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Louisiana Association of Blind Students (LABS) |
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THE ROAD Editor's Introduction: The following article was taken from a speech given by Jesse Hartle at the annual meeting of the Louisiana Association of Blind Students. Jesse is a former LABS board member and now works in the Governmental Affairs Department at the National Center for the Blind. In this article Jesse shares with us a unique look at the philosophy of the NFB by drawing on history, and classic stories that we all know and love. Here is what he has to say. During World War II, Adolph Hitler was said to have asked Josef Stalin which road he should take if he needed to get to Moscow quickly, foreshadowing a German attack on Russian soil. Stalin replied that Hitler should ask Napoleon, referring to the Russian victory over Napoleon's invading French Army. Also around this time a young girl from Kansas found herself needing advice on the best avenue to take to achieve her goals, to which somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 people told her to follow the yellow brick road. Hitler and Dorothy met two very different outcomes based on their decisions. Hitler was not with his men who died invading Russia, while Dorothy started alone, and helped others along the way. The history of the National Federation of the Blind is similar to the journey Dorothy took down the yellow brick road. So join me on a journey back in time; do not worry you will trip or stumble, for the path we travel is smooth - it has been cleared by those who have come before us. The year is 1940, and I must warn you that the sights we are about to observe are not pleasant. As we look over the horizon the future of the blind is bleak; it is limited by the stereotypes of the sighted, as well as the blind of the country. At this time blind people are no more than second class citizens, who are expected to work in the shops, or sell pencils on street corners to earn little money. At this time this was a hopeful future for the blind. But what's that over there on the left, a man named tenBroek has just called the first meeting of the National Federation of the Blind to order, and our yellow brick road began. Like Dorothy's road, ours was narrow in the beginning for there were not a lot of people walking down the path. Let us move further in history. The year is 1972 and Congress has just passed legislation which makes it illegal to deny admission to colleges and universities based on blindness. This represents the blind student scarecrow. It provided the opportunity for an education, an opportunity to compete on an equal ground with our sighted counterparts and an opportunity to influence our sighted peers. In this room sits the future of the blindness movement, in your classes sit the future; lawyers, teachers, doctors, and business people of this country. How can we influence these people? It will not happen by just showing up for classes, taking notes and tests alone. We must engage in all other activities in which our counterparts are participating. We must join them as members of the student government organizations, to help represent the student body on key issues. We must join them on the campus activities board, to help bring quality entertainment to our schools. We must join them in the Greek system, to show that we can have just as much fun as they can on a Friday or Saturday night. There are many different organizations which offer many different opportunities, but you will never take a cruise if you are too afraid to leave the dock. My friends, we want attitudes about blindness to change, but wants are not enough. We must take advantage of our opportunities now for opportunities are like sand through the hourglass, and once gone they are but a memory of what might have been. As we continue down our path, the leaders of our movement had to deal with problems concerning the meaningful and effective training of individuals in the blindness skills of cane travel, Braille, home economics, daily living skills, and assistive technology. Now as Dorothy went down the yellow brick road she had to deal with some flying chimpanzees, and sometimes these chimpanzees came at night. So that made them nocturnal aviating chimpanzees; 'nocturnal aviating chimpanzees' is kind of a mouthful, so I will just refer to them as NAC. Now NAC put up a good fight, but their wings have been clipped, and most agencies who received NAC certification have been exposed to the sunlight for the way they treated the blind. They were exposed to the sunlight by the National Federation of the Blind. So we now talk about blind students who want equality as it relates to performing jobs, and it reminds me of the tin man. He was out chopping wood one day and got caught in the rain storm, and became rusty. The tin man needed the oil can, for with the oil he would be allowed to continue a normal life. In 1985 the National Federation of the Blind found its oil can in Ruston, Louisiana. The Louisiana Center for the Blind, founded by Joanne Wilson, was designed to provide effective training for the blind. The Louisiana Center for the Blind was soon joined by two other NFB centers, the Colorado Center for the Blind and BLIND, Inc. There was a fourth center in New Mexico, which was directed by a man well known by this organization, Dr. Fred Schroeder. The National Federation of the Blind centers have been achieving their goals for the past 19 years. What do they provide? and why should students attend? I will answer as to why you should attend first. At this time I will remind you of another fact - 70% of the working age blind of this country are unemployed. Of the 30% which have jobs, 90% are Braille readers. Now some of you may be sitting out there saying, so what, I don't need to know Braille, because I'm great on the computer. Well, the simple truth is the knowledge of Microsoft Word alone will not get you to work in the morning, nor will being an excellent traveler equate to great Braille literacy. To illustrate what the centers provide blind individuals I ask you to remember the story of the three little pigs. Now the first two pigs made their homes of sticks and straw respectively, and both were knocked down when the big bad wolf huffed and puffed. The third little pig however, built his home out of brick, and the big bad wolf huffed and puffed, but couldn’t blow the house down. He could not blow the house down because it had a solid foundation. That is what the centers provide blind individuals, a strong foundation for equality. While at a center you might ask yourself, why am I making a meal for 40 people? or why do I have to walk on a five mile graduation route for travel? The answer is because every time you succeed at something you never thought was possible, or something people always told you could not do because you were blind, you get a brick to add to your foundation. As to when you should attend a training center my advice is to go sooner rather than later, although I cannot tell when to go. I can only hope that you will not be like Goldilocks, who waited until she was staring three very tired hungry bears in the face before she realized it was time to go. I will now talk of the lion. The lion wanted courage, but he also offered security to his companions. He took them on his back and jumped over a gap in the road; he kept them safe from danger, and he gave them security. The National Federation of the Blind is the single largest organization of the blind, who speak for the blind, and offers security for its members. Every year in early February, the Federation meets in Washington D.C. to fight for meaningful legislation which will secure the rights of the blind, and to push for funding to provide new technology like the NFB Kurzweil reader - a device that was at one point a dream, but soon will be a reality. The Federation also works to provide accessible materials for blind students and on November 19, 2004, both houses of Congress passed legislation which will begin this process. The Federation is there to provide security when its members face discrimination. We meet those who want to discriminate against the blind in the courts. The Federation is not an organization which merely attempts to make changes in these areas; the Federation is the organization which makes changes in these areas. Now I ask you to look over the horizon and see the future of the blind with me. The road is no longer a narrow path; but like the potential of the Federation, it is ever expanding. It is important that I remind you that when you leave this convention, you will encounter the feeling that you are walking alone. But in the National Federation of the Blind you are never alone; you have the scarecrow, the tin man, and the lion. They are the symbols of our movement, representing security, equality, and opportunity. They are in you, and they are in me. Like Dr. Jernigan once said, (when there are good times we are one, when there are times of struggle and sorrow, we are one; in everything that matters we are one’. We will march, not like Hitler’s army to Moscow, but to the day when the blind achieve equality. Join me on the road and we will march as one. |
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