[Nfbf-l] {Disarmed} Fwd: [NFBF-Leaders] Gubenitorial Proclamation Should Be Requested!!

[REPCODDS at aol.com]

Someone please send a request to Governor Charlie Crist to proclaim Friday  
, Oct. 15 as White Cane Safety Day in Florida.
 
 
 
 
 
 
White Cane Safety Day: A Symbol of Independence
by Marc  Maurer 
In February of 1978 a young  blind lady said, “I encounter people all of 
the time who bless me, extol my  independence, call me brave and courageous, 
and thoroughly miss the boat as to  what the real significance of the white 
cane is.” 
The National Federation of the  Blind in convention assembled on the 6th 
day of July, 1963, called upon the  governors of the fifty states to proclaim 
October 15 of each year as White  Cane Safety Day in each of our fifty 
states. On October 6, 1964, a joint  resolution of the Congress, HR 753, was 
signed into law authorizing the  President of the United States to proclaim 
October 15 of each year as “White  Cane Safety Day.” This resolution said: “
Resolved by the Senate and House of  Representatives…, that the President is 
hereby authorized to issue annually a  proclamation designating October 15 as 
White Cane Safety Day and calling upon  the people of the United States to 
observe such a day with appropriate  ceremonies and activities.” 
Within hours of the passage of  the congressional joint resolution 
authorizing the President to proclaim  October 15 as White Cane Safety Day, then 
President Lyndon B. Johnson  recognized the importance of the white cane as a 
staff of independence for  blind people. In the first Presidential White Cane 
Proclamation President  Johnson commended the blind for the growing spirit 
of independence and the  increased determination to be self-reliant that the 
organized blind had shown.  The Presidential proclamation said: 
The white cane in our society  has become one of the symbols of a blind 
person’s ability to come and go on  his own. Its use has promoted courtesy and 
special consideration to the blind  on our streets and highways. To make our 
people more fully aware of the  meaning of the white cane and of the need 
for motorists to exercise special  care for the blind persons who carry it 
Congress, by a joint resolution  approved as of October 6, 1964, has 
authorized the President to proclaim  October 15 of each year as White Cane Safety 
Day. 
Now, therefore, I, Lyndon B.  Johnson, President of the United States of 
America do hereby proclaim October  15, 1964 as White Cane Safety Day. 
With those stirring words  President Johnson issued the first White Cane 
Proclamation which was the  culmination of a long and serious effort on the 
part of the National  Federation of the Blind to gain recognition for the 
growing independence and  self-sufficiency of blind people in America, and also 
to gain recognition of  the white cane as the symbol of that independence 
and that  self-reliance. 
The first of the state laws  regarding the right of blind people to travel 
independently with the white  cane was passed in 1930. In 1966, Dr. Jacobus 
tenBroek, the founder of the  National Federation of the Blind, drafted the 
model White Cane Law. This model  act--which has become known as the Civil 
Rights Bill for the Blind, the  Disabled, and the Otherwise Physically 
Handicapped-–contains a provision  designating October 15 as White Cane Safety 
Day. Today there is a variant of  the White Cane Law on the statute books of 
every state in the  nation. 
>From 1963 (and even before)  when the National Federation of the Blind 
sought to have White Cane Safety Day  proclaimed as a recognition of the rights 
of blind persons, to 1978 when a  blind pedestrian met with misunderstanding 
regarding the true meaning of the  white cane, is but a short time in the 
life of a movement. In 1963, a  comparatively small number of blind people 
had achieved sufficient  independence to travel alone on the busy highways of 
our nation. In 1978 that  number has not simply increased but multiplied a 
hundredfold. The process  began in the beginning of the organized blind 
movement and continues today.  There was a time when it was unusual to see a 
blind person on the street, to  find a blind person working in an office, or to 
see a blind person operating  machinery in a factory. This is still all too 
uncommon. But it happens more  often and the symbol of this independence is 
the white cane. The blind are  able to go, to move, to be, and to compete 
with all others in society. The  means by which this is done is that simple 
tool, the white cane. With the  growing use of the white cane is an added 
element–-the wish and the will to be  free–-the unquenchable spirit and the 
inextinguishable determination to be  independent. With these our lives are 
changed, and the prospects for blind  people become bright. That is what White 
Cane Safety Day is all about. That is  what we do in the National Federation 
of the Blind 
_Model  White Cane Law_ 
(http://www.nfb.org/nfb/model_white_cane_bill.asp?SnID=1772185191)  


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