Below is an exchange from Ida Lee Duplechin and Steve Jacobson on the
critical point of whether or not it is worthwhile to join other blind
people and work collectively.  They speak specifically about the National
Federation of the Blind but their ideas could easily apply to vicugs as
well.  Steve is a leader in the National Federation of the blind of
Minnesota.  He lives in Edina, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb.

Kelly



Date:  Wed, 27 Feb 2002 18:11:13 EST,
From:  Ida Lee Duplechin
[log in to unmask] wrote:

Dear Steve,

whether I decide to attend either convention is entirely my choice.

However, when you say," Whether you want to join us or fight us is a
choice you can make but don't forget who it was that fought to give you
that right to choose", I believe you are engaging in a bit of hyperbole.
I was sighted for 47 years in which my personality formed, my
achievements performed and goals reached for that period.

Due to the circumstances of my development of blindness, I have begun a
new life.  NFB seemed to hold out promise of the type of organization
that does support blind people.  As I've posted earlier, I checked into
all the organizations through BLIST.  My experiences with NFB members
were quite disconcerting and discouraging uniformly.

I understand that NFB is not modeled upon a professional organization.
Once I understood that I no longer expected the type of results I
originally anticipated.  The NFB seems to be modeled upon the
"charismatic model"- a leader determines the positions based upon the
"true believers" (try Eric Hoffer's book).  This is similar to the
Rainbow Coalition (Jesse Jackson, Sr. - a self-anointed Reverend, if I
remember correctly).

As I stated in previous posts, my memberships in professional
organizations color my experience and expectations.  Naturally, an
organization for the "disabled" will be engaged in a different type of
activities.  My acceptance in the community has been based strictly upon
my own efforts.  My work on my PhD is judged just as strictly as the
"able-bodied" student.  I've offered my suggestions on how people deal
with moving into "normal" society and how the "normal and able-bodied"
deal with various problems they encounter.  Even with the secondary
disabilities I can engage in community life which some of the strident
voices for independence seem to miss.  As you said, each of us decides
among the available choices of how we invest our "Time, Treasure and
Talents."  I have decided to live a normal life and use my experience in
problem-solving to make things easier.  There are any number of blind
people in this town who have benefited because of my contacts and
openness to participate in community life.  The state agency, NFB
chapter, social services, and other local blind organizations never
created the social change I have created.  So, if I do not attend the
convention this year, obviously I have not lost any credibility in the
community.  I revel in my competency; I choose not to participate in
activities and/or with people who want to hold all the marbles.  There
are some interesting "leadership training" courses available.  I am just
finishing a community leadership training course- first blind person and
everything has been fine.  We didn't have to walk through burning coals
or anything like that but we did learn to build a team of diverse
interests and accomplish a goal by supporting each other.  It all boils
down to the aim or goal of group.  Are we in this game to invest our
energy for Win-Win or to decimate our energy in Win-Lose?  I would
suggest some readings in the philosophy of John Nash and Game Theory.
There's also another development theory of "grounded theory."  As a
scientist, I'm intrigued by the underlying concept of any social
movement.  And, as a scientist, I like to quantify results.  Therefore,
when I began asking questions of different organizations that claim to
speak for the disabled, I was quite disappointed in the responses.  The
information was not available in order to determine efficacy.  I
understand a social organization like NFB, ACB, Rainbow Coalition, etc
having an agenda.  My training, education and experience, however, is
based upon determining efficacy through a rational measurement.  If the
motto of NFB is "changing what it means to be blind," then it needs to be
demonstrated.  As I've said, NFB has such a low-profile that it hasn't
affected life for the majority of the blind from the research I've done.
And, this is not say that any other organization has done so, either.
I'm still open to understanding the goals, objectives, and plan for
achieving the motto.  Since the organization does not provide the
constitution, bylaws, etc. to members as a professional organization
does, it is difficult to determine the governance, roles and duties of
affiliates and the method of doing business.

Sincerely,





Ida Lee Duplechin, MBA

Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 22:40:15 -0600 From: Steve Jacobson <
[log in to unmask]>

Ida,

Of course not everybody is going to jump on the NFB bandwagon or on the
ACB bandwagon, either, but I'm wondering if we have a generation gap
here.  In this case, I gather that I'm not much older than you, but maybe
the point at which we went blind makes a difference.  I can't say whether
the NFB has had a very specific affect in your community or not, and some
things that we have accomplished have been done in conjunction with other
groups.  However, I was born in 1950, and here are some of the things you
probably take for granted that I could not take for granted even thirty
years ago.

I remember fighting to get laws passed so people could not refuse to rent
to us.  Even in 1970 here in Minnesota you couldn't assume that you would
be able to move into a vacancy, and I don't mean for financial reasons, I
mean because of being blind.  One of our chapters worked hard to get
certain laws overturned in Minnesota's fourth or fifth largest city to
prevent discrimination against blind people when seeking housing.  I'm
not talking about some of the subtle discrimination you see now, or cases
where the individual was a poor candidate.  I'm talking about people who
simply said they did not rent to blind people.

It wasn't until the late 60's and early 70's that most states had laws
that permitted blind people to not be excluded or prevented from entering
restaurants, particularly with dog guides.  I remember fighting in the
seventies to get one of our members to be allowed to pursue a degree in
education.  She was turned down because she was blind, and that was the
reason that was given in writing.  I was asked not to take a math class
and a physics class at my college. After much work and some compromise,
some of which I still regret, I did take the classes.  However, at that
time, there were really no laws that would have supported me had they
refused to let me take the classes.  By the way, I went on to major in
math.  Many cities actually had a requirement that you had to have a
specific level of vision to teach in their public schools which excluded
blind people.  We fought several of those laws as well and won, but even
in the early 70's, there was no guarantee that you couldn't be excluded
from a job with blindness being the only reason.

Only ten years ago, one of our leaders at a Minnesota amusement park
called ValleyFair was ordered to ride with his daughter, not to take care
of her, but so she, at the age of nine or ten could act as a "responsible
adult" to take care of him.  ValleyFair defined a responsible adult as
being over four feet six inches tall and even blind adults had to be
accompanied by a "responsible adult."  His daughter's friend had to ride
alone.

When all of the individual state financial aid programs were rolled in to
SSI in the 70's, we worked hard to be sure that states who granted blind
persons more than the SSI rate could continue to do that.  The effects of
this have diminished now, but it would have been a real hardship for
blind persons living in states with higher costs of living had we not
taken action.  We have consistently been the leaders in getting more
liberal allowances for blind people getting Social Security Disability
payments.

We played a role in the passage of the ADA, but blind people were already
covered by many human rights laws in many states thanks to the work done
by various affiliates.  We were able to get language into the ADA to
prevent blind people from being forced to accept special services where
they were not appropriate.

I'm not saying none of this would have happened without us, but it
wouldn't have happened without work on somebody's part.  If you look at
our history, we aren't very far from the confinement of the rocking chair
in a back room or the basket or broom factories that were thought to be
suitable employment and recreation for the blind.  You may well be an
exceptional person, and you should take credit for moving ahead with your
life.  However, I just don't believe that your path hasn't been made a
lot smoother by the efforts of people that traveled ahead of you.  Your
community may never have heard of ValleyFair, and maybe you don't care
about a blind father being made to accept his child as a guardian.  But
some in your community have likely observed that things have changed, and
most people realize it is right to include us.  You could not assume that
you could take community education classes thirty years ago, though.
That has made your job easier whether you care to recognize that or not.
You have a lot of laws, services, and public education that give you a
base from which to work that you likely had little to do with making
happen.  I'm not saying you should have, I just don't it's really fair to
ignore the efforts of people who have gone before you who have made what
is certainly still hard, somewhat easier.  Even if it seems you have all
of the answers right now, there are probably ways we could be of help to
you in the future.  You are right that we're not modeled after a
professional organization as you say, but if you really looked closely, I
think you'd find that we're more than a charismatic model as well.  I'm
sorry if this seems uncharacteristically blunt, but the "I did it all on
my own" is one of those attitudes that really gets under my skin.  If
we're not helping blind people in your area enough, we need your help not
your criticism, and you could probably use our help as well.


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