The following is message is from Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind.
MARK RICCOBONO: Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Friday, September 27th, and this is Presidential Release number 542. Let this be your official welcome to Blind Equality Achievement Month 2024. This month is the first of our new approach to the shorter recorded Presidential Releases intended to be played at all of our chapter meetings across the country. Our goal will be to make this available to chapters in recorded form, both English and Spanish, and to have transcripts of each of those for those who are deafblind and to have those available on the first day of the month so that every single chapter meeting during the month can play the Presidential Release. This does mean that as members, you will have to continue to expect to get other communications from the Federation through our publications, our alerts, other announcements. You'll have to be plugged into all of those communication tools that we have in other areas.
This message will be my message directly to you and will not include some of that stuff that we have been including for a long time now. If you are not already getting publications, like the Braille Monitor, plugged into our NFBnet ListServes and other communication tools, I do encourage you to take some time in the next month to do that, and I would invite chapter leaders to help individuals that might need assistance getting connected with those resources to do so.
Finally, if you have recommendations about topics that I should cover on this release in this new format, I would invite you, as always, to call me at our national office or more likely send me an email. Sometimes, people say, "What's your email address?" We give it out every month here, officeofthepresident, all one word, [email protected]. Would love your suggestions about what topics we should cover in this Presidential Release for our Federation chapters.
This month, I would like to talk to you about the commitments we make as members of the organization. As members of the National Federation of the Blind, we make a conscious choice to join the organized blind movement. As members, we get the rights and privileges of membership in this great movement. We also take on the responsibilities that come with being a member of the National Federation of the Blind. Being part of a collective group means that we have a responsibility to each other, and it's important that we all are aware of that and give a consideration on a regular basis.
As members, our responsibility is really embedded in the commitment that we make to participate actively in the movement, and it is important as members that we have ownership of the organization and realize that we're actually all part-owners of the organization together. We express our commitment to the National Federation of the Blind through our NFB Pledge. So let's talk a little bit about the National Federation of the Blind Pledge.
To start, I want to give you a little historical introduction to the Pledge, which is the original introduction of the Pledge by Kenneth Jernigan, who was serving as president of the Federation at the time, during his presidential report at the 1974 convention. So here is Dr. Jernigan.
KENNETH JERNIGAN: Also about to introduce a new item. For a long time, a number of Federationists have said to me that in order to emphasize our national unity and to make clear who we are and what we are and where we stand, that we ought to have a national membership card. I want to read you what's on the membership card. The first sight of it says, "National Federation of the Blind. This is to certify that blank," and there's a room for your name, "is a member in good standing of the National Federation of the Blind." Then under that it says, there's a blank for the state affiliate to be written in, a blank for the local affiliate to be written in, and date issued, and there's a blank there. Then my signature is on it, National President, 218 Randolph Hotel Building, Des Moines, Iowa, the telephone and the ZIP.
Side two, "I pledge to participate actively in the effort of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity and security for the blind, to support the policies and programs of the Federation and to abide by its constitution." Anybody who's not willing to have that side be a part of his philosophy should not accept the membership card.
Come through the line, I'll give you a membership card if you want it. Okay. That is assuming that this convention is agreeable, that that's what ought to be done.
MARK RICCOBONO: Thanks to Dr. Jernigan through the wonders of our Federation archives there. The 1974 convention affirmed its support to have the NFB Pledge after Dr. Jernigan presented it for the first time in the presidential report, and it was distributed to members at that convention for the first time, and the Pledge has been a part of our organization and our culture ever since. I do encourage us to share the Pledge in every chapter meeting to remind each of us as individuals about the commitment that we make. So let's talk about the Pledge and what that commitment is.
"I pledge." Well, in other words, of course I, which is giving us the ownership, and we're talking about our commitment. "To participate actively," and that's really important. The idea is that we do not want members who are just sitting on the sidelines. That's not our goal. Our organization has strength and power because we all are getting in there to help be part of the effort. So our responsibility really is to participate actively, not just show up at chapter meetings once a month and go on our way.
"In the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity and security for the blind." Now, this triad is historical concepts that have evolved over the years as our priorities grow, change, and as the society around us changes, but let's talk about equality, opportunity and security. So equality means many different things, but really partly what we mean here is equal treatment in society, and of course, that's a huge part of what we work on even today is the idea that we need to change the public understanding about blindness to be more consistent or to be consistent with our shared understanding, equal treatment in society. And you may have other ideas of what equality means to you.
Opportunity means so many things in the work that we do. Of course, it means equality of opportunity, it means opportunities to participate actively in all elements of society, it means the opportunity to fail, which sometimes doesn't get talked about as much, and definitely the opportunity to have informed choice, especially in the matters that impact us the most. So opportunity, a very broad and important concept.
And the final one here is security, and security has a number of different meetings and certainly has evolved over the time that we have been around since 1940. I think today, the term that's more often used is equity to describe what we really mean by security, but we continue to use the word because of the historical roots it has for our organization. Security is about helping ensure that blind people are not disadvantaged from the beginning of where they're going to start working on equality of opportunity and that sort of thing. In the early days, that really meant pushing the Social Security Administration to make sure that blind people had the basic necessities to compete, and today, that may mean a variety of other things. A great thing to discuss in our chapter meetings.
The Pledge goes on to say, "To support the policies and programs of the Federation and to abide by its constitution." As members, we get a voice. Well, no, actually we get a clear right to determine what our policies are, where they go, how they change, what practices we use. It's our right as members to influence that process. This also means that we agree to support the policies of the organization, to support the will of the majority once we've decided. So we debate, we consider, we discuss, and once we've decided, we're committing to agree to the collective wisdom of the group until we decide that those decisions should go in a different direction.
So sometimes people say, "Well, I can't do that, because I may have disagreements." Well, of course we all have opinions, but the goal here is that once we make a collective decision, that we're agreeing to support that collective decision to move our united priorities and perspectives forward. Otherwise, we would constantly be fighting about the individual ideas that people have. We all give up a little of something in coming to a consensus and a direction about where we want to go. So that's where supporting our policies and programs and our constitution is really important. The members can always change any of those things, but the fact that we are committing to be unified and to work in the same direction makes a huge difference. It also means that we respect the wisdom of the crowd. We know that by putting all of our heads together, we get to a better solution, even if it's not the one that we might have come to on our own.
Another core part of that is we are committing to support those who we have elected to represent us. We go through the process of electing leaders, and it's important then that we support those leaders until we unelect them. Now, as leaders in the organization, I think it's important for us to remember that support is not unconditional. We have to continue to earn that trust and to make sure that we're upholding our end of the Pledge and the trust that comes with an elected position, and that means supporting, listening to the members. At least, that's how I view it as a leader of the organization. I know that my commitment to the Pledge stands, but that I also have a greater responsibility because of the honor of being given the trust to serve in an elected position in this organization.
Now, the Pledge is a reminder that we all make a commitment to this organization. That's why I encourage every chapter meeting to have the Pledge as part of what we do, because we all should have that regular reminder of the commitment that we make to the organization, and we should discuss what those commitments are that we're supporting at the national, state and local levels.
Now, when Dr. Jernigan presented this to the 1974 convention, it was in the context of the membership card, which was launched at that convention. We don't have a membership card anymore, because people don't carry them around too much, but we do have our membership coins, and we do continue to have the Pledge as a commitment. We do have a card that has the Pledge on it in print and Braille on one side, and that card also on the other side has our belief statement and that reads as follows.
"The National Federation of the Blind advances the lives of its members and all blind people in the United States. We know that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day, we raise the expectations of blind people because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. Our collective power, determination, and diversity achieve the aspirations of all blind people."
I encourage chapter members to include this belief statement in chapter meetings as well. In fact, I encourage you to memorize the belief statement because this paragraph can be a great tool when combined with your personal story, your journey with blindness when talking to others about the work of the National Federation of the Blind, and it encapsulates a whole lot of philosophy and work that we do all in one paragraph. One way to practice the belief statement is to have someone open every chapter meeting by reciting it as a reminder of what we believe and who we are.
Now, we make cards with the Pledge and the belief statement on the card in Braille and print available to chapters to help people know what these are. You can order them in packs of 50 cards, and that will cost the chapter 20 dollars. I encourage you to get some for your chapter. You can get them by calling or emailing the Independence Market by email, [email protected], by telephone at our main number 410-659-9314, extension 2216.
My pledge to you is to do my best every day to uphold the commitment that I make when I say the NFB Pledge, to honor the bond of trust that you have given to me and that we share as your elected president, and to live out the beliefs and aspirations that are embodied in our belief statement. I hope that you will also do the same and that you will discuss these principles in your chapter meeting so that we can continue to fulfill these commitments together. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.