[nabs-l] Why Are You a Member of the NFB?

Tue Jan 20 21:55:09 UTC 2015

Elizabeth,
I've had positive and negative experiences.
My experience is not like justin's either.
I do feel some encouragement from local members but much of it I feel leaves 
me alone to fight my struggles.
Examples: they are older people with job security; they have no struggles 
filling out online applications, no issues getting promotions at work, seem 
to have few transit issues, and no struggles of accessibility  due 
inaccessible material as a student.

So why is it different from member to member?

I'd guess it’s the following

1. nfb is made of individuals. Some have better people skills than others.
Some join to fight for change nationally like protests and lobbying and 
others join to assist you on a more micro level through every day 
challenges. Example: most in my local chapter seem aloof and I'd say they 
are active to do things nationally, the  macro level.
But only a few get you on the micro level; like being a mentor. like if you 
have a tech question, they answer it.

2. In general I find older federationists to be set in their ways and less 
open to doing things differently.
This may have been your experience, I do not know. I can tell you I've 
visited a few chapters in the state, and they have almost nothing in common.
Yes, they are all still NFB, but the dynamics and personalities of people 
and issues brought up at local meetings varies widely.

3. Just like any movement, people express it differently. Perhaps those you 
encountered were say, stuck up and brag about their success. But, many are 
not like this. Many live the philosophy and don't brag about themselves.

All good questions. Thanks for asking and later when I have time, if you 
want more of my experiences, I'll state them off list. just let me know. but 
I'm out of town tomorrow, so maybe next week.

Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:47 AM
To: 'Manners, Derek' ; 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
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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