by Penny Reeder
A few years ago, a close friend moved away from the D.C. metropolitan area to Puerto Rico, where her husband was transferred for a year or so. Since the births of our youngest children, we had talked virtually every day on the phone and arranged play dates for our sons and daughters who were about the same ages, several times a week. After she moved away, we stayed in touch, but, even when she and her family returned to the D.C. area just a year later, things were never the same. We still share the details of our lives and our children in occasional conversations -- but the distance and the change which resulted were hard on our relationship, and our lives have moved onward in ever more divergent directions.
I did not wish then, and I would not wish now, that my friend would have foregone the opportunity that her family's travel to Puerto Rico provided, but the changes in the daily routines we had shared and the resulting distance between us were hard to accept. I thought at the time that I should have been less complacent about the value our shared friendship had added to my life and to that of our children. I should have been more appreciative of what we had, I remonstrated, and I should have told her more often how much I enjoyed what we were experiencing together. I have other close friends who are as important to me today and with whom I share the different life stage that I am experiencing now, but I still miss the closeness of that earlier relationship and look back on all my friend meant to me with a mixture of gratitude and nostalgia.
All of those feelings have returned to my consciousness as I set about to write about a sea change in ACB Radio which occurred this month, with the leaving of Jonathan Mosen, the founder and director of ACB Radio, and the appointment of an interim director, Dave Williams, who has valiantly accepted the challenge of shepherding, maintaining and directing our Internet radio presence for the foreseeable future. In an earlier article, Williams introduces himself, and I know that you -- like I -- will welcome him to our ACB family and be especially pleased by the appreciation he expresses for all the ACB Radio accomplishments that Jonathan has left in his capable hands. But first, a few words of gratitude and appreciation are in order.
ACB Radio has grown from the kernel of an idea in the minds of a few perspicacious souls to a vibrant community of talented interviewers, musicians, disk jockeys, musicologists, historians, technical gurus and geniuses, policy makers, listeners, and admirers. I believe it is accurate to say that Jonathan Mosen has with talent, creativity, capability, will and charisma brought more admiring national and worldwide attention to the American Council of the Blind than anyone has since our founders first articulated the principles that separate us from other blindness-oriented organizations.
Listeners to "Main Menu" from all over the English-speaking world have come to identify ACB as a place where one can learn, in an unbiased and unencumbered way, about technologies, both low tech and high tech, that help people who are blind to live well, travel safely, and work as efficiently as our sighted colleagues at a variety of jobs. Fans of old-time radio have flocked to our impressive collection of programming in that genre, and we still receive letters from "Treasure Trove" listeners, old and young, sighted and visually impaired, who express appreciation for our keeping radio's first "golden age" alive.
ACB has derived much respect from the community of musicians and musicologists for the Radio Cafe which features all blind musicians all the time, and the Interactive stream which showcases the talent and creativity of blind and visually impaired deejays, humorists, and commentators. Jonathan's interviews of news makers, local and national thinkers and leaders, and political candidates have brought a breadth and immediacy to the kind of blindness-related information that, until the advent of ACB Radio, had never before been experienced by people who are blind and visually impaired. His interviews and program direction, along with his participation in ACB-sponsored events and on the ACB board of publications, have enlivened our political debates and transformed our principles of democracy, freedom of information and respect for diversity into a tangible reality.
When ACB Radio was still in its infancy and I was still listening only at work because I hadn't taken the time to figure out how to access the radio streams from my home computer, a sighted friend who has virtually no experience with the blindness community called to compliment ACB for its wonderful radio presence. "You have done more for all the talented blind musicians," said my friend, who is a professional musician and music educator, "than anyone inside or outside the industry." It turned out that every time he turned on his computer, he was tuning in to the ACB Radio Caf�.
Thank you, Jonathan, for making ACB a household word all over the world. Thank you for showcasing the talents of blind software developers, musicians, guide dog users, radio amateurs, policy makers, parents, athletes, thinkers, and doers, and just regular folks. Thank you for your abiding faith in democratic principles, and for your dedication to freedom of expression and freedom of information. Thank you for bringing our convention into the homes of people who would otherwise never have had the ability to experience the sometimes messy, occasionally mundane, and nearly always interesting democracy by which we govern ourselves and direct the activities of our leaders and staff. Thank you for being a friend.
We wish you well as you move your family to the southern tip of New Zealand and begin to share your talents and your creativity with Pulse Data and the emerging BrailleNote users' community. Thank you for recommending to our leaders the very capable Dave Williams as ACB Radio's interim director. We are grateful to have shared these first three years of ACB Radio's development with you, and we wish you well.
If you missed Jonathan's last show on ACB Radio, you can catch it at: http://www.mosenexplosion.com/shows.html.