[nfbmi-talk] Lawsuit: Disabled protesters were barred from Capitol lawn event

[Kane Brolin]

On 2/3/17, William Vandervest via NFBMI-Talk <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> This is a total load of crap, Joe Harcz was actually one of the organizers
> and this kind of crap does NOT gain the NFB the kind of publicity we need.

William, just a simple question here:  Are you also saying that if we
were back in the 1970s, Peggy Pinder Elliott's protest on that
airplane was a load of crap giving the NFB destructive publicity that
it did not need?  This is not meant to be an embarrassing or loaded
question; I was not in the movement back then and was not even an
adult at that time.  But Dr. Jernigan gave Peggy glowing citations
repeatedly over the years--(I heard him do this in person)--and he
spoke about this as though Peggy's incident, which turned into a legal
case, was akin to blind people's version of Rosa Parks.  He would have
said this gives the NFB and blind Americans precisely the kind of
publicity we do need: an example of principled, in-your-face, public
action.  Jacobus tenBroek in his first ever Federation convention
speech used the words "militant" and "aggressive" to define the
movement he had just worked to engender.  Is it any different now?

By the way, I'm good with someone on this list who says it isn't
appropriate for now--or with someone who says Joe's actions or
motivations were different from what Peggy Elliott or Dr. tenBroek
would have advocated for.  I am fairly new to this movement; and like
many, I am wrestling with how our principles should and should not be
applied in 2017, in the wake of all the other unrest going on in this
country at present.  So not trying to be snarky or argumentative, I'm
just trying to engge in an honest discussion of what all this means,
not having been there at the protest or the ensuing hearings.

Thank you.

Respectfully,

-Kane