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<p>This was an outstanding presentation. Those who spoke after his
speech were clearly unnerved by having to talk after it. Dr.
Maurer was speechless and Ray Kurzweil referred to the difficulty
of talking after such a presentation.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">
<b>David in Clearwater, FL</b><br>
<b><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:david@bakerinet.com">david@bakerinet.com</a><br>
<br>
</b></div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/11/2018 2:47 PM, tampa President
via NFBF-Tampa wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:13042E89-AAC8-4586-8DA8-1A155C4DA55B@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<div>Check out this year's banquet speech, all details are listed
below. Thanks<br>
<br>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-- <br>
Miranda b. Kilby</span>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ph: <a
dir="ltr" href="tel:%28352%29942-0417"
x-apple-data-detectors="true"
x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone"
x-apple-data-detectors-result="2" moz-do-not-send="true">(352)942-0417</a></span></div>
</div>
<div><br>
Begin forwarded message:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><b>From:</b> Denise Valkema via Nfbf-l <<a
href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org" moz-do-not-send="true">nfbf-l@nfbnet.org</a>><br>
<b>Date:</b> July 11, 2018 at 11:38:13 AM EDT<br>
<b>To:</b> NFBF <<a href="mailto:nfbf-leaders@nfbnet.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">nfbf-leaders@nfbnet.org</a>>, NFBF
<<a href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org" moz-do-not-send="true">nfbf-l@nfbnet.org</a>><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Denise Valkema <<a
href="mailto:valkemadenise@aol.com" moz-do-not-send="true">valkemadenise@aol.com</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> <b>[Nfbf-l] 2018 Banquet speech</b><br>
<b>Reply-To:</b> NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List <<a
href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org" moz-do-not-send="true">nfbf-l@nfbnet.org</a>><br>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><span></span><br>
<span><a
href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/convent/banquet-speech-2018-2.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/convent/banquet-speech-2018-2.html</a></span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Authenticity, Diversity, and the Synergy of the
Organized Blind</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>An Address Delivered by</span><br>
<span>Mark A. Riccobono, President</span><br>
<span>At the Banquet of the Annual Convention</span><br>
<span>Of the National Federation of the Blind</span><br>
<span>Orlando, Florida</span><br>
<span>July 8, 2018</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Any single moment in time can be an opportunity for
reflection, for commitment, or for action. That we share
this moment together means that we combine our unique
perspectives, backgrounds, and talents into one unified
experience. Publisher Malcolm Forbes noted that diversity is
“the art of thinking independently together.” Artist Vincent
Van Gogh explained that “great things are done by a series
of small things brought together.” And Aristotle is credited
with observing that “the whole is greater than the sum of
its parts.” This philosophical musing has now been applied
in almost every aspect of life—from the Gestalt
psychological theory that, “the whole is something else than
the sum of its parts,” to applications in physiology,
economics, and theology.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>This concept is now better known as synergy, from the
Latin word synergia meaning working together. Synergy is
broadly understood to be a mutually advantageous conjunction
or compatibility of distinct participants or elements.
Leadership coach Stephen Covey describes it this way:
“Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a
hundred or even a thousand! It's the profound result when
two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond
their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.” In this
construction, synergy can be understood as the product of
successful organizing. One of the best examples of synergy
that I have experienced in my life is the organized blind
movement. What are the distinct characteristics that have
allowed us to achieve synergy, and how can we continue to
grow the exponential impact of our combined effort?</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Blindness has almost always been understood to be a
characteristic that distinguishes one as lacking ability.
Throughout the centuries the fear of darkness shaped the
myths about blindness that were shared through oral
storytelling and later retold in written works. On many
occasions, the blind attempted to come together to move
beyond the myths, but they were always marginalized or
overtaken by people having the distinct trait of keen
eyesight. The dominance of the vision-centered approach
resulted in deeply rooted misconceptions about blindness
and pushed blind people to the fringe of society—we did not
belong. By the twentieth century it seemed as though the
great misunderstanding of blindness was unstoppable. That
was until blind women and men in the United States gained
enough momentum to begin to organize and share their
authentic insights.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>In the fall of 1940, representatives of seven state
organizations of the blind came together to form a unified
national organization of blind people led by elected blind
leaders—the National Federation of the Blind. Dr. Jacobus
tenBroek, a blind scholar of constitutional law, was elected
as our first President, and his leadership was critical to
keeping the new organization together. For nearly eight
decades we have distinguished our movement by continuing to
build on the authentic organizational principles that
brought us together. The hopes, dreams, and actions of a
diverse and committed corps of individual blind people,
unified in purpose, and led by elected blind representatives
have resulted in synergy. When others who are not elected by
the blind have attempted to knock us off course, we have
held the line. When those who choose not to join together
with us have tried to divide us, we have held more tightly
to the bonds that connect us. When others have said the
blind cannot, we have followed our dreams and made them come
true. With synergy, we are the blind—the National Federation
of the Blind.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Blindness is merely one of a thousand characteristics we
individually bring to this movement. Yet for our
organization blindness is preeminent to our mission and our
governance structure. In everything we have done, we have
kept a strong and singular focus on blind people. Although
we welcome those who do not possess the characteristic of
blindness as members, collectively they may not constitute a
majority of our membership and they cannot run our governing
boards.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Kenneth Jernigan, the second great President of the
National Federation of the Blind, articulated our philosophy
regarding the definition of blindness this way: “One is
blind to the extent that the individual must devise
alternative techniques to do efficiently those things which
he would do if he had normal vision. An individual may
properly be said to be “blind” or a “blind person” when he
has to devise so many alternative techniques—that is, if he
is to function efficiently—that his pattern of daily living
is substantially altered.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Under this functional definition of blindness, we
reflect one class of people—blind people—a class that
deserves equal treatment. There are those who attempt to
divide us based upon how much remaining eyesight we
have—carving us into categories such as low vision, visually
impaired, hard of seeing, partially sighted, visually
challenged, and that most feared group, the totals. We
reject this hierarchical vision-centered approach which
threatens our common bond and our unified interests. While
some of us may use visual techniques now and then, as blind
people we recognize that vision is not a requirement for
success in the world. Blindness is our primary distinction
and it gives us authenticity and power, but when we choose
to determine our own direction and speak for ourselves, it
transforms into synergy.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>An important second distinction fuels the synergy of our
movement—equality. Since our founding, we have taken
responsibility for setting the standard of equality for the
participation of the blind in society. We have rejected
society’s second-class accommodations. We have never sought
greater advantages than our sighted peers, but we have
insisted upon equality of opportunity and freedom from
artificial barriers. Over time, we have raised the
expectations for equal treatment. One example is our
participation in voting for public officials. Blind people
were once forced to have their paper ballot filled out by
whomever the polling place assigned as a scribe—the blind
did not have a choice. We fought for the right of blind
people to vote independently by bringing a person of their
own choosing into the voting booth. Today, we favor a new
standard of equality where the blind use the same voting
systems as every other voter with the expectation that the
electronic machines will be fully accessible and our ballots
will look the same, allowing us to cast a vote independently
and privately. We must continue to explore the limits and
evaluate equality within our movement and throughout the
broader society.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Equality contributes to our synergy in another important
way—it strengthens our diversity. Blindness is not
constrained by race, gender, economic status, or any of a
thousand other characteristics. Therefore, if we are going
to be a movement of blind people who synergize around
equality, we must reflect a diverse range of blind people
with a large variation in characteristics beyond blindness.
We must continue to value and cultivate diversity, as we
have in the past, and we should guard against our diversity
becoming a fracture that divides us as blind people.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>I have been reflecting upon what we know about blind
people throughout history and during the time of the
National Federation of the Blind. A pattern of leadership is
evident that I believe exemplifies the value we place on
equality within our movement. In the stories of blind people
prior to our founding, most of the prominent figures are men
not women. Consider the nineteenth century essays of James
Wilson that profiled blind people in a series of volumes
entitled Biography of the Blind. Wilson profiles sixty-three
blind individuals, but only seven are women. While a handful
of other stories of blind women have surfaced since Wilson
published his sketches in the 1800s, the record is still
thin.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Women have faced social, economic, and political
barriers that have created inequality compared to men and
their stories have been under recorded in history. Blind
women, faced with the twin low expectations of being female
and having the most feared disability, blindness, have been
limited in opportunities to pursue their dreams. The lack of
adequate training for blind people before the organized
blind movement contributed to blind women being considered
inadequate for even stereotypical roles in society. The full
participation of blind women has been further complicated by
efforts like the eugenics movement that reached its height
in the early part of the twentieth century. Proponents of
eugenics believed in selective breeding, which led to a
movement to pass state laws requiring forced sterilization
of the poor and disabled. These forced sterilization
programs largely impacted women with disabilities and
contributed to misconceptions about the capacity of the
blind to be effective parents—a painful history we are still
trying to overcome.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>In contrast, the role of blind women within the National
Federation of the Blind is clear and powerful. This evening
I seek to highlight a sampling of the hundreds of female
leaders of our movement whose stories illuminate the
characteristics that have allowed us, as diverse individuals
who happen to be blind, to synergize a movement that cannot
be divided.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>At our organizing on November 16, 1940, there were
sixteen blind people from seven states in attendance, and
two of them were women who both served on the board of
directors. The first was Mary McCann of Illinois who was
elected as secretary of our organization at that first
meeting but only served for a short time. The other blind
woman was Evelyn Burlingame of Pennsylvania who was not
elected to the board in 1940, but was elected as first vice
president of the organization in 1942.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Let me pause briefly to note that Hazel tenBroek was
also in attendance at the organizing and her notes are the
most substantive record we have of the proceedings. Although
she was not blind, she was a significant force in the early
development of the Federation. Mrs. tenBroek set the
standard for what has been a proud line of deeply loved and
admired sighted marchers in our movement.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Let us return to Evelyn who was born in Pennsylvania in
1906. After graduating from the Overbrook School for the
Blind, she worked as the lead stenographer in the legal
department for an insurance company; later she managed a
small business among other jobs. In her free time she worked
to bring together many small community-based organizations
of the blind into a statewide organization called the
Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind (which officially came
into existence in 1934). It was the annual meeting of the
Pennsylvania Federation that served as the backdrop for the
constitutional meeting establishing the National Federation
of the Blind. While early Federation leaders had to expend
considerable time and energy convincing blind people that we
could gain synergy by directing the future through building
our own organization, Evelyn already knew the value of
organizing and she was prepared to make personal sacrifices
for the movement.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Evelyn’s hard work, information sharing, and wise
counsel to the Federation’s President were likely factors
contributing to her election to the national board. In the
National Federation of the Blind we elect leaders to speak
for us, but those leaders must be able to synthesize the
hopes, dreams, and innovative approaches that the members
bring forward. In that regard, Evelyn may get credit for the
Federation’s first major outreach and fundraising strategy.
On November 9, 1941, she wrote to Dr. tenBroek to propose
that we approach state and national unions to enlist their
support in the Federation’s cause and to give specific
examples of the circumstances in her state. This idea was
developed into a significant program for making connections
and gathering financial resources for the young
organization. Evelyn’s early and active participation in our
movement gave credibility to the notion that the blind can
and should speak for themselves. For Evelyn, the
characteristic of blindness did not hold her back and for
the Federation the characteristic of blindness was most
important to Evelyn’s leadership in our movement.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Francis Lorraine Goranson was born in 1918 to farmers
near Huron, South Dakota. She was the youngest daughter of
the family and, like her older sister, she was blind and
received an education from the South Dakota School for the
Blind. In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law
the groundbreaking Randolph-Sheppard Act, giving blind
individuals opportunities to operate vending facilities on
federal property. By the time Lorraine graduated from the
school in 1938, she was aware of the new program and
prepared to build her own future.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>By the early months of 1940, South Dakota had two
vending locations run by blind people and, determined not to
be restricted to a life of low expectations, Lorraine took
the initiative to secure the resources needed to open the
third. She began by convincing the officials at the Huron
post office to provide her with space for a stand. She then
used her previous contacts at the local Kiwanis Club to make
a skillful presentation that resulted in the club building
out Lorraine’s location and providing the early inventory of
newspapers, magazines, candy, and cigars she needed to open
the doors in April 1940. Lorraine is the first known woman
to operate a facility under the Randolph-Sheppard program
anywhere in the country.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Her early success did not leave her satisfied. She
learned about the newly formed National Federation of the
Blind through an editorial in the All Story magazine
authored by Dr. tenBroek’s mentor, Dr. Newel Perry. On
February 7, 1941, she wrote to Dr. tenBroek expressing
excitement about a movement for the blind to speak for
themselves. In her opening paragraph she notes, “I find that
it is more difficult convincing my sighted friends of my
capabilities, than the duty to be actually performed.” She
later shares her ambition and commitment, “I am writing you
because I am interested in what can be done for the blind,
and am ready and willing to do whatever I can at any time.
To be frank, as I feel I may be, I am so very anxious to get
out and make a place in the world.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Lorraine possessed another important characteristic that
distinguishes members of the Federation—hope for the future.
In 1942, the characteristics of blindness, a drive for
equality, and a hope for the future combined with a
readiness to work led her to be elected to the Board of
Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. Her
self-directed efforts to build opportunities out of the
Randolph-Sheppard priority laid the foundation for the
leadership we have provided to that program.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Another woman from the Midwest was effective in teaching
the synergy of local organizations connecting into a
national movement. Ada Bates-Tiernan was born in Coon
Rapids, Iowa, in 1889. She was blinded in an accident at age
five and her parents sent her to Iowa’s school for the
blind, where she stayed until her graduation. In the early
part of the twentieth century, Iowa had no adult
rehabilitation program, and Ada recognized that bonding
together with other blind people was critical in creating
opportunities for herself. She started by regularly
attending the annual gatherings of the school’s alumni group
known as the Iowa Association of the Blind.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>By 1941, Ada had moved to Des Moines where she was
president of the local association. She met the tenBroeks
while in Chicago and a stream of information sharing began
between them. Ada joined the Federation as an individual
member since the Iowa association was interested only in the
school for the blind locally. She understood that the new
National Federation of the Blind was essential to bringing
inspiration and innovative training practices to Iowa.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>The hope and determination that came from a national
movement fueled Ada’s leadership of other blind advocates in
Iowa. The Federation’s National Convention was held in Des
Moines in 1942, and Ada was critical in managing local
details, including securing speakers. During that time the
relationship between Ada and the tenBroeks developed into
something more personal—what we would today describe as the
Federation family. At the 1944 National Convention in
Cleveland, Ada was elected to the Board of Directors of the
National Federation of the Blind. In later correspondence
Ada demonstrates a deep commitment to supporting Dr.
tenBroek and advises him on many matters. At the same time,
she expresses her own doubts about whether she has the right
talents to support the leadership where she has been asked
to serve. During a series of correspondence from February
1946, Dr. tenBroek expresses a deep belief in the talents
Ada brings to the organization, a personal commitment to
their friendship, and a faith in her capacity to provide
leadership among the board members.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Ada served on the national board until 1948 and her
story helps to illuminate another important characteristic
of Federationists—leadership. She wondered if she was really
the right person for the job, whether she had the qualities
needed to serve, and whether she was adequate to work
closely with such a dynamic force for equality as Dr.
tenBroek. These are doubts many of us have experienced when
considering the work of this great organization compared to
the individual contributions we make--doubts that are often
a result of our internalizing society’s low expectations.
When she did not believe in herself, the Federation believed
in her. That is the bond of faith we pass from generation to
generation in this movement. We believe in each other and it
is that element that brings out the potential for leadership
in each of us. For Ada Tiernan her leadership was inspired
by her participation in the organized blind movement, where
the most important characteristics were that she was a blind
person, seeking equality, with hope for the future, and a
willingness to lead when called.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>A woman who was not born in the United states and who
was not blind at the time of our founding, came to be a
force for sharing our message around the world. Isabelle
Lyon Dean was born in 1896 in a fishing village on the
northern coast of Scotland. At the age of twenty-eight,
Isabelle and her husband, Dr. Alexander Grant, left Scotland
to build their life together in the United States. In 1927,
Isabelle began teaching in the Los Angeles County schools
where, aided by her fluency in Spanish, she became a vocal
advocate for the sizable population of Mexican American
students. In 1940 she further enhanced her teaching
credentials by earning a PhD in comparative literature.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Her career took a turn when she developed glaucoma and,
by the fall of 1948, Dr. Grant was totally blind. She found
no hope among the agencies for the blind she visited, and
her uncertainty grew regarding how to manage her job as vice
principal at Belvedere Junior High School. Hope and
opportunity returned to her when a friend introduced her to
a blind man who was a member of the National Federation of
the Blind—an encounter that put her on the road to mastering
the skills of blindness, to internalizing our shared
philosophy, and to becoming an active member in our
California affiliate.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Dr. Grant’s own determination, the unwavering support of
her professional colleagues in the school, and the shared
bond with her sisters and brothers in the Federation
assisted in rejecting the school district’s attempt to force
her to retire based on her disability. Yet, Dr. Grant would
endure more than a decade of maneuvers by the district to
sabotage her work by regularly shifting her assigned school
and the students on her caseload. The discrimination she
faced caused her real pain. One example is that the district
assigned her a sighted teaching assistant to be with her at
all times. When the sighted person left the classroom the
door was required to be locked as a safety precaution—a
circumstance she described as “the blind teacher in a glass
cage.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>As the first blind teacher in the California public
school system, Dr. Grant worked tirelessly so that future
generations of blind educators would not face similar
barriers. She advocated for new state laws, organized
conferences for blind educators, and innovated quality
educational services for blind children based on the
authentic experience of blind people. A trip to an
international conference in 1957 sparked a passion for
working on issues of education and self-organization of the
blind outside of the United States, which would drive the
final twenty years of her life.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>During the 1959-60 school year, she took a sabbatical
from teaching to make a remarkable journey through
twenty-three countries, traveling alone, with the aim to
learn from the educational and living conditions of other
blind people, and to raise expectations through
self-organization. She chronicled her adventures in a
manuscript entitled, “Crooked Paths Made Straight,” which
went unpublished until 2016. She would make many more
international trips and correspond regularly with hundreds
of blind people around the world. Significantly, 1960 also
marked Dr. Grant’s election to the Board of the National
Federation of the Blind on which she served until her death
in 1977. In everything she did, no matter the continent, she
was a constant promoter and information gatherer for the
Federation. Blindness was what brought Dr. Grant to the
Federation family, but it was only one of many dynamic
characteristics that added synergy to our movement.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Isabel Grant was most certainly influenced by a blind
educator from New Mexico named Pauline Gomez. Blind from
birth, Pauline was educated at the New Mexico School for the
Blind where she graduated in 1940. A scholarship from the
Perkins Institute for the Blind gave her an opportunity to
meet blind people from around the country and set her on the
path to be a teacher. In the fall of 1941, Pauline became
the first blind student to enroll at the University of New
Mexico where she had to pioneer methods for gaining access
to instructional materials and navigating the campus
independently.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Upon successful graduation from the university, Pauline
returned home to Santa Fe where she planned to teach in the
public schools. Despite her qualifications, the
public-school administrators could not imagine a blind
teacher working with children, but Pauline was determined to
build her own opportunity to share her talents with the
children of Santa Fe. On October 1, 1946, Los Niños
Kindergarten School opened in the back room of Pauline’s
home. There were eight children in her first class and
Pauline served as the only teacher, in addition to managing
the administrative details of the school. From that modest
beginning, Pauline expanded her school over the following
decades serving the children of all of the most prominent
families in Santa Fe.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Pauline’s school had been open almost a decade when she
assisted in organizing the New Mexico affiliate of the
National Federation of the Blind in 1956. When Pauline
became president of the affiliate in 1960, she began
aggressively working on legislative proposals to improve
opportunities for the blind. A keen educator, Pauline
recognized the efficacy of Kenneth Jernigan’s Iowa training
program using the Federation’s philosophy. She wanted that
level of training in New Mexico. In 1963, she persuaded the
state legislature to study the value of establishing an
adult rehabilitation training center in the state, which
threatened the monopoly that the workshops for the blind had
on the employment pipeline. Workshop supervisors attended
the 1963 Convention of the NFB of New Mexico where they were
able to coerce their blind employees into electing four
agency supporters to the affiliate’s board of directors.
Pauline took swift action to guard against the hostile
takeover of the organized blind movement by sending
affiliate documents to the President of the Federation,
securing the treasury, and reorganizing the affiliate, all
of this while running her own growing school in Santa Fe.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Whether it was in the president’s chair or another
position within the Federation, Pauline had a hand in more
victories than we can do justice to this evening. From
leading New Mexico to be the first state in the nation to
pass the Federation’s model White Cane Law in 1967, to
developing the teachers division of the National Federation
of the Blind in 1970, for Pauline the Federation was
personal. Her community contributions outside of the
Federation were extraordinary and widely celebrated. Her
school was admired for its quality and innovative practices.
It would have been easy for her to decide that the organized
blind movement did not matter. Except for her it did matter.
She was a blind person, she felt the pain of discrimination,
and she understood the synergy of equality. The National
Federation of the Blind fueled Pauline’s hope for the
future, and we helped her to know she could do something to
shape that future. She brought perspective, diversity,
knowledge, and determination to us, and we gave to her the
place where her blindness was a most important factor in her
leadership, but the least important factor in her success.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>There may be no better example of the role blind women
have played in the National Federation of the Blind, than
the pioneering, tough, persistent, dedicated, and generous
women who founded the three training programs that proudly
call themselves Federation training centers. While these
women, Joanne Wilson (Louisiana), Diane McGeorge (Colorado),
and Joyce Scanlan (Minnesota), built upon the philosophy and
methodology tested by Kenneth Jernigan, they made
significant personal sacrifices and took risks that few
would even dream to pursue. While each of these women has an
extraordinary personal story, they share a common bond. They
are all blind people who, until they came to know the
heartbeat of our movement, had internalized some of the
misconceptions about blindness that threaten to hold each of
us back. It was their coming to be part of our movement
which allowed the rest of us to benefit from their
leadership. Did the Federation believe in them more or did
they believe in the Federation more? The answer most
certainly is yes. Each of these women have brought their
talent and energy to our cause and their lives have been
enriched by being part of us. From the perspective of
history—now having thirty years or more of graduates from
these centers—we can be certain that all of us are stronger
because these women invested in equality for the blind. In
case anyone doubts the impact these three women have had on
our movement, how about a cheer from anyone who has been
impacted by the programs and graduates of our NFB training
centers?</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>There are thousands of other examples of contributions
small and great from blind people who happen to be women.
From managing our scholarship program over the past fifty
years, editing our publications, leading pickets and writing
protest songs, directing our research and training
institute, answering general information calls, testifying
in Congress, building affiliates while raising families,
commanding local legislatures, pioneering new teaching
techniques, managing the operations of our Washington
Seminar, directing fundraisers, to leading or serving
wherever this movement has needed them, blind women have
added synergy to our organization. That they were women was
not nearly as important as the fact that they were blind
people who believed in equality, had a hope for the future,
and were willing to participate actively in the efforts of
the National Federation of the Blind. From Arlene Hill
practicing the techniques that blind people use to teach
blind people to travel, to Ever Lee Hairston delivering a
powerful address to the next generation of blind leaders
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, we
have overcome because of the everyday and extraordinary
blind people that have given synergy to our movement.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Tonight, I call on us to celebrate these individuals and
the thousands of others I have not named by committing
ourselves to carrying the march forward. Tonight, we
celebrate the diversity of our organized blind movement. A
movement that brings together blind people for a common
purpose. Blind people who come with varying characteristics.
Different races, sexual orientations, religions, political
points of view, gender identities, disabilities, economic
circumstances, languages, talents, interests, and
priorities. Yet, in everything that matters we are one as
blind people. We cannot be divided. We share a quest for
equality and hope for the future. It is our diversity that
gives us depth. It is our long-standing commitment to work
together that gives us strength. It is our synergy that
makes us unstoppable.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Tomorrow we must again pick up the tools of progress.
There are those that seek to divide us and slow us down.
There are those who say we do not represent those blind
people who have some usable vision. There are those who
claim that for us equality means only for blind people who
do not have other disabilities. There are those who tell the
story that in order to be one of us you must fit a certain
type. To those who share these false claims about us we say,
we, the blind, speak for ourselves. Our movement is for
blind people, all blind people, and we will not let others
who are not committed to equality and hope for the future
stand in our way. We will set the direction and the pace,
and we invite all blind people to contribute to our synergy.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>We will not go back to a time when we must fight the
agencies for the blind for recognition. We reject, as we
have before, accreditation without authenticity, in an
effort to validate mediocracy. We leave behind the days when
technologies were built and later made usable by the blind.
We move past, but do not forget, the employment shackles of
the sheltered workshops that pay pennies per hour. In doing
so we recognize that there are those who wish to return to
the good old days when the blind received what little
charity was offered, and the experts in the field were
qualified by the amount of eyesight not insight. To the
extent that the past belongs to others, we declare once
again this evening that the future is ours. Our future is
filled with love, hope, and determination. Our future is
distinguished by leadership, collaboration, and
authenticity. And our future, as has been our pattern since
1940, is unified in the common bond of faith that we hold
with each other as blind people.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>My sisters and my brothers, blindness does not define us
or our future. It does serve the most important role of
bringing us together in this movement. A movement that is
built on equality. A movement that feeds our hope for the
future. A movement that empowers us to lead in all aspects
of life. A movement where we come seeking a place to belong
and where we stay because of those we befriend. Let us
recommit to our march toward equality. Let us welcome new
members into the diverse family that we share. Let us direct
our own future and reach for unimagined possibilities. With
synergy, let us go build the National Federation of the
Blind.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Denise Valkema, President</span><br>
<span>National Federation of the Blind of Florida</span><br>
<span><a href="mailto:President@nfbflorida.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">President@nfbflorida.org</a></span><br>
<span>(305)972-8529</span><br>
<span><a href="http://WWW.NFBFLORIDA.ORG"
moz-do-not-send="true">WWW.NFBFLORIDA.ORG</a></span><br>
<span>Follow us @nfbflorida</span><br>
<span>Live the life you want.</span><br>
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