[BlindTlk] {Spam?} NAGDU and guide dog problems

[Raul A. Gallegos - NAGDU]

Hello everyone,

This email is to answer some of the questions that have been posed on 
our various lists regarding the taking of Reverend Susan Blake’s guide 
dog that was issued by Southeastern Guide Dogs, (SEGDI), last week. 
While I will try not to repeat much of what I said earlier this week 
since most of you already read that, I will try to explain a few things 
while sticking to the facts as much as possible. First and foremost, we 
are outraged when we hear that a guide dog team has been split up by a 
training program removing the guide dog from a person. I cannot imagine 
the hurt and anger that Reverend Blake must feel from all of this. No 
matter the situation, there should always be due process whenever a 
school feels that a guide dog is not safe with its handler. Second, one 
of the reasons I have not posted daily updates as to what NAGDU is doing 
is because there are those who will see them as being defensive. While I 
believe in being transparent about what we do, not operating in secret, 
I also do not think it is appropriate to give a daily report of things 
we do. I think that if you look at the methods used by other divisions, 
chapters, and the organization in general, you will find that this is 
true there as well. I hope that everyone knows that if you reach out to 
me or to the board directly, we will be happy to answer questions if we 
are able to.
Over the past week, there have been several hundred messages on various 
lists regarding what NAGDU is doing, not doing, and how we are sitting 
on our hands and how we could not care less about what happened to 
Reverend Blake as well as what is happening on other fronts. and this is 
simply not true. It has also been said that caring is not enough, and I 
agree with this. Along with caring there needs to be action. 
Unfortunately, this is where we hit a bit of a snag because of a few 
things that are out of our control. Contrary to what has been said more 
than once, I have reached out to Reverend Blake several times and as of 
today we have only spoken once on Tuesday, March 9. By the time she and 
I spoke that day, Marion Gwizdala had already shared her story and had 
already resigned from the NFB. During the conversation with Reverend 
Blake, one of my questions to her was how she wanted to proceed. Her 
response at first was that she only wanted her guide dog back before 
SEGDI gave it to someone else. Then later in the conversation she added 
that she wanted an injunction against them. I listened to her 
empathetically, asking her questions about her dog and why she thought 
that SEGDI decided to take the dog from her. She shared several things 
with me, one of which was that all they told her was that the dog was 
overweight and that its vaccines were not updated. Most of what she told 
me had already been shared publicly on our lists and on the web. Toward 
the end of our conversation, I explained that I was going to discuss 
this with the NAGDU board and with our NFB President to see what we 
might be able to do. After our conversation, she emailed me a copy of 
what happened. This is the same copy of the email that was posted the 
day before.
Let me be frank, if I don’t know the immediate answer to something, I am 
not going to push my way through blindly and hope the answer magically 
materializes. This is not to come off like I am making excuses, but to 
demonstrate that I take a team-based approach when it comes to solving a 
problem when I do not have an immediate solution. At the end of our 
conversation, I advised Reverend Blake that I would be in touch with her 
later and she seemed agreeable. Unfortunately, this was the one and only 
time we have spoken. I have not been able to reach her since then 
because she has not responded to phone messages.
Later that same day (Tuesday), a one-sided version of my conversation 
with her was shared by Marion Gwizdala on the FLAGDU list, which proved 
to me that he was already helping her in his fashion, just like he said 
he would on Friday, March 5 when this all began. If he had not resigned 
from the NFB on Monday March 8th, we could have tried to take a 
coordinated approach. However, this was no longer possible.
My personal feeling is that Marion is a wonderful resource when it comes 
to advocacy and when it comes to knowing the various laws concerning 
guide dog users. In fact, prior to all this happening, I considered him 
a mentor and a friend, and hoped that I could continue relying on his 
experience. It is my belief, and this is based on several emails that he 
has publicly written concerning things that didn’t go the way he would 
have liked when he was NAGDU President, that he has been unhappy with 
NAGDU for a while and the incident with Reverend Blake served as the 
tipping point. While I am not in the habit of calling people out 
publicly as all it does is look defensive and serves no real purpose, 
many things he has said about the NAGDU board and I specifically are not 
true.
What I will share is a little about the two conversations we’ve had 
since all this began. First, I feel that if Marion had stopped to listen 
to me a little more when he and I spoke on Friday, March 5 and later 
Saturday, March 6, the NAGDU board could have come up with a more 
immediate solution to help Reverend Blake. Instead, Marion demanded that 
the NFB hire a lawyer over the weekend so the issue could be solved by 
Monday the 8th. He said that if I didn’t do something immediately, he 
would, with or without the support of the NFB. Since then, there have 
been many posts on the lists and on social media from people who don’t 
feel that NAGDU is handling this the right way. On Saturday morning, 
March 6, Marion wrote a letter to the NAGDU board and to President 
Riccobono, informing us of the situation and of his disappointment in 
the way I was handling things. My response to him was that we need as 
much information as possible. Since he hadn’t yet provided me with 
Reverend Blake’s information, and since he was convinced that SEGDI 
wouldn’t speak with me without a subpoena, then there wasn’t much that 
we could do. It wasn’t until Saturday evening that Marion finally gave 
me Reverend Blake’s information. Since then, he has obviously done 
things to help her, including participating in an ACB Radio interview.
To try and gather facts from all sides involved, I have reached out to 
SEGDI to discuss their policies and contracts and to find information 
regarding due process when they feel that their contract is breached. 
Because Reverend Blake’s situation is not the only one that has been 
shared over the years, we would like to give SEGDI a fair opportunity to 
work with NAGDU or demonstrate that it is unwilling to do so.
There have also been many discussions regarding what ownership of a 
guide dog truly means. Personally, I feel that whether a training 
program says you own the guide dog or not, they should not be able to 
come and take the dog away without following due process. Instead, if 
there is a question of abuse, the proper local authorities should be 
involved. This is one of the many reasons that guide dog school 
contracts should be reviewed carefully. The NAGDU board’s position 
regarding ownership of a guide dog is that while we feel that it is one 
aspect of choosing a training program, there are other things to 
consider. The NAGDU board feels that the guide dog user should have 
informed choice so that the best decision can be made when choosing a 
training program. If anyone chooses to attend a guide dog school where 
ownership is not given again, there needs to be due process. Ownership 
or not, guide dog schools must be accountable to consumers and consumer 
rights. Fear not, we will be looking at making more public positions on 
all this through resolutions. You all will be involved. We are your 
board, but please give us time to do our work.
In closing, let me remind you that if you have questions or need to 
speak with us, please email board at nagdu.org or call (832) 554-7285. 
While we may not have an immediate solution to your questions and 
concerns, we promise to listen, and we will help where we can.


-- 
Respectfully,
*Raul A. Gallegos* / President
National Association of Guide Dog Users, /NAGDU/
832.554.7285 | RGallegos at nagdu.org <mailto:rgallegos at nagdu.org>
Subscribe to the NAGDU Public Events Calendar Here 
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/nagdu.org_7eopjofhnd4968m46rcmgrck0s%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics>
Schedule a 30-minute Zoom meeting with me here 
<https://app.greminders.com/c/rgatechsolutions/r30/>
Join us on Facebook <https://m.facebook.com/groups/nagdu> | Follow us on 
Twitter <https://twitter.com/nagdu>

"Blindness is a characteristic, not a handicap." -- Dr. Kenneth Jernigan


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: rgallegos.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 348 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20210312/1281c155/attachment.vcf>