Will Always Be With Us

Will Always Be With Us

Pedro Zurita shows Dr. Jernigan a model of the

Louis Braille museum.

Dr. Jernigan Will Always

Be With Us

by Pedro Zurita

From the Editor: Pedro Zurita is

Secretary General of the World Blind Union.

Although in a sense Dr. Jernigan left us last

October 12, from that day on his memory will be perennially cherished by many blind people

all over the world.

Personally I had a very special relationship with

him since 1986, when he and I became particularly involved in the leadership of the World

Blind Union. After the very first officers' meeting that he attended in the fall of 1987,

he wrote a letter evaluating my performance very highly. In February, 1988, I visited the

NFB's national headquarters in Baltimore, where I had the honor of having dinner with him

in his home and enjoying some of the dishes he himself prepared.

Sometime later he wrote an article on the Spanish

National Organization of the Blind (ONCE) in the Braille Monitor, in which he used some of

the most flattering adjectives that have ever been associated with my name. That article

proved to be a challenge to my knowledge of the English language, since I had to ask what

some of those expressions meant!

In the years he presided over the WBU's North

America/Caribbean Region, he interacted with U.S., Canadian, and Caribbean delegates. He

himself said that such a setup served to foster cooperation among the region's

organizations that would never have existed otherwise. I believe that Dr. Jernigan's

experience as a WBU leader expanded his view of the world. There are some problems that

you have in the United States that are universal, but others are different in both degree

and nature in comparison with other areas.

In any case, Dr. Jernigan will leave an indelible

mark on many of us. Through his writings he conveyed the idea that being blind is more a

characteristic than a handicap. He helped many people gain self-confidence in no trivial

manner. That meant they tried to do things in life that without his encouragement they

would have ruled out altogether.

People in Africa who read the Braille Monitor

would often ask me if I knew Dr. Jernigan. I interpreted those queries to mean that, not

only had they read his articles, but the ideas had done them a great service. From my

modest position as editor of the World Blind, I am proud to say that I was able to publish

two of Dr. Jernigan's outstanding articles, one on "The Nature of Independence"

and the other titled "Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic?" I personally saw

to the Spanish version and know for a fact that the ideas contained in the paper aroused a

great deal of interest all over the world.

In the last few days I have received any number

of letters in which people from here and there refer to the enormous impact that Dr.

Jernigan's philosophy had on their lives. We are deeply afflicted by his parting but

consoled by the thought that the world is a better place for his having lived in it.