[Ohio-talk] question of philosophy

Thu Sep 24 00:21:15 UTC 2009

Hi,
I am glad you posed this.
If Mr. Edward's column doesn't tell you why those of us who are Federationists are proud members of the NFB THEN I do not know what will get the point across.
Can you imagine taking years to get to a point where you actually can agree on a position which may or may not be ambivalent?
Personally, I want to have a Philosophy which helps us all to achieve the most that we can. I do nibblieve that we in the NFB ARE PREJUDICED TOWARD THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE THE SKILLS OF BLINDNESS WHICH THEY COULD HAVE ACHIEVED. We do not coddle people, but we do care about them. I am a blind person not a person who happens to be blind. Isn't it sad that the President of ACB CANNOT DESCRIBE HIS GROUP AND DOESN'T EVER THINK IT WILL BE COHESIVE.
I for one am very proud to be a Member of the NFB.
Colleen Roth

----- Original Message -----
From: "richard payne" <rchpay7 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "'Ationfb of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List'" <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Date: 2009/09/23 22:36:04
Subject: [Ohio-talk] question of philosophy

>
>
> The following  was posted on the chapter presidents list and only when I
> read things like this  are some one  asked what the difference is in the 2
> groups do I cling to  a strong sound philosophy.
> Yes there are democrats' and republicans but I am a federations' to death.
> The person who wrote the following   be leaves in just what he writes. 
> 
> by Paul Edwards 
> At the beginning of a new year, it's perhaps appropriate to pause for a
> little reflection. It's customary to do what I have done before with this
> column and look back at the preceding year and ahead to the next one. I am
> not going to do that! Instead, I want to offer some of my answers to the
> question I get asked more often than any other as president of the American
> Council of the Blind. Can you guess what the question is? What does the ACB
> stand for? What is ACB's philosophy? What makes the ACB DIFFERENT FROM THE
> NFB? Though this question has been posed in three different ways, it's
> really the same question. 
> 
> I have often thought of dealing with this issue here and have avoided it
> because many will disagree with whatever I say. Disagreement is good! One of
> ACB's hallmarks is its tolerance for people with divergent notions of who
> they are and what ACB IS! That, in fact, is one of the organization's
> characteristics! It is a fluid set of beliefs and assumptions that changes
> from state to state and from time to time. But, for me anyway, there are
> some core values that are at the heart of what the ACB IS! Here are some of
> them! 
> 
> It is OK TO BE BLIND! That's a big one! It carries with it a whole set of
> other ancillary values. First and foremost, people who have meaningful
> vision loss are blind. Blindness is much more than just a nuisance. Blind
> people can and should expect society to make changes that facilitate the
> inclusion of people who are blind. These last two values may be areas where
> members of the National Federation of the Blind would not agree with us! 
> 
> Another core value of the ACB RELATES TO EXPECTATIONS! We are absolutely
> convinced that there is not a one-size-fits-all "blind person" or that there
> should be! I believe that ACB VALUES DIVERSITY AND IS TOLERANT OF PEOPLE WHO
> are at various levels of independence. Does that mean that we don't champion
> good training or expect a lot of our members? I don't think so! It does mean
> that we embrace people at various levels of competence and try very hard not
> to be judgmental about where people are! In a very real sense, I think that
> ACB HAS ALMOST INSTINCTIVELY ADOPTED THE "People First" model by placing
> individuality far above other values in seeing each other. 
> 
> And then there is democracy! ACB, AS MOST OF YOU WELL KNOW, WAS FORMED, IN
> part, because those who created our organization believed that states and
> individual members alike had to have substantial autonomy to express
> divergent opinions without being penalized. So, another core value of ACB IS
> the notion that there must be room for a broad range of beliefs within our
> organization. If this is a core value, and I think it is, it goes a long way
> toward explaining why we have never been able to produce the kind of
> coherent, easily portable creed that all of our members must accept. 
> 
> All of the divergence I have talked about so far has some real drawbacks. It
> truly has impeded coherent, centralized decision-taking and probably always
> will. That divergence has also made it difficult for us to arrive at
> positions sometimes. Where there is disagreement, we debate. This debate can
> often take many years and can cause us to take positions that may seem
> somewhat ambivalent to those who do not know us well. I choose to use a
> different word! Our positions validate divergence by creating a place where
> the majority of our members are comfortable. 
> 
> What I have written about here does not constitute a complete list of our
> core values. It may well not be your core list of our fundamental beliefs.
> But there is one more core value I think we can agree upon! That is that the
> ACB IS MUCH MORE THAN JUST A GROUP OF BLIND PEOPLE MEETING AND WORKING
> together for common goals! It's much larger than the sum of its members!
> It's a hug when you're feeling sad! It's a belly-laugh at those in society
> who just don't understand! It's arms around each other when we lose someone!
> It's a place where you can feel safe! It's anger distilled into action as
> people die falling off subway platforms! It's people arguing and hugging
> afterwards! It's 1,500 people singing the national anthem! It's help and
> hope and hands and holding and happiness and hilarity. It's us, alone and
> together, divided and united, men and women, young and old! And it's the
> American Council of the Blind! 
> 
> So when someone asks you what the American Council of the Blind is or any of
> those other questions, you can show him or her this column! Will it tell him
> or her who we are and what we believe? Not really. It might help, but ACB IS
> not a philosophy. It's a dynamic never-ending experience, and the only way
> you can truly understand us is to plunge right in among us and become us!
> And then, if you fully understand who we are, tell me because I would like
> to know too! 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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