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

[Kenneth Chrane]

Poking Along is not enough.
We need to take to the streets and deminstrate for our rights like the 
blacks did in the 1960's.
Ken Chrane

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: <jsorozco at gmail.com>; "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] NY Times Article on Gov. Paterson and Braille


> 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
>>
>>
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>
>
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