From: Pete Donahue 
Subject: nfb leadership and Seeing Eye matters
Hello Federationists and Friends,
Before I go to bed I thought I would take a little time to share my
thoughts on some of the messages I have read from these lists today.
Concerning the eledged heavy-handedness of the National Leadership all I
can say to Harvy and others who are in his came is that if they don't like
the way our National Leaders operate the organization I would challange
them to run for national office themselves or to quit complaining about
how our National Board handles Federation Business.  It's the old maxum of
put up or shut up!If they don't like the way things are run at the
national level they can either run for elective office if they think they
can do a better jog of mannaging our affairs or stop complaining and start
to work constructively so we can put this Seeing Eye resolution behind us
and get on with more pressing matters that requireour fullest attention.
Turning to The Seeing Eye all I will say in response to some messages I
received earlier today is that if the Seeing Eye really and truly believed
in the dignity of bheir blind graduates this whole insident never would
have occurred in the first place.  I will still maintain that this matter
of Seeing Eye's behavior at our National Convention last summer is only
the tip of the ice burg.  And this is also true of other guide dog schools
to one extent or other.
Those who read the October Braille Monitor for 1996 might recall a quote
that went something like this, rather than assuming that certain jobs
can't be done by blind persons it is possible that a blind person is doing
that very job some whare in this country."  As I said before I am sick and
tired of going to a guide dog school and hearing numerous reasons why
blind persons can't be guide dog trainers dispite the fact that it is
being by blind individuals; some of which are members of our own
organization.  Furthermorewe as federationists need to stop buyihng such
rubbish and demant that the schools begin to think of the possibilities
rather than the problemsconcerning hiring and training blind instructors.
It is sad that one of our members who at first thought of how such an idea
might be possible would allow a pair of N.F.B drop-outsconvince him that
such an idea was unrealistic and impracticle.  Sorry for being so harsh
but as a Job Coordinator I feel it is my duty to encourage blind persons,
especially our own members, to think in terms of what might be possible
for a blind person if we have the opportunity to proove that a certain job
can be donesuccessfully by a competant, quallified blind person, and to
urge members with enlightened attitudes to stay away from those who would
make them think otherwise.
Finely on the matter of contact between puppy raisers and graduateas I
have no problem ifsome guide dog school graduates choose to have no
contact with the raiser, but I would also like to see all guide dog
schools give those who welcome such contact the opportunity to meet and to
communicate directly with their puppy raiser.  It's as simple as that;
nothing more annothing less.
Perhaps the thing that upsets me most of all is that Seeing Eye's training
is the best training one could get with a guide dog in this country.Like
many blind consumers I was able to observe that even here I saw room for
improvement.  But if the school stubbornly resists our suggestions for
making it's programme betterthis is as good as it's going to be for the
forseeable future.  In otherwords, i have, (Maxxed out) the level of
training one can expect from a guide dog school.  If I want something
better whare do I go from here?  On the other hand I have ten years to
wory about it.i can only hope that all of the guide dog schools will
improve their training programmes to whare they comform to what the
federation believes a blind person should expect from such schools.
Well it's past my bed time and I must take a test in the morning.Take care
and have a good evening.
Yours in Federationism,
Peter Donahue
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