Well Maurice, you do very well in the writing department. Thanks.
I'll kbet you know one of my dearekst friends, Dan Frye...and of
course, Renee. Renee was a student of mine in the OTC, and Dan was
attending Law school at the U. of W. In his spare time he advocated
for blind college students. I was assistant director at the time, and
one of my duties was to do everything the director did not want to do.
So one of my "enjoyable" tasks was to mediate issues between clients
and their VRC's. Dan was a straight shooter, and represented the NFB
very well.
Another fellow I grew to have great respect for was Fred
Schroder(probably screwed up his last name). If I'd still been a
member in the NFB, Fred would have been my number one choice for NFB
President. A real class act. My other very close friend, probably he
came and went prior to your being involved in the NFB, was Ken
Hopkins. Ken was director of the Idaho Commission, and during the
early 70's he and Mary Hopkins wore grooves in the road between Boise
and Seattle. Ken was a central figure in our efforts to pass a
Commission Bill. In 1975, Dr. Jerry Dunham, was removed as Chief of
the office of Services for the Blind, and Ken Hopkins applied for the
job. Ken was hired, and in 1977 the legislature passed our commission
bill and Ken was hired as the Commission Director. We were all one
big happy NFB family...until we weren't.
I was very active in those youthful days, and have many fond memories
of friends both in the NFB and, since 1990, in the ACB.
I'll run the risk of bringing down the wrath of the list, but since
you offered two articles, I will end with one I wrote back around
2004. Actually I had written it prior to my leaving DSB, but I did
not offer it to the Forum until 2004, when Penny suggested I should
have it published. So, if you enjoy it, be careful what you say,
because I have a closet of them.
IMAGINE
By Carl Jarvis
Imagine: You've just entered your office on what may well be the
most hectic, stressful day of your life; in other words, any normal
day. Suddenly you realize all of your reference books, piles of
paper-work and notes are covered with little bumps. In fact, you
discover there is not one single printed word to be found. Every
scrap of information necessary to do your job, is now in Braille.
Imagine: you rush back out of your office, wildly looking about;
peering into offices; staring over the shoulders of clerks. Everybody
is calmly doing their job, using Braille. Mysteriously they have
learned the language overnight. Only you, it seems, were overlooked.
For some unknown reason, you are permanently and totally Braille
challenged.
Imagine: you dash for the door hoping the rest of the world has not
gone mad. It has. In the elevator, you're not sure which button to
press for the lobby. Someone has to help you. They stare at you as
if you are stupid. Pausing at the news stand, you are unable to tell
one magazine from another. You can't stand it, you need to go home
and collect your thoughts. But at the bus stop, there's no way of
telling which coach is yours. You back away, not wanting anyone to
know, and you decide you'll call a cab. Of course, you only brought
bus fare and lunch money, not nearly enough for the taxi. Remembering
your bank card, you pull it out as you run back into the lobby.
There, at the access machine, you stop short. The card has turned to
Braille, and so have all of the instructions on the machine. You'll
have to call home and ask for help. Funny, you never paid much
attention to the telephone dial and now, in your growing state of
confusion, you don't recall which number goes where. You are so
alone, so frightened, you actually begin to weep.
Imagine: you have always seen yourself as a leader; a visionary, a
problem-solver. You will not run from this challenge. You shall
succeed. You have a large mortgage.
Once you have recovered from the great shock, you begin looking for
ways to survive.
Imagine: you have finally made arrangements, through your employer,
to hire a Braille reader, a process so complex and painful you plan to
patent it and use it to torture spies. Now you sit in your chair
going quietly mad listening to the drone of your reader's voice,
taking hours of time to cover what you once scanned in minutes, while
others whip about you efficiently communicating among themselves via
Braille-FAX and E-B-mail. You begin to feel the "ice" in isolation.
Imagine: you learn you are not alone. You are a member of a very
small minority of Braille-Challenged people. There is, in fact, a
Braille-less Culture; a history far too long and complex to discuss
here. So, you become a member of the, Braille-less Association of
America. (BAA) At the BAA meetings you find out about a number of
small companies manufacturing adaptive equipment which enables
Braille-less persons to access all of the Braille computers, FAX
machines, Braille scanners and Braillers.
The expense is far more than you can afford, so you seek assistance
from your employer. Your request is turned down. There are no
requirements that your employer accommodate your disability.
Imagine: BAA, along with many other disability groups, battle in
Congress for the passage of a Bill, guaranteeing you equal treatment
under the Law.
The bill passes and, despite subtle, subliminal negative messages from
your fiscal officer--money is, "found" for your accommodation. After
considerable time and effort, the technician from the Department of
Services for the Braille-less, has you on-line. Now you are able to
scan Braille text and convert the little dots into letters, and
through a very complex process, the Braille display on your computer
is transformed into print. Finally, you are again up to speed, being
your old efficient self, feeling good about your work.
Imagine: you are humming and smiling and cranking along in high gear.
Suddenly, a message flashes on your screen and drives terror through
your heart. New breakthroughs in technology have produced equipment
so superior to the ancient junk--at least four years old-- presently
in use, that your organization is up-grading the entire communications
system.
The BAA, technicians have already informed you that your adaptive
equipment is not compatible with it. You go to the,
"Powers-That-Be" in your organization, and request a meeting to
discuss this concern. You are told that your fears are groundless.
You will not be forgotten. Following this meeting A rumor goes around
hinting that you are trying to sabotage the new system, and your
associates begin to whisper behind your back. They want the new
system. It's far superior, more compact, ten times faster, and it's
cool looking. They are sick of your whining and constant complaining.
You feel the "ice" settling in again.
Imagine: you have been forgotten. The new system is in place.
Everybody loves it. You've been told not to worry, someone will be
around to do what is necessary to put you back on-line. The "someone"
they had in mind is the same technician who told you the system would
not work.
Despite your concerns, no one bothered to investigate before the
equipment was installed.
Once again you sit, going quietly mad while your reader plows line by
line through the piles of Braille.
Imagine: you know you are close to losing your mind or your
job--probably both. You must find other employment, but you do not
want your associates to know you are finally beaten. You try to
figure out a way to do a quiet job search when all information is only
accessible in Braille.
One day you hear that your State has developed a central information
center, called a, "kiosk". These information centers are being set up
in easily accessible locations. The plan is for these kiosks to make
government information and services available quickly and
conveniently, to the public. Sort of a "one stop shopping center".
You learn that lists of job openings are among the many services
offered. This is perfect. This is exactly what you need. you
discover your town recently placed a kiosk in the Mall. You go there
on Saturday afternoon. There it stands, costing the tax payers
hundreds of thousands of dollars to create, but well worth it. In its
ultimate form, the kiosks will bring virtually all State services
right into your local neighborhood. You are thrilled as you step up
to the controls. An automated voice welcomes you and brags about the
wonders of this system. Breathlessly, you wait for your
instructions...
Then, the Braille display appears.
Imagine: they are dragging you away, shrieking at the top of your
voice. Onlookers are amazed. They do not know how you managed to rip
the iron bench from the floor of the Mall. None of them dared to try
to stop you as you swung it over your head, again and again, smashing
the kiosk into pieces of broken plastic, glass and twisted metal.
None of them understand why you kept screaming the same words over and
over.
"I pay taxes, too! I pay taxes, too! I pay taxes, too!"
Imagine!
On 12/3/20, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Maurice, Charlie was a nice guy. Although him and I had frequent
disagreements about everything from the weather to politics we always got
along. He will be missed.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Maurice Peret
Sent: Thursday, December 3, 2020 12:41 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: welcome Maurice.
Dear Carl et al,
Thank you for the warm welcome. I rarely have time for listserv discussions
and there are so many out there that it can really get crazy and
unnecessarily distract from the workload. I subscribed to this list at
Roger’s suggestion, which I value for good coin. All those years and great
effort scanning books and helping to make them available to those of us who
are blind or have low vision cannot be overstated. I am proud to be part of
a broader effort to build on waht Roger has been able to accomplish,
hopefully with his help and guidance.
I find it most intriguing that Penny was a founding member of this list, I
have known Penny for more years than I care to admit, mostly on Facebook,
though my initial memory was sitting next to her at some advocacy meeting of
some sort or another way back in the day. I was quite saddened recently to
hear about the passing of Charlie Crawford. I did not know him personally
but his stature and reputation, especially in Maryland where I live, was
notable and unavoidable.
I am currently on staff with the NFB here in Baltimore, although it’s been
remote homebound work for the past ten months with no end in sight. If you
will indulge me a bit, I have included links to a couple of articles that
were published under my name in the Braille Monitor.
They should provide a bit of background as in introduction. The first is a
rather whimsical reflection upon my professional observations in the
blindness field. I have been a National Orientation & Mobility Certified
Trainer since 2002, with tons of other sorts of responsibilities throughout
my career. I had the distinction of being the first blind O&M instructor
hired in the Commonwealth of Virginia, not uncontroversial at the time. The
second and most recent article describes my political history and
development.
My singular focus on this list is political. For the past few years I have
wandered back into activism, searching for some sort of independent
political movement but alas, mostly all so called progressive groups of any
kind funnel back into the Democratic party.
I agree with Malcolm X who was uncompromising in many ways, but certainly he
was clearly opposed to the dual bourgeois party setup in this country.
I would summarize my intention on this list as encompassing anything I
engage in politically. Namely, I seek out others who want to change society
for all oppressed peoples, those of us with disabilities as well as the
majority of us who produce all the wealth that supports a relative handful
of parasitic capitalist families who produce nothing.
I favor revolution over reform so I have no truck with the Bernie Bros nor
with Democratic Socialists who have a traceable history in the workers
movement and, particularly in Europe, it ain’t always pretty.
From Helplessness to Independence:
A Philosophical and Practical Overview
https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/braille_monitor/2017/june/08_from_helplessness_to_independence.mp3
Anger or Righteous Indignation (HTML)
https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/braille_monitor/2020/january/11_anger_or_righteous_indignation.mp3
I am pleased to become better acquainted with you on this list on topics of
particular interest and passion outside of blindness. My gratitude is
extended to Roger for suggesting that I join.
Regards,
Maurice
On 12/3/20, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for adding to the history, Roger. If we could hear from
Penny, I believe she was a founding Mother, along with Charlie
Crawford. And the other person who was active when I joined the list,
was Sylvie. I sent her an email, but doubt I'll hear back, since
she's been inactive for several years.
My favorite list to rant on, was the ACB chat. It was a free for all
sort of a list, an opinion list for the brave at heart. Bob Hachey
moderated it, and he had also been on this list. But Bob succumbed to
cancer, and after a few weeks, Deb Lewis posted a note saying she was
cancelling the chat list, immediately. And it was. That pissed me
off royally. Not because the ACB leadership couldn't decide what lists
to lend their name to, but Deb and I worked together for years, and I
knew the controversy on the chat list was not making her happy. There
were some good discussions on that list, since it had about as many
from the far Right as from the Left.
Probably the loss of the ACB chat list was a good thing, for me. I
was spending far too much time on it.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/2/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Actually, Carl, I thought you had been on the list from the very
beginning. But as long as you are telling something about the history
of the list let me let Maurice know how I came to be moderator if you
can call it that. I first found out about Blind Democracy when Miriam
invited me to subscribe. I think she did that based on one of my
email signatures that she saw on another list. I eventually left the
group because I was getting too much email and this list seemed to be
the most expendable. But then on another email list one of the two
list owners got rather upset about another of my email signatures. By
the way, I change that signature about once a month. Lately I have
been using quotes promoting the materialist philosophy, but I have
used overtly political signatures in the past. Anyway, that list
co-owner started sending me some rather nasty private emails and I
got the impression that he was about to expel me from his list
because he didn't like my politics. So I resubscribed to Blind
Democracy again with the idea to recruit support for my freedom of
speech if it came to that. The man in question did eventually calm
down a bit and later he died, so that particular crisis was resolved,
but I remained on the Blind Democracy list. At that time the list was
hosted by a web site called Octothorp and as time went on the owner
of that web site died too. Without anyone to maintain it the site
just fell apart and this email list stopped working. We list members
stayed in touch and tried to carry on for a while by replying to all
in our emails and adding numerous addresses to each original post, but
that was very awkward and was not sustainable.
It was obvious that the list needed to be reestablished on another
host site that was dedicated to email lists, but no one wanted to do it.
Everyone seemed to think it took a technical wizard to set up an
email list, but all that was really necessary was to follow the
prompts. I had been on the verge of unsubscribing just before
Octothorp fell apart, but I decided that if no one else was going to
reestablish the list the job fell to me. I started to set it up on
Yahoo groups even though I had heard that lately Yahoo had made their
groups pretty close to inaccessible and when I tried to set up a new
group there I found out that was true. I got only so far and couldn't
continue. So I tried another web site. The next one that popped into
my mind was Freelists. I was able to set it up and the subscriber
list was still accessible from Octo thorp, so we were able to invite
everyone to subscribe to the new group. Some people never made the
transition, but they were people who never posted anyway and I
suspect that their email addresses were moribund. So I became the new
de facto list owner and moderator. Like I said, I was on the verge of
unsubscribing anyway and I didn't particularly want the job of
moderator, but I had gone and committed myself to it. So I decided to
moderate by not moderating. That is, this is a free speech zone. You
can say anything you want here and its okay with me. If a spammer
comes along I do block that, but other than that no one gets blocked
or expelled with one exception. There was one person who decided to
use the list for long vicious insult messages at me. I was the target
and it was fine with me if he kept on insulting me, but it was rather
upsetting other list members. I finally got pressured into doing
something about him. I didn't want to block him, so I took the least
drastic action. There was a choice in the settings of just blocking
his posts and letting him read everyone else's posts. I think he
decided that if he couldn't insult me that he didn't want to be a
part of the group at all, so he hasn't bothered us for a while except by
private message and that even is getting to be more rare.
___
Carl Sagan
“Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No, no
scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection
for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to
critics, Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of
it; it’s done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard
but just rule is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them
away.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the
Dark
On 12/2/2020 4:45 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
A word of welcome, Maurice. Blind Democracy is a well kept secret.
The original list began long before I was aware of it, but my
understanding is that the list was begun by Charles Crawford and
Penny Reader, as a place for ACB members who were under fire by the
then "leadership"
Someone will correct me, if I'm too far off course. Anyway, the
list began to slide to the political Left, and those who worshiped
Mothers and Apple Pie and 200% Made in America, all of them few,
swore a mighty oath and left for Mitchville, Kentucky. For me, as
an old rehab teacher doing my entries and searches on-line, it was a
way to relax and unload, and practice expressing personal opinions
instead of my too many years of writing in boring bureaucratese.
As for me, I'm Carl Jarvis, self proclaimed Progressive. I'm still
recovering from years laboring in the political field as a democrat.
And further back in my wanderings, I became a born again Christian.
After about ten years I became an unborn Heathen and embraced
Agnosticism...if indeed Agnosticism can be embraced. Some, even on
this list, insist that I am an Atheist. But I say nay, I know what
I don't believe...or is it, what I do believe?
I was born in Spokane, Washington back in 1935, the middle child.
At least I was different than my two sisters. I grew up in Seattle,
did free lance photography, worked in a drapery factory, and
transitioned from a person of low vision to one of total blindness
in 1965. After hunting down the office of services for the blind,
and self teaching myself Braille, I returned to college. My first
wife and I had a small daughter, and we'd been married for five
years prior to my becoming blind. After another five years, we went our
separate ways.
Eventually I became employed by the Services for the Blind, first
teaching food service management, then becoming an instructor,
teaching Braille and "adjustment skills" to adult students in the
Orientation and Training Center. Later I directed the OTC before
taking early retirement and moving to the Olympic Peninsula. Cathy
and I set up Peninsula Rehabilitation Services in 1995, and we
closed our services this past June 30, due in in part to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the years I became more Progressive, but I moved my focus from
the Democratic Party, suffering from the Party's leadership deciding
to abandon the Working Class in favor of the Corporate dollars, and
I spent the next 56 years working in the field of work with the blind.
That's enough of myself. What can you tell us about who you are,
and what drives you?
Carl Jarvis
--
Maurice Peret
MOBILE/TEXT: 804.928.4015
