[nfb-talk] ACB members in NFB

[T. Joseph Carter]

There is not and cannot legitimately be any such exclusion of those who
are members of the ACB.  I think, however, that in order to be an active
member of either organization will invariably lead one to simply select
one organization to remain a member of.

Usually it boils down to either believing what the NFB believes about the
potential of a blind person or not.  If it's not that, then it may come
down to the "war" between the organizations--many in the NFB believe the
ACB is hell-bent on opposing absolutely everything we do.  Many in the ACB
describe the Federation as a bunch of radicals who are trying to do things
they shouldn't for the sake of publicity.  Most Federationists insist that
every blind person, regardless of how much the can or can't see, deserve
the same level of skills training we give to totally blind people.  Those
in the Council insist that partially sighted people are better off
learning to make the most out of their vision.

I admit that after trying to be a member of both organizations it came
down to all of these issues at once.  Guess which side I came down on in
most cases?  The only indecisive point was that last one--I concluded that
it wasn't really an either-or situation.  Learn and use both, right?

Ultimately it came down to a few people trying to fight the "war" on both
sides.  There were a few people on this list going through the usual ACB
bashing, and a whole lot of people on the ACB lists engaged in NFB
bashing.  The interesting thing is that the bashing on the NFB side were a
few isolated people on the lists.  The bashing on the ACB side came from
Chris Gray, among others in the ACB leadership, thereby continuing the
"war" and making it the official policy of the ACB that the NFB must cease
to exist.

Now, we've taken that position ourselves a time or two..  Maxi-Aids and
NAC come to mind.  The former for doing illegal things to make a profit,
and the latter for certifying anyone who pays their fee regardless of
things like ... the death of blind students at a school due to gross
negligence of its staff!  Nothing the NFB has been accused of, real or
imagined, even comes close.  And we're the radicals?


I don't care if anyone is a member of either organization, or both.  I
just think that, looking beyond the attacks (and there are some on both
sides), a person is likely to find that the ACB really doesn't stand for
much.  They do sure hate the NFB, though!


On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 06:51:22PM -0700, S Farwaneh wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I have a question about how to best accommodate active ACB members who try
> to join the NFB. My understanding is that NFB policies prohibit ACB/NFB
> dual membership. We have an ACB member in our midst who was informed about
> the policy, whereupon she denied her affiliation with ACB. We have
> philosophical differences concerning this issue: Some members believe that
> we should take her word for it and allow her to participate fully in NFB
> activities in the hopes that she will ultimately become a functional
> member; others request that her terminated affiliation with ACB be verified
> to  ensure that our chapters are not infiltrated by ACB members who believe
> that their mission is to 'reform' the NFB. 
> 
> I wonder if you have a similar experience to report, and what the best
> strategy is to expand our membership without jeopardizing our philosophy
> and policies.
> 
> Thanks,
> Samira Farwaneh
> Tucson Chapter, NFBA
> 
> 
> Samira Farwaneh
> Assistant Professor, Arabic Language and Linguistics
> Department of Near Eastern Studies
> Department of Linguistics
> Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program
> Louise Foucar Marshall Building
> 845 N Park Avenue, Room 440
> PO BOX 210158B
> University of Arizona
> Tucson, Arizona  85721-0158B
> Phone: (520) 621-8629 Or 621-8012
> Fax: (520) 621-2333
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