[nfb-talk] Younger People

Sun Dec 2 16:30:57 CST 2007

Speaking of AARP, I am looking into plans that could help me out in the 
future.
could someone write to me who is using the plan and what they think of it.
I could go read until the cows come home, but I don't feel I learn as much 
as I would like to learn.
Unless someone is using it.
I know there isn't a Medical plan here, in Montana, but I understand that I 
could use the plan for medicines.
I would be interested to know what is all out there folks have used.
This would be wonderful not only for the magazine, but also for our list.
Or anything that we can use for help.
Not getting the run around if you will.
thanks so much.

--Dar
www.mypowermall.com/biz/home/5779
Every Saint has a past
Every Sinner has a future

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 2:54 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Younger People

>
> Dear Joe R,Carolyn and Joe M,
>
> I think that we should develop some kind of relationship with A.A.R.P. and
> try to get some of our literature and philosophy into their magazine and
> literature.
> Good things, seniors seem to share with other seniors.    Maybe we should
> try to get some of our own people to write pieces to go into some A.A.R.P.
> publications on a regular basis.
> We could write them aimed directly at those who are losing their vision, 
> but
> with some info that sighted readers can and will share with other seniors
> they know.  It is allot like trying to pet a strange dog.    You have to
> approach it slowly, with allot of caution and patience until you have won
> its trust.  One false move and its gone.
> .
> We really can not do enough in this area in reaching out to seniors who 
> are
> losing their vision late in life.
> They need what we already know about dealing with Blindness.
> One thing we do need to be careful with is that they are very afraid of 
> the
> term blind.  They seem to be able to accept "vision impaired" but they run
> like hell away from the word "Blind."
> They, like most everyone else, realize that society has placed a stigma on
> the word "Blind."
>  I had a problem with it myself, early on in dealing with my Blindness.  I
> fought the label until I learned it is respectable to be blind.
> I am afraid that we will have to "sugar coat" it for a time or up to a 
> point
> in order to get their attention and slip them the medicine that will cure
> them of their fear of the word.
> Seniors are stubborn
> And have very little patience for anything they don't immediately like or
> understand.  They don't like frustration or complexity.  They tend to give
> up quickly and easily, withdraw, and refuse to consider the matter once
> turned off.
> I deal with seniors here all of the time.  I live next door to the
> elephant's grave yard here called Century Village.  I have a support group
> there that has over 80 members year round and over 130 during the winter
> months.
>
> I think that our idea, here in Florida, of having a senior's Retreat, 
> geared
> straight to seniors is a good idea and I will begin looking for grants for
> it now.
>
>
> David Evans, NFBF
> Seniors Concerns Committee-Florida
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Joe Orozco
> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 6:59 PM
> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Younger People
>
> Hi David,
>
> Has there been any thought to establishing a loose affiliation with the
> AARP?  Their operation is so vast as to almost be mind-boggling, but I
> wonder if they might be interested in sharing our literature.  It could be
> one more method of spreading word of our programs.
>
> Joe Orozco
>
> "Politics is not predictions and politics is not observations. Politics is
> what we do, what we create, by what we work for, by what we hope for and
> what we dare to imagine."--Senator Paul Wellstone
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
> To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Younger People
>
>
>>
>> Dear Marilyn,
>>
>> That is why the NFB has a Seniors Division, nationally, and a senior's
>> Concerns Committee for the State of Florida.
>> Joe Men cello is the Chair.
>> I am on the committee and we are having a conference call tonight at 7:30
>> PM.
>> The question is how do we get the politicians to see the need and help to
>> construct programs that will reach out to seniors who are losing their
>> vision late in life.
>> They can be very resistant to help as it forces them to admit to
>> themselves
>> that there is something wrong and they are losing their abilities to
>> function.
>> The old ostrage with it its head in the sand mentality.  Ignore it and it
>> isn't real kind of thinking.
>>
>> This is the same kind of mind set with a man in the papers this morning.
>> An 81 year old senior, who has failed 3 driving test, but is still
>> driving,
>> insisted on driving his wife to a doctors appointment.
>> He struck and killed another person when he blew through a red light. And
>> also put himself and his wife in the hospital.
>> There are transportation services available here for him and his wife, 
>> but
>> it is this denial of the facts that still drives many of these people.
>> We need and must have programs and laws that help us identify those 
>> people
>> who need help and educate them as to how to find and use it.
>> As I sit on many transportation service boards, I see the stats from the
>> State and the Federal Government.  This is an avalanche coming down the
>> mountain.
>>
>> Join us and get back into the thick of it.
>>
>> David Evans, NFBF
>> MV Transit
>> Consumer Advocate
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Marilyn Womble
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 8:35 PM
>> To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Younger People
>>
>> David, having founded and directed the Florida Center for the Blind for
>> thirteen years, I am in full agreement with what you have written.  I
>> realize that employment is very important, but I feel that the older 
>> blind
>> person is not given full consideration within the movements for the 
>> blind.
>> Marilyn Womble
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of David Evans
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 8:05 PM
>> To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Younger People
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> There is a more insidious reason why fewer young people are joining
>> organizations.
>> The truth is that there are fewer young people who are Blind now than
>> before
>> because of better medicine and treatments of conditions that use to cause
>> more blindness.
>> There is another reason also.  That is that currently 69.8% of all blind
>> people today are over the age of 65 years old and that because the "baby
>> boomers" are now hitting their golden age, it makes them more numerous
>> than
>> the young people.
>> In fact, this number for seniors will go from 69.8% to 74% in less than 8
>> years from now.
>> This is why we need to contact seniors, who are losing their vision late
>> in
>> life, and get them to realize the importance of getting rehab training 
>> and
>> learning some skills of Blindness before they lose their independence and
>> wind up in a nursing home for fear that they can not take care of
>> themselves
>> alone.
>> I see it here all of the time in Florida.
>> Assisted living and nursing homes are booming here mostly for these
>> reasons.
>> Many seniors take on the attitude that you can't teach old dogs new
>> tricks.
>> This is only true if the old dog don't want to learn.
>> Seniors are very stubborn and don't want to face the issue that they are
>> losing their vision and try to hide it.  They go to great lengths to do 
>> so
>> and bury themselves in denial that it is happening to them.
>> I see them go through all of the stages.  They run from doctor to doctor,
>> looking for that "magic doctor that is going to cure them.  If not 
>> looking
>> for the magic doctor.  They are looking for that magic magnifier or 
>> device
>> that is going to let them see again like they could when they were 20.
>> They put their lives on "hold" and sit back and wait for a cure, 
>> meanwhile
>> letting the rest of their lives pass them by, afraid to join in.
>> Anyway, that is some of the truth surrounding the issue of fewer young
>> people joining organizations.
>>
>> David Evans, NFBF
>> MV Transit
>> Consumer Advocate
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Corey Cook
>> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 5:05 PM
>> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
>> Subject: [nfb-talk] Younger People
>>
>> Hello all,
>> I will respond with some thoughts about why NFB can't get younger people
>> to
>> join.
>> Sadly we are seeing a sociatal shift in America.
>> More and more especially in the 20 somethings and below it is all about
>> me!
>> A generation of Americans has been raised to think mainly of them selfs.
>> I had the fortune of being raised by my grand parents.
>> Both members of the greatest generation, so needless to say I was raised
>> much differently than many of the people I went to high-school and 
>> college
>> with.
>> Just my thoughts.
>>
>> Corey Cook
>> Live Journal
>> http://vanguardman.livejournal.com/
>> Xanga
>> http://www.xanga.com/ciu_nice_guy
>> AIM
>> goldadore922
>> MSN
>> romans815 at earthlink.net
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "T. Joseph Carter" <tjcarter at bluecherry.net>
>> To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:39 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] NFB and ACB
>>
>>
>> David, you point out that their membership is waning.  The problem is 
>> that
>> ours is as well.  Maybe not as rapidly or as remarkably, but particularly
>> in Western states (Colorado excepted), we really don't have the kind of
>> support we once had.
>>
>> I think your assessment of the reaction younger people have to the ACB
>> applies also to the NFB.  A lot of people my age and younger just do not
>> want to get into this big battle over who did what to whom and when.  I
>> think Corey was expressing precisely that frustration.
>>
>> Granted that is not the only thing affecting our ability to attract the
>> younger generations.  We talked about the problem just a few weeks ago
>> that people today seem to be more interested in what we can do for them
>> than what they can do with us.
>>
>> Fewer today are willing to become active, plain and simple.  Neither we
>> nor the ACB can afford to scare away potential new members by continuing
>> this feud.  We're modern-day Hatfields and McCoys here, and nobody really
>> cares about the pig or the hen anymore.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 24, 2007 at 12:05:11PM -0600, David Andrews wrote:
>>> The other thing I would say is that the organization is slowly
>>> dying.  I wasn't able to make it to NFB convention this year, and
>>> since ACB was here, I went over to check it out.  One of the first
>>> things you notice, after seeing how small their convention is, is
>>> that there are very few young people or kids there.  It is the older
>>> persons, the NFB haters, who are there.  They aren't attracting new
>>> people in large numbers because younger people don't care what
>>> happened between them and us in the past.  Unless they get some new
>>> dynamic leadership soon, then they will eventually go away.
>> _______________________________________________
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>
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