[nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National Convention?
Arielle Silverman
arielle71 at gmail.com
Sun Jul 13 02:12:32 UTC 2014
Hi Elizabeth,
I don't know what your secondary disability is (nor is it my place to
ask) but just want to say I think your former NFB leader's comment was
way out of line. In fact, I'd put it in the same category as any
racist, sexist or homophobic remark--none of which should be tolerated
in our organization. Clearly if a disability is interfering with your
mental function or learning--even if it is invisible, or easily
treatable--it is very much real.
I hope you spoke with this person's NFB superior about this--e.g. if
it was your state vice-president who said this talk to the president.
If it was your state president, perhaps try to talk to someone at
national.
IMO, an NFB leader's job is to welcome and support all members--even
if they make choices we disagree with, or even if we can't personally
relate to their experiences.
As for the tagline, I think it can apply to anyone with any
disability. "Live the life you want" is an ideal we can all strive for
by doing the best we can. We might not always be able to do what we
want to do in life exactly--and everyone has to revise their ambitions
to an extent to match the realities of life circumstances. But if we
encounter barriers we can be hopeful that we might be able to find
solutions. We might not get to do all the things we want exactly when
we want to do them but we can use this philosophy to get closer to
those dreams than we were before.
Best,
Arielle
On 7/12/14, Anjelina Cruz via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Elizabeth, the reason why I said you are bold is because you were willing to
> be vulnerable on such a pubblic list. It's not easy to share frustrations.
> I may not be able to 100 percent relate to how you are feeling, but I can
> empathize with you. I have a friend who is deaf-blind. She is unable to
> cross streets without assistance from sighted passerbys or a sign. Even
> though she cannot complete all tasks exactly the way someone who is blind
> would, she's found ways to either work around her additional disability or
> realize her limitations. I'm not at all saying this is the same for you.
> I hope in the NFB there is a place for everyone no matter their disability.
>
>
> Anjelina
> --------------------------------------------
> On Sun, 7/13/14, Beth Taurasi via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National Convention?
> To: "Elizabeth Mohnke" <lizmohnke at hotmail.com>, "National Association of
> Blind Students mailing list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Sunday, July 13, 2014, 12:25 AM
>
> I feel the same way as you,
> Liz. I have some other disabling
> factors due to parental misconnduct or psychological abuse
> and I
> was devalued at home, at school, and in some work settings
> in
> Florida and Colorado. It's easy for the NFB people to
> feel like
> blindness is the only people's disabling factor they can
> serve,
> but they fail to recognize that mental illnesses, chronic
> health
> issues due to abuse, and so on also play a huge role in how
> the
> people act, interact, and so on. I'm worried as heck
> about my
> own future because the NFB says a lot about blind parents,
> but
> whuat about multidisabled intelligent beings who want to
> bring
> children in to this world? 80% of psychiatrically ill
> mothers
> have their babies removed from her. s Anyone heard of Buck
> V.
> Bell? Carrie Buck had her kid removed from her all
> because she
> was epileptic and even though she was not blind, a
> disability was
> present anyway. Then, she was sterilized. I will
> not tolerate
> such actions to be taken against me or any person with or
> without
> multiple disabilities.
> I side with you on this,
> Beth
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
>
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Date sent: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 17:29:51 -0400
> Subject: [nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National
> Convention?
>
> Hello All,
>
> I hope everyone who attended the national convention this
> year
> had a great
> time in Orlando. I understand attending a national
> convention can
> be a
> rather inspiring event in the life of someone who is blind.
>
> However, as I
> was listening to the online stream of the national
> convention
> this year, I
> found myself feeling the complete opposite.
>
> Instead of feeling inspired and hopeful for the future, I
> found
> myself
> feeling rather defeated and inadequate. As I was listening
> to the
> speaches
> from various leaders within the NFB, I found myself thinking
> how
> lucky they
> must be that the only disability they have to deal with in
> their
> lives was
> there blindness. I was thinking about how easy it must be
> fore
> someone who
> is only blind, and how more difficult it is for someone who
> has
> another
> disability in addition to being blind.
>
> Now perhaps this may be a bit too personal to post to the
> email
> list, but I
> was just curious if anyone else has ever felt this way, and
> if
> so, what did
> you do to deal with these kinds of feelings? I would greatly
>
> appreciate
> hearing from anyone who has ever dealt with this kind of
> issue
> before.
>
> Thanks,
> Elizabeth
>
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