NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/misc/handicap/5384

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-28 | 3.4 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Walter Siren)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: nfb bbs censorship??
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:03:23 GMT
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Index Number: 23400

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 CC> this particular article) what NFB members say are misperceptions of the
 CC> organization.  Seems to me that a group concerned with the image of
 CC> blind people ought, also, to be able (and interested in) promoting its
 CC> own organizational image to potential members as well as to the
 CC> government, airlines and television networks.

     You would think so wouldn't you?

 CC> Most of us, after all, belong to no organization for the blind.  For
 CC> many of us, it is not "laziness" or "disinterest" which keeps us
 CC> unaffiliated, but the belief that no existing organization of the blind
 CC> represents our views and needs and because we feel that too much energy
 CC> is used up on petty politics within the existing organizations.  I know
 CC> that I do not feel that my right to have differing opinions on some
 CC> matters and to act on those opinions would be respected, were I to join.

Carla, if you don't join any organization of the blind,  then how
do you know that your opinions would not be respected if you don't
join any organization.  This is not to push one organization over
another, but how can you say that no organization of the blind has
made its mark on the advances that we have made.  While I respect
your right not to belong to either organization, I don't believe
you can say whether or not your opinions would be respected or
not.

I know that I don't always win my battles, but I have won some of
them, and I know that my opinions have been heard.  I have lost
some that I still believe that I am right about, but the majority
did not see things my way, and I will still say they are wrong, but
I was voted down.  That does not keep me from continuing to try to
get things changed.  I would not belong to any organization which
would not let me voice my opinion, or even continue to have them
after I loose, but in my opinion, while I don't always win, I can
see good things that come from both organizations.  I don't think
that individually we have enough influence to bring about the
changes that are necessary for us to move forward.

Apparently you have not used a guide dog for a very long time,
because years back, there were  a lot of places that would not let
us go into with a dog, and because of work from the organized
blind, we now have laws which has changed that, even though we
still run into problems with this problem, but not nearly as much
as in years gone by.

The problem today is that the younger generation, which you
apparently or a part of, has not had to fight their way through
some of the battles that we the older generation had to fight.  If
you all don't wake up, and after some of us older people pass away,
things could go back to where they were fifty and sixty years ago.
It is a lot easier to keep it than to have to win it back.

Walter

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