[nabs-l] Why Are You a Member of the NFB?
Karl Martin Adam
kmaent1 at gmail.com
Tue Jan 20 17:00:31 UTC 2015
Hi Elizabeth, I understand why you might want to be vague about
exactly what your negative experiences have been, but this makes
it difficult for any of us to give you constructive answers.
Without knowing what problems you've had and how they came about,
we can't tell you what we've done differently or point out that
we've interacted with different people or realize that we
evaluate certain things as being less negative or anything like
that. At least in my case, one difference in our experience is
probably that I've never had a need or desire to contact the
president of the organization or anyone that powerful and busy.
My interactions have been mostly with ordinary members, who have
in the vast majority of cases been open and welcoming. I'm also
primarily a member because I support the NFB's advocacy goals,
not because I'm looking for self-affirmation from leadership.
That being said, when I was young, I was involved in the local
mentoring program led by Allan Harris where I learned Braille and
my basic mobility skills, which was overwhelmingly a positive
experience. As Arielle said, it is very sad that you, and
others, have had negative experiences, and we should all work to
reduce those as much as possible. I hope that you can feel
comfortable enough to talk about exactly what problems you've
had, so that people can try to fix them. Of course, I can think
of many reasons you might not want to do that, so please don't
feel pressured in any way.
Best,
Karl
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: "'Manners, Derek'" <dmanners at jd16.law.harvard.edu>,"'National
Association of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 10:47:32 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Why Are You a Member of the NFB?
Hello Justin,
Thank you for sharing your experience with the National
Federation of the
Blind. However, I am honestly wondering if we are talking about
the same
organization here as my overall experience with the National
Federation of
the Blind is absolutely nothing like what you have described in
this email.
What do you believe accounts for these differences? What makes
your overall
experience so positive while my overall experience has been so
negative? Why
have you been able to find encouraging words from people who
truly seem to
care about you while I have mostly received criticism and
rejection from
peple who do not seem to care all that much about me? I have a
lot more
questions, but I am honestly not sure which ones would be
appropriate to
post on such a public email list.
And for those of you who believe my negative experience with the
National
Federation of the Blind simply stems from a bad interaction with
leaders on
a local level, I simply do not agree with you. My negative
experience with
the National Federation of the Blind appears to occur at all
levels of the
organization. Whether it be my first interaction with an NFB
board member,
an email exchange with the new President of the NFB, interactions
with the
NABS board, or interactions with state affiliate and local
chapter leaders,
I would say that most of these interactions are nothing like what
you have
described in your email.
And so I am just wondering, and I have been wondering this for
quite some
time now, why are there such drastic differences between what I
have
experienced as a member of the National Federation of the Blind
and what
others have experienced as members of the National Federation of
the Blind?
I honestly feel as though I have been sold a lot of empty
promises and false
advertising because for me the NFB has never really been anything
that
anyone has ever told me it would be. Hopefully, I have framed my
questions
in such a way that they elicit a constructive positive dialog
rather than
offend anyone who believes my overall experience with the
National
Federation of the Blind could possibly be anything less than
positive.
Warm regards,
Elizabeth
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Manners, Derek
via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 11:03 PM
To: Justin Salisbury; National Association of Blind Students
mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Why Are You a Member of the NFB?
I would add to Justin's words and say that the main reason I
chose the
National Federation of the Blind over the ACB is that the NFB
tries to make
the word accessible for blind people and expects us to be a part
of it.
For example, in Massachusetts, our state treasurer (a blind
Harvard
graduate) was the first blind teacher in America in large part
due to
pressure and advocacy from the NFB. The NFB of MA pushed for
blind people
to be able to buy life insurance for the same price as sighted
people and
not to be discriminated against due to our disability. The NFB
of MA also
pushed to allow blind people to serve on juries. Can you imagine
a world in
which we could not sit on juries despite being lawyers,
scientists,
teachers, etc.? We are continuing to make strides in accessible
voting,
accessible ATMs, accessible taxis. However, these efforts were
started by
the NFB. The reason Apple and iTunes are so accessible is
because of
lawsuits by the NFB.
Those efforts of the past have made the world a better place for
blind
people. If our generation has as much success, the world will be
that much
closer to full accessibility and that is why I'm with the NFB.
I understand that some states are better than others and that it
can be very
frustrating when you don't feel like you can work with the people
in your
state. I'd be happy to talk to you off list about those issues
as I had a
similar issue in Massachusetts when I first joined. Our state
president at
the time was overwhelmed by the job and did not respond to me for
months at
a time.
Best Wishes
Derek Manners
On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 10:26 PM, Justin Salisbury via nabs-l <
nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Dear Elizabeth,
Thank you for catalyzing this discussion. I'm going to reply
with my
knee-jerk answers and may follow up later if more ideas develop.
I
think the answer that comes by reflex can be the most authentic.
Why do you choose to be a member of the National Federation of
the Blind?
The National Federation of the Blind has created so many
opportunities
for me and changed the world before I was even born. When I
became a
blind person in 2005, the society that I faced was much better
because
of the 65 years of work of the National Federation of the Blind.
I
believe it is my duty to the people who came before me (people I
will
never meet) and to those blind people of the future to carry the
baton
and run my leg of the race. I actually keep a quote from Dr.
Jernigan's speech about climbing the stairs to freedom in my
email
signature. You can read it if you like.
I also have found so many mentors through the Federation who
have
changed my life by changing how I look at it. Before I found the
Federation, I used to wield blindness as a source of pity to get
scholarship money and to impress news reporters with the fact
that I
would get out of bed every morning. At my first NFB event, a
state
convention where I was a scholarship winner, I was trying to
complain
about how hard science was as a blind person. Three blind people
surrounded me and started encouraging me, telling me that the
Federation would help me get through it. They were a chemist, a
civil
engineer, and an environmental scientist. I wanted pity, but
they
wouldn't let me give up on myself. Still today, we have 50,000
blind
people who won't accept low expectations for blind people. We
have
training centers that give people their lives back-or give them
the lives
they never had but always deserved. I can't not be a part of
that.
If you believe your experience with the National Federation of
the
blind is a positive one, what do you believe are the key factors
that
you believe makes your experience positive rather than negative?
1. Good Mentoring
2. Good Blind Role Models
3. Learning about leadership
4. Helping other people by empowering them 5. Nourishment in the
philosophy that equips me to face the low expectations in
society and
do it effectively 6. Friendship with a lot of great people 7.
Let's
not forget all the fun! Things like room parties at national
convention, pie-in-the-face fundraisers, latin dancing, you name
it!
And finally, what do you believe are the current strengths of
the
National Federation of the Blind as it looks into the future?
1. Relationship-oriented leadership: our personal relationships
in our
movement help carry us through the tough times and are still fun
in
the good times 2. Focus on a common goal: We're all fighting for
the
same thing.
3. Giving each other second chances: For example, I made some
pretty
bad mistakes in my campaign for NABS President, and a lot of the
NABS
members and leaders-and National Federation of the Blind members
and
leaders-could have chosen to never let me live those down. The
totem
animal in my Native American name is the Phoenix, which can
burst into
flame and be reborn any time it wants to reinvent itself. I have
been
able to reinvent myself, but a necessary part of that is others'
willingness to let me. I bring this up because, no matter what
it is
that people have on you or against you, if they are truly
leaders in
our movement, they will give you a chance to reinvent yourself.
It's
all about us getting to the same common goals, right?
4. We have a rock-solid understanding of something that is true.
The
National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characterist 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.
With much love for my Federation family,
Justin Salisbury
Justin Salisbury - Running Thunder Phoenix Graduate Student
Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness
Louisiana
Tech University
Email: jms132 at latech.edu
Twitter: @SalisburyJustin
But, of course, we will not fail. We will continue to climb. Our
heritage demands it; our faith confirms it; our humanity
requires it.
Whatever the sacrifice, we will make it. Whatever the price, we
will
pay it. Seen from this perspective, the hostility and backlash
(the
challenges and
confrontations) are hardly worth noticing. They are only an
irritant.
My brothers and my sisters, the future is ours. Come! Join me on
the
stairs, and we will finish the journey.
- Dr. Kenneth Jernigan
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Elizabeth
Mohnke via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 8:52 PM
To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
Subject: [nabs-l] Why Are You a Member of the NFB?
Hello All,
It appears to me that I have started to become a rather
disheartened
member of the NFB. Although, I am sure some of you would argue
that I
am already there. Anyway, as I try to work through the questions
that
seem to keep rumbling through my mind, I thought I would ask a
few
questions to spur on some discussion on this email list.
Why do you choose to be a member of the National Federation of
the Blind?
If you believe your experience with the National Federation of
the
blind is a positive one, what do you believe are the key factors
that
you believe makes your experience positive rather than negative?
And
finally, what do you believe are the current strengths of the
National
Federation of the Blind as it looks into the future?
Please feel free to answer any or all of the questions, or any
other
question related to these ones. If you feel as though you relate
more
to being a member of the National Association of Blind Students
rather
than the National Federation of the Blind as a whole, you can
answer
these questions from this point of view as well.
I look forward to hearing your responses.
Warm regards,
Elizabeth
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