[nagdu] Re Guide Dog Forced to Ride in Trunk

[Melissa Green]

That is a good point.
This woman needs some support.

Blessings!
Melissa Green
Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are 
strong enough to let go.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brenda" <bjnite at windstream.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 8:37 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Re Guide Dog Forced to Ride in Trunk


>I wonder if this handler even knew a cab driver would ask such a thing.  At 
>guide dog school do they talk about these types of incidents.
>
> Regarding the handler and her actions, We can all debate the subject, but 
> is anyone on this list reaching out to her? Do you know if she is 
> surrounded by well-meaning clueless people and may benefit from 
> association with people like those on this list.
>
>
> On 6/7/2011 11:23 PM, Elizabeth Rene wrote:
>> 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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