vice >>>>> president of the federation, Fredric 
>Schroeder, served as commissioner >>>>> of the 
>Rehabilitation >>>>> Services Administration 
>under President Clinton and relies 
>primarily >>>>> on audio technologies. He was 
>openly repentant about his lack of >>>>> reading 
>skills. “I >>>>> am now over 50 years old, and 
>it wasn’t until two months ago that I >>>>> 
>realized that ‘dissent,’ to disagree, is 
>different than ‘descent,’ to >>>>> lower 
>something,” >>>>> he told me. “I’m 
>functionally illiterate. People say, ‘Oh, no, 
>you’re >>>>> not.’ Yes, I am. I’m sorry 
>about it, but I’m not embarrassed to 
>admit >>>>> it.” >>>>> While people like Laura 
>Sloate or the governor of New York, >>>>> David 
>A. Paterson >>>>> , who also reads by listening, 
>may be able to achieve without the help >>>>> of 
>Braille, their success requires accommodations 
>that many cannot >>>>> afford. Like 
>Sloate, >>>>> Paterson dictates his memos, and 
>his staff members select pertinent >>>>> 
>newspaper articles for him and read them aloud 
>on his voice mail every >>>>> morning. (He >>>>> 
>calls himself “overassimilated” and told me 
>that as a child he was >>>>> “mainstreamed so 
>much that I psychologically got the message that 
>I’m >>>>> not really supposed >>>>> to be 
>blind.”) Among people with fewer resources, 
>Braille-readers tend >>>>> to form the blind 
>elite, in part because it is more plausible for 
>a >>>>> blind person >>>>> to find work doing 
>intellectual rather than manual labor. >>>>> A 
>1996 study showed that of a sample of visually 
>impaired adults, >>>>> those who learned Braille 
>as children were more than twice as likely >>>>> 
>to be employed as >>>>> those who had not. At 
>the convention this statistic was 
>frequently >>>>> cited with pride, so much so 
>that those who didn’t know Braille were >>>>> 
>sometimes made >>>>> to feel like outsiders. 
>“There is definitely a sense of peer 
>pressure >>>>> from the older guard,” James 
>Brown, a 35-year-old who reads using >>>>> 
>text-to-speech >>>>> software, told me. “If we 
>could live in our own little Braille 
>world, >>>>> then that’d be perfect,” he 
>added. “But we live in a visual 
>world.” >>>>> When deaf people began 
>getting >>>>> cochlear implants >>>>>  in the 
>late 1980s, many in the deaf community felt 
>betrayed. The new >>>>> technology pushed people 
>to think of the disability in a new way — 
>as >>>>> an identity >>>>>> and a culture. 
>Technology has changed the nature of many 
>disabilities, >>>>> lifting the burdens but also 
>complicating people’s sense of what is >>>>> 
>physically natural, >>>>> because bodies can so 
>often be tweaked until “fixed.” 
>Arielle >>>>> Silverman, a graduate student at 
>the convention who has been blind >>>>> since 
>birth, told me that >>>>> if she had the choice 
>to have vision, she was not sure she would 
>take >>>>> it. Recently she purchased a 
>pocket-size reading machine that takes >>>>> 
>photographs of >>>>> text and then reads the 
>words aloud, and she said she thought of >>>>> 
>vision like that, as “just another piece of 
>technology.” >>>>> The modern history of blind 
>people is in many ways a history of >>>>> 
>reading, with the scope of the disability — the 
>extent tto which you >>>>> are viewed as 
>ignorant >>>>> or civilized, helpless or 
>independent — determined largely by youur >>>>> 
>ability to access the printed word. For 150 
>years, Braille books were >>>>> designed to 
>function >>>>> as much as possible like print 
>books. But now the computer has >>>>> 
>essentially done away with the limits of form, 
>because information, >>>>> once it has been 
>digitized, >>>>> can be conveyed through sound 
>or touch. For sighted people, the >>>>> 
>transition from print to digital text has been 
>relatively subtle, but >>>>> for many blind 
>people >>>>> the shift to computerized speech is 
>an unwelcome and uncharted >>>>> experiment. In 
>grappling with what has been lost, several 
>federation >>>>> members recited to >>>>> me 
>various takes on the classic expression Scripta 
>manent, verba >>>>> volant: What is written 
>remains, what is spoken vanishes into air. >>>>> 
>Rachel Aviv is a Rosalynn Carter fellow for 
>mental-health journalism >>>>> with the Carter 
>Center and writes frequently on education for 
>The >>>>> Times. >>>>> -- >>>>> The National 
>Federation of the Blind has launched a 
>nationwide teacher >>>>> recruitment campaign to 
>help attract energetic and passionate >>>>> 
>individuals into the field of blindness 
>education, and we need your >>>>> help!   To Get 
>Involved  go to: >>>>> 
>www.TeachBlindStudents.org >>>>> "And if you 
>will join me in this improbable quest, if you 
>feel destiny >>>>> calling, and see as I see, a 
>future of endless possibility stretching >>>>> 
>before us; >>>>> if you sense, as I sense, that 
>the time is now to shake off our >>>>> slumber, 
>and slough off our fear, and make good on the 
>debt we owe >>>>> past and future 
>generations, >>>>> then I'm ready to take up the 
>cause, and march with you, and work with >>>>> 
>you. Together, starting today, let us finish the 
>work that needs to be >>>>> done, and >>>>> 
>usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."-