[nfb-talk] state con attendance

[Sherri]

I appreciate the perspective. Yes, I think that particularly for blind 
people, computers have enlarged the world and our ability to contact 
one-another, but I watch my grown children and they don't seem to have 
friends or want to go out and make friends. Maybe they are strange, or there 
is something wrong with them, but they sure spend a lot of time instant 
messaging on the computer and text messaging on their cell phones. That's 
what I meant by the depersonalization of human contact. Anyway, your points 
are very well stated and very well taken.

Sherri
----- 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 8:49 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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