[nfb-talk] Open Letter to Marc Maurer

[David Evans]

Dear Robin and Ricky,

You both still don't get it.
It is not hate that is keeping ACB and NFB apart.  It is philosophy.
The ACB wants the World, and all of its trappings, changed to accommodate 
blind people.   whereas the NFB believes that it is Blind people who, 
through good skills of blindness, can adapt and live in the world as it is.
The ACB would have beeping traffic signals at every corner and tactile 
warning strips everywhere along with"helpful " sighted guides, to try to 
make up for not having good blind skills.

These are things that the Blind don't need nor do many of us want.
A beeping traffic signal only tells a blind person that the light changed. 
It does not make the cars stop.
They also advertise to the whole area that a blind person is crossing the 
street.  It sends a negative signal to the public about blind people and 
what we can do.
You have to be careful about the signals you send because many of the people 
who are receiving them are employers who are going to think blind people 
need so many things changed for them that it is not worth it to hire them 
and have to pay for all of these accommodations that they would not have to 
do if they  just hire sighted people.
By the way, just as an example of the uselessness of some of these 
accommodations.
Last week, the former state president of the ACB was crossing a street with 
an audible traffic signal and got hit by a car making a right on red.  I 
think his leg was broken.
If the darn signal were not making so much noise, he might have heard the 
car slowing down to make the turn and avoided getting hit, even with his 
guide dog.
Our travel skills and our hearing are all that stand between us and getting 
hit by a careless driver.  Having a noise that competes with my hearing is 
not something I need.  I can tell by the sound of the traffic surge who is 
moving and who is stopped.
I don't need tactile warnings strips at every curb cut to tell me I am at a 
curb cut and that there is a street nearby.
Every where I go, I am aware of the message I am sending to the Public.  I 
want that image to be a positive one because I know I am being watched by 
uncountable members of the Public.  If I have poor skills and need some 
sighted assistance every where I go, what kind of negative signal does that 
send to people and employers.
We need to really think about the accommodations we ask for and do we really 
need them to function.
I already heard some sighted people talking about this issue.  They are 
asking each other, "What do you think the new Blind Money will look like?" 
I wonder if I will squash the Braille on it if I put it in my pocket?  Will 
it be some crazy color that glows in the dark so they can see the numbers on 
it?
Notice I said Blind money, not money.
People are already thinking in the negative about the blind.  That means 
they are thinking negatively about you too, not just me.

I sometimes need to carry large sums of cash on me and I deal with it and 
make change.  I have had people try to take advantage of me and I have 
caught th;me and made them pay me what they owed me each time.
I can not even tell if the money is green, but I can tell the money.
One guy tried to short change me once for a twenty.  I called a manager and 
asked him to look in the drawer and see if there was a twenty dollar bill 
folded in a certain way.  He found it and then made the guy give me the 
right change and then fired the guy.
He tried to say that I gave him a five.  I showed the manager how each of my 
bills were folded, including the fives and since none of the fives in the 
tray were folded and he did find the twenty folded, just the way I said it 
should be, he knew I was right.
If the guy had put it in his pocket before the manager got there I would 
have called a cop and so would have the manager.  Short changing someone is 
stealing, but cheating the store too would have gotten him arrested.

The blind in this Country have been dealing with paper money for the best 
part of two hundred years in this country.  It is not that big a problem 
that we need to demand the government spend many hundreds of millions of 
dollars to change the money and for businesses to have to spend billions to 
change all of the machines that handle money.
It is not ACB bashing.  If I thought there were such a big problem here with 
telling money amounts, I would join in and ask that it be changed too.  I 
just don't think that we, as blind people, should make a problem where there 
isn't one.
It is the philosophy that keeps me a member of the NFB.
I have attended ACB National Conventions in the past.  I did not like the 
feeling I came away with.  There were more sighted volunteers than there 
were ACB members, most of whom were out at the theme park or gambling 
instead of being in the meetings and seminars.  It is not that way at NFB 
conventions.
As for speaking for the Blind.  NFB is the largest and oldest organization 
of and for the Blind in the Country.  Its members are duly elected and 
represent the largest majority of the organized Blind in this nation.  if 
they don't have the right to speak up for the Blind as a group, who does?
When and if the ACB is the largest organization, then they can claim the 
title.
I can only ask you to examine the philosophies on your own and listen to the 
arguments from both sides and think about them.  Think about the message 
that is being sent.  What does it say about blind people.  if that message 
hurts them and their image, then there is something not right with the 
message.  Sometimes, what seems good on the surface, has teeth that can bite 
you underneath.

David Evans, NFBF
Nuclear/Aerospace Materials Engineer
Builder of the Lunar Rovers and the F-117-A Stealth Fighter

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick E Morin" <rick.morin at comcast.net>
To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Open Letter to Marc Maurer


> Robyn.
> I agree with you.
> Rick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of MARSHA R WALLEN
> Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 11:38 AM
> To: nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Open Letter to Marc Maurer
>
> I would agree except most of the bad blood is with people who no longer
> are with us or whom have dropped out of either organization.  Most of the
> remainder of the members are only going on what they have heard through
> the years.  Bad blood can be infectous.  Isnt it time to let go off all
> the old stuff and start over.  ACB members are just as guilty of keeping
> the rift going even though many were not involved at the time and base
> their opinions on hearsay.
>
> Robyn
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