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

Fri May 14 00:26:37 UTC 2010

I love what this one guy said in this article he wrote about stupid things people say to blind folks. His response to "If I went blind, I'd have to kill myself" was, "Why wait?" *LOL*
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY

On May 13, 2010, at 8:22 PM, Linda Gwizdak wrote:

> The people in that stupid article who said the they'd rather be dead than blind - well to them I say they're BRAIN DEAD! LOL!
> 
> Yeah, that makes me want to puke as well.
> 
> Lyn and Landon
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 12:19 PM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
> 
> 
>> 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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> 
> 
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