[nfb-talk] NY Times Article on Gov. Paterson and Braille

[Mike Freeman]

Joe:

You will be disappointed with my answer below.  However, I would ask that 
you not misinterpret it.  In what I shall say, I'm not saying "we can't".  I 
*am* saying that there are good resons reasons we face some of the 
difficulties we do.

In both the mentoring program and the BEL program, it's often not a question 
of lack of will or lack of training.  In quite a few affiliates, it's simply 
a matter of lack of warm bodies to do the work.  I know that's hard for 
people in affiliates such as Texas, new York, Virginia and Massachusetts to 
conceive.  But we in Washington were asked if we wished to participate in 
the BELL program last year and although we would have loved to have done so, 
we did not.  Why?  WE simply didn't have the people to make the program 
work.  Out here, we are very often Shakespeare's WE Happy Few.  WE 
acccomplish a lot for the number of members we have.  But it's hard to 
expand when our membership is insufficient, we do not have staff and do not 
have the funding to make the programs a success.

You may object that we should do more fund-raising and recruiting.  I agree. 
But these efforts do not bring instant fruit.  But, like WPA, we poke along.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] NY Times Article on Gov. Paterson and Braille


> David,
>
> The number of entry points to blindness are as plentiful as our membership
> is diverse.  I completely acknowledge that the issue is vast and that 
> there
> is no one single approach to eradicating poor education systems,
> rehabilitation establishments, and uninformed parents, but I dare say 
> there
> is more we could do to make the issue a more central part of what the NFB 
> as
> a whole is accomplishing.  For instance, am I correct that the Bell 
> program
> only exists in certain states?  Is this also true of the mentoring 
> program?
> How did the NFB go about procuring the funds to make these programs
> possible, and how can states educate themselves on how to make these
> programs available in other areas?  How could Affiliate Action play a more
> vital role in not just recruiting new members, but turning our existing
> members into informed advocates who can communicate more fluently with
> teachers, counselors and relevant providers about higher expectations for
> their clients?  Is it possible for us to engage a public relations 
> campaign
> with the magnitude of the Blind Driver Challenge to send a singular 
> powerful
> message that visual impairment of any degree can and should be addressed
> with the highest of expectations?  I don't expect all the answers, but I
> guess I'm also not looking for more reasons why the issue of closing the 
> gap
> between the so-called partially sighted and the totally blind is so
> insurmountable.
>
> Best,
>
> Joe
>
> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfb-talk mailing list
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org