[Ohio-Talk] THE MOVEMENT AND THE MESSAGE

[c16a19f at sbcglobal.net]

What date and Ohio time is this meeting? If calling in, do we use the New York number below?

 

-----Original Appointment-----
From: Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Richard Payne
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2020 5:41 AM
To: 'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List'
Cc: Richard Payne
Subject: THE MOVEMENT AND THE MESSAGE
When: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 7:30 PM-8:30 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: phone

 

Richard Payne is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: 

the movement AND the message

                As educators and organizers we must be able to encapsulate the Federation's philosophy into short, digestible messages with which people can connect.  The following ten-point summary, excerpted from Jim Omvig's book, Freedom for the Blind, (provides an excellent overview of the NFB's philosophy about what it does and does not mean to be blind:)

(1) Blind people are simply normal, ordinary people who cannot see.

(2) The blind are merely a cross-section of society as a whole, mirroring society in every way with the same hopes, interests, and desires, the same dreams, abilities, and potential as everyone else.

(3) The physical condition of blindness is nothing more than a normal, human characteristic, like the hundreds of others which, taken together, mold each of us into a unique human being.

(4) Given proper training and opportunity, the average blind person can do the average job in the average place of business, can have a family, can be a tax-paying and participating citizen and can be in every way a contributing member of society who can compete on terms of absolute equality with his or her sighted neighbors.

(5) With proper training and opportunity, blindness is not a tragedy. It literally can be reduced to the level of a physical inconvenience or nuisance.

(6) The actual physical limitations associated with the characteristic of blindness can easily be overcome by using alternative techniques for doing without sight what you would do with sight if you had it.

(7) The concept of the hierarchy of sight--that is, the notion that the level to which a blind person can be competent and successful rises or falls in direct proportion to the amount of vision he or she has--is nothing more than a myth and is completely false.

(8) To sum it all up, "it is respectable to be blind," and the blind, themselves, are primarily responsible for pushing back the frontiers of ignorance and changing what it means to be blind in the broader society.

(9) "You can't have your cake and eat it too." That is, blind people cannot on the one hand use their blindness to get some advantage or something they want and then on the other hand demand equality and opportunity when it would be nice to have it--the blind deserve freedom and equality, yes, but hand-in-hand with equality comes responsibility.

(10) The real problem of blindness is not the physical loss of eyesight at all, but rather is to be found in the wide range of societal misunderstandings and misconceptions about blindness shared by the blind and sighted alike. Putting it quite bluntly, the blind are, in every sense of the word, a minority group, with all of the negative implications which this phrase conjures up.

 

I would like for you to read and be prepared to actively participate in the meeting.

To Join the Zoom Meeting

 <https://zoom.us/j/4081850851> https://zoom.us/j/4081850851

Meeting ID: 408 185 0851

One tap mobile

+16468769923,,4081850851# US (New York)

+13126266799,,4081850851# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location

        +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

        +1 253 215 8782 US

        +1 301 715 8592 US

        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

        +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 408 185 0851

Find your local number:  <https://zoom.us/u/acrm88WYQX> https://zoom.us/u/acrm88WYQX

Join by Skype for Business

 <https://zoom.us/skype/4081850851> https://zoom.us/skype/4081850851