[nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!

Wed Dec 5 08:07:04 CST 2007

Super David!
Great to knoow I am not the only blind person taking on this chalange.
I will write you directly.
Terry Powers

-----Original Message-----
From: David Evans [mailto:drevans at bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:07 PM
To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!

Dear Terry,

Good Going!  If you need any help or advice about grant writing, I have experience and usually write a couple of grants a year.  I am researching government grants now that can be used to pay salaries for employees and staff of a non-profit organization.
This is not an easy one to find or get.
You will likely use the www.foundationscenter.org web site to search for grants.

Let me know if I can help.

David Evans, NFBF

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E]
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 9:41 AM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!

Great one Sherri!

In the office, I have proved to the people that a low partial can do a lot more in the office than just answer phones.  Yesterday, I took my first introductory class to grants.  I am hoping to be able to to print grants for those in my office and maybe do serches.  All grants are on line.  I even want to learn power point.  I have a totally blind friend who does it.  Then people can send me attatchments and I can make slides.  I can make the flier for our coffee get together.  I need to look at my future, when there will be less paper to shred and ask, what else can I do?  This is the question I have just begun to solve.  
Feal free to write if you have any questions on how I do anything in the office or if you are thinking of taking on a job in an office.

Terry Powers
Powerst at mail.nih.gov
M-power 7.2, Jaws and knfb user

-----Original Message-----
From: Sherri [mailto:flmom2006 at gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 9:04 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!

Someone asked me recently why I stick with the NFB? Why I have put up with all the chapter strife and turmoil that goes on, the politics within my chapter and my state affiliate. This is my reply and it has very much to do with the last e-mail about the student who after years of coddling learned how to do things for himself, but that was taken away from him by his well-meaning parents.

I stay involved because despite all the wrangling, despite all the personality differences, despite all the politics and intrachapter turmoil, this is why there is the NFB. The NFB is here and we have developed training centers that make it possible for us to learn not only the most helpful alternative techniques, but the philosophy to go with them. We have NFB so that a newly-blinded adult doesn't have to see blindness as the end of the world and sit in depression and stagnation for years, but can get out and associate with other blind people who have jobs, who are making their way in the world, who are lawyers, computer technicians, social workers, business owners, moms, dads, students, medical transcribers, teachers, mountain climbers, and any other myriad of occupations. And to me, that's why I stick with the NFB. I stick with our organization, because it gives me a positive way of looking at life and of dealing with my blindness and the people around me. The NFB says that I don't have to accept what well-meaning sighted people say about my capabilities. But within my chapter, within my state affiliate, I can only do what I can do. If other chapter members want to sit complacently around and not be involved and not help out on projects; if they want to take credit for what others do; if they don't want to give credit where it is due; well, that is not my problem. I was watching some program today and someone said that 10% of your life is stuff that happens to you and the other 90% is the way you react to stuff that happens to you. 
I think that is a worthwhile thing to consider. I cannot control what others do or how they react, but for me, the NFB is the best vehicle where I can work to do the most good to change what it means to be blind. I can do more to do that where I am part of a voice encompassing thousands of people than I can on my own or in some other organization that is so fragmented because of its overwhelming desire to be "democratic" and anti-NFB that it really doesn't get much done. I stick with NFB to hopefully give back some of what former members have contributed so that I can have more privileges and rights in society than they did. I stick with NFB because of the hope that the younger members coming up in the organization can know about our past, but put some of our differences behind us and continue to work together. I stick with NFB because of people like Abraham Nemith, like Tim Cramner, like Kenneth Jernigan, like Betsy Zaborowski, And that's why I will continue to be a part of NFB.

Sherri
----- Original Message -----
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <tjcarter at bluecherry.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!

Eric, if I listened to the people around me, today I would live a very different life.  I would probably be living in a group home.  Certainly I would not be a graduate student today.  I would probably work a low-level state job that someone helped me find, a job I wouldn't have if not for affirmative action.

Probably my meals, cleaning, laundry, and other basic common needs would not be my own responsibility.  I would be living on an allowance from my paycheck, some of what remains after the bills are paid for me.

That is what happened to most of my classmates, others who were blind and who did as they were told.  They listened to the people around them who told them what they could do and what wouldn't be possible for them.

It was the NFB who told me that a better future existed for me, if I wanted it.  Nobody made the claim it would be easy.  The fact is, they told me it was going to be very hard.  I would have to do a lot of things I didn't want to do.  The Federation has offered its assistance, and that sometimes looks like others telling me what they think I should do.  They have really offered me another choice.

I don't want to see the Federation stop doing that.  The coddling isn't being done by us--we are the ones offering people an alternative.  And we seem to be the only ones doing that.

As for giving people what they want, how can you know what you want if nobody offers you the choice?  I am reminded of one young man who attended the Colorado Center for the Blind while I was there.  He was 18 years old and he had never gone anywhere or done anything by himself.  He didn't even know how to cook a frozen entrÃ©e in a microwave for lunch by himself!

If you know anything about our training centers at all, you know that's not going to last.  He's going to learn to do these things because he must learn to do them.  Progress was slow because he didn't actually want to do these things himself at first, but once he began to see what he could do himself, he began to open up a bit.  He started to interact socially with the rest of us, too.

Three months into his program, his mother came to visit the center.  I don't remember much about it other than her asking in a very aggressive tone, "Who is taking my son home this evening?"  My temptation was to answer, "A city bus driver, presumably.  Same as the rest of us!"

He went home for the Christmas break, and did not return in January.  I asked what had happened to him and was told that everyone had decided that it was best that he not return during the snowy season.  I could not help but remark, "You mean his mother decided that her adult son wasn't going to have to learn to travel through the snow."  The answer I got was a very diplomatic non-confirmation that my assessment of the situation was correct.

I don't know if the guy ever did come back to the center, but I do know that if he did, every accomplishment of those three months would have been unmade.  Probably, he would tell you that things are as he wants them to be.  He never had the chance to make an informed decision as to what he wanted, though.  The choice was made by his mother.  She then sabotaged his chance to learn about the alternatives.

I'm sure his mother loves him very much.  But the thing she doesn't seem to grasp is that he's an adult right now, and that makes her old enough to be a grandparent.  The harsh, unforgiving fact is that one of these days she's not going to be there anymore.  What's going to happen to him then?
I don't believe she has found the time to think about that too much.

Hindsight being always 20/20, even when you're blind, I think we could have done more to make her aware of the progress her son had made.  If she saw what he had learned to do himself, maybe she would have had more faith that yes, even her son could do these things.

I tell a story now and then about my experience with another mother learning for herself what her son was capable of.  Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the family context as we continue to evolve and improve the things we teach at our centers.  That's another discussion--though it is one that perhaps we should have soon.

I think I have made my position on the feud with the ACB quite clear.  I think it is dangerous to our future and unnecessary.  However, I do not believe that means we all gather 'round and sing campfire songs.  We do have an obligation to stand for our principles as responsible citizens of the blindness community.  That means defending our ideas on their merit rather than attacking those who disagree with us.

On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 04:59:45PM -0800, eric calhoun wrote:
> Hello, folks!
>
> Here it is, about December 1, and I first want to say that I really 
> have enjoyed this discussion of ACB versus NFB.  I'd like to make a 
> few points.
>
> 1.  NFB-ers must stop "coddling" people, and telling people the right 
> way to go.  We all know that the right way to go is by listening and 
> associating.
> Having an NFB cane is very useful, but does not substitute the use of 
> the long, white cane, especially in NFB-approved training centers.
>
> 2.  We've got to start associating more, and bad-mouthing less.  Part 
> of the reason NFB has blossomed into "the engine" that could, is 
> because of leaders like Ten-Broek, Jernigan, and Dr. Maurer.
>
> Finally,
>
> We've got to give the younger people what they want: a chance for 
> everyone to come to an organization where they are supported, not told 
> how to live their lives.
>
> Eric Calhoun
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