From: Pete Donahue 
Subject: Re: Seeing Eye's bad dogs (fwd)
Fellow Federationists and friends,
Attached is a message thqat Julie Dawson permitted me to forward to the
lists.  Enjoy and ponder well.
Peter donahue
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 11:57:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: Julie Dawson 
To: Pete Donahue 
Subject: Re: Seeing Eye's bad dogs
Dear Fellow Federationists,
I am a cane user of long standing (long white cane) comtemplating dog use
first time.  I would never presume to know all ins and outs of guide dog 
maintenance, handling, etc.  However since I work fulltime in Long Island
area(over 50 hours per week) a school with more individualized training in
my home area would be more appropriate for my needs.  I can only speak for
myself.  Guide dog schools have been usiong a proven formula of training
which works for a large quantity of blind persons.  Isn't it good that
both
sets of options are available to accommodate peoples' needs without us hav
ing to debate the rightness or wrongness of both?  Also I am thankful whe
ther about guide dog issues, blindness or employment issues that there are
qualified persons such as Fred Schroeder whom I have known personally
since 1983 to speak on our behalf.  Fred is among the fairest and most bal
anced of persons I have ever met and I would entrust him to speak on what
ever issue he researched.  Fred is thorough, knowledgable, committed and
thoughtful in his presentation of and grasp of issues as are many other 
Federationsits.  I believe that we must help to educate each other and 
learn to trust in and entrust to each other issues of importance.  We are
a family and dog guide, employment, accessibility, or sensitivity issues
are all important to us because what is important to one is important to
and
affects each one of the Federation family.  I live this and this is a 
philosophy Dr. Jernigan espouses often and genuinely in his articles.  It
is the essence of why we have achieved and will continue to achieve so
much.
Thank you for giving me the attention and forum in which to express my
views.
Julie Dawson
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