[Ohio-talk] Date Correction: march for independence 2016

[grob702 at gmail.com]

Count me and I will be there also

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 27, 2015, at 3:19 PM, Sheri via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Richard meant to say the conference call is on December 7th!
> Thank you.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of richard
> via Ohio-talk
> Sent: Friday, November 27, 2015 8:01 AM
> To: 'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List'
> Cc: richard
> Subject: [Ohio-talk] march for independence 2016
> 
> Dear federation members of Ohio,
> 
> The drive for 75 was great and now we  are going to  March for independence,
> 
> I am calling you to action.
> 
> On Monday November 7th at 7pm we will have a conference call to talk about
> raising money for sending members to the national convention and the second
> part includes marching to the state convention.
> 
> This call is open  to all members.
> 
> For members who have contacted me off list about being a part of the special
> committee join the call.
> 
> We have a large job to do.
> 
> You can email me off list at rchpay7 at gmail.com and call 937/829/3368
> 
> 
> Dial-in Number: 
> 
> (712) 775-7031
> 
>    
> 
> Meeting ID: 
> 
> 240281423
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
> I do have several thoughts behind this but want you to get involved early
> 
> You heard me speak about boots on the ground at the state convention but
> talk is cheap
> 
> We must unite even if you do not plan to attend  the conventions you should
> feel obligated to help others get this chance.
> 
> When a civil rights movement starts it is very important to understand that
> the struggles effect us all.
> 
> DR. Martin  King said he had a dream and I have a vision that all blind
> people will make it to the mountain top so join us to make this happen.
> 
>   March for independence,
> 
> I have included the logo that we have used for other events.
> 
> I also included the speech for The Day After Civil Rights
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Race for Independence Logo
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Day After Civil Rights
> 
> 
> Kenneth Jernigan
> 
> 
> 
> Kenneth Jernigan
> 
> An Address Delivered by Kenneth Jernigan At the Banquet of the Annual
> Convention Of the National Federation of the Blind New Orleans, Louisiana,
> July 4, 1997
> 
> It has been said that all knowledge consists of definition and
> classification, and even definition may be just another way of classifying.
> History, for example, can be classified (or divided) into ancient, medieval,
> and modern; secular and ecclesiastical; American, English, European,
> African, Asian, and Latin American; political, economic, and social. And
> there are hundreds of other ways of doing it.
> 
> As to our history, the history of the organized blind movement, I classify
> or divide it into four stages. Of course, I could add a fifth-the centuries
> and eons before our founding in 1940. But I prefer to think of that time as
> the dark ages, the pre-history before hope and enlightenment.
> 
> When the National Federation of the Blind came into being almost six decades
> ago, our problem was simple. It was to find enough food to keep body and
> soul together-not for all of us, of course, but for many. If you are hungry,
> it is hard to think about anything else. And the blind were hungry.
> 
> And then we moved to a second stage, the attempt to find jobs. Call it
> rehabilitation. It wasn't that poverty had been eliminated, but it had been
> so reduced that we could now begin to think about something else, about
> jobs, about how to earn and not just be given. Naturally the desire for jobs
> was there from the beginning, but it now moved to the center of the stage.
> This was in the late '50's, the '60's, and the '70's. We wanted jobs-and we
> found them. Not always according to our capacity and not always with equal
> pay-but jobs.
> 
> And then we moved to a third stage. Call it civil rights. After a person has
> satisfied hunger and found a job, there is still something else-the search
> for self-esteem and equal treatment-the yearning to belong and
> participate-to be part of the family and the broader community. And for us,
> as for other minorities, there was only one way to get there-confrontation.
> The status quo always fights change.
> 
> Many people think that civil rights and integration are the same thing. They
> aren't. The concept of civil rights precedes integration and is a necessary
> precursor to it. As used in the late twentieth century, the term civil
> rights (although some will deny it) always means force-an in-your-face
> attitude by the minority, laws that make somebody do this or that,
> picketing, marches in the street, court cases, and much else. And we have
> done those things, all of them. We had to.
> 
> But there comes a day after civil rights. There must. Otherwise, the first
> three stages (satisfying hunger, finding jobs, and getting civil rights)
> have been in vain. The laws, the court cases, the confrontations, the jobs,
> and even the satisfying of hunger can never be our prime focus. They are
> preliminary. It is not that they disappear. Rather it is that they become a
> foundation on which to build.
> 
> Legislation cannot create understanding. Confrontation cannot create good
> will, mutual acceptance, and respect. For that matter, legislation and
> confrontation cannot create self-esteem. The search for self-esteem begins
> in the period of civil rights, but the realization of self-esteem must wait
> for the day after civil rights.
> 
> It will be easy for me to be misunderstood, so I want to make something very
> clear. We have not forgotten how to fight, and we will do it when we have
> to. We must not become slack or cease to be vigilant, and we won't. But we
> have now made enough progress to move to the next stage on the road to
> freedom. I call it the day after civil rights.
> 
> If a minority lives too long in an armed camp atmosphere, that minority
> becomes poisoned and corroded. We must move beyond minority mentality and
> victim thinking. This will be difficult-especially in today's society, where
> hate and suspicion are a rising tide and where members of minorities are
> encouraged and expected to feel bitterness and alienation and members of the
> majority are encouraged and expected to feel guilt and preoccupation with
> the past. Yes, it will be hard to do what I am suggesting, but we must do
> it. We must be willing to give to others as much as we want others to give
> to us, and we must do it with good will and civility. We must make the hard
> choices and take the long view.
> 
> Let me be specific. If a blind person tries to exploit blindness to get an
> advantage, or tries to use blindness as an excuse for failure or bad
> behavior, we must not defend that blind person but must stand with the
> sighted person that the blind person is trying to victimize. This will not
> be easy; it will not always be politically correct; and it will frequently
> bring criticism, not only from those blind persons who claim to want
> equality but are not willing to earn it, but also from some of the sighted
> as well. But we must do it anyway. If we want equal treatment and true
> integration, we must act like equals and not hide behind minority status.
> Yes, blind people are our brothers and sisters, but so are the sighted.
> Unless we are willing to have it that way, we neither deserve nor truly want
> what we have always claimed as a birthright.
> 
> That birthright, equal responsibility as well as equal rights, is the very
> essence of the NFB's philosophy. It is what we set out to get in 1940; it is
> what we have fought for every step of the way; it is what we are now close
> to achieving; and it is what we are absolutely determined to have. Equal
> rights-equal responsibility.
> 
> We are capable of working with the sighted, playing with the sighted, and
> living with the sighted; and we are capable of doing it on terms of complete
> equality. Likewise, the sighted are capable of doing the same with us-and
> for the most part I think they want to. What we need is not confrontation
> but understanding, an understanding that runs both ways. This means an
> ongoing process of communication and public education.
> 
> It is for that reason that in 1991 we introduced the
> <https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/books/kernel1/kernels.htm> Kernel
> Books. As I said at last year's convention, what we have done in writing,
> publishing, and distributing these books is nothing short of revolutionary.
> More than three million of them are now in circulation, and the difference
> they have made in public attitudes about blindness would be hard to
> exaggerate.
> 
> This year, following our usual pattern, we are issuing two more Kernel
> Books. Book twelve, Like Cats and Dogs, is available now; and book thirteen,
> Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving, will come this fall. There are, of course, many
> other elements in our educational program, but the Kernel Books are the
> centerpiece of it. As you hear the introductions to the two 1997 books and
> excerpts from the articles I wrote for them, keep in mind the context and
> the reason for publishing them. They must carry a message without being so
> preachy that nobody will read them, and they must be entertaining without
> blurring the purpose:
> 
> Like Cats and Dogs
> 
> Editor's Introduction
> 
> In the early and mid 1930's, when I was a boy in grade school, I dearly
> loved to read poetry--or, more properly speaking, have poetry read to me.
> And my teachers often obliged. One of my favorites was a poem by Eugene
> Field called the "Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat." Although it will never be
> a classic, I liked it. It begins like this:
> 
> "The gingham dog and the calico cat
> Side by side on the table sat;
> 'Twas half-past twelve,
> and (what do you think!)
> Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!"
> 
> The poem goes on to tell how the cat and dog had anawful fight and concludes
> by giving the outcome:
> 
> "But the truth about the cat and pup
> Is this: they ate each other up!"
> 
> Thus we come to the title of this book, Like Cats and Dogs. Maybe I chose it
> because I once had a dog that I dearly loved, or because I currently have
> some adorable kittens-or maybe because of the well-known saying about people
> fighting like cats and dogs. Regardless of the reason, the title is chosen,
> and we come to a question:
> 
> Exactly how do cats and dogs behave toward each other?
> 
> If they don't understand each other, they fight "like cats and dogs." But if
> they have the opportunity to get acquainted, they can live in harmony and
> become good friends.
> 
> As it is with cats and dogs, so it is with the blind and their sighted
> neighbors. There can either be harmony and friendship or misunderstanding
> and frustration. This little volume (the twelfth in the Kernel Book series)
> is meant to promote understanding, the ultimate framework of all true
> friendship and mutual respect.
> 
> As with past Kernel Books, the stories here are real-life experiences, told
> by the blind persons who lived them. The one exception is the article by
> Theresa House, who is the sighted wife of a blind man. Her parents feared
> that a blind person could never be an adequate husband for their daughter,
> and certainly not a suitable father for her children. You will see how it is
> turning out as they live their lives and raise their family.
> 
> As a matter of fact, marriage and children are major themes of this book.
> Bruce Gardner, blind and preparing to be a lawyer, dates and falls in love
> with a young sighted woman. She has questions, and so do her father and
> mother.
> 
> And there is the matter of blind parents and sighted children. As the boy
> and girl grow up, how do they feel? Do they think their parents can take
> care of them-and how do the parents feel? What ambitions do the parents have
> for their children?
> 
> There is another theme relative to children (blind children). Many are not
> given the chance to learn Braille. What does that do to them, and how do
> they feel about it as they come to adulthood?
> 
> There is more-the article I wrote about the difference between the sounds
> and smells of today and sixty years ago; and there is the story about a
> blind kitten (told by the owner, of course, not the kitten); an account of a
> blind woman's experience with pouring coffee; and much else. But I think I
> have told you enough to give you an inkling of what to expect.
> 
> At the core all of the people represented here are talking about the same
> thing. What they are saying is this:
> 
> In everything that counts we who are blind are just like you. As you read,
> you will recognize yourself in the story of our experiences. We laugh and
> cry, work and play, hope and dream, just like you. And although we don't
> forget that we are blind, we don't constantly think about it either. We are
> concerned with the routine business of daily living-what we plan to have for
> dinner, the latest gossip, and the current shenanigans in Washington.
> 
> Around fifty thousand people become blind in this country each year. That
> means that it may happen to you, a member of your family, a neighbor, or a
> friend. So we want you to know what blindness is like--and, more to the
> point, what it isn't like. That is why we are producing the Kernel Books. We
> hope you will find this volume both informative and interesting. If you do,
> we will have accomplished our purpose. We want to live in harmony with our
> neighbors-not the way most people think cats and dogs live.
> 
> Kenneth Jernigan
> Baltimore, Maryland 1997
> 
> That is the introduction. Now here are excerpts from my article called "The
> Sounds and Smells of Sixty Years":
> 
> Everybody knows that change is probably the only constant in life, but I
> think we don't fully understand what that means until after we are fifty. At
> least that is how it has been with me.
> 
> As readers of the Kernel Books know, I grew up on a farm in Tennessee in the
> 1920's and '30's, and it seems to me that almost nothing today is the way it
> was then. Since I have been blind all of my life, I am not talking about how
> things look but how they smell, taste, sound, and feel.
> 
> Start with smell. The world smells different today from what it did then.
> Nowadays I spend much of my time indoors, breathing conditioned air, whether
> heated or cooled. But that wasn't how it was when I was a boy.
> 
> Since we didn't have electricity, we couldn't have had air conditioning even
> if we could have afforded it. So in the summer the windows were open, and
> usually so were the doors. The air was rich with odors-the smells of growing
> things, of the barnyard, of the dust and gasoline from an occasional passing
> car, and of creeks. These were the smells of summer, but there were also the
> smells of winter-wood, burning in a fireplace, the smell of the unheated
> portions of the house, and the smell of the country in winter.
> 
> And it was not just the smells of that time but also the sounds-the mixture
> of stillness, bird songs, distant cattle, and the aliveness of the land.
> Today, whether indoors or out, one thing is always present-the sound of
> motors. There are automobiles, office machines, fluorescent lights, power
> tools, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, kitchen appliances, air conditioners,
> and heating units. When I was a boy, I might go a whole week without hearing
> a motor-but not today. In the world of the '90's there is never a minute
> without a motor. Sometimes it is an avalanche of noise, and sometimes only a
> vibration in the background-but it is always there-always a motor.
> 
> And I mustn't omit taste and touch. At first thought it might seem that
> there would be no difference between then and now, but there is. It isn't
> necessarily that I can't touch most of the things today that I touched in
> the 1930's. It is just that I don't. And as to taste, it may simply be my
> imagination or my aging taste buds, but it certainly doesn't seem that way.
> Food is prepared differently, and the ingredients take a different path from
> origin to table.
> 
> But what does all of that have to do with blindness? After all, that is what
> this book is about. Certainly blindness and blind people are not treated
> today the way they were sixty years ago. The blind of that generation had
> almost no chance to get a job and very little chance to get an education.
> 
> In my case (many of you know this story as well as I do, so you can judge
> for yourselves whether it fits our purpose in the Kernel Books), I was
> allowed to go to college, but I wasn't permitted to take the course of study
> I wanted. I attended elementary and high school at the Tennessee School for
> the Blind in Nashville, graduating in 1945. One day in the spring of my
> senior year, a state rehabilitation counselor came to talk to me about what
> I wanted to do and be.
> 
> I remember it well. We sat in what was called the parlor-a room,
> incidentally, which deserved the name. The School was housed in an old
> southern mansion, and the parlor, which was used as a general reception
> area, was the very essence of elegance.
> 
> The counselor and I sat on the elaborately carved sofa, and he asked me to
> tell him two or three areas of study that I might like to pursue when I went
> to college. I told him that I didn't need to pick two or three, that I
> wanted to be a lawyer.
> 
> He said that he wouldn't say that a blind person couldn't be a lawyer but
> that he thought it wasn't realistic. I would not be able to see the faces of
> the jury, he said, and would not be able to do the paperwork and the
> travelling. I argued, but I was only a teenager-and I didn't have any money.
> 
> Ultimately he told me (with big words and gently, but with absolute
> finality) that either I could go to college and study law and pay for it
> myself, or I could go and prepare to be something else and be assisted by
> the rehabilitation agency. Since I was a teenager and didn't have any money,
> I went and was something else.
> 
> Of course I now know that he was wrong. I am personally acquainted with
> hundreds of successfully practicing blind lawyers, and most of them are not
> noticeably more competent than I am. But I would not want to create the
> wrong impression. This man was not trying to do me harm. Quite the contrary.
> He truly believed that what he was doing was in my best interest. He was
> trying to help me. He was acting in the spirit of the times and doing the
> best he knew.
> 
> Today it wouldn't happen that way. Many things have made the difference, but
> principal among them is the National Federation of the Blind. Established in
> 1940 by a handful of blind men and women from seven states, the Federation
> has conducted a never-ending campaign to educate the public and stimulate
> the blind. I joined the organization in 1949, and it changed my life.
> 
> Today the Federation is the strongest and most constructive force in the
> affairs of the blind of this country, but its work is by no means finished.
> The job that still has to be done is not so much a matter of legislation or
> government assistance as of handling the interactions of daily life. We have
> come a long way in public acceptance, but sometimes the attitudes of sixty
> years ago are still with us.
> 
> Let me illustrate by what at first may seem to be trivial examples. (Again,
> some of you are familiar with the details surrounding the story I am about
> to tell, so you can judge whether it meets our test of suitability for the
> Kernel Books.) Over fifty years ago, when I was a boy on the farm in
> Tennessee, I often found time heavy on my hands during the summer months
> when I was not in school. To relieve the tedium, I would sometimes ride with
> a truck driver, who collected milk from the local farmers to take to a
> nearby cheese factory.
> 
> The days were hot, and when we could afford it, we sometimes bought a bottle
> of Coca-Cola. (Incidentally, it cost five cents.) I didn't have much money,
> but now and again I had a little, and I wanted to pay my share. One day I
> said to the driver (a young fellow about twenty), "I'll buy a Coke for each
> of us."
> 
> "Okay," he said, "stay here. I'll go in and get it."
> 
> "No," I said. "I'll go with you."
> 
> He was obviously uncomfortable and didn't want me to do it. Finally he said,
> "I can't do that. How would it look if people saw a blind person buying me a
> Coke?"
> 
> I was a teenager, not yet accustomed to the ways of diplomacy. So I told him
> in blunt terms that either I would buy the Coke publicly or I wouldn't buy
> it at all. After greed and pride had fought their battle, he decided not to
> have it, and we drove on--after which I was not welcome in the truck.
> 
> But that was more than fifty years ago. It couldn't happen today. Or could
> it? Well, let me tell you about an incident that occurred less than six
> months ago. My wife and I were entering a restaurant-an upscale, classy
> place with plenty of glitter and lots of manners.
> 
> It so fell out that another couple and we reached the door almost
> simultaneously. I happened to be positioned so that it was natural for me to
> open the door and hold it while the other couple entered, but the man was
> obviously ill at ease. He insisted that he hold the door and that my wife
> and I go first. Since I already had my hand on the door and was holding it
> open and since I was not in the mood to be treated like a child or an
> inferior, I dug in my mental heels and stayed put. It was all done on both
> sides with great politeness and courtly manners, but it was done. As I
> continued to hold the door, the other couple preceded us into the
> restaurant. But the man was obviously uncomfortable, showing by his comments
> and demeanor that he felt it was inappropriate for a blind person to hold a
> door for him and behave like an equal.
> 
> Trivial? Not related to the daily lives and economic problems of the blind?
> Not a factor in determining whether blind people can hold jobs or make
> money? Don't you believe it! These incidents (the one fifty years ago and
> the one this year) typify and symbolize everything that we are working to
> achieve.
> 
> But again I must emphasize that we are not talking about people who are
> trying to cause us harm. We are talking about people who, almost without
> exception, wish us well and want to be of help. Our job is not one of force
> but of giving people facts.
> 
> And key to it all is the National Federation of the Blind-blind persons
> coming together in local, state, and national meetings to encourage each
> other and inform the public. Sometimes we are tempted to believe that our
> progress is slow, but in reality it has been amazingly rapid. We have made
> more advances during the past sixty years than in all previously recorded
> history. And there are better days ahead.
> 
> It is true that the smells, sounds, touch, and taste of today are not what
> they were sixty years ago-but it is equally true that, despite occasional
> nostalgia, we wouldn't want them to be. We wouldn't because today is
> better-and not just in physical things but also in the patterns of
> opportunity and possibility. I say this despite all of the problems that
> face our country and our society. We who are blind look to the future with
> hope, and those who are sighted are helping us make that hope a reality.
> 
> That is my article for the first of this year's Kernel Books. Here are the
> introduction and the article for the second:
> 
> Wall-To-Wall Thanksgiving
> 
> Editor's Introduction
> 
> Most American holidays have a double significance-what they are and what
> they imply. New Year's Day, for instance, means just that, the beginning of
> another year. But it also means reviewing the past, planning for the future,
> and hoping to do better.
> 
> The Fourth of July commemorates the establishment of the nation. But over
> the years it has picked up a whole host of other meanings-everything from
> summer picnics and fireworks to how we should live and the current state of
> American values.
> 
> And then there is Thanksgiving-and also the present Kernel Book, the
> thirteenth in the series. When we started publishing the Kernel Books almost
> seven years ago, we didn't know how successful they would be, but our goal
> was to reach as many people as possible with true-life first-person stories
> told by blind persons themselves-how we raise children, hunt jobs, engage in
> courtship, get an education, go to church, cook a meal, meet friends, and do
> all of the other things that make up daily living.
> 
> And we wanted to do it in such a way that the average member of the sighted
> public would read and be interested. The results have been better than we
> could possibly have hoped. More than three million of the Kernel Books are
> now in circulation, and I rarely travel anywhere in the country without
> being approached by somebody who has read them and wants to talk about them
> or ask questions.
> 
> As to the present volume, Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving, it is much like what
> has gone before. It tells about blind people as they live and work.
> 
> What does a blind boy do to earn summer spending money, and what do his
> sighted parents expect of him? What of the Viet Nam veteran who loses his
> sight in the war and comes home to build a new life? And what about the
> self-conscious youngster and young man with a little sight, who is ashamed
> of blindness and yet has to live with it?
> 
> What of the small details that come together to make the days that form the
> years-learning to ride a bicycle, cook a steak, read a book, get a job? This
> is what Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving is about. I know the people who appear in
> its pages. They are friends of mine. Some have been my students. All of them
> are fellow participants in the work of the National Federation of the Blind.
> 
> If you wonder why so many of us give our time and effort to the Federation,
> it is because the Federation has played such an important part in making
> life better for us. In fact, the National Federation of the Blind has done
> more than any other single thing to improve the quality of life for blind
> persons in the twentieth century. It is blind persons coming together to
> help each other and do for themselves. That doesn't mean that we don't want
> or need help from our sighted friends and associates, for we do. But it does
> mean that we think we should try to help ourselves before we ask others for
> assistance. And we should also give as well as take. All of this is what the
> National Federation of the Blind stands for and means.
> 
> I have edited the Kernel Books from the beginning, and I have contributed a
> story to each of them. My present offering deals with help I have received
> from sighted people. Sometimes my reactions have been appropriate and
> mature; sometimes not. As you read, you will see that my views have changed
> as I have grown older. Perhaps my article, "Don't Throw the Nickel," sums it
> up.
> 
> As to the title of this thirteenth volume in the Kernel Book series,
> Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving, it is taken from the story of the same name by
> Barbara Pierce. But like the various holidays, it has more than a single
> meaning. With all of the difficulties we have had and with all of the
> problems we still face, we who are blind have more reason for thanksgiving
> now than ever before in history.
> 
> Unlike many in today's society, we do not think of ourselves as victims. We
> feel that our future is bright with promise. That is so because we intend to
> work to make it that way, and because more and more sighted people are
> joining our cause and helping us.
> 
> I hope you will enjoy this book and that it will give you worthwhile
> information.
> 
> Kenneth Jernigan
> Baltimore, Maryland, 1997
> 
> That is the introduction. Now for the article. As I have already said, it is
> called "Don't Throw the Nickel."
> 
> When is it appropriate for a blind person to accept help from a sighted
> person, and when is it not? If the offer is rejected, how can it be done
> without causing embarrassment or hurt feelings? Since most sighted people
> are well-disposed toward the blind, these are very real questions-questions
> that I as a blind person have faced all of my life. As you might imagine, my
> answers have changed as I have grown older and gained experience.
> 
> When I was a teenager, filled with the typical self-consciousness of
> adolescence, I frequently rode city buses. This was in Nashville. The school
> for the blind, where I was a student, was located on the edge of the city,
> and I liked to go downtown. Incidentally, in those days a bus ride cost a
> nickel, as did a lot of other things-a hamburger, a Coca-Cola, an order of
> French fries, a full-size candy bar, a double-dip of ice cream, and much
> else.
> 
> One day I was standing on the corner waiting for a bus when an elderly woman
> approached me and said, "Here, son, I'll help you." She then put a nickel
> into my hand.
> 
> I could tell that she was elderly because of her voice. There was quite a
> crowd at the bus stop, and I felt acute embarrassment. I tried to give the
> nickel back, but she moved out of my way and kept saying, "No, that's all
> right."
> 
> Everybody stopped talking, and my frustration mounted. Each time I stepped
> toward her to try to give back the nickel, she moved out of the way. It must
> have been quite a spectacle, me with my hand extended holding the nickel,
> and the woman weaving and dodging to avoid me. Finally, in absolute
> exasperation, I threw the nickel as far as I could down the street.
> 
> That was over fifty years ago, but the memory is still clear. Once the woman
> had placed the nickel in my hand, there was really no way I could have given
> it back. If I had simply and quietly accepted it and thanked her, very
> little notice would have been taken. As it was, I created quite a show. The
> elderly woman, who was only trying to help me, was undoubtedly embarrassed,
> and I did little to improve the image of blindness. Instead I did the exact
> opposite.
> 
> Ten years later, when I was in my twenties, I was teaching at the California
> training center for the blind in the San Francisco Bay area. One of my
> principal duties was to help newly blind persons learn how to deal maturely
> with loss of sight and the attitudes of the public about blindness.
> 
> Late one afternoon, after a particularly hard day, I was leaving the Center
> to go home. When I came to the corner to cross the street, an elderly man
> (he sounded as if he might be in his eighties) approached me and said, "I'll
> help you across the street." "No, thanks," I said. "I can make it just
> fine." I was polite but firm.
> 
> "I'll help you," he repeated, and took my arm. As I have already said, it
> had been a hard day. I made no discourteous response, but I speeded up my
> pace as we crossed the street.
> 
> Clearly the man could not keep up, and if I am to be honest, I knew that he
> couldn't. He released my arm and said with a hurt tone, "I was only trying
> to help."
> 
> When I got to the other side of the street, I came to a complete stop and
> said to myself, "Are you really so insecure about your blindness that, even
> if it has been a hard day, you can't afford to be kind to somebody who was
> only trying to help you?"
> 
> As with the nickel-throwing incident, there was a lesson to be learned. I
> should have accepted the man's offer of help and should have done it
> graciously. We would both have profited, each feeling that he had done the
> other a kindness. As it was, both of us experienced pain, even if only a
> little and even if only temporarily.
> 
> By the time another ten years had passed, I was in my thirties and directing
> programs for the blind in the state of Iowa. My job required me to do a
> great deal of traveling, and one day when I was checking into a hotel, a
> bellman carried my bag to my room. As he was leaving, I gave him a tip.
> 
> "Oh, no," he said, "I couldn't take a tip from you. I'm a Christian."
> 
> Unlike what I did in the other situations I have described, I did not refuse
> or resist. I simply thanked him and let it go at that. Of course I might
> have tried to get him to change his mind, but I didn't think it would be
> productive. And besides I didn't feel so insecure or unsure of myself that I
> needed to prove either to him or me that I was equal.
> 
> So far I have talked about help that has been courteously offered and
> probably should have been accepted. But what about the other kind? Blind
> people don't have a monopoly on rudeness or bad manners. Sighted people are
> human, too.
> 
> I think of a time when I was standing on a street corner in Des Moines,
> minding my own business and waiting for a friend. A big husky fellow with
> the momentum of a freight train came along and scooped me up without ever
> even pausing. "Come on, buddy," he said, as he grabbed my arm, "I'll help
> you across the street."
> 
> As it so happened, I didn't want to cross that street. I was going in
> another direction. But he didn't ask. And he wouldn't listen when I tried to
> tell him. He just kept walking and dragging me with him.
> 
> In the circumstances I planted my feet and resisted-and I should have. All
> of us, whether blind or sighted, owe courtesy and consideration to each
> other, but in this case I was being treated like a none too intelligent
> child. No, worse than that-for children are rarely manhandled in public.
> 
> Not long ago I entered an elevator, and a man standing next to me reached
> out and placed his hand on my arm, between me and the elevator door, in a
> protective manner. He probably felt that I might lean into the door as it
> was closing or that I might have difficulty when the door opened. It was a
> sheltering gesture, totally inappropriate but meant to be helpful. He would
> have been shocked at the thought of behaving that way toward a sighted adult
> passenger, but in my case he saw no impropriety.
> 
> When the door opened, he restrained me with his hand and said, "Wait. You
> can't go yet." Since I was standing immediately next to the door and since
> there was no traffic outside, it is hard to know why he felt I should wait.
> Maybe he thought I should take a moment to get my bearings, or maybe it was
> simply more of the protectiveness. Who knows?
> 
> He treated me very much as he would have treated a small child. How should I
> have reacted? It all depends on how insistent and how obtrusive he was.
> There is something to be said for restraint and not hurting other people's
> feelings, but there is also something to be said for recognizing when enough
> is enough.
> 
> In what I am about to say next, I am not just talking about persons who are
> totally blind but also about those who now see so poorly that they cannot
> function the way a sighted person normally does--persons who may be losing
> sight and who may be having trouble accepting it. I am also speaking to
> relatives.
> 
> As I have indicated, most blind people appreciate help when it is offered.
> When a blind person is walking through a crowd or down the street with
> somebody else and trying to carry on a conversation, it is easier to take
> the other person's arm. This is true even if the blind person is quite
> capable of traveling alone.
> 
> All of us like to do things for ourselves, but there are times when refusing
> to take an arm that is offered constitutes the very opposite of independence
> for a blind person. If, for instance, a blind person is walking with a
> sighted person through a crowded restaurant, the sensible thing to do is to
> take the sighted person's arm and go to the table without fuss or bother.
> 
> As you can tell, my views about independence and help from others have
> changed over the years. Probably the single most important factor in helping
> me come to my present notions has been the National Federation of the Blind.
> Having chapters in every state and almost every community of any size, the
> Federation is the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind persons.
> 
> As it is with me, so it is with thousands of other blind people throughout
> the country. We work together to help each other and ourselves. We give
> assistance to parents of blind children, to blind college students, to the
> newly blind, to the senior blind, and to blind persons who are trying to
> find employment. Above all, the Federation teaches a new way of thought
> about blindness. We want to take the mystery out of blindness. Mostly we who
> are blind are very much like you. 
> 
> This is the message of the National Federation of the Blind, and it has made
> a great difference in my life. If I had to sum up my personal philosophy in
> a single sentence, it would probably be this: Do all you can to help
> yourself before you call on somebody else; try to make life better for those
> around you; and don't throw nickels.
> 
> There you have excerpts from the two Kernel Books for 1997. I believe our
> efforts at self-improvement and public education will be advanced by these
> books and that we will go the rest of the way to full participation and
> first-class status in society. While I am talking about the future, let me
> say something else. I never come into one of our convention sessions without
> feeling a lift of spirit and a surge of joy, for I know to the depths of my
> being that our shared bond of love and trust will never change, and that
> because of it we will be unswervable in our determination and unstoppable in
> our progress.
> 
> Through our public service announcements on radio and television, through
> newspaper articles and personal contacts, through gatherings like this,
> through our mail programs, through our publications, through public speaking
> engagements, through meetings with government officials and corporate
> leaders, and especially through our Kernel Books, we are telling our
> story-and we are doing it in our own way and with our own voice. The day
> after civil rights is fast approaching, and we will meet it as we have met
> every other challenge we have ever faced-joyously, actively, and
> triumphantly. My brothers and my sisters, we are truly changing what it
> means to be blind-and the Kernel Books are helping us do it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ohio-talk mailing list
> Ohio-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Ohio-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/grob702%40gmail.com