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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>July 2, 2014<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Memo To: Executive Officers, Board Members, Chapter & Division Presidents & Others<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>From: Parnell Diggs, President<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Positive Note 1455<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dear Fellow Federationists:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> The first Positive Note of July, 2014, is dedicated to the NFB of SC. This month, we celebrate seventy years since the NFB of SC was first established under an apple tree in the backyard at the home of Dr. Samuel Miller Lawton, a blind minister from Spartanburg, South Carolina.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Only a few people were there on that hot July afternoon, and no one present on that fateful day could have seen the impact that the meeting would have on the state blindness field in the time to come. In 1944, there was no Commission for the Blind (the creation of the Commission was still decades in the future). There was no Business Enterprise Program or Aid for the Needy Blind.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In many ways, life was futile for the average blind person, as there were few options available to the handful of blind people who had managed to find work in the early part of the twentieth century. The vast majority (this is to say, ninety-nine percent) of blind people were unemployed, and public assistance programs had yet to be established. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>There were no programs of rehabilitation and no adaptive technology in the early to mid-twentieth century. The Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, in 1944, were two generations into the future. There was no Model White Cane Law to guarantee blind South Carolinians access to public facilities. This was the world Dr. Lawton knew.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In his address to the small assembly at the founding meeting of what was originally called “The Aurora Club of the Blind”, Dr. Lawton expressed the feeling that blind people needed their own means of self-expression. Blind people needed an organization that would be controlled by the blind themselves, not by those acting on behalf of the blind community.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To guarantee that the Aurora Club would actually be governed by blind South Carolinians, the Club’s founders initiated a policy which remains the policy of the NFB of SC and is still somewhat rare today (even among organizations of the blind). While anyone can be a member of the NFB of SC, only blind members can vote and hold elective office.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Because of the influence of the Aurora Club (now doing business as the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina) life for blind South Carolinians seventy years later is vastly different. On June 2, 2014, Governor Haley signed the South Carolina Blind Persons Right to Parent Act, which is the forty-fourth piece of legislation initiated by the NFB of SC.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Over the past seven decades, the NFB of SC has seen the establishment of a viable Business Enterprise Program, the creation of the Commission for the Blind, a Model White Cane Law, legislation allowing blind children to enter four-year-old kindergarten, a law which allows blind South Carolinians to serve on juries, and many more initiatives which have improved the economic, social, and spiritual well-being of blind people in South Carolina.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The NFB of SC operates the Federation Center of the Blind, the Bell Center, and Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center of the Blind: all of which are monuments to the tremendous track record amassed by the organized blind movement in our state.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In many ways, we are a different organization than we were even at the turn of the millennium just fourteen years ago. But the world is also a different place. We don’t change “for the sake of change”, but we evolve as the world turns. This is a good thing because our challenges are different now than they were seventy years ago.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Today, only seventy-four percent of blind people are unemployed. We have a rehabilitation system and an Americans with Disabilities Act. But it is up to us to find ways to shape the blindness field in a way that serves blind people today; fore, while life is not as futile for blind people as it was, we still have a distance to cover before our work is done.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> Joining me for comments in this Positive Note is the President Emeritus of the NFB of SC. Here is Dr. Capps.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> I congratulate President Diggs on this excellent issue of the Positive Note as he has very succinctly reported the many ways the NFB of SC has assisted the blind of the state. I do not believe that any other state organization of the blind has passed 44 pieces of legislation and owns seven facilities across the state as well as many other things in which we are first. This is the week of the national convention and President Diggs is heading up an excellent SC delegation. I can hardly remember the time the NFB of SC was not in the top ten in attendance and I’m sure this year will be no different. I have been blessed to have attended 56 NFB conventions continuously, 1956 to 2011. During that long period of time I experienced some unforgettable events, some of which were challenging to say the least. During an NFB convention being held in Phoenix, Dr. Jernigan gave me $1,000 in cash for the grand prize for the banquet. I suddenly realized I did not have the $1,000 and had inadvertently left it in our hotel room. The cash was in an envelope and was left in the night stand. Dr. Jernigan told me that he was not going to worry about it as he knew I had the funds personally to replace the $1,000 which I didn’t find funny. We felt someone might have entered our room and Betty and I dashed back to the hotel and much to our relief the money was still where I had left it. To make matters worse, there was a sandstorm with the wind blowing all over us and you can imagine that Betty was very unhappy having all that sand in her hair. Another convention, but not as serious as the situation surrounding the $1,000, occurred at the Baltimore convention. I was the “MC” of the banquet and John McCraw, who was President of the host affiliate and a member of the NFB Board of Directors, approached me about making an announcement. With those credentials, I didn’t hesitate granting John’s request, but as soon as he made the announcement, I realized this was a mistake. John announced to the large banquet reporting on the numbers on the horse races which of course has nothing to do with the purpose of the banquet. Immediately, Dr. Jernigan got up from his seat and approached me as to how this happened. I told Dr. Jernigan I had no idea John would make such an announcement, whereupon he proceeded to discuss the matter with John with considerable disgust. At future banquets I generally knew what announcements would be made. I trust that this year’s banquet MC will have smooth sailing. Let’s keep our SC delegation in our thoughts and prayers. Rocky Bottom repairs are winding down and I’m glad as they are taking a toll on our finances. Let’s all appreciate the freedoms we enjoy as we celebrate Independence Day this Friday.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Final Thought: “To get Orlando NFB Convention information, scheduling or live streaming, go to https://nfb.org/convention.”<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>