From: Carla.Campbell@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Carla Campbell)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: nfb bbs censorship??
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:10:22 GMT
Reply-To: Carla.Campbell@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA
X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference

Index Number: 23419

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 WS>      Carla, if you don't join any organization of the blind,
 WS>      then how do you know that your opinions would not be
 WS>  respected?

I have been a member of one of the organizations, albeit breifly.  I did
not feel that I, or the local group was accomplishing enough to warrant
the time and effort it took to participate.  I felt that my voice could
be heard more clearly when I spoke alone, for myself.

Just because I do not consider that either of the organizations
represents my views or needs does not mean that I do not express my
views and needs in other ways.  True, it would be a more powerful
expression with the strength of numbers behind it, but as it is, I feel
that the energy I have available to spend on blindness issues
accomplishes more in the way of getting *my* opinions heard than would
that same energy if I spent it with one of the organizations.  I am one
voice, but I am one voice speaking my own words.

I would feel very differently about it if I were not active as an
individual.  I do not like the notion of taking a free ride on the
efforts of others any more than you do.  I certainly appreciate the
countless hours and abundant energy which has gone into legislation and
PR -- the work done by both of the major organizations in the past--
from which I now benefit.  (As you noted, for example, I have only been
using a dog guide for nine years-- well I know that it was once far more
challenging than it now is, however.) I have done my reading and my
talking and my listening.

That work was not done, however, for my gratitude, nor was it
undertaken with a view to "paying" others to undertake different causes
down the road.  It was done to accomplish what it accomplished.  No, we
cannot allow that hard work to go to waste-- but by using the freedoms
it gave us and by vigorously defending them as an individual, I feel
that I am paying as much as would be expected of me by most of the
people who fought for what I consider to be my "rights" today.

I do appreciate waht has been done for me by others. That doesn't mean,
however, that I feel that the work being done today by the organizations
is as meaningful to me as the work which was done in the past.

I do rather resent your painting an image of me as a thankless young
person (I'm twenty-seven, for the record), riding on the accomplishments
of others.  I owe the people who paved my way a great deal of thanks,
but nothing more.  I do not owe them a life of commitment to whatever
causes they now hold holy if those are not my causes. Rather, I choose
to respect them and their actions by appreciating them, and enjoying the
freedom which they intended to gain for me as well as for themselves in
their struggles.  I put much energy into maintaining the freedom for
which others fought, as well-- using that freedom responsibly and
productively.

I write letters, educate people I meet about my abilities and do my best
to let them know that I mean to represent only myself in these actions--
that not all blind people are like me; not all of us want or need the
same things I want (and more often do *not* want) and need and not all
of us like to be treated the way I like to be treated...  I am
persistant and diplomatic in reminding people of my abilities and my
rights and my humanity.

 WS> If you all don't wake up, and after some of us older people
 WS> pass away, things could go back to where they were fifty and
 WS> sixty years ago.  It is a lot easier to keep it than to have to
 WS> win it back.

YOur point is well taken.  I repeat that I do not believe, however, that
this is what either of the two major organizations are currently
*doing*.  Simply adding my voice to a chorus of "yes"s will not uphold
the results of your battles if that is not what is being *done*.  True:
if I wante dto spend a lifetime, many hours a day/week, I might be able
to make a change in an organization such that it was fighting what I
think to be the important battles.  But remind me, here, if you would,
who was supposed to benefit from the efforts of people in the past to
make it easier for me to simply live my life, blind or not?

Not Everyone should have to be politicians. Otherwise, whom do the
politicians fight for?  Some people enjoy it. I do not.

Much as I always say anyone who does not vote has little cause to
complain about election results, I do not feel that the person who does
not run for office must therefore remain silent about the issues.  I
"vote" on the issues as an individual.  My vote is not, perhaps all that
important, but I feel that it would be lost as a mere number if I pooled
it with those of others who believe things which I do not.

The things which I feel to be the important issues today (employment,
equal access to education, public perceptions and attitudes) are either
not being actively addressed by the organizations or are being addressed
in ways which I believe to be either counter-productive or
inappropriate.  To return to the dog guide example: I certainly would
have put my energy into promoting freedom of access to public places for
dog guide users.  But, just as I would not have dedicated myself to a
movement to allow dog guides to sit in airplane seats or eat at
restraunt tables or which would have required that public facilities
provide kennels for them to be kept in outside, I will not put my energy
into promoting what I feel are often unwise or ineffectual  policies,
today.

                                                 --Carla

... Read what I mean, not what I write!

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