From: Walter.Siren@p18.f5.n396.z1.fidonet.org (Walter Siren)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Nfb Bbs Censorship??
Date: 1 Sep 92 21:08:12 GMT
Reply-To: Walter.Siren@p18.f5.n396.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:396/5.18 - Pontchippi, New Orleans LA
X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference

Index Number: 24213

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 SR>I have experienced a growing
 SR> desire to become better informed, so that I might evaluate my own role
 SR> as a blind person, and what I can do and should do to be a part of the
 SR> solution to the problems blind people face rather than just a bystander.
 SR> I hope that doesn't sound pretentious, it isn't meant to be.

I think that you have the right idea.  It is better for you to
check it out for yourself.  If you talk to members of both
organizations, you will get conflicting stories;  however, you have
to weigh the information for yourself, and try to talk to people
that you know and can believe.

 SR> As a kid fresh out of high school I was a member of NFB, in part because
 SR> my school's Alumni Association was loosely affiliated with the
 SR> organization.  For instance the alumni convention dues included payment
 SR> of NFB membership.  How that originally came about I don't know.  A
 SR> couple years later I became actively involved in the fight to dissolve
 SR> the affiliation, for it seemed to me that the Alumni Association
 SR> shouldn't be, even semi-informally, part of either NFB or ACB.  The
 SR> fight was successful, but I never understood that there was more
 SR> involved in the battle until Durward McDaniel came from Washington D.C.
 SR> to observe the meeting where we voted to separate from NFB.

You were right.  I don't think that the alumni should be part of
either organization.  I know that our alumni here has members of
both organizations, and we try not to let the organization politics
take a part in the alumni.  I guess we are not always successful,
but I do think for the most part we do a good job with it.

 SR>A few years
 SR> after that I became active in the fledgling West Virginia chapter of
 SR> ACB, serving on its board of directors and chairing its resolutions
 SR> committee, things like that.  But when it came to locking horns with the
 SR> state legislature over issues concerning the blind of West Virginia the
 SR> chapter did virtually nothing, never taking an aggressive stance on
 SR> anything.  In frustration I eventually became a member-at-large of the
 SR> national organization.  That was a cop-out, I reckon.  Looking back on
 SR> those times, I realize that I was, for a time, as blindly loyal to ACB
 SR> as those in NFB are accused of being, and all because of what I had
 SR> heard, not what I had checked out for myself.

Well, it is too bad that you gave up the fight.  Why didn't you
continue the fight for what you believed like you did in the alumni
organization.

 SR>Fortunately ignorance is a curable condition.  What I'm
 SR> trying to do is dig up the truth.  I'm trying to get the facts behind
 SR> people's claims, to see if I can locate original Monitor or Forum
 SR> stories and such and read for myself what it's all about.  It's a tall
 SR> order, maybe even impossible.  But if I can succeed at all then I won't
 SR> be taking some stance or fighting some fight completely on hearsay.  Do
 SR> you have any ideas on tracking down stories and such, or do you think me
 SR> nuts?

Of course I do not think that you are nuts.  I don't know if it is
possible to track down those stories or not, but you might call the
ACB national office at (800) 424-8666 in the after noons between
the hours of 2:30 p.m. till about 5 P.M. edt, I think those hours
are close.  They do have a regular number that you can call
anytime, but that may be longdistance for you.  I don't know if
they can help you, but it might be worth a try, and I would assume
you also could call the NFB office, and maybe they could give you
early articles from their point of view.

Walter

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