[nfb-talk] state con attendance

[Alan Wheeler]

Joseph,
I like what you have to say here.  It is very well thought out.  Thank you.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <tjcarter at bluecherry.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] state con attendance


>I don't know if I'd agree that computers have depersonalized human contact
> all that much.  Without them, I'd have no contact with any of you.  I live
> in a small commuter college town with no public transit to speak of.  A
> chapter meets some fifteen miles away, but that's an awfully long walk.
>
> I think the problem is that today, particularly the young want to know
> what an organization is going to do for them.  The NFB is going to tell
> them that they need to speak up and demand to be given both the same
> opportunity and the same responsibility of their sighted peers, and we
> will stand behind them 100% if they do that.
>
> This doesn't appeal to the young very well.  I think we can understand why
> by considering two extremes: The first extreme is the blind child who is
> sheltered, kept from having to make decisions, and coddled to the point
> that many here would describe it as a form of abuse.  The second is the
> blind child who has done well, perhaps in spite of reduced expectations
> and people telling him or her what he or she cannot do.
>
> First, let's consider what both of these children have in common.  Both
> have access to technology which is light years beyond anything anyone over
> the age of thirty-five has probably ever had.  Secondly, no matter how
> poor they may have been, both children have grown up in a school system
> that is legally mandated to provide every accommodation their schools deem
> reasonable.
>
> The first child has been smothered by overprotective parents and school
> and agency staff who all insist that they know what is best for the child.
> He/she grows up having never made a real decision for him/herself, and is
> in fact completely uncomfortable making any such decisions.  In high
> school, discussions at IEP meetings will be focused on "vocational goals"
> since such students inevitably do not show neither the initiative nor the
> strong potential needed to succeed in collegiate study.
>
> This child grows up to find the world a very hostile and discriminatory
> place.  If they are introduced to the Federation, they will not likely
> receive its message very well.  They don't know how to do the things we
> Federationists tell them to do.  Likewise, they have no desire to accept
> or wrest from others the basic responsibilities we of the Federation
> demand be ours alone, as is our right.
>
> The second child has probably grown up knowing the first child.  If not,
> it is likely that he or she is the only blind person in the area.  In
> either case, they are exposed to large amounts of ignorance, assumptions
> about their ability, low expectations, and condescension.  We can assume
> this because even those of us who have grown up in the Federation have had
> to learn to accept this sort of behavior from others as part of our daily
> lives.  An important difference between such cradle-Federationists and
> this child is that the child most likely does not have any connection to
> the Federation.
>
> As a young man or woman, this blind person will probably be successful, if
> only because he or she has learned to fight, and fight hard to not have
> foolish accommodations shoved down their throats, to not be treated
> constantly as a small child, and to not be denied the opportunity to
> compete with their peers "for liability reasons" or some similarly
> meaningless drivel that serves as a ready excuse for why they are somehow
> less than their peers.
>
> The problem is that this young person is probably jaded by the constant
> struggle for legitimacy as a person.  I myself had a rather extreme case
> of that affliction.  Probably, the first person would be highly aversive
> to the second, should they ever come in contact.  The second person may
> generalize that aversion to cover all blind people, especially if they are
> exposed to an organization which does not reject the learned helplessness
> as much as we do.
>
> When this person finally is exposed to the Federation, it is probably only
> after hearing all of the logical-sounding arguments for why they should
> avoid the militant, radical NFB.  (If they grew up with particularly
> custodial "experts", they might seek out the Federation for precisely that
> reason.  I know I did at first!)  Inevitably, this young person will find
> the NFB is not what they were led to believe it to be.
>
> But again, the Federation doesn't generally fight battles for a person
> just because that person is tired of fighting.  That's contrary to our
> purpose.  Both of these extreme cases are likely to ask, "What can the
> Federation do for me?"  The answer to both comes across sounding an awful
> lot like, "Not much."
>
>
> I've suggested how we can help the first person once or twice, but it's
> very hard to do because this person is past the age where their biology
> naturally encourages them to begin questioning authority figures and
> testing limits.  Much better it would be to reach out to their parents
> much sooner with a softer sell and let them see for themselves what we the
> blind can do for themselves.
>
> I have no idea how to reach out to the other extreme, as I said in another
> message.  We've got to find a way to do it though, both for their futures
> and for ours.
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2007 at 01:00:17PM -0500, Sherri wrote:
>> I became interested in the NFB as a "younger blind" person and now I am 
>> an
>> "older" blind person and I'm still here. I think that actually computers 
>> and
>> the internet have greatly depersonalized human contact and many young 
>> people
>> just don't see the point. Wow, that really makes me sound old.
>>
>> Sherri
>
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