WORKING TOGETHER

Blind Vine on ACB radio (American Council of the
Blind) at www.acbradio.org had an audio of the opening of the Ed Roberts campus on top of a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train station in Berkeley, California. It is so exciting to see that this campus has opened last Saturday which was the ribbon-cutting. It is wonderful when all disabilities can work together. Though we have had differences with independent living and the movement as blindpeople, the American Council of the Blind has always sought collaboration and convergence whenever possible. That is why I love partnering with other groups for the benefit of all. Only if we build each other up, will we gain and grow together. Coordinating together is paramount to reaching our goals. "Divide and conquer rarely gets it done, and only works, in my opinion, for the few and not the many. Love, cooperation, and communication must be paramount. Congratulations to Berkeley, California for being a model to the nation. Congratulations to Representative Barbara Lee, the BART officials, the Berkeley officials, and Senator Barbara Boxer. Disability is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it effects everyone of all incomes, races, nationalities, religions, sexual preferences, and ethnicities. Koraling Lynne

WORKING TOGETHER

I believe we should work together whenever we can as disabled people, or if we see commonalities with poor people, or any other grouping of people. If wesee that our issues align, whether it be with whoever, and not label, then we should reac out our hands and join together. I was able to join with other Independent Living Centers in 2002 when we worked on our accessible voting bill for Alaska. We worked with legislative staffers, the Division of Elections, voting machine manufactureres, and other interested people to get the bill passed unanimously by Alaska's House and Senate. HB 320 and SB 258 with Representative Joe Green and Senator Loren Leman was where everyone could agree about privacy and accessibility of voting machines. However, times change, and we did not realize the problems with verifiability and replicability and redundancy which is so important in computer systems as I learned in a class entitled Information Technology for Public Administrators. Thanks. Koraling Lynne