[nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

Thu May 13 19:19:02 UTC 2010

Yeah, that's the message the always makes my hair stand on end.  Add in the
I'd rather be dead comments laced throughout the story, and I definitely do
feel ill.  I do understand that some who experience sudden, unexpected loss
of sight do tend to just stop living for awhile.  I had plenty of
forewarning and am still working on getting rid of the last vestiges of my
vision, so I can't truly grasp the emotional experience of unexpectedly
waking up from surgery blind.  From what I have heard from others, it is
quite a shock.  I've been so used to knowing I was "going blind" that the
shock was well past when I started dealing with the logistics of learning
*how* to be blind when my central vision finally decided to start packing up
and leaving.  Even then, I had had some awareness that I was, in a sense,
blind whatever the legal definition says, so I had already begun to
differentiate myself in that way, even while my family was still going gonzo
on this new layer of denial, which is pretty much how they define their
reality.  Being a math geek by nature, I never did go along with flow,
either, for which I am glad.  As it relates to my RP and my progression
towards blindness that everyone else could agree was blindness, I didn't
have to make a huge adjustment in my own self image or self definition.  I
was honestly kinda "bummer, but oh, shucks," about it, which really tends to
disturb a lot of people.  /smile/

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that the man's emotional
experience of feeling he would rather be dead than blind is probably very,
very real and not uncommon in his circumstances.  I don't get it, but that's
because I have had a very different experience.  If he just picked up,
grabbed a white cane and kept going without any sort of O&M training --
which it sounds like from the description of his cane travels -- his dog
probably has made a huge, huge difference.

Again, my experience of "going blind" in an area where there simply was no
available O&M training -- except for a very brief period just before I
reached the point where I *had* to use the cane for mobility -- was softened
from his by the fact that I did retain enough residual vision to learn cane
skils and built up proficiency as a traveler with it while still being able
to use visual cues to walk a straight line and all.  I like staying ahead of
the RP in terms of my adaptive skills, so I could give myself practice then
in walking a straight line without using my sight in areas I already knew
how to travel with a cane....  Anyway, I don't know if that makes sense or
not.  I think it would be really very different to do learning cane and O&M
skills on your own just to keep you life going early on in total blindness.
I dunno, really, and wouldn't dream of trying to quantify the different
experiences.  I'm just trying to kinda understand where this guy is coming
from, really....  Which seems like another planet to me.  /smile/

And the overall message of the article, beyond his comments about his
experience, is just....  Nauseating.  I read stuff like that and am suddenly
reminded that I'm going to have to do more "educating" because of it, and
that the educating will involve having to put up with those very attitudes
and assumptions just to take advantage of one of Marion's teachable moments.
/smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Pawpower Creations
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 9:41 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

Well said Marion.  I never had a guide dog as a kid, in fact I didn't get my

first until I was like 19, and I can tell you that I still managed to enjoy 
life to the full.  This article seemed to say that blind people could not 
live a full and productive life with out a dog, and that is just so far from

the truth.

Best wishes from the Pawpower pack!
Bristol, Mill'E, Rudy, and Laveau

Pawpower Creations, Products designed with you and your Canine in mind
Bob Blackner/Rox'E Homstad
504-312-2609
pawpower at cox.net
www.pawpowercreations.com
Custom made guide dog harnesses, leashes, collars, and relieving harnesses.

With eye upraised his master's look to scan,
The joy, the solace, and the aid of man:
The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend,
The only creature faithful to the end.

George Crabbe

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marion Gwizdala" <blind411 at verizon.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

>    I'm sorry, but this whole perception of the pitiful blind person whose 
> life would be depressing and worthless without a guide dog only serves to 
> reinforce the assertion that such organizations as Mira Foundation are 
> less interested in disseminating accurate information about blindness and 
> more concerned with saying whatever they need to say in order to gain 
> support for their cause! I have never counted steps in my 30 years as a 
> blind person and can't even tell you if I know a blind person who does! 
> And why did this guy run into light poles? Perhaps because he had 
> absolutely no O&M instruction before getting a guide dog!
>    Such drivvle only serves to marginalize those blind people who do not 
> use a guide dog, which happens to be the vast majority of the blind! 
> Furthermore, the schools that do not give guide dogs to young people do so

> with very sound reasoning. However, one thing better than a poor pitiful 
> blind man is a "poor pitiful blind child" to get donors to dig deeply into

> their pockets! Ugh! JMHO!
>
> Fraternally yours,
> Marion Gwizdala
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:22 AM
> Subject: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>
>
>> Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>> Published Thu, May 13, 2010 05:02 AM
>>
>>
>> SOUTHERN PINES -- As a blind man, Bob Baillie walks down busy
>> Broad Street often enough to know it is 75 steps from the corner
>> of Pennsylvania Avenue to the first dip in the sidewalk. When he
>> hits the first crack, it's 60 steps to the corner.
>>
>> This intimacy with the concrete would be impossible without
>> Devon, a 110-pound Bernese mountain dog who works for cookies and
>> ear scratches. Before Devon, Baillie would knock into light
>> poles, wander into traffic and curse the surgical accident that
>> left him in the dark three years ago.
>>
>> Freed and inspired by his wet-nosed companion, Baillie, a
>> Southern Pines businessman, decided to connect blind people
>> nationwide with their own guide dogs, focusing on children as
>> young as 11. In a little more than a year, his Aberdeen-based
>> Mira Foundation USA has arranged trained animals for an
>> 11-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, and five North Carolina
>> teenagers wait in the pipeline.
>>
>> "I thought it was a wonderful idea," said Cricket Bidleman, the
>> 11-year old, in San Diego. "I'll be a lot safer at school, and
>> I'll have a friend to talk to at home."
>>
>> Baillie's work is expensive and uncommon. Guide dogs cost roughly
>> $60,000 once training is complete, putting their help beyond the
>> reach of many families. Also, guide dog groups often require that
>> blind children be 16 or at least in high school before getting
>> dogs, making rare exceptions.
>>
>> For Baillie, it's a chance to lift depression out of his own life
>> and fill a gap for potentially hundreds more. He hopes his
>> foundation will grow into a charity that places 30 dogs a year,
>> one wagging tail at a time.
>>
>> "Very few of us get the opportunity to really do something for
>> human beings," said Baillie, 66. "Just the fact that you can get
>> up in the morning, grab your dog and go for a walk by yourself."
>>
>> In North Carolina, more than 200,000 people report visual loss, a
>> definition that runs from total blindness to serious difficulty
>> seeing even while wearing glasses, according to a 2008 report
>> from the American Foundation for the Blind.
>>
>> Of that group, more than 11,000 are ages 5 to 17.
>>
>> Blind children aren't typically thought to be mature enough to
>> handle a guide dog before they're 16, though exceptions have been
>> made for 14-year-olds, said William Krol, spokesman for the New
>> York-based Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.
>>
>> "When you're a guide dog handler, you have a commitment not only
>> to yourself, but also to your dog," he said.
>>
>> Sally Bidleman, Cricket's mom, argued that guide dogs should be
>> provided according to need and ability rather than age. She tried
>> every agency in the country, she said, before finding Mira.
>> Cricket navigates the halls of her school, including the stairs,
>> on her own each day. When her dog arrives this summer, the school
>> will hold an assembly to orient Cricket's classmates on how to
>> approach her companion.
>>
>> "It's like somebody getting eyes, almost," she said. "It's like
>> getting another sense."
>>
>> 'You'd rather be dead'
>>
>> Baillie's blindness struck three years ago during what was
>> supposed to be a simple bypass surgery. The incision cut an
>> artery, he said, and he lost blood to his eyes while he bled. He
>> knew the surgery might be fatal but never received any warning
>> about blindness. To date, Baillie has received no compensation
>> and believes he will have to fight to get any.
>>
>> "Taking a choice between croaking and being blind," Baillie said,
>> "for the first couple of days, you'd rather be dead. Try crossing
>> the street with your eyes closed."
>>
>> Before the surgery, Baillie worked in both dentistry and real
>> estate. For the first year, he struggled with a cane, forcing
>> himself to listen to traffic - a requirement, he said, for
>> getting a dog.
>>
>> "He would just plow into things and he never slowed down," said
>> Kathy Szyja, his director of operations at Mira. "He needed this
>> dog to keep him safe."
>>
>> Devon came from the Mira Foundation in Quebec, and while Baillie
>> was there, learning to walk with him, he learned that children in
>> America rarely get dogs. When he asked about it, he said, he
>> heard an it's-always-been-that-way explanation. So borrowing the
>> Canadian name for his own group, he started Mira USA.
>>
>> 'Dinner in the Dark'
>>
>> It operates as a nonprofit out of an office in Aberdeen with
>> minimal staff. Fundraiser meals and runs boosted its treasury.
>> Now, to raise money, Mira hosts dinners (there's one on Friday)
>> where the guests eat blindfolded. The dogs all come from Mira in
>> Canada and a lot of the expense comes from flying eligible
>> children to Canada, and the trainers to their homes. As Mira
>> grows in Moore County, Baillie hopes to train dogs there.
>>
>> For now, he and Devon rise each morning and make the three-mile
>> trek from his horse-country house to downtown Southern Pines. For
>> the first mile, there are no sidewalks. Before they reach a
>> sidewalk, Baillie and Devon cross four streets.
>>
>> But on Broad Street, everyone knows them.
>>
>> "When you see a person walking up and down the street with a
>> cane," Baillie said, "you're not likely to say hello. But when
>> you walk up and down the street with a dog, let me tell you, it
>> makes a huge difference. People driving by will roll down their
>> window and yell, 'Hey, Devon!' Never mind Bob."
>>
>> Staff researcher David Raynor contributed to this report.
>>
>> josh.shaffer at newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818
>> Source:
>> http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/13/v-print/479987/mans-dogs-s
>> et-blind-kids-free.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ginger Bennett Kutsch
>> Morristown, NJ
>>
>>
>>
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