[nfb-talk] British Money:

[John Heim]

You know, you folks are arguing that we have it great here in the United 
States except for our money while at the same time arguing that we have so 
many other problems, why worry about the money.

Where else do you see the NFB taking the position that getting sighted 
assistance virtually every time you do something is the preferred solution? 
We don't need the money changed because we can just get sighted assistance 
after every transaction. Is that how you want your representatives to think?

And again... This stuff about your tax dollars going to more important 
things is just bogus. They are NOT going to increase the budget for each 
state's DVR if they save money on the currency. That's totally bogus. I 
don't know why people keep saying that. It ain't gonna happen.




What they
From: "Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E]" <powerst at dcpcepn.nci.nih.gov>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 6:07 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] British Money:


Well said Harmeet!
One one of the things some of us in the US have is Metro Access.  I gott in 
the van this morning.  I forgot to replenish my tokins.  I started to ask if 
I could pay him tomorrow, but then I chose to use cash.  I went strait for 
the slot and pulled out 2 ones and went to my change purse and got 2 
quorters.  How easy, and I did it in the dark, with out asking him if they 
were ones. See John, it can be done.  It is just how you handle your money. 
If for any reason I do not have time to put my money in their proper plases, 
I put it in with my change or in my pocket.  I do not use anything over a 
twenty and I know about what my change should be.  If my change is $7.00, I 
find the $5 and I know the other bills are ones.  I can still read bills, 
with some difficulty.  Once in a while, I will verify a bill with a friend 
that I can trust.  There is no shame in doing this.  I surely would ask for 
verification than cheat someone or overpay someone and get cheated myself.

I have a funny story for you all.  I was coming back from the gift shop at 
work and a man stopped me and said you dropped a $10.00 on your way in.  The 
gard agreed with him.  I knew how much money I had from buying something at 
the gift shop and showed him that it was not mine.  If I was dishonest, I 
could have taken the money and thanked the man.  Shortly after, I sold my 
old condo.  I never heard what happened to the ten dollar bill, but honest 
plays a big role in life.

Terry Powers


-----Original Message-----
From: Sekhon, Harmeet [mailto:Harmeet_Sekhon at cable.comcast.com]
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 5:19 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] British Money:

John,

It's a matter of priorities.  Do we put more effort into getting more of us 
into gainful employment, or do we  emphasize how easy it would be to 
identify paper money?  At this point, a great many of us don't have a lot of 
that paper money to begin with.  The vast majority are obtaining what little 
they do have from SSI and SSDI.  So, even though you could argue that we're 
lagging behind other countries with regards to this issue of easily 
identifiable paper money, we are leading when it comes to the programs we've 
got in place to help blind people to lead productive lives.  I'm originally 
from Canada.  Not that far away, right?  But when it comes to my abilities 
to access the services I need in order to find, keep and thrive in 
employment, I'll continue to have a much better time of it here than I would 
have in Canada.  All of the NFB centers are here, not overseas.  State 
agencies embracing the NFB philosophy are here.  For that matter, so's the 
NFB.  We've got an organized blind movement here.  That has helped to ensure 
that we are doing as well in this country as we are.  Asking the treasury to 
allocate a whole lot of money to changing the size or shape of my paper 
currency is going to do what?  Its going to take from programs blind people 
need in order to get the stuff in the first place.

After having done a lot of thinking since the news of this first hit, that's 
what I'm really able to take away.  I'm having a hard time really putting a 
lot of stock in this idea that there would be a backlash or that employers 
might assume that we need everything modified just to do simple tasks. 
Maybe I should consider those ideas to be more valid than I do.  But in the 
end, I want my taxes going to something that will get more money in the 
hands of fellow blind people.  Not into possibly helping me to save a couple 
of seconds after I transact business at a checkout stand and sertainly not 
into helping me determine whether or not I've been ripped off by the 
cashier.  Which latter experience, incidentally, is like never.