[nagdu] NFB vs. private activism WAS RE: Fake service dogs newsstory
Angie Matney
angie.matney at gmail.com
Fri Dec 4 01:34:33 UTC 2009
Hi Tami,
Your account of the children and adults you saw at convention reminded me of
part of Dr. Jernigan's speech, The Nature of Independence. After explaining
to a group of students why the canes he used grew loner and loner over the
years, he said:
I've told you all of this so that you may understand something of my
background and approach to independence in travel, and independence in
general. The doctors who established the medical schools a hundred years ago
were (with notable exceptions) not generally as competent and skilled as the
doctors they trained, for they did not have the benefit of the kind of
concentrated teaching they themselves were providing. Obviously they could
not stand on their own shoulders. Through their students they extended their
dreams into the future, building possibilities that they themselves had not
known and could never hope to realize.
So it is with me in relation to you. You are the third generation of our
mobility trainees, having the benefit of what I have learned and also of
what Joanne and the other Iowa graduates have learned. Unless you make
advances over what we have done, you will, in a very real sense, fail to
keep faith with those who have gone before you and those who will follow. In
this context I would expect and hope that some of you will become better
travelers (and, perhaps, better philosophers and teachers) than I, and if
you do, I will take joy in it.
The whole speech can be found here:
http://bit.ly/1cV4QG
Angie
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