Yes, the great god Kenneth Jernigan.
But actually it was the set of speeches by Jacobus tenBroek, "The Man
and The Movement" that caught my attention. I can't even recall how I
came by them. But tenBroek was my kind of professor. Since I knew
next to nothing about what blind people could do, short of sitting on
the street corner and faking playing the accordion, I was one fat
sucker waiting to be harvested. But to be fair, I did not find
tenBroek to be the elitist some others claimed him to be. And
initially, Kenneth Jernigan seemed to follow in tenBroek's footsteps.
There were signs early on that I did not know enough to pick up on,
but once Jernigan began pulling in all control of all state chapters,
I became alarmed. I had many meetings with Kenneth Jernigan over the
years. I began by standing in awe of him. He really did have an
amazing mind. But each time we met he lost more and more of his
shine.
And lo, it came to pass that I even picked at our great slogan, "The
Blind Leading The Blind". "Which blind", I would ask, "are leading
which blind?" It seemed to me that this all embracing statement was
akin to our American slogan, "Of the people, by the people and for the
people..." We assume it is all the people. But it isn't. And neither
was the blind leading the blind an all inclusive statement. It should
have said, "The Few Elite Blind Leading the Rest of the Herd".
Jernigan was a true blue elitist, and I personally believed him to be
a Racist.
When big John McCraw, of Maryland died, and his deep booming voice was
no more, Jernigan spoke kindly of him. Despite all the work John had
done for the NFB, and especially for the blind of Maryland, Jernigan
chose to show John's true inner beauty by telling a story of how John
would take Jernigan's shoes and give them a mirror-like shine. The
picture of the humble Black man waiting on Massah. That story before
the entire NFB convention was probably the final push that lost all of
my respect for Jernigan.
But I did continue for some several more years believing that the NFB
philosophy was the only way for newly blinded folks to become truly
independent and equal.
Well, it's 5:23 PM, and my dinner time. A busy day tomorrow, filled
with clients we can push in the "proper" direction...or not.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/24/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
And of course you also had NFB to help you along in the direction of
expounding on the "true and correct attitude" for blind folks to have. My
one direct and personal experience with the "Dear Leader" was rather
horrifying. Jernigan was ruthless in attempting to use people to accomplish
his own agenda.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2017 1:58 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The White House Seems Excited to Shut Down
the Government
Thanks for being gentle, Miriam. Sad to say but I agree with you.
When I read back through stuff I've saved in my blog, it makes me cringe. I
keep hoping that one day I will find the secret to shedding Truth
Everlasting(according to Jarvis) to all the down trodden of Planet Earth.
In the meantime, in between time, ain't we got fun!
Now here's something funny. While at times I am trying to change minds, and
I bang on the pulpit and proclaim that I am the door to a better place,
mostly I'm really trying to sort out just what it is that I believe is going
on in this crazy upside down world. And in all of that, I'm just having a
good time.
And here's a scary thought. I proclaim to be an Agnostic. I've held that
position for at least 50 years. But for several years during my first
marriage I became a born again baptized in the Holy Spirit Christian. I
probably read the entire Bible three times from cover to cover, and the New
Testament around a dozen times, as well as Scripture studies and group
discussions and prayer meetings and pot luck dinners and sometimes a nip or
two on the Precious Blood(jug of wine). Those experiences, even though I
practice always turning off any religious program on my TV or radio, have
been implanted in my brain. And it gives me great consternation when some
of the old Church Talk pops out of my fingers as I am weaving some tangled
threads of some tangled thoughts.
But now, for just a serious moment, you do give me something to think about.
After being indoctrinated as a small child, into the world of the American
Communist Party, I work hard to avoid the expressions and phrases that
turned me off and got between me and a well thought out economic philosophy.
Yet, here I am sounding like an old revival preacher. Funny isn't it? I
lean toward Marx, but sound preachy.
Maybe Donald Trump has it figured. We can all Tweet our thoughts in little
bursts of abbreviated letters, and that way we can all sound just as stupid
as our Tweeter...I mean, our Leader.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/23/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
I want to be gentle about this, but I can't resist pointing out that
on this list, when you talk about what you think, you do sort of sound
like an old time gospel preacher, except that what you're preaching is
the Carl Jarvis version of Karl Marx with a bit of old time religion
thrown in. The Marx part is the, "we, the working class", piece and
the religion part is, "we need to repent and change how we think and
act". And each time you do it, I think about that old him that starts,
"..and when I get to heaven I'm gonna..."
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2017 11:02 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The White House Seems Excited to Shut
Down the Government
Hi Miriam,
Well, I must agree with you regarding those who provide you
assistance. The good Almighty did not send them along for you to
proselytize.
Cathy and I never bring up politics, religion or(blush) Sex when we
are working with clients. But if our client raises something of a
political nature, I have been known to enter into discussion with
them. But in such cases I do it with the utmost respect for the
beliefs of our client...even when they are way out in Right Field.
But mostly I am curious about why people think the things they think,
and believe that which they believe. So I'm usually not challenging
them, rather, encouraging them to explain their thoughts. Very often
such an approach helps the client to think deeper than normal, on a
particular topic. Can I say that this is "planting a seed"? Well,
most likely they will go right back to listening to Fox News, and soon
forget any momentary straying they may have done during our visit.
But on the other hand...
For years, as a child growing up in a Marxist home, I remember
confrontations that had begun as family gatherings at my Grandmother
Jarvis'
home. She was a good Abraham Lincoln Republican and a Bible Thumping
Christian Lady. My dad and his sister Bonny, were Marxists.
They had that Misionary Ferver. As a small boy, I loved tucking
myself into a corner and taking in the fireworks. Later, Gramdmother
Jarvis had a huge framed portrait of President Eisenhower hanging
above her sofa. As Aunt Bonny entered, she would glance at that
portrait and say, "Still praying to that Bald Eagle?" And the
fireworks would begin. It was great training in what not to do. And
those meetings my folks dragged me to in the store front on Queen Ann
Hill. What a dull time for a young boy. I listened to people hammer
a point until the very point they were hammering on disappeared.
These people, like the Baptist preacher, were going to ram Karl Marx
down the throats of anyone who carelessly strayed in. The number of
converts was almost nonexistent.
And even during my early years in the National Federation of the
Blind, I behaved more like a fanatical Holy Roller, believing that we,
the NFB, had all the answers. I believe that the greatest lesson I
learned as I sat at the knee of Kenneth Jernigan, was that even if you
are a brilliant debator, and even if you could cut up your opponent
and serve him/her for dinner, you could not sway the deep beliefs of
those who thoughtfully disagreed with you.
In my later years I simply attempt to help folks think for themselves.
I honestly believe that the more people who do think for themselves,
the more people will begin to wake up and join together to find
solutions to the crushing oppression that is becoming the fate of the
Working Class.
Finally, back to my recent vacation. A year ago my nephew was far to
the Right in his thinking. We had some interesting conversations, as
well as an email from time to time. Was his voting for Johnson, the
Libertarian, a feather in my cap? Not at all. But it was
encouraging to note that neither he nor his wife voted for the
Trumpster. On our travels we also stopped in Sedona, Arizona, and
spent a day with my former boss. When I worked for her, she was a
middle of the road Democrat. I send her lots of my favorite stuff off
this list and off the internet. She says she reads it...mostly.
And she says that she has found herself sliding to the Left of
Center...and she blames Cathy and me.
We stayed with my kid sister in Sun City, Arizona. For most of her
adult life she had avoided politics. Her husband of 42 years was an
opinionated, non thinking conservative. It was His Way or His Way.
No room for any other opinions. But my sister and I exchange many
conversations via email. Now that she's been on her own since 1996,
she has begun believing that she has a brain and opinions of her own.
Big changes? Not at all. But encouraging people to question their
beliefs and to question those beliefs of the people they idolize, that
is the beginning of a mighty movement. The question is, will we win
our struggle before we become extinct?
Carl Jarvis
On 4/23/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'd say that if there are people in your family with whom you can
have that kind of calm, reasonable political discussion, that's
wonderful and it's also unusual. I'd like to believe that I imparted
the same kind of values to my children. Well, neither daughter votes
Republican, but neither questions what she sees on TV and neither is
thinking about the welfare of all Americans, let alone the welfare of
all humankind when she hears about what is going on. My daughter, the
attorney, said last week, that she didn't see why I should be worried
about government surveillance since I'm not doing anything wrong. And
yesterday, when I mentioned the March For Science, she said, "What?"
She didn't even know it was happening. And the rule at family
gatherings, her rule, is that we don't discuss anything political so
that things will remain pleasant and cheerful. The people who assist
me, the person who takes me to medical appointments, the person who
does my food shopping and errands, and the person who cleans my
apartment, are all white working class, blue collar, female Long
Islanders, and they are all right wing politically. I know that one
voted for Trump. One said she didn't like him, but she thought he had
a point about strong borders and illegal immigration, and the third
read one of Bill O'Reilly's books. So if I want to keep this very
dependable help that I have and desperately need, I'm not going to
attempt making my political change through conversations with them.
And if the socialist revolution for which you yearn, actually took
place, that is, by definition, a political revolution. Making the
changes that we'd like to see is, by definition politics. What you're
talking about is the fact that in the US, the political process has
been captured by the 1%. But, in fact, that's what nation states are
all about. They exist to protect the property of property owners and
to further the business of business owners.
When all those Europeans went exploring, it was to find new natural
resources for the companies in their countries, to exploit. If the
workers of the world unite and throw off their chains, that's also
politics.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2017 8:12 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The White House Seems Excited to Shut
Down the Government
Bitch and complain may be one way of putting it, but Investigate and
Explain might be another way.
But first, yes, I do believe that politics is nothing but the wealthy
fighting among themselves for all they can grab away from one another.
If I ever said it was corrupt, I take it back. It's what our Ruling
class does, and what Ruling Classes as far back as I can read, do to
jockey for power positions.
We, on the outside, see what we think is corruption, and sometimes
the combatants accuse their adversaries of corruption. But it's all
part of the Game they are indulging in. While we go forward
believing that some people in high places are liars, cheaters, and
corrupt, when the smoke settles, they hug one another and dine in
fine style, and yes, even sleep together.
But it goes even further than our not understanding their Game Rules.
We have never had a Game Plan. We have allowed ourselves to be led
by our noses, misdirected into supporting the ever changing whims of
the Ruling Class. Presently we are being goaded into believing our
government is at fault because it is too big and poorly managed. It
needs to be smaller, we are told. At the same time we learn that we
need more military power. This means bigger military. And what
exactly is our military? Well, it truly is big government on
steroids. Except for the VA. We are told we need to cut the fat and
sloppiness out of the VA. The solution for everything except our
military, is to cut out the fat and make it leaner and more productive.
And many of us fall into line and nod our vacant heads up and down.
We need to shut down our TV's and put aside our Shot Jocks, and begin
thinking for ourselves.
If I, an average person, can do it, then millions of folks can do the
same.
We have three children with spouses, three adult grandsons(two with
wives) and five younger grand children all living in a climate of
questioning. We have taught them to never take anything they read or
hear at face value. Question and investigate until you are satisfied
that you know what is being put before you, and until you have
satisfied yourself as to the position you hold.
Sure, it's an uphill struggle, but it's what must be done if we are
going to change the direction we are now being taken. It is as if we
are under some sort of a magic spell. And until we can kiss the ugly
frog and see it turn into a beautiful Fairy Godmother who will grant
us all of our wishes, we have only two choices. We can go along and
hope enough spills from our Master's plate, to keep us from ruin, or
we can take in a few notches in our belts and go forward educating
our children, teaching them to be proud of who they are and to rely
on their own brains to reason the events around them. Frankly, I
don't think of myself as sitting back, simply because I am no longer
able to march in a picket line, or demonstrate in front of the
Quilcene City Hall...which does not exist. Instead, I question the folks
around me.
We just spent time with a nephew and his family in Merced, California.
He told me he votes Republican mostly, but could not bring himself to
vote for Trump. Instead, he voted for Johnson, the Libertarian. We
had some very direct discussions, but never became upset when one or
the other of us did not agree with the other. That was because we
were discussing why the government was behaving the way it is, and
how we might impact some of the actions that will effect our
families. A Radical and a Moderate Republican, agreeing on far more
than we disagreed upon.
It's not a glamorous way of going about making changes, but remember
the old adage, Slow but Steady Wins the Race. And if we are truly
steady, we have the numbers, too.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/23/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
I don't understand your post.
Just how do you think politics works? What is the mechanism that we,
the people, would use, to elect one of us? When has that ever
happened in a western country? And, in case you haven't noticed,
when you read about 'activists" or "organizers", you're reading
about would-be leaders who "educate" and "lead" which implies that
the mass of people don't do anything on their own. And once you've
got leaders, you need to have a culture of democracy and equality in
your society, or else you'll be back to what we have now or Stalinism.
And when you say that we don't have a dog in this fight, that it's
between the various factions of the ruling class, then you're doing
precisely what the majority of people do. You're saying that
politics is dirty and is all about money so all we can do is sit
back and watch the powers that be, fight it out. Well yes, you and I
are old and blind and we're not going to do a thing except bitch and
complain. But all those middle aged and young people, it's this
attitude that they're too busy living their lives and there's
nothing they can do about anything, which has gotten us here!
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2017 4:28 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The White House Seems Excited to Shut
Down the Government
While I have no crystal ball to tell me how this budget fight will
be resolved, one thing is for certain. We, the Working Class
Americans, have no dog in that fight. No, I don't mean that the
outcome won't be devastating for us, but the fight is between the
various Ruling Class Factions. The Working Class is both the donor
and the victim of the results, no matter how it plays out. Well,
we've now tried just about every crazy idea that's out there. We've
voted in crooks, generals, peanut planters and now, a shady
billionaire(self proclaimed). How about trying a member of the
Working Class? I hear there's a bunch of them out of work, and most
are more tuned into what's going on. Why don't we hold our own people
to be intelligent?
Have we really bought into the slop being fed us by the Billionaires?
Carl Jarvis
On 4/23/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Under terms set forth by Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's budget
chief, the ruination of Obamacare is once again tied up with
keeping the government running. (photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The
White House Seems Excited to Shut Down the Government
By Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker
23 April 17
Next Saturday, April 29th, is President Trump’s hundredth day in
office, a historical marker used by the press to assess a new
President’s progress since the first term of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. F.D.R. was grappling with the Great Depression, and he
had a pliant Congress that would have passed almost anything he
proposed.
Presidents since then have often struggled to meet the expectations
of the hundred-day report card but generally can point to a list of
major legislative accomplishments. Trump does not have such a list.
At the same time, the Trump White House is facing a much more
consequential deadline, one that will help define his first months
in office and perhaps his first term: absent a spending deal with
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, next Saturday the government
will shut down.
While the potential for a government shutdown has been overshadowed
by other events—Syria, North Korea, the attempted repeal of
Obamacare—the Trump White House is suddenly seized with the issue.
“Next week is going to have quite high drama,” a top White House
official, who sounded excited by the coming clash, told me. “It’s
going to be action-packed. This one is not getting as much
attention, but, trust me, it’s going to be the battle of the titans.
And the great irony here is that the call for the government
shutdown will come on—guess what?—the hundredth day. If you pitched
this in a studio, they would say, ‘Get out of here, it’s too
ridiculous.’ This is going to be a big one.”
The last government shutdown was in October, 2013, and was widely
blamed on conservative Republicans in the House, with a major
assist from Senator Ted Cruz, who demanded that Obamacare had to be
defunded, a ludicrous strategy given that Barack Obama was President.
Congress failed to pass the necessary legislation, and the
government closed for two weeks before Republicans came back to the
table. At the time, many predicted that the tactic would have dire
political consequences for the G.O.P., but the following year the
Party expanded its majority in the House and took over the Senate.
Republican leaders have prevented their right wing from forcing
shutdowns in the years since, but one lesson from 2013 is that the
threat of a government shutdown is a powerful way to press for
concessions without paying too high a political price.
In recent weeks, the prospect of a government shutdown seemed low.
In the House and Senate, Democratic and Republican appropriators,
who, despite ideological differences, are often united in their
desire to spend money, were making steady progress. But there was
an elephant in the room. In mid-March, the Trump Administration
released a detailed spending request that included a large increase
for the military and for immigration enforcement and massive cuts
to domestic discretionary spending. While the budget was released
with fanfare, the White House seemed to retreat from the talks,
leaving congressional Democrats and Republicans to continue their
work without much guidance from Trump.
Yesterday, that changed. Mick Mulvaney, a Republican and former
congressman who was one of the House members who agitated for the
2013 shutdown and is now Trump’s budget director, announced that
“elections have consequences.”
The consequence, it would seem, was a divisive proposal. Mulvaney
suggested that if Trump didn’t get his defense spending and border
wall—which, it should be noted, he promised would be paid for by
Mexico—then the federal payments, known as cost-sharing reduction
subsidies, or C.S.R., that pay for health insurance for millions of
Americans under Obamacare had to be cut from the spending bill. The
ruination of Obamacare is once again tied up with keeping the
government running.
The funding legislation likely can’t pass in the House without some
Democratic votes, and it certainly can’t pass without Democratic
votes in the Senate, where Republicans need eight Democrats to
reach the sixty-vote threshold to prevent a filibuster. The two
sides aren’t even close.
“There’s a big spread between the bid and the ask here,” the White
House official said, noting that Trump wanted thirty billion
dollars for defense, several billion for more ICE agents and the
border wall, as well as eighteen billion dollars in cuts to
domestic spending and the ability to withhold federal money from
cities that don’t coöperate with immigration officials.
The big priorities for Democrats are the money for those people who
need Obamacare subsidies, the protection of domestic spending, and
increases for programs for opioid addiction and health care for
coal miners, the last two being issues that Trump ostensibly campaigned
on.
These shouldn’t be a big deal, Democrats say, and they have accused
the White House of throwing a grenade into negotiations in order to
wrest some sort of political victory in the first hundred days.
“For weeks, the House and Senate Democrats and Republicans have
been working well together,” a Democratic aide said.
“Then,
all of a sudden, the White House is looking at next week and they
have nothing to show for the first one hundred days, and they
either want a health-care bill to pass next week, which seems like
a heavy lift, or to get more on immigration from this process. Even
Republicans don’t want this fight, and they don’t want a shutdown
on Day One Hundred of the Trump Administration.”
The White House, which is trying to force another vote on an
Obamacare repeal, seems desperate to either win some of Trump’s
priorities in a deal next week, or force a government shutdown that
it can blame on Democrats.
That might energize Trump’s supporters, who don’t have much to
celebrate yet.
But it’s not just the Democrats who oppose several Trump priorities.
Congressional Republicans, who are generally united in support for
the increase in defense spending, are divided on the border wall,
which is not popular among border-state Republicans, and the deep
domestic-spending cuts.
So far, it does not look like a bridgeable gap. “This is going to
be high-stakes poker,” the White House official said. When I asked
if a shutdown was likely, the official paused for several seconds.
“I don’t know,” the official said. The official added, “I just want
my wall and my ICE agents.”
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