[nagdu] Re Guide Dog Forced to Ride in Trunk

[cheryl echevarria]

I have been listening on this subject, now mind you as I am going through a court case here in NY with my former employer about issues.

We should never look like a victim and put ourselves in that postion.

My question is, and I have never been in this position.

If someone is asking you to put your dog in a trunk why do it in the first place, whether it is early in the am or in the pm.

It will come back to haunt someone as to why did you do this in the first place there are other options that could have been taken.

That being said, I am so sorry this has happened to this person that they had to go through this in the first place.

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Elizabeth Rene<mailto:emrene at earthlink.net> 
  To: nagdu at nfbnet.org<mailto:nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 11:23 PM
  Subject: [nagdu] Re Guide Dog Forced to Ride in Trunk


  I am more than a little concerned about a seeming tendency to judge the 
  woman whose taxi driver forced her to put her guide dog in the trunk of his 
  car.

  This tendency toward censure has arisen before with regard to other guide 
  dog users encountering problems in the past, and I, for one, want to 
  discourage it.

  Thankfully, I have never been faced with this woman's "Sophie's choice." 
  But I have been abandoned by taxi drivers more than once over the years, 
  and, like many others of my blind brothers and sisters, have probably faced 
  my share of humiliating infringements of my civil rights.

  The view that I want to express is that it is wrong to judge the victim of 
  crime, no matter how much more responsible or effective or independent we 
  think we might have been in similar circumstances.

  No one lives at the height of vigilance at every moment of  life.

  The victims of sexual assault, for example, have had to struggle for years 
  not to be blamed for crimes against themselves.  Rape victims are blamed for 
  irresponsibly walking late at night, for dating the wrong partner, for 
  drinking at the party, for selling their bodies, for dressing provocatively, 
  for being where they don't belong, for failing to set their own limits, to 
  guard their own boundaries, to fight back more fiercely, etc., etc.  But 
  rape is still a vicious crime, the offender is guilty, and the victim 
  deserves our support and our compassion no matter how much better we may 
  have behaved, or think we may have behaved with similar choices before us.

  When I practiced criminal law, I was counseled to remove women from juries 
  in sex cases because they were more likely to acquit.  If they could 
  separate themselves from the victim--if no way could they ever be caught the 
  way she was by virtue of their own good choices--then they could leave the 
  courtroom in confidence and go home feeling safe.  If only bad girls got 
  attacked, then nothing could happen to them.  Women were expected to judge 
  other women harshly in order to quell their own fears.

  I think it is fear that makes us judge other blind people for falling short 
  of our own self-expectations when they become victimized.  The idea might be 
  that if we are perfect, no one will hurt us; if we are perfect as a group, 
  no one will even dare to try to hold us back.  WE might say to ourselves, 
  "I'd never let the movement down by acting like that."

  I'm all for independence, safety, effective self-advocacy, and responsible 
  living.  But perfection and control are illusory goals.  They're impossible 
  standards to maintain.

  If we judge and find wanting those who have been victimized rather than 
  holding  wrongdoers truly accountable for their illicit acts, then we become 
  victimizers too.

  I think we can be stronger than that.

  No one deserves to be victimized, ever.

  Period.

  Elizabeth, a former prosecuting attorney, and Ingram and Fiesta, who took a 
  bite out of crime.




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