NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/misc/handicap/5454

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-30 | 4.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!isc-br!bunker!hcap!hnews!105!126!Mike.Freeman
From: [e-mail] (Mike Freeman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Nfb Bbs Censorship??
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 31 Jul 92 04:35:26 GMT
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Index Number: 23455

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

In a message to Tandy Way <15 Jul 92 11:51> Steve Richards wrote:

 SR> Hi Tandy, perhaps the issue of whether
 SR> Kenneth Jernigan is saint or
 SR> sinner is largely irrelevant.  Maybe

I'd agree with that.  However, he was/is a convenient focus for vitriole
and symbol for the issues which NFB has chosen to take stands on.

 SR> the question is whether *anyone*
 SR> should hold the reins of power for
 SR> such a long time.  There's a famous

That calls into question whether and to what extent one believes in
democracy or the right of the people to choose whom they will.  To say
that terms of office should be limited (in private organizations or in
public office) is, in the end, to say that the public cannot be trusted
to make wise decisions (and, hence, that some artificial mechanism,
i.e., term limits, must be introduced to circumvent the absolute right
of the people to choose whom they would elect) or, alternatively, that
democratic processes do not really exist (either in the private
organizations or in government).  Most of us would not admit the latter;
hence, the former must logically hold.  I find this anathema.

Should or should not the people have been allowed to choose FDR as their
President four times?  Apparently, the Republicans did not think so for
they pushed through the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1952.  It
is a fine point of irony that the first Republican President to get
caught by that amendment was Ronald Reagan.  The Republicans were
hoisted by their own petard.

For my part, if I say that I believe in the people's right to choose,
for better or ill, then I must accept this as truly valid.  Hence,
artificially imposing change via term limits doesn't square with this
belief.  BTW, we should remind ourselves that the quintescential
believer in continually stirring the pot in hopes of boiling up new
ideas was Chairman Mao.  Thanks but no thanks.

 SR> old saying that opines, "Power
 SR> corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
 SR> absolutely."  Be that as it may, it
 SR> seems to me that new ideas come
 SR> fastest whenever new people assume
 SR> power, and that isn't happening much
 SR> in NFB.  To be sure, they're fighting

It isn't, huh?  Then how come a good many members of the NFB National
Board of Directors consist of the young whippersnapper student types of
the '70's and '80's?  The RLFers have taken over.  And believe me, there
are a lot of younger folks coming into the organization that are pushing
us old f**ts because they don't believe that things can't be done.

Hard as it is for those who are not in NFB to believe, the NFB is not
just Dr. Jernigan and President Maurer.  But it would appear that few
who are not *in* the organization seem to be able to acknowledge this.
So be it.

 SR> for a dream, and it may be a
 SR> worthwhile dream, but whose dream is
 SR> it?  There's another old quote,

I consider it my dream; I warrant that others feel similarly.

 SR> "The sins of the fathers are visited
 SR> upon the children."  I wonder; is
 SR> that true of dreams, too?

Dunno.  Guess we'll find out.

There's another old quote that goes:  "Those who do not learn from
history are condemned to repeat it."  Wonder how this dovetails with the
sentiments of those who would continually change leadership for change's
sake?

Mike Freeman
... ** Sevareids law:  The cause of problems is solutions. **
___ CRR QWK 1.40

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