From: shawn keen 
Subject: Mister Magoo And The NFB 2 Of 2
>Date:         Thu, 10 Jul 1997 20:01:33 -0700
>Reply-To: Blind-x Blind Exchange & Discussion
>              
>Sender: Blind-x Blind Exchange & Discussion
>              
>From: Philip Scovell 
>Subject:      Mister Magoo And The NFB 2 Of 2
>To: BLIND-X@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
>
>Now, do I
>think what the NFB did was wrong?  Wrong is not the word I would
>use.  If they were trying to get attention, they succeeded.  Is
>their idea wrong?  No.  Maybe their method, but not their idea.  I
>do believe, however, they have fallen into the old politically
>correct trap.  It may very well turn on them and label them as a
>politically correct group rather than an activists organization
>pushing to integrate and motivate blind people into a sighted
>society who is still, to this day, largely unaware of what blind
>people can do.  I believe the NFB made themselves conspicuous just
>like the Air Force did when they tried to explain away what happen
>fifty years ago during the Roswell New Mexico anniversary.  The
>Air Force timing was incredibly poor and made them look silly even
>to those who don't believe in flying saucers.  The NFB caused the
>English speaking world to focus on political correctness and the
>feelings of blind people, note the word feelings, rather than what
>blind people are able to do in a sighted world.  Society does not
>want to know how we feel, nor does any employer.  They want to
>know what we can do.  Some even want to know what we need so we
>can do something for them as an employer.  Not many, but some do.
>Our mission, if we should decide to except it, is to show them and
>to demonstrate to them that we can do it and not how we feel about
>being blind.  Is the next step a public announcement by some blind
>organization going to be the demand of a public apology by all
>employers and all peoples of the civilized world for how they have
>treated the blind over the last 100 years?  That's the problem
>with political correctness; there's no way to stop it.  The word
>nigger, for example, is not politically incorrect; it is morally
>wrong.  That's why I taught my children from the time they were
>tiny not to use that word because of the moral implication.
>Because I think it has baring on the topic of political
>correctness, let me take this a step further.  There is a talk
>show host in Denver, a man, who insists on correcting every person
>who calls and mentions the word girl when referring to an adult
>woman.  He is always very harsh when he corrects them, too.  He
>says, they are women, not girls. Of course he only corrects men
>who make the statement; he never seems to remember to correct a
>woman who says something like, I was out with the girls today.  I
>have, based upon this political correctness, asked many women if
>they are offended when a man calls a woman a girl in general
>conversation.  I'm sure there are some women out there who are
>offended when they are called a girl but all those I have asked,
>said they take it as a compliment; as though they are being
>considered younger than their years.  Now, if a woman told me it
>offended her when I referred to her as a girl, I would no longer
>use that term in her presence out of respect.  She, on the other
>hand, should not expect me, nor millions of other women who are
>not offended by the term, to stop using it.  Of course, some do
>expect exactly that.  When the shoe is on the other foot, on the
>other hand, women are allowed to call grown men boys all day long
>and no body gets bent out of shape.  Why?  The answer lies in the
>nature of political correctness.  What in the world does this
>have to do with the nfb and Mister Magoo?  As I said already,
>there is no way of stopping it once you begin living by political
>correctness and this is what I believe may be happening to some
>blind organizations.   Mister Magoo is unimportant as a symbol
>because he is not real.  What blind people do is real, on the
>other hand, and that is what the sighted world is watching.  I
>guarantee you, no sighted person in the world, watching Mister
>Magoo, will associate him with blind members of society.  If they
>do, as someone has already stated, they are not worth trying to
>convince otherwise.  Bent minds are rarely straightened.  So what
>shall we do then?  We go right on trying to educate the public.
>Unfortunately, the way the nfb went about it has only caused
>people to judge us as emotionally unstable, socially anemic,
>easily offended handicapped, note the word handicapped, class of
>people simply trying to get on the six o-clock news.  I base this
>on all the talk I have heard publicly since the nfb announcement.
>the talk shows had a hay day with the story and in Denver, from
>all I could tell, the blind did not come out on top.  So we are
>back to education again but now our job is going to be a little
>more difficult because that employer you are going to have an
>interview with tomorrow is going to be even more nervous about
>offending you more than ever before.  I remember back in about
>1972 when, as I have mentioned more than once on this list, I
>served as the second vice president of the Nebraska state
>National Federation Of The Blind.  One of our members lost his
>vending stand job.  Why?  A rich farmer in western Nebraska called
>his local state senator and told him he wanted his son to get some
>kind of a job and as a favor, would the senator help out.  The
>result of that phone call was the services for the blind trumping
>up some charges against this nfb member and said he mishandled the
>books in his vending stand.  the funny thing about this was, the
>services for the blind back then in Nebraska did not believe a
>blind person could handle their own books so they did it for the
>vending stand operators.  No fooling.  Anyhow, those were the
>charges.  I, as well as the nfb state president, the first vise
>president, and a couple of other people in our organization
>obtained a personal interview with the governor of the state of
>Nebraska.  I was proud when our state president explained the
>whole thing to the governor and flat out told him, if this problem
>was not corrected, a few blind people in our organization had
>publicly announced we would hold up big signs out on the capital
>steps and contact every TV station in the area to protest.  The
>state nfb president did not say he would do this, he only
>suggested someone in the organization promised it would be done.
>He was referring to me.  A few weeks earlier, at our state nfb
>convention, the director of the state services for the blind in
>Nebraska had been invited as a guest speaker.
>After his micky mouse speech, we were allowed to ask questions.
>This man, sighted by the way, did not believe blind people were
>capable of walking down steps without help.  I'm not kidding.
>Anyhow, during the question and answer time, I stood up in front
>of everybody and told the director of the services for the blind,
>if some of these issues were not addressed, I personally would
>stand out on the capital steps with a sign and protest his
>ignorant beliefs about blind people in the state of Nebraska.  An
>hour later, I was nominated as the second vice president and in
>seconds was voted in without ever getting a chance to say no.
>Immediately following our visit with the governor, and before we
>could even drive the hour trip back to Omaha, he had called the
>director of the services for the blind and the nfb member who had
>been unjustly fired, was reinstated.  This is what the nfb should
>go back to doing today and forget about political correctness and
>the movie industry.  At least this is one man's opinion.
>
>Phil,
>Blind-x Moderator.
>
>
Shawn Keen
orange@texas.net	
www.eden.com/~orange
"love isn't blind, but the braille sure is fun."
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