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<DIV>Someone please send a request to Governor Charlie Crist to proclaim Friday
, Oct. 15 as White Cane Safety Day in Florida.</DIV>
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<H1>White Cane Safety Day: A Symbol of Independence<O></O></H1>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">by Marc
Maurer<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">In February of 1978 a young
blind lady said, “I encounter people all of the time who bless me, extol my
independence, call me brave and courageous, and thoroughly miss the boat as to
what the real significance of the white cane is.”<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">The National Federation of the
Blind in convention assembled on the 6th day of July, 1963, called upon the
governors of the fifty states to proclaim October 15 of each year as White
Cane Safety Day in each of our fifty states. On October 6, 1964, a joint
resolution of the Congress, HR 753, was signed into law authorizing the
President of the United States to proclaim October 15 of each year as “White
Cane Safety Day.” This resolution said: “Resolved by the Senate and House of
Representatives…, that the President is hereby authorized to issue annually a
proclamation designating October 15 as White Cane Safety Day and calling upon
the people of the United States to observe such a day with appropriate
ceremonies and activities.”<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Within hours of the passage of
the congressional joint resolution authorizing the President to proclaim
October 15 as White Cane Safety Day, then President Lyndon B. Johnson
recognized the importance of the white cane as a staff of independence for
blind people. In the first Presidential White Cane Proclamation President
Johnson commended the blind for the growing spirit of independence and the
increased determination to be self-reliant that the organized blind had shown.
The Presidential proclamation said:<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">The white cane in our society
has become one of the symbols of a blind person’s ability to come and go on
his own. Its use has promoted courtesy and special consideration to the blind
on our streets and highways. To make our people more fully aware of the
meaning of the white cane and of the need for motorists to exercise special
care for the blind persons who carry it Congress, by a joint resolution
approved as of October 6, 1964, has authorized the President to proclaim
October 15 of each year as White Cane Safety Day.<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Now, therefore, I, Lyndon B.
Johnson, President of the United States of America do hereby proclaim October
15, 1964 as White Cane Safety Day.<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">With those stirring words
President Johnson issued the first White Cane Proclamation which was the
culmination of a long and serious effort on the part of the National
Federation of the Blind to gain recognition for the growing independence and
self-sufficiency of blind people in America, and also to gain recognition of
the white cane as the symbol of that independence and that
self-reliance.<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">The first of the state laws
regarding the right of blind people to travel independently with the white
cane was passed in 1930. In 1966, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founder of the
National Federation of the Blind, drafted the model White Cane Law. This model
act--which has become known as the Civil Rights Bill for the Blind, the
Disabled, and the Otherwise Physically Handicapped-–contains a provision
designating October 15 as White Cane Safety Day. Today there is a variant of
the White Cane Law on the statute books of every state in the
nation.<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">From 1963 (and even before)
when the National Federation of the Blind sought to have White Cane Safety Day
proclaimed as a recognition of the rights of blind persons, to 1978 when a
blind pedestrian met with misunderstanding regarding the true meaning of the
white cane, is but a short time in the life of a movement. In 1963, a
comparatively small number of blind people had achieved sufficient
independence to travel alone on the busy highways of our nation. In 1978 that
number has not simply increased but multiplied a hundredfold. The process
began in the beginning of the organized blind movement and continues today.
There was a time when it was unusual to see a blind person on the street, to
find a blind person working in an office, or to see a blind person operating
machinery in a factory. This is still all too uncommon. But it happens more
often and the symbol of this independence is the white cane. The blind are
able to go, to move, to be, and to compete with all others in society. The
means by which this is done is that simple tool, the white cane. With the
growing use of the white cane is an added element–-the wish and the will to be
free–-the unquenchable spirit and the inextinguishable determination to be
independent. With these our lives are changed, and the prospects for blind
people become bright. That is what White Cane Safety Day is all about. That is
what we do in the National Federation of the Blind<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><A title=http://www.nfb.org/nfb/model_white_cane_bill.asp?SnID=1772185191 href="http://www.nfb.org/nfb/model_white_cane_bill.asp?SnID=1772185191">Model
White Cane Law</A><O></O></SPAN></P>
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