[Nfb-or] Commission for the Blind rally

[Tami Kinney]

Mike,
I can't answer for Art or the organizers of the rally.

However, I would like to ask you if you believe that continuing the 
practice of keeping quiet and accepting the status quo is likely to 
result in any change in the system.

In my opinion, the lack of improvement in all these years can only have 
continued because we, the blind of Oregon, have been so willing to 
accept it. Those individuals who don't find it acceptable get a whole 
lot of pressure to get themselves back into line and follow the "sit 
down and shut up" rule. The vendors, by going public as a block, are 
getting the same response. Yup. It is up to them to sit down and shut up 
and stop whining and pointing fingers like children.

While I do not know any of the Oregon vendors enough to ask them 
directly, I tend to believe that they, like me, do not find their 
incomes and careers to be kid stuff. Those with whom I do have some 
acquaintance appear to have enough intelligence to have grasped by now 
that communicating with the agency and getting together with them to 
find a resolution, as I hear they are still expected to do, is a waste 
of time and energy and resources with no result to be had.

It is not the responsibility of the vendors, any more than it is of any 
given individual consumer, to do the agency's job for it or to supervise 
the state employees there in performing the jobs they are paid to do. 
And those state employees have by now made it very, very clear that they 
have no intention of doing the jobs they are paid to do, in deed and in 
word. This is true from the bottom up, through to the Board. I've only 
heard snippets and bits and pieces so far in the fallout from this 
latest documented failure of the agency, but I'm getting a strong whiff 
of the same response we've seen so far.

A one-hour rally on a Monday afternoon ain't much, but it's a start. 
It's a chance to stand together for a change to indicate that we, the 
blind of Oregon, do not accept what is unacceptable. That is a pretty 
profound change in approach, believe me. And I see it as a far better 
route to saving ourselves and those who follow from more of the same. If 
we continue to do nothing, to accept, to stop whining like children who 
just want a bunch of free stuff even if it means stealing scarce 
resources from blind people who need them... Well, Then we all deserve 
what we get, don't we?

Tami

On 10/18/2011 08:19 PM, Mike Freeman wrote:
> Are you not setting yourself up by going public to force the Governor to back Linda?
>
> Mike Freeman
> sent from my iPhone
>
>
> On Oct 18, 2011, at 18:02, Tami Kinney<tamara.8024 at comcast.net>  wrote:
>
>> YESSSS!!!!!
>>
>> Oh, you betcha!
>>
>> TamiOn 10/18/2011 01:26 PM, T. Joseph Carter wrote:
>>> Passed along by request.
>>>
>>> Joseph
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>
>>> There will be a rally at the Oregon Commission for the Blind on Monday, October 24th, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM.  The recent secretary of state's audit and articles in the newspapers show that the administrator, Linda Mock, and the director of the Oregon vending program need to be replaced.  I'm very concerned that if they are not replaced, we could lose our commission board as it exist or even worse, our separate agency.
>>>
>>> Please join me in sending a positive message to our governor, the secretary of state's office and all Oregonians that the past performance of OCB management is unacceptable.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Art Stevenson
>>>
>>>
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