[nabs-l] Why I am a Federationist: A Partial’s Perspective

Fri Oct 3 04:44:07 UTC 2014

sounds good.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Derek Manners via nabs-l" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
To: "Darian Smith" <dsmithnfb at gmail.com>; "National Association of Blind 
Students mailing list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2014 11:39 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Why I am a Federationist: A Partial’s Perspective


> As someone who has the legal threshold minimum  for being considered 
> blind, I couldn't agree more with this piece. While i can rely on my sight 
> for a number of things, I still utilize techniques to overcome 
> difficulties that arise due to poor vision. Furthermore, many of the 
> issues that affect me, transportation, accessible education and work place 
> materials, technology, etc, are issues that I can't change alone but can 
> begin to make step by step improvements within society with the help of my 
> new federation family.
>
> The NFB is for everyone who has trouble seeing, no matter how good your 
> sight is, relatively speaking of course. We are all blind even if it isn't 
> always easy to admit our limitations as partially sighted individuals.
>
> Best wishes
> Derek Manners
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Oct 3, 2014, at 12:00 AM, Darian Smith via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>> I found this  and wanted to get people’s thoughts here.
>> Most people think that the NFB is only for people who are totally blind.
>>
>> do you think  it to be true? and what does this piece offer you once you 
>> read it?
>>
>> BEst,
>>   Darian
>>
>>
>>
>> Why I am a Federationist: A Partial’s Perspective
>> by Meleah Jensen
>>
>> Henry David Thoreau once said "I went to the woods because I wished to 
>> live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of 
>> life to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not 
>> learn what it had to teach, and that when I came to die discover that I 
>> had not lived.” Just as Thoreau went in to the woods, I went to the NFB. 
>> I am a federationist because it has been only through my learning about 
>> and becoming a part of the federation that I have truly begun to live 
>> deliberately, and suck out the marrow of life.
>>
>> When I was growing up, I had no positive blind role models, nor did I see 
>> myself as being blind. To me the word blind had an extremely negative 
>> connotation, and was definitely something I did not want to be. It wasn’t 
>> until I was introduced to the NFB that I gained not only positive role 
>> models, but also a better understanding of what being blind truly meant.
>>
>> I had my first exposure to the NFB during my freshman year of high school 
>> when my VI teacher gave me a letter telling about a student seminar in 
>> Ruston Louisiana. My first thought was where in the world is Ruston?
>>
>> I went to the seminar not exactly sure of what to expect; little did I 
>> know that not only was I opening the door to great future opportunities, 
>> but I was also laying the bricks of my foundation towards a positive 
>> attitude about blindness. I came away from that weekend amazed by what I 
>> had seen. I will always remember many of the events of the weekend but 
>> there is one that will stand out in my mind the most. On that Saturday 
>> afternoon we were sent on a scavenger hunt. We were divided up into 
>> groups and given a list of things to locate and bring back from various 
>> spots in town (for those of you who don’t know, Ruston is small enough to 
>> permit this to be done easily). The leader of my group was totally blind; 
>> I had absolutely no idea how we would go about doing this since she 
>> seemed to be the only one who supposedly knew her way around Ruston. We 
>> set out on our journey around town. I was utterly amazed how well she 
>> knew the town. No blind person I had met before could walk around a room 
>> without assistance much less a whole town. It was during that experience 
>> that I realized that there actually were blind people who could function 
>> independently.
>>
>> Over the next couple of years, I continued to build my philosophy through 
>> attending student seminars, and talking with positive blind people. In 
>> 1998 I attended the Summer Training and Employment Project (STEP) at the 
>> Louisiana Center for the Blind. While in the STEP program I was taut 
>> Braille, cane travel, and many other important skills. I was also given 
>> the opportunity to attend my first national convention. In addition to 
>> all of this the STEP program is where I began to shape my philosophy into 
>> what it is today. It made me start to realize just why it was important 
>> to be a part of the federation. For the first time I realized that I was 
>> not alone. I had a network of people just like me. They not only 
>> understood, but also lived and overcame some of the very same issues I 
>> had been struggling with every day.
>>
>> Through this shared understanding it became more and more apparent to me 
>> that I was in fact blind. Since these federationists were normal and 
>> shared many of my experiences, it slowly became ok for me to admit that I 
>> too was blind. Unfortunately, this process didn't occur over night. I was 
>> a little resistant at first it took a few years for me to fully 
>> understand just what being in the federation could truly be about. During 
>> my freshman year of college I began to realize that the quote sighted 
>>  way” of doing things would not always work well for me. I had been able 
>> to depend on my sight for so long that it took me a while to accept that 
>> it no longer was the most efficient way to accomplish things. 
>> Unfortunately by the time I had realized this I had to struggle through 
>> many tough situations such as trying to take print notes in a dark 
>> classroom. After I would return from class I would look at my notes and 
>> see that I had to rewrite them because they were extremely sloppy. I also 
>> had problems traveling around at night. I walked slowly, and I found it 
>> hard to keep up with my friends. I still went out at night, but I found 
>> myself looking really awkward. Actually I found myself looking awkward in 
>> a lot of areas because of my lack of skills. Once I knew and accepted 
>> that I needed the skills of blindness in order to be successful I made 
>> the decision to attend the centers adult training program. It was during 
>> my time at the center that my transformation was completed. I not only 
>> grew in my attitudes towards blindness, but in my skills and confidence 
>> in my self as well.
>>
>> Since completing my training I have returned to school. I have compared 
>> my experiences then and now and they are like night and day! I still have 
>> things that I have problems accomplishing in the course of a day, but now 
>> I can say that I have those problems simply because there aren’t enough 
>> hours in the day, not because of my blindness getting in the way; but 
>> what college student sighted or blind doesn’t have these issues?
>>
>> Through all of these experiences, I too have become a federationist. I am 
>> now a part of that network of blind people that has come to mean so much 
>> to me throughout many aspects of my life. I am so glad to be able to be a 
>> part of an organization like the NFB. Now that I have finally recognized 
>> that I am blind and that it is truly respectable to be blind I have the 
>> chance, through this organization, to share my knowledge and experiences 
>> with others.
>>
>> It is so important for us as blind people to work together in the 
>> federation to live our movement each day and share our philosophy with 
>> others. By doing this we will all be able to live deliberately and suck 
>> out all the marrow of life.
>>
>>
>>
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