By Steve Jacobson, Vice President

While thinking about why I am a member of the National Federation of the Blind, many reasons came to mind.  I could talk about how our approach to life offers the most hope for blind people.  I could mention various discrimination cases we have won that would not have happened if not for us.  I could talk about how we have moved large corporations toward providing better accessibility to their software and web sites.  There are other accomplishments I could mention as well, and they would all be true.

There is another side to the question, though.  We live in a world that is constantly trying to be helpful by taking care of us and watching out for us.  Mostly people mean well, but the result is that we face a constant pressure to take the easier of the paths before us.  This pressure takes many forms.

I remember not long ago going to the airport and looking for the security line.  An airport employee said she would be glad to show me where it was, and even better, she would get me into a special line so I wouldn’t have to wait.  I had planned on the fact that there would be a wait, so I told the employee that I would rather just wait in line like everyone else.  She seemed to understand, put me in line, and left.  Very shortly after that, I found that I was actually in the special line that she had intended for me all along, not the regular line that I had requested.  While her intent was to be helpful, she ignored my preferences in favor of what she decided was good for me.  In addition, she told me she had followed my wishes and placed me in the regular line, knowing very well that she would be out of range by the time I figured it out.  What a feeling of hopeless powerlessness I had.  Part of me wondered, why fight, in this case, for the right to wait in a long line? 

I did not wonder for long though.  I thought back to a time when we were protesting rules that would have required us to sit in the priority seats for handicapped people on busses.  I remembered the words of an African-American member from Maryland named John McCraw who said with a smile, “I never thought I would be fighting for the right to sit at the back of the bus.”  I also remember talking about my experience with our president and found that she had similar experiences and similar feelings about it.  The result is that I continue to insist on being in the normal security line because I knew I was not alone.  I would never have known John McCraw, Jennifer, or the many other members who have helped me over the years, if it were not for the Federation. 

Even though I have been employed for a long time, it is not always easy to handle the challenges of a changing workplace.  Construction, new software, and even a job whose duties necessarily change, can take a good deal of energy.  For me, our conventions, state and national, are times of renewal.  Seeing other successful blind people motivates me to hang in there.  Seeing those who are just learning but still struggling with new techniques also inspires me because if they are working that hard, I have no choice but to do the same.

I am a member of this organization because of what I get from all of you.  I am also a member because I have a responsibility to return some of what I have received.  It is easy to forget this as we face the tasks of each day.  We each have our personal load to carry and our individual strengths.  It is important that we work together to share the loads we carry and benefit from the strengths of one another as well.  We must have patience with each other, knowing that we are all tired at the end of the day.  The bottom line is that I am a Federationist because of you, and I hope some of you are Federationists in some small way because of me.  The most important thing we have is an ability to work together as human beings in a common cause, to make the world a better place for ourselves and for those who come after us.  That is why I am a Federationist.