Future Reflections October 1981, Vol. 1 No. 1
The Inauguration of a newsletter is always serious business, a momentous
occasion. If the newsletter succeeds and achieves its purposes, it will grow
and influence lives. If it fails, it will simply be one more lost dream,
joining the many others which lie forgotten on the trash pile of history.
Although prophecy is always a chancy business, I feel confident that this
newsletter will not fail. The need for it is too great, and the hope and
determination which have launched it are too strong. It brings to bear (for
the assistance of the parents of blind children) the focus of the experiences
of the organized blind movement for the past four decades. It is a reaching
out by the blind of this generation to offer help and encouragement (through
parents) to the blind of the next generation.
When the blind came together to form the National Federation of the Blind
in 1940, the picture was about as bleak as it could be. There was very little
in the way of training or opportunity or understanding. There was no employment
and no belief that the blind were capable of working competitively even if the
job had been available.
The world of today is different. The blind now have more choices and
possibilities open to them than ever before in history, and most of the progress
can be traced (directly or indirectly) to the work of the National Federation
of the Blind. But we have a long way to go to equality. If the blind children
of this generation are to have the chance to lead a fully normal life as they
grow to adulthood, the work of the past forty years must be used as a foundation
and a steppingtone. And (valuable though some of their efforts are) we cannot
depend upon the professionals in the field to do the work for us. We must do it
for ourselves--we the blind of this generation and we the parents of blind
children.
We have no vested interest in this or that program, no agencies to protect,
no axes to grind. We have only our collective experience of blindness, and our
yearning to help make things better for the blind of the next generation.
Neither do the parents have any vested interest to protect--any agencies or
programs or jobs or professional jealousies. They have only their love for their
children and the desire that those children have the opportunity to lead normal
lives and realize their full potential. Our interests and those of the parents
are identical.
This is why I am pleased to participate in the launching of this newsletter
and why I feel certain of its success. We can do what must be done if we work
together, and the stakes are too high for us to do otherwise.