<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>Greetings to all! <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>On Saturday, November 3, 2018 during the 42nd State Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey, Live The Life You Want; Blind With Vision, the members passed the following resolution highlighting the need to protect the civil rights of blind parents. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>The resolution was read in Braille by Mary Jo Partyka, Chair of the Braille Committee, to all in attendance. Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez was presented a copy, she provided positive remarks and indicated her support for this resolution. Linda Melendez, First Vice President of the NFBNJ, Joanna Mallard, a certified foster parent and I will be meeting Assemblywoman Lopez at her Perth Amboy office in late December. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>We will keep all posted on the results. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>In the meantime, read and share the following material provided below. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>Joe <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:106%'>From the desk of Joe Ruffalo, President, NFBNJ. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:106%'>Received from Ryan Stevens, Director of Legislation, NFBNJ. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:106%'>Distributed by Ellen Sullivan, Secretary, NFBNJ. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:106%'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'>Resolution is pasted and attached. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:115%'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>Resolution 2018-01<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:115%'><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>(Regarding Protecting the Civil Rights of Blind Parents)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, protecting the rights of parents with disabilities is a notion that, incredibly, was rejected by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Buck v. Bell 274 U.S. 200 (1927), in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind”; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, this insulting and unjustified view that people with disabilities, including blind people, are somehow “manifestly unfit” to be parents (or otherwise to live the lives they want and to participate as members of society with all rights and privileges associated therewith) has too often continued to prevail in the courts even as we move further into the twenty-first century; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, this bias is reflected in matters involving adoption and guardianship and in contested child custody proceedings, because blind parents have been perceived by the courts, child protection agencies, guardians ad litem, hospital staff, and others as incapable of caring adequately for their children’s needs, which has resulted in blind people routinely being denied the right to be parents without unfair bias or unnecessary overreach by government entities; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, for most people a fundamental aspect of living life to the fullest includes the joy of being a parent and sharing in the nurturing, growth, and development of a child; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, being a parent and raising children is a fundamental right which is protected under the Constitution of the United States of America by the First and Ninth Amendments and under the Fourteenth Amendment as applied to the states; and <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, in the case of blind parents, there is a need to protect this fundamental constitutional right; yet New Jersey has no laws at all to protect the right of blind citizens to be parents and raise their children without the fear of discriminatory treatment or unnecessary inquiries of fitness solely based on blindness; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>WHEREAS, ten states across the country have enacted legislation that specifically protects the rights of blind parents, and momentum toward the goal of equal rights for blind parents is growing: now, therefore, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey in Convention assembled this third day of November, 2018, in the Township of Woodbridge, New Jersey, that this organization call upon the New Jersey Legislature to enact laws that establish procedural safeguards to protect the right of blind people to be parents and prohibit discriminatory presumptions of manifest unfitness solely because a parent (or prospective parent) happens to be blind; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the New Jersey Attorney General, in protecting the best interest of children in court proceedings, to use his or her good office affirmatively to protect blind parents in the state against discrimination and bias based solely upon blindness and to urge the courts, guardians ad litem, and officials of child protection agencies to base decisions about what is in the best interest of the child on the same criteria used for sighted parents.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>