[nfbmi-talk] Something to Ponder and Act Upon
Terry D. Eagle
terrydeagle at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 26 02:29:21 UTC 2015
The last paragraph of the following excerpt from this month's Braille
Monitor really and fully sums up that which I have been saying for quite
some time, that an immediate focus of the Michigan affiliate must be, and
get around to doing, if the affiliate is to thrive and survive!
My question: When will this one thing be done?
James Brown Father, Highway Administrator, and Leader
Brown came to know about the National Federation of the Blind when he won a
scholarshipin 2007, but winning didn't mean that he immediately became
active in the organization.
He relates that one of his first reactions when arriving at the convention
in Atlanta
was to observe to himself that "God didn't make three thousand blind people
to
be together. There were all these canes and dogs and people heading toward
one another."
At the same time he was thinking all of this, he couldn't help being
impressed by
all that the blind people who came to the convention were doing. At the bar
where
he sat, there was a lawyer sitting to his left, a television producer on
his right,
and next to him a scientist who was working on an oil rig in the Gulf of
Mexico.
All were blind. But, no matter how impressed he was by the national
convention and
the leaders he met, the weight of home life, work, and his participation in
a graduate
program meant that it took him more than a year to connect with the
Federation.
"Because of problems going on in Tennessee at the time, I wasn't really too
impressed
with becoming a part, but the Affiliate Action Team kept me involved and
kept showing
me that what was happening nationally could and should be happening in my
state.
Going to the Washington Seminar was one of the ways they kept me involved,
and the
first one I attended in 2009 happened to involve our work with the quiet
cars-the
Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act-something I felt I knew a little about."
When Brown earned a master's degree from Middle Tennessee State University
in Murfreesboro,
he decided he had more time for outside activities, and what he saw in the
National
Federation of the Blind helped to convince him that the work of the
organization
was worth his time and talent. "I liked what I saw in these people-they
didn't hide
from blindness, weren't ashamed to be blind or to say the word. The thing I
appreciated
most was that many of those I met walked the talk-they were real."
Brown became the president of the Tennessee affiliate in March of 2012 and
was elected
to the national board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind
on July
5, 2014. "I was extremely honored to have been elected, and I'll do my best
to honor
the trust that has been placed in me."
When asked what he sees as the most important challenge facing the
Federation, Brown
says: "I think our most immediate challenge is to recruit young people and
to train
them to be leaders. Young people respect those who are older, but they also
want
people their own age. We have to let them know that the Federation is just
as important
for their generation as it was to those who created it and to those of us
who work
to sustain it. It takes work, persistence, and targeting our efforts, but we
will
persuade young people in the same way we were persuaded. They will become
invested
and committed, and all blind people will be the better for our ongoing
work. I am
proud to be a part of this organization and to see to this transition."
Source: Braille Monitor January 2015
(James Brown Father, Highway Administrator, and Leader
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