From: Al and Masha Sten-Clanton 
Subject: Re: Why The NFB
On Sat, 18 Apr 1998, Harvey Heagy wrote:
> 
> 
> It may indeed be nice that the membership was able to overrule
> the leadership on a relatively miner issue, but it is not history
> making any more than it is for Nac to revoke the accreditation of
> one small agency allegedly for failure to meet its standards
> just so it can have something to whip out later when it is asked
> whether or not it has ever revoked an accreditation for failure
> to meet standards.  After all, how do we know that the leadership
> didn't plan it that way just so they could say how democratic the
> movement really is?
> 
> I think we do have some ineffective people on our board of
> directors one whom I believe is being kept on only because he is
> one of the last of the Tenbroek boys still in a leadership position
> despite the fact that his affiliate which is now probably the
> richest in the country has given very little to the national
> treasury, and that he tried to develop a camp for the blind in his
> state even after the national leadership said that while it would
> not discourage the existing ones it would discourage the founding
> of new ones, and that he is the ultimate in mike hogs who takes 30
> minutes to say what most of us could say in 2 just because he loves
> to hear himself talk.  
> 
> and that we also have some disreputable people who continue to
> receive high profile positions or assignments in spite of their
> continuing failures while others are made to follow the rules to a
> fault.
> 
> I also think we have put more energy and resources into things
> better left on the back burner.  News line is a classic example of
> this.  It's a fine thing to have and I'm glad we have it as it
> allows access to information for blind persons that we might not
> otherwise have, but it is far overrated and is only being
> pushed because we developed the software for it.  It is far less
> important than education, job training or employment.
> 
> I hope we don't have any kind of wholesale defections from the
> organization, but in my opinion another civil war is not
> impossible and the irony is that the more tightly the national
> leadership pulls in the reins, the more likely it is to happen.
> 
> Harvey
> 
> 
> 
A number of us agree that there are problems, although we may not agree
fully on what those are.  The first important question is this:  if a
majority of the members--or of the affiliates--agree that something is a
problem, can we do something about it?  I'm inclined to think the answer's
yes.  The second question is whether we'd make the effort.  I hope so.  I
bear in mind that, complain though many Americans do about our government,
we usually seem either to re-elect the causes of the problems we complain
about or replace them simplistically with sources of new problems.  I
think this is partly because our political system needs some revamping,
but it's also partly because we don't put the effort that we should in
making democracy work better.  That, at least, is how I see it.
Peace!
Al
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