[nabs] Fw: [acb-l] Holiday Greetings

[webmaster Christopher Wright]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mitch Pomerantz 
To: leadership at acb.org ; board at acb.org ; acb-l at acb.org ; announce at acb.org 
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 1:56 PM
Subject: [acb-l] Holiday Greetings


Colleagues:

On the Monday preceeding Christmas, it is past time for me to post a message to the members, friends and associates of the American Council of the Blind.

ACB has experienced what may be our most successful year as an advocacy organization ever.  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our Washington, D.C. Area staff for their tremendous work on our behalf.  I also acknowledge everyone who made a phone call, wrote an old-fashioned letter, or sent an e-mail in support of either the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, or both.  A bow of thanks also goes to our colleagues throughout the blindness community who have partnered with us during my presidency in our various advocacy initiatives, from working toward the free exchange of copyrighted material throughout the world to assuring access to information from the Social Security Administration and other government agencies.  Such endeavors do not happen in a vacuum.  They require years of focused commitment on everyone's part and such efforts are often frustrating due to the slowness of the process.  Nonetheless, we persevered and the result has been great success in 2010.

Having said that, I also must recognize that times are becoming increasingly difficult for blind and visually impaired people in this country.  This is not a very good time for anyone to be looking for a job and that isn't likely to change for awhile.  Here in California, we're beginning to hear about persons with disabilities leaving the once Golden State because they simply cannot afford to live here.  Our programs and services are under fire and in danger of being severely curtailed or eliminated altogether.

What this means to me is that during these tough times, we truly need the love and support of our friends and family even more.  For so many of us, our friends are right here in the American Council of the Blind.  We may consider our fellow ACB members to be our family, as much as we do our flesh and blood kin.  Like those families, we fuss and fight and disagree with one another loudly and sometimes, rancorously.  However, we are still family and when we are challenged or attacked from the outside, we tend to band together to counter such challenges.

As such, no matter how you celebrate this holiday season, Donna and I want to wish you a joyous time filled with good friends, family, and love.  May 2011 be a time of good health and prosperity for each of you, and for our wonderful American Council of the Blind.  Take care.


Mitch Pomerantz, President
American Council of the Blind


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
acb-l mailing list
acb-l at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-l
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.acb.org/pipermail/nabs/attachments/20101220/56733fb7/attachment.htm>