[Mt-blind] MAB Affiliation with NFB

Tue Nov 13 12:13:55 CST 2007

Way to go, Joy! What a moving posting!Attitude is so important in our lives, 
whether or not we are blind or visionally impaired.
    We can accomplish so much more with a good attitude than with a poor 
one.
    All our married life, 70 years, Joe and I have taken care of our 
challenges and stumbleing blocks in life, taking each in its turn, and 
enjoying the journey as we have gone along. You have stated it so much 
better than we ever could have. Thank you so much, we hope you continue to 
be a leader for us.
Joe and Flo Nelson
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BRUCE&JOY BRESLAUER" <bjb5757 at bresnan.net>
To: "mab" <mt-blind at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:57 AM
Subject: [Mt-blind] MAB Affiliation with NFB


> Hi, list.
>
> I wasn't going to chime in on this, but I have a couple of suggestions 
> that
> might be helpful for those of us who are newer to the organization and 
> that
> includes me, having been a member for only ten years.
>
> On some of our MAB letterhead there is a statement that we are an 
> affiliate
> of the National Federation of the Blind.  Perhaps it would be helpful to
> have someone knowledgeable about such things post to the list or write for
> The Observer an article detailing the history of this affiliation -- how 
> it
> came to be, when, and why.  It might help to clarify some things for those
> of us who came into the organization later, after the decision was made.
>
> The discussion of why we are affiliated or whether we should remain so 
> seems
> to come up every few years.  I hope we can continue to examine or 
> re-examine
> this affiliation in a respectful and nonhostile manner.
>
> It wouldn't hurt some of us who have time or are interested to look at the
> web sites of the two major consumer organizations of the blind, to 
> research
> their histories and study their philosophies and how they are the same and
> how they are different.
>
>  There is strength in numbers, and there are times when affiliating with a
> national organization is helpful in making a needed change in a law or a
> practice, or an attitude.  It's like belonging to a union, which some 
> think
> is a good idea and others do not.  With the changing times and changing
> demographics of people who are blind or visually impaired, the 
> organizations
> representing them have had to change as well.  However, there are certain
> things that do not change.  Those who are blind or visually impaired still
> need good educations.  They need to be literate in order to get and keep
> jobs.  They need to be economically self-sufficient in order to build
> productive lives for themselves and their families.  They need to have
> access to adequate, safe, reliable, and affordable transportation.  They
> need to have hope that life is worth living no matter what stage of life
> they are currently in, and that things can be better for them than they 
> were
> for those in generations past.  we are not that far removed from being
> institutionalized, from working in sheltered workshops or living on 
> welfare,
> from not being allowed to get married or own property or have bank 
> accounts,
> from living in group homes or being wards of the state or having
> state-appointed guardians, from having our children taken away from us 
> only
> because we are blind.  Historically, society's expectations of us have 
> been
> extremely low, and we have often been taught to have these same low
> expectations of and for ourselves.  Those in generations before us fought
> long and hard to change some of these limiting attitudes, and to develop
> successful -- albeit alternative -- methods of coping with the challenges 
> of
> everyday life --mobility, home or money management, transportation,
> vocational or recreational pursuits, just to name a few.  Today they
> continue to explore and challenge such things as the deplorable
> underemployment and unemployment rate among the blind, their elementary,
> high school, and college success rate, their ability to obtain and retain
> employment, their ability to remain self-sufficient and in their homes as
> long as possible.  These things are important to all of us.
>
> I grew up in what I now choose to call the fortunate fifties, when I
> received a good education and grounding in the skills of blindness from 
> the
> Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, and went on to graduate from
> public high school near the top of my class and go to college.  My parents
> thought that growing up with my own family in my own neighborhood was
> important enough that they moved to the same town where the school is so
> that I could come home every night, rather than stay there as a 
> residential
> student nine months of the year.  I think that has made a huge difference 
> in
> my adult life in knowing what a family is and appreciating its benefits, 
> and
> knowing how to nurture and sustain one as an adult.  Growing up, I was
> treated as normally as possible by my parents and friends.  I had chores 
> and
> expectations that were no different than those of my siblings.  I was
> encouraged to do well.  The only things I could not do were to read print
> and drive.  Not being able to drive was painfully obvious to me during the
> teenage years, when if I got mad at my parents for some reason and wanted 
> to
> leave to cool off, there was no place for me to go and no way for me to 
> get
> there except to walk.    It didn't occur to me that I couldn't or 
> shouldn't
> go to college, get married, own a home, have children, just like everyone
> else.  I never questioned it until later, when others questioned it.  By
> then of course it was too late because I was already doing these things, 
> and
> I had had the lifetime momentum of a can-do attitude to back it up.
>
> Now I feel a responsibility to the next generation of people who are blind
> or visually impaired, to see that they have the same opportunities to 
> build
> that same can-do attitude that I was fortunate to have grown up with.  Is
> literacy still a priority for them?  Do they have early access to the 
> skills
> and tools of blindness that will serve them well throughout their lives in
> school, college, work, retirement, and whatever other vocational or
> recreational endeavor they choose?  Can they climb the socioeconomic 
> ladder
> or Mount Everest or whatever other obstacle is in their path?  Who are 
> their
> role models?  How realistic are their expectations for their lives?
>
> In the Bible, after having been in Babylonian captivity for seventy years,
> the Israelites came back to Israel and were warned about becoming 
> complacent
> living in houses they did not build, tending vineyards they did not plant,
> reaping the benefits from the toil of others without being mindful of the
> cost.  I hope we don't do the same thing, forgetting the struggles of the
> past and why they were fought and the price that was paid to win them, and
> realizing that there are still struggles to be fought and battles to be 
> won.
> Sometimes they are the same for each generation, sometimes they are
> different, but whatever they are, it is a good idea for each generation to
> learn about their history -- the victories and the mistakes that were
> made -- so that the victories can be capitalized on and the mistakes need
> not be made again.  There is that saying that says the best way to know
> where you're going is to know where you've been.  I think the discussion
> about where we are going as the Montana Association for the Blind should
> necessarily include a factual discussion of where we have been, not just 
> an
> emotional one.  Many of the ones who lived that history and know it
> firsthand have passed on, and I think it would be wise for us to record 
> that
> history now before too many more of us who lived it pass on, and it is 
> lost
> forever.
>
> So are there any archivists among us, or those who wish to share memories 
> of
> the way it was back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and what 
> it
> meant to be blind was different than it is now?
>
> I wish my parents were still alive so that I could ask them how they coped
> with raising a daughter who is blind without the benefit of a Parents'
> Division.  They mostly flew by the seat of their pants I suppose, as I did
> in school and still do at work, advocating for myself when necessary and
> knowing that if I didn't, no one else would.  I didn't know at the time 
> that
> there was an organization I could have belonged to that might have saved 
> me
> in some cases from reinventing the wheel.
>
> Joy
>
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>
>
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