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

Fri May 14 16:05:48 UTC 2010

Well, you're right.  There does need to be balance and that every decision
to guide dog or not to guide dog involves other factors to weigh beyond
blindness.  So then some blind children with additional difficulties would
have more freedom and ability to get out and live life with a guide dog they
wouldn't have with a cane.

And I admit, I do respect the guy's getting up and getting going again so
quickly after sudden, unexpected total vision loss.  At three years blind,
he's still a youngster in his brave new world himself.  I've known people
who had something like that happen who just went to bed, sometimes for years
or months and just gave up.  I've done my vision loss gradually, and had the
major emotional effects out of the way by the time I had to start truly
living blind, which I think is a good thing.  It's got to be a huge shock to
the system doing it all at once like that when you weren't expecting it.  I
have a hard time relating, since I see blindness so differently, but I have
to remember that that is because I've known I would go blind since I was a
kid and could comprehend that in many ways, I already *was* blind even
though I had 40 percent of my central vision remaining.  My optometrist
uncle explained that one to me and showed me the visual field test thingy
and all as part of trying to bring me into line with the family's complete
denial about the whole RP thing.  To this day, I'm pretty sure I do not have
RP and not going blind!  I need to get a second opinion, really I do.  /lol/
Unfortunately, they were also in denial that, despite being a girl, whom God
did not make to think or have a brain, I am a born math geek.  So showing me
the numbers and the graphs, even at that age, just confirmed my observations
of reality and my conviction that the adults were, you know, lying through
their teeth about it.

So my emotional experience regarding my own blindness has been very
different from many who lose their vision as adults.  I don't think I can
really grasp the emotional impact of this man's experience.

Still, some of the themes in the article itself do set my teeth on edge.
Because it is those attitudes that have stood between me and the resources I
need to carry on with my life.  It is those attitudes that allow the state
agency for the blind to physically abuse clients without repercussion
because the blind person has no recourse.  We're supposed to be grateful for
the little tidbits they hand out along with the verbal abuse -- there's no
other word for it -- designed to convince us that we are less, unworthy and
cannot do anything for ourselves anyway, which is why they refuse to provide
actual resources.  They believe it so strongly themselves that I don't
they've caught on that blind people use the internet to read and connect and
learn (if they hadn't guessed already) that not only are they not the only
ones to be treated in this manner but that they are the norm!

So when I read an article that sounds to my like it is communicating the
inherent pitifulness of blindness, I cringe big time.  Because it reinforces
attitudes that have real consequences we all must overcome.

Ah, well.  We each keep doing what we can in our own way to educate and to
change the myths and stereotypes.  As is the gentleman who is the focus of
the article.  

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Michelle
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 5:00 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

I agree that there are blind people out there who can survive without a 
guide dog, but why can't there be consideration for those who actually need 
extra help, can't get out there and enjoy life? Ok, I'm not in this 
discussion anymore. I think being inconsiderate towards others in any way, 
shape or form is just not good enough.

Michelle
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pawpower Creations" <pawpower at cox.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 2:11 AM
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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nagdu mailing list
>>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>> nagdu:
>>>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/blind411%40verizon.ne
t
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nagdu mailing list
>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nagdu:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/pawpower%40cox.net
>>
>> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
>> signature database 5111 (20100513) __________
>>
>> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>>
>> http://www.eset.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/m-johnson%40bigpond.c
om

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.437 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2870 - Release Date: 05/12/10 
18:26:00

_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comcast
.net