[nfb-talk] FW: Blind people deserve a library experiencereadingthenewspaper! NFB News Line Fails that!

Mon Jul 24 10:14:59 CDT 2006

Go William and Hope.  We, the NFB, stand up for what we believe.  When
we want or need something we go for it, until our wishes are met.
Go NFB, Go!
We sure have a lot to thank the NFB and its great leaders for.  With out
their great leadership, we would never have made it this far.  
We will keep going and nothing will ever stop us.  
My theory is:
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Terry Powers

-----Original Message-----
From: Wm. Ritchhart [mailto:william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 11:05 AM
To: nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfb-talk] FW: Blind people deserve a library
experiencereadingthenewspaper! NFB News Line Fails that!

This reply seems to not have made it to the list.  So I resend it.

William

-----Original Message-----
From: Wm. Ritchhart [mailto:william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 2:28 AM
To: 'Tom Mills'
Subject: RE: [nfb-talk] Blind people deserve a library experience
readingthenewspaper! NFB News Line Fails that!

What is wrong with the management of NFB Newsline?  Anybody who is blind
and wishes can receive the papers.  

You have no legitimate complaint on how the NFB uses the specific NFB
information channels.  They are no different than me starting my own
newspaper and printing just what I and my sponsors wish.       

As for NFB members being resistant to change... I think you are
confusing groups.  

*  NFB forms as first organized group of blind people to promote the
security, equality and opportunity for the nations blind. (1940)
*  NFB fights to insure that the blind receive a basic Social Security
benefit.  So they do not have to be beggars in the streets of our land.
(1940 - to the present, when needed.)
*  NFB assists blind workers escape from sheltered workshops and battles
for the right of blind people to have an ordinary job in an ordinary
work place, making an ordinary living.  (1940 to today.)
*  NFB causes the legislatures of our nation to pass White Cane Laws
that protect your right to travel on foot, independently without being
charged with the crime of "Contributory Negligence if some automobile
driver hits you.  (1940's to the present.)
*  NFB leaders start running one of the worst rehabilitation agencies in
Iowa in the 1960's.  In one decade, the Iowa Commission for the blind
goes from being one of the worst to being one of the best.  
*  NFB wins you the right to purchase insurance.  Before NFB's fight,
you could be denied because you are blind.  (1950's - 1960's)
*  NFB begins and continues to fight for literacy for the blind children
of America, because with the move to mainstreaming, literacy rates among
blind children plummeted.  (Really takes off in the 1970's and continues
today.)
 *  NFB funds the research to create the first reading machine. (1970's.
May have started earlier.)  The technology that NFB funded is adopted by
the sighted public in the late 1980's and causes the cost of the reading
machines to drop so drastically that reading machines become affordable
for most.
*  NFB fights for your right to get on to an airplane and fly wherever
you wish to go.  They even fight for your right to sit in any seat on
that plane that you can afford to purchase. (1970's - 1980's)  NFB won
the first part and will continue to fight for the second.
*NFB creates it's own rehabilitation centers, based on it's positive
philosophy of blindness;  because the traditional state ran agencies
have such low expectations in the abilities of the blind that most blind
people cannot succeed.  (1980's?)
*  NFB develops NFB Newsline and Americas Job line. (1990's)  NFB
Newsline has grown to provide more news papers to more blind people at a
lower cost than any radio reading service could ever do with live
people.  Americas Job line helps both sighted and blind Americans find
jobs.

Above is but a small list of the change that NFB members have wrought.
Some of my dates may be a bit off.  But the changes made are fact, even
if you are not willing or able to acknowledge them.  I could probably
add lots more.  I think for any person to claim that NFB members are
against change ignores the irrefutable facts of history.  You cannot be
an NFB member and not be for change.  Changing the lives of the nations
blind for the better is what the NFB is all about.  It is why NFB
exists.   

William

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Mills [mailto:tmills79 at bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 1:46 AM
To: william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net; NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Blind people deserve a library experience
readingthenewspaper! NFB News Line Fails that!

The trouble with most members of the federation is a complete always 
stubborn resistance to suggestions for change.  Every one on this list
knows 
that I have questioned the fairness and management of the NFB News Line
news 
paper Service.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wm. Ritchhart" <william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net>
To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 12:30 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Blind people deserve a library experience 
readingthenewspaper! NFB News Line Fails that!

> Did I miss something?  Considering that the only thing I have seen
about
> NFB Newsline recently was a post from the ACB leadership list
> encouraging the ACB membership to try to stop the Federal funding for
> NFB Newsline.
>
> The post made claims that any knowledgeable person would recognize as
> untrue.  In the normal ACB fashion, the post demonstrated that if NFB
is
> creating something, the members of the ACB in general will be against
> it.
>
> One last thing.  I have a question for you Tom.  Why do you bother
with
> us NFB folks?  I personally wouldn't waste my time with people whom I
> thought were so evil and always wrong.  It just seems that you could
> find a better use of your time doing something other than making angry
> post to an email list made up mostly of people who have beliefs that
are
> totally different from your own.
>
>
>
> William
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Tom Mills
> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 1:15 AM
> To: 4alabama at nfbnet.org
> Cc: nfblaw at nfbnet.org; alabama at acb.org; acb-l at acb.org;
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org; acb-chat at acb.org
> Subject: [nfb-talk] Blind people deserve a library experience reading
> thenewspaper! NFB News Line Fails that!
>
> I too wonder where the blind community is when they turn their backs
on
> decency and respect for an unbiased library experience while reading
the
>
> Alabama NFB News Line Service. The Federation is more interested in
> promoting its blind advocacy program; like filing frivolous law suits
> mostly
> for the sake of publicity and all the while knowing that most
government
>
> agencies and big business concerns will quietly settle crappy law
suits
> in
> the legal settlement mill. Remember I am talking about the National
> Federation of the Blind! The NFB News Line should never be used to
> promote
> NFB's advocacy positions and federation policies. Also, the Alabama
> chapter
> of the National Federation of the Blind should not be permitted to use
> the
> NFB News Line Service to advance the reputation of Mister J. Michael
> Jones,
> the Alabama affiliates state NFB president.  NFB President Doctor Marc
> Maurer has said that the NFB News Line Service has "A Special
> relationship
> with the news paper industry publishers participating on News Line."
Let
> me
> tell you something all you girls and guys, that frightens me!  I
believe
>
> that the NFB News Line Service should be held above any and all
politics
> for
> the sake of the blind community and most of all to provide blind news
> paper
> readers an honest library experience.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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