[nfb-talk] Open Letter to Marc Maurer

Tue Dec 5 07:09:39 CST 2006

Super message David!
Getting Braille literacy and books for are our students mean a lot more
to me than tactal money.  If our children do not get the training and
books they need for school, they will not be able to hold jobs and this
money will have no value to them, if they can not ern it.

We have to look at what is most important.  
I like your story about doing the wash.  I have short arms so if I can
not reach something in the washer, I use my cane to move it where I can
reach it.

Terry Powers

-----Original Message-----
From: David Evans [mailto:drevans at bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 9:56 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Open Letter to Marc Maurer

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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>
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