[nfbwatlk] FW: [Wcb-l] History kick 3

[Mike Freeman]

One more thought: it is tragic that this "localitis" state of mind described
in the article below still rears its ugly head from time to time. Mr.
Saddler's advice, though given nearly sixty years ago, still is worth
pondering.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: Wcb-l [mailto:wcb-l-bounces at wcbinfo.org] On Behalf Of frank cuta
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:34 PM
To: wcb-l at wcbinfo.org
Subject: [Wcb-l] History kick 3


>From nov 1958 monitor:

At the recent convention of the Washington State Association of the
Blind, an inexperienced delegate stated that "... Local members are not
state members, might not want to be state members, and might find state
membership undesirable..."

Arnold Sadler, state president, sent out a statement to all who had
attended the convention, which he called "Convention Reflection." Part
of it follows:

"Such a statement could only be made in utter and complete ignorance of
our customs and traditions. Ignorance is an evil which works evil and so
ought to be challenged and expunged.... We are a living, moving, growing
force in which each and every one of us is a vital element. Our local,
state and national aspects are mere geographic conveniences. By
membership in the local we have membership in the state; by membership
in the state we have membership in the national. We of the locals, all
of us together, are the state; we of the locals and states, all of us
together, are the national. The chain is not severable. We cannot be a
member of one and not the other two, or a member of two and not the
other one....

"It was stated that this singleness of membership idea is discriminatory
against those blind persons who might not want to join us all the way.
Imagine arguing that our citizenship laws are discriminatory against
foreigners because some of them might want to be citizens of our state,
but not our nation!...

"The germ of the old "divide and destroy' disease is in the suggestion
that singleness of membership might have undesirable results for the
individual. The principal result of any membership is the sharing of
responsibility for the organization. If this is undesirable to the
individual, he should not join in the first place. If he does join,
however, and then seeks to break us up into isolated groups just to
enable him to shirk his responsibility, he is undesirability itself.

"Lest anyone should fear for our continued good name in N.F.B.
circles,... the vast majority of us are ardent Federationists, proud to
be counted on the rolls of every part of our organization."



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