[NFBMO] Blind Equality Achievement Month Highlights for the Week of October 16, 2022

[Daniel Garcia]

Dear Friends:
October 1 starts our Blind Equality Achievement Month, and the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri is in the spirit. The layout of these standing meeting emails is going to read a little different for the month.

In each email you will find 4 different categories of topics. The first category is Blind individuals in our NFBMO affiliate. Next we focus on our advocacy efforts to improve equality for the blind.  Then we have a highlight on Achievements that have occurred over the years. Last, as consistent as usual, there will be a list of the standing meetings for each week  as well as  announcements concerning any upcoming Blind Equality Achievement Month events.

The information included in these emails can also be found on our www.nfbmo.org<http://www.nfbmo.org> website and on Facebook. You are encouraged to share this information with friends and family.

There are several ways a person can view these topics for our Blind Equality Achievement Month. The National Federation of the Blind of Missouri Communications team is striving to focus on who is in our beloved federation family, how equality is happening, presenting how achievements are celebrated in the National Federation of the Blind, and  is providing each of you with options on how you can attend one of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri's standing meetings. Let's go spread the word on how the NFB has created a world where blind people can live the lives we want.

Note that if you use screen reading software, you can navigate by heading. Please consult the training manual for your software for instructions on how to do this.

Blind / Individuals who are blind

This week we are highlighting Mrs. Jenny Carmack. Jenny is our Missouri affiliate 2nd Vice-president. She is the Lewis and Clark chapter president. Jenny could also be considered the queen of our youth programs <https://nfbmo.org/node/181>  within the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri. Mrs. Carmack is coordinator for our Mission BEAM (Blindness Empowerment, Advocacy, & Mentoring) program. For those who may not know, our Missouri BEAM program offers services to transition age individuals in our state. She also is one of our BELL Academy coordinators for the last few years. Jenny works with our Missouri Cane Drivers frequently too. We are so blessed to have Jenny in our affiliate. Jenny has degrees in education that give her the skills to do what she does.
If you are ever interested in learning more about our youth and transition age programs, Jenny would be the person to talk to. In all the work we do within the federation, it takes a team; let's work with Jenny to build up these services so we can bring more individuals into our beloved Federation.

Equality

To reach equality, one must first accomplish great achievements. We accomplished the achievement, now comes the equality for all. This includes our blind students within the great state of Missouri. We recognize that this was our achievement for last week, however, its been such a significant achievement that we felt it needed to be highlighted more than once. The BRITE Act will ensure equality for our students.

In the NFB we believe in the concept of "nothing about us without us." This concept extends to our youngest member, who advocated for the passage of the BRITE Act by giving testimony to the Missouri legislature.

BRITE Act Testimony-submitted online

By Russell Dorn

This article was originally published in the June 2022 issue of the Blind Missourian.

My name is Russell Dorn. I am eight years old, and I live in Kansas City. I wanted to come talk to you in person today, but my parents had to go to work, and I had to go to school. I use Braille as my second language of sorts because I have a special eye condition called oculocutaneous albinism type 1B (my parents helped me spell that.) I am legally blind, and my preschool teachers thought I would need to learn Braille because I need my print blown up so big it is hard to read fast, and my eyes get tired during the day, and it gets harder to read print for more than a few minutes in the afternoon. But my school didn't think I needed Braille and so I got a lawyer to help me. When I started learning Braille, it was very hard because I only got to learn it three hours a week, but I got print reading 90 minutes every day. This bill would help say that kids who are learning Braille need enough teaching so they can read just like other kids.

Achievements

Throughout the years we have achieved quite a few important victories, one of the most crucial being winning the Baby Mikaela case. This case started the push for blind parents rights in Missouri and many other states. Take a moment and learn how this case happened, and how blind parents have stronger rights as a result .

BABY TAKEN FROM BLIND PARENTS

By Gary Wunder

This article was originally published on the July 2010 issue of the Blind Missourian.

"I've seen this posting about a blind child being taken from her parents and it has your name on it? Is it really true, or is it one of those Internet Urban Legends which starts with a grain of truth and grows until it is too spectacular to believe?"
"I heard about the baby and really love learning about our history. In what year did that happen?"

These are the kinds of questions I got on e-mail and all throughout the National Convention as word of Blake Sinnett, Erika Johnson, and their baby Mikaela spread across the country. "I just can't believe something like this would happen in 2010," was the first response. "What can I do," was the second.

As shocking as it is, here are the facts as I understand them. Blake Sennett and
Erika Johnson went to the hospital to have their baby. The baby was born on Friday, May 21. Soon after the birth of the baby, Mikaela was given to Erika for feeding. Feeling that something was not right, Erika called the nurse who observed that the baby was beginning to turn blue, repositioned the baby, waited until the baby started to take nourishment, and then calmed Erika by telling her that many new mothers have problems when initially trying to feed their baby.
By 6 P.M. on the day of Mikaela's birth, a representative from the Missouri Department of Social Services was on the scene. Blake and Erika were asked if there would be a sighted person at home to supervise the care of the infant. They reported that they lived alone, and the social worker said that until she could be assured that there would be sighted supervision, the baby would remain in the custody of social services.

We first heard about this couple from the Parents of Blind Children mailing list. No one wanted to give the names of the couple. Everyone wanted to know if we could help! By the time we were actually able to make contact with Blake and Erika, it was late on Wednesday afternoon. They had a preliminary hearing set for Thursday, and when we asked them whether they would like someone to accompany them, they politely declined. Not only did they know very little about the National Federation of the Blind, but they truly believed in their heart of hearts that what had happened to them was an unfortunate oversight which most certainly would be corrected in the hearing to follow. They were afraid that accepting our help would "rock the boat," and would actually hurt their chances for a speedy resolution.

When the hearing was concluded on Wednesday, a decision was made to leave the child in foster care until more information could be gathered. At this point Eric and Blake called us back, and we immediately employed the services of an attorney who has worked with us on two other cases.

Where do things stand now? At the time of this writing, baby Mikaela and her parents are able to see one another fewer than four times a week. No unsupervised visits have been allowed. Never in Mikaela's life has she been allowed to spend a night with her mother and father.

About the time you read this, there should be a hearing which we hope will Bring Mikaela Home! While we certainly know that we could make tremendous use of traditional media outlets and the power of the Internet to make this a very public case, we have decided on a strategy which will leave this to the courts. We believe justice will be done, and we believe that it is important to establish some solid case law in this area. Even with our attempt to maintain a relatively low profile and to preserve the privacy of Erika and Blake, news of this event has spread far and wide, and we have good reason to believe that the United States Department of Justice is interested in this case.

We will continue to cover this issue in the pages of the Blind Missourian and through frequent updates on our National Federation of the Blind of Missouri mailing list.


Month / weekly Events

Below is a listing of NFB of Missouri standing meetings for the week of October 16, 2022. For meetings that are not held in the affiliate Zoom platform, you will need to contact the chapter president, division president, committee chair, or group chair to get the call-in information. If you are scheduling any ad hoc meetings for the week of October 23, please let me know by Saturday, October 22.

Monday
Website Committee, 7 pm, affiliate Zoom platform.

Tuesday
Pedestrian Safety Committee, 7 pm, affiliate Zoom platform.

Wednesday
Data Retention Committee, 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm, affiliate Zoom platform.

Thursday
Journey Through Blindness Conference Call, 8 pm, affiliate Zoom platform.

Saturday
Ivanhoe Chapter, 12 pm - 2 pm.

Regards,

Daniel

Daniel Garcia, Corresponding Secretary
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
dangarcia3 at hotmail.com
(816) 621-0902
www.nfb.org
www.nfbmo.org
Live the life you want

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