From: Al and Masha Sten-Clanton 
Subject: Re: Resolution 97-04 Cont'd
Greetings!  Your comments are informative.  I was not at the convention
this year and have not yet read Resolution 97-04, so I can't speak about
its quality.
You commented on how the VA is not in the business of promoting a
particular philosophy of blindness, that it could probably get in trouble
for doing that, just as it would for promoting a religion.  
I think it is not possible to be in the blindness field, teaching skills
or purporting to teach them, without having at least an unconscious
philosophy of blindness.  If this is so, then I'd certainly want the VA
and any other provider of rehab to blind folks to have the most positive,
can-do philosophy that it is logical to have.  This of course does not
mean pretending about what blindness does and does not prevent one from
doing.  It does mean a careful scrutiny of what one thinks the limits of
blindness are, and the elimination of any notions not found to be
well-grounded in experience and the logical inferences drawn from it.  I
note here that the VA apparently has decided that blind people should not
be travel instructors, though some already are.  This is not the absence
of a philosophy; it may be the infliction of a bad one.
I note also that the government does promote a certain amount of
philosophy by the laws it enacts and the ways it implements those laws.
Religion is a different matter, since, as far as I know, there is no
generally accepted scientific proof of any particular divinity, or even
that a divinity is necessary for a full explanation of the existence of
our universe.  It is har to imagine that our society could survive at all
without some agreed-upon notions--a minimum of philosophy--that are
generally understood.  (That many of us may not consider the philosophy
underlying those rules is a fair but different question.) 
Please understand that my comments are directed strictly at what seems
your notion about the proper role of a philosophy, not at the Veterans
Administration.  One need not be an NFB member, or even like the outfit,
to have an NFB-style philosophy of blindness.  I think we do need
essentially that philosophy if blind folks are to get the best training
that can be had and to be accepted fully in society.
Take care!
Al
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