[nfbmi-talk] death notices

joe harcz Comcast joeharcz at comcast.net
Wed Feb 8 13:02:58 UTC 2012


Thanks to you Chris. Fred has talked about this issue openly for years at 
public meetings. It is something called love. I'm not talking about mushy 
love here, or romantic love and neither was Fred. I'm talking about 
brotherly love or what some call Platonic love.

In this case I'm talking about self giving for the greater advancement of 
our people and we are people darnit in spite of our blindness or other 
disabilities like those of Laura, Marshal, and Buddy who were wheelchair 
users. We have the same hopes, dreams, and aspirations; the same virtues and 
even the same vices, character flaws and other sins of all human kind.

It is this love that binds those of us who call ourselves Federationists 
too. For in our hearts, as well as in our movement and, indeed in core 
philosophy it is all about promoting the notion that folks who are blind 
should live in freedom, dignity, and with the equal opportunity to succeed 
and even fail that are basic rights endowed with other citizens of this 
world.

Equality, security, and opportunity are, or should be more than a slogan. We 
are dedicated, in spite of personal differences, ethnic differences, racial 
differences, and even political differences to these core principles.

I choose to wrap them up in to one word which I choose to call "love".

Now, Diane who was sighted but who later in life had other disabilities was 
an active Federationist. Her in-laws are very active in Indianapolis.

In fact it was Diane and her foster son whwho is HIV positive, by the way, 
who  helped me move from New Hampshire to Michigan. And it was with Diane 
that I attended my last national convention of the NFB in Philly...Oh sad a 
decade has past...But it's another story for another day.

As an additional aside that was the year it was supposed to be in Detroit, 
but construction delays caused a last minute move to Philly, so it was 
ironic to say the least.

Now I've watched a decade pass where the hope and dream of more 
opportunities for the blind and disabled have been dashed here in Michigan.

Just looking at the blindness side of the coin I returned here because MCB 
was noted to be much better than most commissions, if not at the top in this 
country. It has increasingly been destroyed along with hopes, dreams, 
aspirations and even equal opportunity for the blind of Michigan!

But, my love is expressed in the fact I will continue the good  fight 
alongside my brothers and sisters for justice and a better way.

So is the love expressed by the National Federation of the Blind of 
Michigan.

Peace with Justice, and Love,

Joe




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christine Boone" <christine_boone at comcast.net>
To: "NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:47 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] death notices


> Well said and well written and thank you so much for sharing just a small 
> glimpse of these dear ones who fought so hard for the rights of all people 
> with disabilities.
> Love to you too Joe,
> Christine
>
> On Feb 3, 2012, at 10:37 PM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:
>
>> Thank you Terri...
>>
>> One who was lost was named Marshal. He was a valient black man and a 
>> personal care attendent to another beloved who was a peace and civil 
>> rights warrior named Buddy. Bare with me please. Buddy used a motorized 
>> wheelchair and was hardly communicative to most of us, but led me through 
>> one, if not my first, n of my first ADAPT actions with Marshall his PCA 
>> at his side.
>>
>> I still feel the sprays of Marshall's water bottle spritzing me and Buddy 
>> on a hot summer day fighting against the institutionalization of people 
>> with disabilities on an action in the hot streets of our nation's 
>> capitol. Did I mention that Buddy fought long and hard as a person with 
>> CP and other disabilities to fight his way out of an enforced nursing 
>> home and into a community and integrated environment with his wife at the 
>> time also a refugee from a nursing home? Yup, he with all of his 
>> disabilities fought for decades and I mean literally decades to be out of 
>> confinement not to his body and not to his wheelchair but to the social 
>> order and the slavery of his existence to lead as normal a life as 
>> possable to him through the ages, which is to say he fought to be 
>> bethroathed, and to live with his own woman of his own and religious vows 
>> and damned the dreaded nursing home and its rules! And I was sholder to 
>> sholder with Buddy and his PCA Marshal at the AARP when we barricaded 
>> that building in DC to make sure they knew these were rights for all 
>> including him, me and us? And Marshall, his PCA was again at his side 
>> back then and at that time relatively fleet of foot...He sure could see a 
>> whole lot better than either Buddy or I at the time...lol..
>>
>> Did I mention that Marshal who just past away went from being a personal 
>> care attendant to an amputee to a wheelchair user and then died of renal 
>> failure do to diabetes? And that Marshal was a lion a distinct lion for 
>> all people with disabilities and a true loved one? Actually before 
>> Marshal died he saw sadly the relative demise of Liberty Resorces the 
>> largest CIL in Philly and was a board member as those funds are being now 
>> squanderrred and divided and put out to pasture while Rome, the American 
>> Rome burns?
>>
>> I'm so sorry this all breaks my heart so much and I can't write through 
>> the tears....
>>
>> These are only but a few of my personal losses over the past few months, 
>> but they are losses to all of us too.
>>
>> Oh, and to learn that Laura Williams was lost to all of us being the fine 
>> leader and dear friend with Californians for Disability Rights...
>>
>> Oh my Lord I just can't stand it...I'm sorry ... I'm sad... I'm 
>> frustrated I'm grieving.
>>
>> This doesn't even count the losses of those aged and folks like my 
>> beloved Diane who have passed in the last few months.
>>
>> I'm sorry I'm just in shock and utterly stunned at the fact that one 
>> after another countless are dying before me and those across the nation 
>> that touched me in so many ways, some most intimately and my grief is 
>> large and it is immense and I bare it with all of my heart and soul....
>>
>> I'm aggrieved!
>>
>> And I see the beasts who don't give a rat's ass about our rights let 
>> alone our likes and our right to live in this world as humans like say 
>> Cannon and his masters suck at the trough while I cannot even 
>> appropriately reeve and it makes me more than ticked off, in righteous 
>> rage at the injustice of it all...
>>
>> I'm not particularly religious though I know you are and I appreciate and 
>> respect those like you...
>>
>> But here is my crying tear of remembrance to the fallen loved ones with 
>> disabilities who have passed in my life recently...
>>
>> I loved and love you Diane....
>>
>> I loved and loved you Buddy...
>>
>> I loved and love you Marshall...
>>
>> I loved and love you Laura...
>>
>>
>> I hope in the next world you will find justice and peace.
>>
>>
>> I'm sad that you did not in this world, but will fight for social justice 
>> until my last dying breath on your behalf and with you and others in my 
>> mind.
>> Love to All,
>>
>> Peace with justice to one and all.
>>
>> Joe
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "trising" <trising at sbcglobal.net>
>> To: "NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 9:39 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] death notices
>>
>>
>>> Joe, I am sorry for your losses.
>>>
>>> Terri Wilcox
>>>
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>>
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>
>
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