Audio:
The following message is brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind. Live the life you want.
Mark Riccobono:
Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Wednesday, October 29, 2025, and this is Presidential Release Number 554. We had a great Blind Equality Achievement month in the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you to all of our local chapters for the tremendous work to get out in the community.
I am recording this November release a little early because I will be headed out to the National Federation of the Blind, Michigan Convention tomorrow to cap off a great Blind Equality Achievement month for our organization. November always brings a couple of things to mind for me.
Certainly the feeling of family gatherings that comes with this time of year as well as the Federation family, which was founded first in 1940. November 16th, 1940, to be exact is our anniversary date. And so family gatherings and the Federation anniversary all come together during this special month of the year. Today, we have a great foundation of collective action, experience, and wisdom to build upon, and that is something that we did not have in 1940.
It just didn't exist. We had to build it. So one of the important things that comes to mind for me during this time of year is reflecting on the progress that we have made and a source of strength for how much further we need to go. And it really is important to study where we've been in order to understand where we're going.
This also comes to mind because of the Thanksgiving season, and it's an important time to reflect and give thanks on really how fortunate we are to have the Federation family and the movement we share together was reflecting that. Melissa and I first moved to Baltimore in 2003, right about this time of the year, so twenty-two years ago.
And we spent our first Thanksgiving in Baltimore still moving boxes into our new rented space on Barney Street. And we had the opportunity to come to the national office to share the Thanksgiving meal with the board of directors and others who were here for the meeting of the board of directors.
And I think it exemplified the best of what we experience in the National Federation of the Blind. I remember very fondly the feeling of shared family and experience as everybody, board members, and others who were here for the Thanksgiving helped out with the cooking and serving and cleaning up and much laughter and great stories were told.
I also remember that there was a strong mix of conversation about where we have been and some of the struggles to get to where we were at that time, and also a lot of discussion about where it is that we want to go. And in 2003, we were just a few months before the opening of our new building here in Baltimore, the Jernigan Institute building. So it hadn't even been finished yet. So there's a lot of talk about where are we going, what are we going to do, what do we want to do?
And combining these two things together, where have we been and what does that help us understand about where we want to go? Really important conversations in the midst of bringing community together, which is what we do in the National Federation of the Blind. And so that's why for this anniversary year, we wanted to give that sense of celebrating understanding where we've been, but also sparking conversations within our membership across our chapters about the history of the organization.
And so this month we're bringing to life in new ways, the 50th anniversary book of the National Federation of the Blind, which is Walking Alone and Marching Together. Now starting with our anniversary this month, we will be releasing on a weekly basis a podcast that shares the content of Walking Alone and Marching Together in new, I'd say bite-sized chunks that can be digested on a regular basis.
And I hope our members will use as a tool to have some deep dive discussions about the founding of the Federation, where we've been, and what that means for us today, and where we would like to go. So I wanted to talk about it here on this release and introduce it to our chapters to make sure that our members, our leaders, are thinking ahead about how to use this new tool with some great historical content.
Now, as an example, in episode one, you'll be introduced to the publication and you'll also be greeted with the early segment of the book, which is called, “The Dark Ages and the Dawn of Organization”. The book and that section of Walking Alone and Marching Together opens with this little segment, which I thought I would give to you to set the stage for thinking about this publication. It reads as follows, "The year 1990 holds extraordinary significance for blind Americans.
It marks the golden anniversary of the National Federation of the Blind, and so memorializes the first half century of collective self-organization by the blind people of the United States. This book is the story of those 50 years of Federationism in America, the history of a unique social revolution, democratic and nonviolent, but not always peaceful.
The drama of an irresistible force, some call it blind force, colliding again and again with the seemingly immovable objects of supervision and superstition and the narrative of a minority group once powerless, scattered and impoverished, coming together as a people and forging an independent movement, gaining self expression and learning self-direction, proclaiming, normality, and demanding equality.
Now, that is the first paragraph of one of the first sections you'll encounter from the book in episode one. I call this to your attention because this is an important tool for us to build discussions of philosophy within our organization to understand and build the understanding of the history of our movement so we can really have powerful conversations about where we want to go and how we want to get there.
Recognizing that this is now the eighty-fifth anniversary of our organization. We are now only fifteen years away from our one hundredth anniversary. That means we can't rest on where we've been, but we really have to understand our progress and how significant it has been to put in perspective how important it is that we go the rest of the way in creating equality for blind people, and especially in a time and in a society that's changing very quickly.
Our progress is not guaranteed. We need to protect the ground we've gained, but also push even further. We know the power of collective action and coordination because we've been doing it for eighty-five years, but we really need to dig into the history to help us understand how valuable what we've built has become, how important it is to continue to build and then to spark our imagination about where we go in the next fifteen years and beyond.
And by examining the history, talking about it, studying it, we can really learn a lot about the future we want for each other as blind people in the National Federation of the Blind. I want to encourage each of our members, each of our chapters to use this new tool to spark those conversations in innovative ways, to plan on having this podcast available every week, a new episode to discuss, talk about.
So there'll be plenty of content to discuss at say a monthly chapter meeting, but I hope that there will be discussions outside of our chapter meetings about this content. Most importantly, if you have questions, comments, if this content sparks ideas or things you're interested in knowing more about because of diving deeper into the history of the Federation, please write to me. I would love to know about it so we can think about creating even deeper tools for examining our history and discussing where we want to go.
And furthermore, if there are other podcasts of this type that you would like from the Federation, I would love to hear that from our members as well. If you haven't already found the trailer for the Walking Alone and Marching Together podcast on your favorite podcast client, I would urge you to search for that along with National Federation of the Blind, find the trailer, subscribe to the podcast so that during the week leading up to our eighty-five anniversary, when episode one comes out, you will be notified and can get that content on day one. Finally, I'd like to say that during our anniversary convention in 1990, Dr. Jernigan gave a banquet speech and he said this about history.
Dr. Kenneth Jernigan:
“So far as I can tell, there are only three possible reasons for studying history to get inspiration, to gain perspective, or to acquire a basis for predicting the future.”
Mark Riccobono:
As Dr. Jernigan often articulated after that, part of predicting the future is being part of directing what that future looks like, and that's what we do in the National Federation of the Blind. We don't just assume that the future is predetermined. We have determined for ourselves that we're going to be part of it.
And that's why I'd like each and every one of us to get involved with the podcast, sharing the podcast, talking about the podcast, because it will spark those conversations about where we would like to go next in the National Federation of the Blind. That's why we bring our chapters together. That's why we have organized is so that we as blind people can determine where we want to go and can build the future for ourselves. Now, as we come to the close of this release, I do want to wish everyone in the Federation family a very, very happy Thanksgiving season.
I also want to acknowledge that for many in our Federation family, it is currently a very hard time knowing that the government shutdown has had a significant impact on many, many blind people, both federal employees and non-federal employees.
And so in addition to offering everybody a great holiday season and joyous Thanksgiving, urge us to continue to reach out to those members who may be in need and to show our generosity for those of us who may be less impacted, to reach out to our members who are being particularly hard hit at this time and do what we can do to give back to them.
And finally, I'd like to say that want to share a continued gratitude for all members of the Federation family, for all that you do on behalf of blind people, and certainly enriching the lives of myself and my family as blind people.
The work that you do on a daily basis in the community helps all of us. And I want to share a great deal of gratitude for that. Now, it would not be to close this anniversary Presidential Release without some customary endings about history and Thanksgiving.
Why were the early days of history called the Dark Ages?
Because there were so many knights? Of course.
How was the Roman Empire cut in half?
;With a pair of Caesars? Of course.
And finally, what do you get when you cross a turkey with a centipede?
Drumsticks for everyone,
Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Audio:
The preceding message was brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind. 410-659-9314. Office of the President at nfb.org. Follow President Riccobono on Mastodon. Just search for @[email protected]. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.