[nagdu] Re Guide Dog Forced to Ride in Trunk

[Brenda]

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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