A few years ago, I made the mistake of
appearing for a Braille challenge event
as the "Braille-inator." I was an illiteracy-
fighting superhero in tights and fake
muscles. [laughter] So, when the Blinded Veterans
Association planed its annual convention
for Louisville in 2015, our company
president at the time, Tuck Tinsley, thought
it'd be a great idea to send me out in
full cassock and collar as Fr. Thomas
J. Carroll - something nice and light,
30 minutes of fun. But, to prepare for it,
I had to spend a month reading and
rereading his speeches. And, Fr. Tom
did not come to convention to drink a
beer and reminisce. Carroll was the BVA
luncheon speaker for 25 straight years
between 1946 in 1970, and they loved him
so much that in 1959 when he was
hospitalized with phlebitis, he delivered
his luncheon speech from a hospital bed
in New York by telephone while the
meeting was in Seattle. He said, often,
that his position on the BVA podium was,
not to speak for the BVA, but to speak
to it - to the men and women of the BVA
directly. In 2014 our museum received a
pallet of boxes from the Carroll Center
in Boston - basically, Tom Carroll's life
work. And, we have partnered with the
Carroll Center to preserve those
documents that reveal Carroll, the priest,
the administrator, the healer, the
counselor, the reformer, and the visionary.
Carroll, the fellow who smoked too much, who
ranted against fragrance gardens for the
blind, and loved to buy gadgets out of
magazines. My respect for Fr. Carroll,
the man, is immense. And, somehow, I just
couldn't bring myself to put on a collar
and pretend. And my Boston accent is
terrible. What I DID agree to do, was to
try and capture the flavor of his
addresses and his passion for the BVA.
And his speeches had their own internal
rhythm -
first, his standard introduction: Members
of the Blinded Veterans Association,
their wives, their sweethearts, and their
friends. And then a very brief, but
half-hearted attempt an opening joke, and an
uncomfortable, but sincere apology that
he had nothing new to say, which was a
white lie, because he always followed it
with something important - something
challenging. Because he believed with all
his heart, that the BVA was fated for
greater things. And, he was a mesmerizing
speaker, his cultured voice vibrating with
feeling, his loving concern for the BVA
and its members obvious from the start,
his righteous anger at the obstacles
they faced - equally apparent. He described
the BVA as quote, almost a part of me,
unquote. And, over the next few minutes - he
never spoke for longer than 30 minutes,
and I won't today - I'm going to cut and
paste from his speeches. From 1946, a
favorite theme - the fight against
injustice: It is seldom that we have to
be reminded of our rights. It is all too
often that we fail to remember our
duties. Few of us have to be urged on to
state our liberties. Most of us, equally,
forget our co-relevant obligations. You
are, as Captain Alan Blackburn, has often
called you, a flying wedge. Your job is to
dent that unreasonable and unreasoning
reaction of the sighted public, and if you
can more than dent it - if you can really
crack it -
thousands of others wait to rush through
the gap behind you into the lives of
greater security and understanding. And
if that day soon comes, that you have a
strong influence on public opinion,
factions will be tearing at you from the
outside, and trying to tear you into
factions within, that they may get
control of you and that influence.
The militarists and the pacifists will
both want your aid. The empire builders
and the appeasers will both seek it.
You are the, in a very special position
of responsibility. You then, have special
obligations. No need to tell you to work
for peace, but to remind you that you
must see and know where those paths
to peace lie. You must be a course of
truth.
Yours must be to use again, a phrase
stolen and abused by both reactionaries
and radicals. Yours must be, in the best
sense of the word, the American Way.
Thank God, you are fighting against race
prejudices. May He strengthen your arms in
this fight, and may you go on to fight
against every form of injustice, because
the fight against injustice is an
American fight! And, in that van of that
fight is an American banner. Too often, we
have allowed that banner to fall into
hostile hands. Too often, we have allowed
them to carry it as a false front. And, the
only answer that is compelling, the only
answer that is truly American and truly
worthy of the man who gave his sight for
his country and for peace and justice, is
that you, yourselves, take up the banner
against all injustices - that YOU carry
it to the front where no one else has a
better right to carry it! From 1948, on
the meaning of heroism:
While I was sitting back waiting to be
called on, I had a chance to hear one of
the other speakers telling about how
proud he was to be addressing such a
group of heroes. I sat back and shuddered
a bit, because I knew he'd hit the wrong
key.
I'd be very much surprised if there are any
among you, who want to spend the rest of your
lives sitting around being called heroes -
putting on the "hero act." When you've
really been a hero, you know it
yourselves. In this business of heroism,
there's one point where people often get
lost. They do it with regard to blindness,
forgetting all too easily that the guts
to count- the guts that count, that keep you
going afterwards. It takes you plenty to
put you in a position where the shell
lands or the booby-trap explodes. But it
takes even more to meet up with some of
the things you meet up with afterwards.
When heroism really meets its test, it's in
the face of forgetfulness and
ingratitude. And, some of you have certainly
met it; to a degree, all of you have. But, what
makes it hardest of all to be a hero
every day, is the attitude of those
sentimental fools who seem to think that
it's, somehow less a man if he has a
physical imperfection.
It's the emotional morons who seem to
think that the measure of integrity is
physical wholeness. Struggle is a long
one and a hard one that calls for
fortitude, for guts, and you can't beat
the selfishness by being selfish,
nor the ingratitude by shouting about it.
You can't beat the sentimentality by
being a sentimentalist,
nor the emotionalism by mere emotional
appeal.
It's a daily struggle and a struggle
that goes on within yourselves. If you're
a hero, if you rise above the rest, you'll
take the right way, even if you have to
take it alone. But, you won't have to take
it alone - and never lose sight of this:
The way, and the only way, is the way for
which you were put here. The way of love.
And, for each - every one of you, that- that
way calls for manly love of God, above
all things, and of neighbor, as himself.
Most of you have no need of proving to
yourselves or to anyone else that you
are men. You have proved it once to your own
satisfaction. That is why you're here.
What is true of you, as individuals, must
be true of the BVA. You must keep it
always founded on the fact, sure in your
own minds, that you are men above the
rest. From 1950, another familiar theme,
Fr. Carroll's hatred of segregation in
any form: I realize that blinded veterans
have much in common, and that, from the
occasional meeting, there can be strength.
But, I say that to seek to be together
all the time is to seek always to wear
the splint, to be afraid to throw away
the crutches of the rehabilitation time.
For us, in work in the blind, segregation
is the easy answer.
We could easily put all the blind into
one place - institutionalize them in one
building or in cottages, and there,
try to solve their problems.
Certainly, it would be easier for us.
Segregation of the blind is basically
false. The notion is wrong at heart.
Segregation from without is the result
of intolerance, prejudice, bigotry.
Segregation from within is the result of
in- of dependence. Segregation from within
is immaturity. Segregation from within
is - and there can be no other word -
surrender! Are blind people so different
that they need to be set apart?
Are you blind veterans so different that
you need to be put where the public
cannot look at you? Are you so different
that you need to have your own way of
living?
Then, what happens to the rest of us? To
those who have other physical defects? To
those who have mental defects?
Where is MY project?
From 1955, his pride in the BVA: One thing
I would like to speak of is my pride in
the BVA - my pride in you! I spoke of you
many-a-time during the war years. I spoke
of you as a cross-section - cross-section
of the Armed Services of the United
States, and thus, a representative sample
of your generation, of the rising, the
growing generation, the group that was
coming up. And, I was proud of that sample -
hopeful for the country, just from
knowing you. Ah, don't let me seem to
exaggerate!
I'm not here to say that you're a great
organization in terms of ordinary
measurements. You are not. You're not a
great pressure group. You're not a vast
veterans organization. Your treasury, most
of the time, is a flattened pocketbook.
There are millions of Americans who
don't even know you. And yet, I say that
you have a greatness. I say you have a
greatness that you don't even begin to
recognize - the greatness that is in your
history. The history of your actions is
in your public statements. It is the
reflection of yourselves and of you're
thinking, to the public. It is the things
you have done, and in the things you have
tried to do. To you, the term "blinded
veteran" has not been interpreted - as it
so easily might have been - in terms of
Jewish veteran or Christian veteran. It
has not been restricted to mean the
white veteran or the Negro veteran. But,
in terms of your own emblem, you have
worked for the human rights of those who
live under the Star of David, as well as
those whose banner is the cross of
Christ. And, for the blinded man - the blinded
veteran of every race, you have sought
and fought for the rights, under law, of
your membership and also of OTHERS who
are not your members. You have gone
beyond this, and in the things you have
done for the civilian blind persons of
this country that they might too, receive
equal treatment. No. Your greatness is
not in numbers
or in wealth. It is in the fact - if we
may say such a thing of an organization -
is in the fact the BVA is adjusted
to its handicap, is adjusted to its
blindness. The BVA neither wants special
privilege, nor second-class citizenship.
It is no blind beggar to live off public
sympathy.
Nor is it a maladjusted braggart who
seeks to throw his weight around. It is
not satisfied with working only for
self, but works within, and for, its
fellows in the community. It has accepted
its blindness without being overwhelmed
by it, and has determined in spite of it,
to be a part of the existing world - to
make its place in THAT world, and to make
THAT world better. From 1961, facing up to
the severity of blindness: Blindness is
rough. To me, any statements to the
contrary are but escape words, running in
fear from the truth. To me, blindness is a
multiple and repetitive trauma, which has
effects ranging wide and deep. And I no
longer have any time for those who would
say that it is minor, that it is an
inconvenience only. To me, there is only
one starting point in our discussion of
blindness, and it is here: That the
handicap of blindness, though not the most
severe handicap possible, is severe
indeed. If we take this stand, if we find
agreement that blindness is as severe as
I've indicated it, without spelling out
all of its implications, then we are at a
crossroads ready to choose. On the one
hand, we can say that blindness is so
severe, so devastating, that there is
essentially nothing - nothing which can be
done about it, except to give the blind
person something which passes for
happiness. We throw in one or another
sop.
We pat him on the back and tell him that
things could be worse.
We arrange for segregated parties and
outings where people are
nice to the blind. We are satisfied to get
some kind of job for the blind person,
probably a stereotyped job, but almost
certainly, a job without the possibility
of advancement. And, we avoid anything
which would help him to look at his
blindness, for fear it might overwhelm
him. We continue to run our agencies with
amateur help, for trained personnel
couldn't do anything anyway, if the only
problem is to keep them happy.
We subscribe to the statement that only
the blind can understand the blind, and
with it, we keep all these "blind
understanders" in minor positions. We
play with one or another aspect of
rehabilitation or reorganization, but avoid
tackling the whole job. We place people
before they are rehabilitated, and then
wonder what has happened when they fail
on the job; but satisfied ourselves with
the idea that you can't expect too much
anyway from these "abnormal
normal people." I say to you that it is
the understatement of the year to say
that blindness. It is rough is frighteningly
difficult! And yet! And yet, I say that
blindness can be overcome - that the
ordinary blind person can be primarily a
person without blindness being his whole
focus, that he can reorganize with proper,
concentrated assistance and, to use your
words, that quote, he can take his
rightful place in the community of his
fellows. The rehabilitation which is
demanded, is a process of pain and of
repeated crises, but it can have its
effect. And, that effect can mean a
stronger individual. Certainly, blind
persons are not abnormal persons. But,
they are normal persons living under
abnormal circumstances.
From 1966, on psychological adjustment to
blindness and blind power - and, as a side
note, this was written as the Vietnam War
was getting into full swing and protests
against the draft were growing in
strength: It is now many years for some
of you, most of you, since you made that
very difficult adjustment to blindness.
Sometimes it was a very long road.
You went up and went down again -peaks
and valleys... Peaks and plateaus... before
reaching an adjustment to blindness. But,
in a sense, this is true of all mankind -
that each of us must make an adjustment
to life, and each of us must make it
again and again and again. You know that
I think I despise the word "acceptance" of
blindness. Sounds so much to me as if - the
way many people use it - it sounds as if-
if it was supposed- you're supposed to
like it. And, I don't believe that for a
moment. The word "adjustment" is, in many
ways, almost as bad.
Denial is a common defense. The problems
are all outside us and within us, and yet
we deny that they exist. We deny that
they are burdensome. The flight to
dependence is another easy one, and from
it
of course, follows all too easily the
subjugation of others - even their
enslavement. With blindness, withdrawal
usually means the withdrawal from sighted
contacts, from the sighted world, withdrawal
into segregation where blind groups
remain together. With this goes - in fact
it goes with some of the other defenses -
an increased, although smothered,
hostility toward the sighted world and
often those in the world nearest to us.
There are many ways by which human
nature takes flight and escapes, whether
we are sighted or whether we are blind. And,
when this happens, and when we see it
happening, then it is time for us, not to
become introverted, but to find the
professional help and counsel which can
assist
to a new adjustment. For, adjustment
to blindness, like all adjustment, is a
delicate and continuing thing. For all
persons, adjustment to life is difficult.
For every husband and wife, for every
single person, every young human being,
every middle-aged human being, and every
old human being, and is not something
once done and then forgotten. The impact
of blindness on the public is something
that we, all too well, realize. And, most of
you - all of you - have experienced, to your
sorrow, that emotional impact exists. And
try though we will and must, to soften it, and
try though we will and must, to put it on a
rational basis, we still recognize it
exists. And where it exists, we must use
it for higher ends. That emotional impact
exists, and because of it, exists the
emotional impact, the potential impact,
the potential influence of the BVA. That
impact, that emotional impact, does exist,
and this is the basis of what today I
have called Blind Power. I believe that,
in these years, you have used it well - not
for self-aggrandizement, not for the
segregation of blind persons from other
persons, or segregation of any persons,
but for the rights of all. And now,
increasingly, I suggest that you are in a
position to use it.
This is not frightening. I'm not speaking
of power gone blind, but of enlightened
power! Enlightened power that is yours!
If you want, call it Enlightened Blind
Power. Use it! Use it wisely and well! Join
with civilian blind groups, and in every
way possible, work for the equal rights
of all mankind. And so finally, one of the
most difficult adjustments for BVA in
our day, most difficult in all of these
days, I call on you to use your Blind
Power to defend the American right of
dissent.
The tremendous difficulty - at times
actually, it seems insurmountable - is to
protect and defend this right on the one
hand, without on the other giving aid and
comfort to the enemy.
It is, certainly, too much to ask of this
organization, or of any organization, that it
spell out all the particulars of this.
For, the particulars are not for any
consensus or any majority vote. They are
too complex for such a judgment.
Instead, the particulars require your
individual thought, your individual
judgment in conscience. But, the principle
is clear, and for the principle, you can
stand! One of the strongest American
principles always - the right of dissent,
but never aid and comfort to those who
are enemies of lasting peace for all
mankind. And my last segment, from 1968,
the assassination of Martin Luther King
and Robert Kennedy, riots in D.C. and
Baltimore and Chicago and Louisville: All
around me,
I see tensions, I see the rising hate, I feel
the racist fire, and I fear the time is
too late. But in the name of Yahweh, we
must try, try to understand, try to make
others understand, and then fight
non-violently, but fight! Fight against
every racial slur, fight by word, fight by
letter, fight by leadership, fight by vote!
Fight in your family and your community,
but fight for one goal only - justice and
love for all men. But, oh!l If it is too late -
and God forbid that it is - but, if it is
too late, then take from your lapel and
take from your flag the BVA emblem. Throw
far the Star of David, so long a symbol of
the fight against persecution. If it is too
late,
cast deep the Cross of Christ, no longer
an anchor of hope for this country. Break
the white and black hand clap, for it
has become a fraud. Hurl out the broken
bayonet! No beating into plowshares, for
your hope of peace is gone! Take now, your
Service Star, and let the clouds
encompass it. For, if racial justice is lost,
then America is lost! And, all that you have
fought and gave your sight for is in vain!
The time is on us, but there is still
hope if you work, I work, we work. And, if
God does bless America,
no matter how little worthy we may be,
there is still hope. For, deep in my heart,
I do believe that we shall overcome
someday. Black and white together, we will
march hand-in-hand and we shall overcome
this day.
Oh God, let it be!
Thank you. [applause]
I told you: He didn't go to convention to have a beer!
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