From: Doug.Coyle@f302.n133.z1.fidonet.org (Doug Coyle)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: what is a team player
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:01:53 GMT
Reply-To: Doug.Coyle@f302.n133.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:133/302 - Centurion, Stone Mtn GA
X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference

Index Number: 23397

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

This discussion about team players is interesting, and I have a
feeling we are getting to the heart of the matter here.  Let me
hastily say that I have no opinion about Dr. Jernigan (or mr.
Jernigan if you prefer).  I only joined the NFB because I have an
e.e.o. complaint outstanding against the federal government and I
want some political backup.

I didn't join because of philosophical reasons.  As a result of
this, my view of the organization is mor like that of a union than
a club.  If a union is involved in a strike action the union can't
put on a public display of disunity because that defeats the whole
purpose of the strike action.  I think the nfb looks at life as a
strike action.  This is gross over-simplification, but I'm only
trying to communicate why I believe Jernigan believes team play is
so important.  If you put a religious organization on one extreme
and a club on the other,organizations like the nfb come somewhere
in the middle.  The religious organization is supposed to be an
autocracy with God as head.

The club is a republic.  The need for putting up a united front
precludes the absolute right of membership in a union-like
organization from exercising complete freedom of speech in public
forums.  That is my view of organizations such as this.  In the
religious organization the ultimate authority is God.  In the union
type of organization the authority is the cause or raison d'etre.

In that religious organization I used to belong to, what happened
is that the clergy began to identify themselves too much with
God,and interposed themselves between the rest of us and God.  They
taught that commitment to God equaled commitment to the
organization.  Logically, then,the organization equals God.

It sounds to me like you guys are saying that in Jernigan's mind
and in the minds of staunch nfb supporters that the cause equals
Jernigan.  If what you say is correct, then the same thing will
happen to the nfb that happened to the religious organization I
used to belong to. After Jernigan is gone there will be a power
vacuum and some egos will try to fill it not having the
understanding of the cause or commitment to the cause which
supposedly motivates Jernigan, but will only be interested in
holding the same power he has.  They will try to draw disciples
away after themselves and split the organization.  It will then be
rendered an ineffective ruin.

If you guys are correct, then the nfb membership is going to get
just what they ask for.  If, however, the membership does
understand the cause and is really committed to it, and not to the
leadership of the organization only, then these things will not
happen.  Heavy poop, ain't it.

It coulde be that the need for security and comfort could blind our
minds to the true nature of what we are bringing about.  we blind
people do need-and maybe we need it too much) at least one little
corner of our lives where we are just one of the guys as opposed to
being the resident blind guy.  A long time ago when I first
experienced the prejudice we all face in the sighted world, I
decided that if I were going to live in the sighted world that I
was going to have to live in the sighted world.  I severed all
contacts with all but a few of my blind friends who were really
friends and kept all my associations within the sighted world.
It's a lonely road to follow, and if I had known then what I know
now I wouldn't have done it.  Going it alone is a heart-breaking
struggle, and I've even found myself enjoying things I read here on
this echo when I find that someone is saying to me, "hey, I've been
there too.

But we cannot allow the sighted world and its lack of emotional
support for us to drive us into a state of mental miopia. We also
as individuals cannot allow our own egos to destroy both the cause
and

[Note from Bill McGarry -- this article arrived here with this
last paragraph truncated.]

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