Whitney, upon graduation from The Seeing Eye.

I’m blind, my Seeing Eye dog Whitney guides me safely wherever I need to go, and in the past I’ve been pretty clear here on how I feel about people in America who pose as someone with a disability to get their dog in where pets aren’t allowed. Most blog posts chastising dog owners who do this are written by someone like me, who has a disability. So it was refreshing to read this compassionate article called Stop Faking Service Dogs by a dog lover who writes for Outside online magazine. Reporter Wes Siler doesn’t have a disability himself, and in his article he questions why others like him think it’s okay to fake it:

“Look, I get the desire to bring your pet along with you everywhere you go. My dogs are as important to me as my friends and family. The first criteria my girlfriend and I apply to where we eat, drink, and travel is whether our dogs can enjoy it with us. But out of respect for the needs of disabled people, for the incredible work that real service dogs perform, and for the people managing and patronizing these businesses, we will not lie. We do not take our pets places where they’re not welcome. We never want to compromise the ability of a service dog to perform its essential duties.

Siler describes what qualifies a dog as a service animal in a way an average person can understand. He explains that the Americans with Disabilities Act limits the definition of a service animal to one that is trained to perform work or a task that helps a person who has a disability, and dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA. “So, while a dog that is trained to calm a person suffering an anxiety attack due to post-traumatic stress disorder is considered a service dog,” Siler writes. “A dog whose mere presence calms a person is not.”

Still, people claim their therapy and emotional support dogs qualify. In his article, Siler quotes a man named Randy Pierce describing a flight he went on once with his guide dog Autumn. The airplane also had an unruly emotional support dog on board who barked incessantly during the entire trip. “My dog was not barking back, but the barking was changing her behavior, and that makes it harder for her to do her job, she loses her focus,” Pierce said, noting that he is over six feet tall. “If she loses focus, I’m more likely to hit my head on an exit sign or a doorway or, if we’re on a street, maybe even step out into traffic.” Again, from the article:

“Pierce’s dog, Autumn, completely ignores other dogs, doesn’t beg for food, sits quietly for the duration of long flights, and generally minimizes her impact. That’s the result of lots of money—service dogs cost upwards of $20,000—and thousands of hours of training. Pierce, for example, has developed a routine with Autumn that involves the dog communicating when she needs to go to the bathroom, and then doing so in a specific orientation to Pierce that enables him to easily find it and collect it in a baggie. A true service dog is essential to its human partner’s well being, as well as a huge financial investment that other untrained dogs in public places put at risk.”

It should be noted here that for the most part, the financial burden to train a majority of the dogs who help people with visual impairments here in the USA lands on the non-profit organizations that train the dogs, thanks to the generous donors who support them. The cost to train some service dogs to help people with other disabilities can fall directly on the person with the disability, though.

The article refers to a study conducted at the University of California at Davis that says between the years 2002 and 2012 the number of “therapy dogs” or “emotional support animals” registered by animal control facilities in the state of California increased by 1000 percent, and that the increasing presence of emotional support dogs on flights and at businesses is creating a backlash that impacts true service dogs (Pierce said on his flight with guide dog Autumn he overheard a flight attendant telling her colleague that she “wished they wouldn’t allow service dogs”).

I hope you’ll read the entire article. Journalist Wes Siler puts a lot more oomph into the story than I can fit into this short blog post, and it’s gratifying to hear the argument against faking coming from an average dog lover’s point of view.

Awhile back I posted about Hillbilly Elegy, a book that has gotten a lot of attention and raised a lot of hackles. Author J.D. Vance tells the story of his upbringing in Ohio, and of his forbears and other family members’ roots in Appalachia.

The people Vance describes initially thrived in industrial Ohio, but eventually hit hard times once the rust belt started rusting back in the 70s. A lot of ink’s been spilled over how his book might explain why some Americans support Donald Trump. That Vance’s Elegy explains the newly fabled forgotten white working class’ alienation and resentment, particularly toward a group that they (cued by Roger Ailes) describe as elites. Liberals. Globalists. Davos Conference goers.

The First White President is just one essay from Coates’ new collection.

I liked the book and found it valuable even though I don’t agree with all the author’s conclusions. I thought it was a well-written description of one particular part of the American experience, but if you ask me, all the political pundits theorizing that the election was all about a disenfranchised white working class are way off base. A factor probably, but THE factor, no. (And it should be noted, Vance didn’t write it to explain about the election, but to tell his family’s story.)

I think there were a lot of factors, and some are horribly ugly and difficult to confront and own up to. Which brings me to a loooonnnnng piece in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates called The First White President. Coates argues very compellingly that Trump’s victory was about a standing effort—sometimes overt, others more subtle—to enforce white supremacy.  (There’s also a really good rebuttal by one of the people Coates took to task that is also online at The Atlantic.)

I think it’s a strong piece—even though, or maybe because—it made me squeamish and defensive sometimes. My disagreement with it is that Coates believes it’s only about race, and he excludes other factors (but I think that probably helped him make his point).

So, as with Elegy, I didn’t agree with everything in The First White President; but it helped me see what Coates sees, and what the world looks like to many black people.

I hope you’ll read it, too, and that like me, even if you don’t agree with everything, you’ll learn something.

My memoir-writing classes don’t meet during the Jewish high holy days (the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) but that doesn’t mean these seniors stop writing!! I was so moved by this email Hugh Brodkey sent yesterday that I asked if I could share it with you Safe & Sound blog readers.

Hi, Beth,

At temple for the Jewish New Year, our rabbi made a couple of comments that I realized might suggest writing assignments.

He started off by saying that he had recently been helping his mother downsize in order to move into a senior residence. She had lifetime collections of letters and greeting cards from her family and kids as they were growing up, many, many family pictures and a major collection of decorative pill boxes.

What do you move, and what do you give away? If you decide to give it away, who wants it? If nobody wants it, what happens to it? (This last point struck a chord with me. When my Dad died, he left an office where the walls were covered with framed awards and testimonials. We couldn’t figure out what to do with them.)

The rabbi’s sermon then shifted to the current crises of flooding and forest fires and earthquakes in which thousands of people are told that they have only a few moments to decide what to carry out with them to safety. Almost invariably it was the family pictures and mementos…most of which had no value to anyone but themselves.

What does that say about how we live our lives…or how we should live our lives? What is more important in our lives than what? Hope we never have to make such important quick decisions……and that you and your family have a peaceful New Year!

Best…Hugh

Bev’s eight-year-old grandson Bryce interviewed me for his Summer Awesomeness youtube show before cocktail hour began.

It all started in Grand Haven, Michigan Tuesday evening. Poolside cocktails (Bev had rented their community clubhouse for the event), dinner inside afterwards, dessert, my short talk, a Q & A, a writing exercise, and then, big finish: I showed them how I manage to read excerpts of Writing Out Loud at book events without being able to see.

”It’s hard for me to read Braille and talk at the same time,” I confessed, wrestling an earpiece into my left ear and plugging into my digital recorder. “Before we left Chicago, my husband Mike recorded a part of the preface onto this little handheld contraption,” I said, explaining that once I turned it on I’d listen to Mike reading inside my ear and repeat what I hear. “Kind of like a TV broadcaster.” I was sailing through my reading when suddenly, the power went off. Which means, of course, that all The lights went out, too.

Not one of Bev’s polite friends interrupted my reading. I kept on, literally and figuratively in the dark. Cue the Twilight Zone music!

Turns out lights were out off all over the neighborhood – a power surge of some sort — but one book club member thought I’d orchestrated the whole thing. “I thought maybe you have them do that at all your presentations!” she laughed.

And you know what? From here on out, Maybe I will!

Wanna know more about Rishi? Check out his site, https://www.rishiforjudge.com

Earlier this year Beth gave her senior writers at the Chicago Cultural center this prompt: My Favorite Year.

Anu Agrawal chose 1969, when she and her husband immigrated from India. Anu shared her reminiscences about seeing the lakefront for the first time, the museums, and Marshall Field’s here at the Safe & Sound blog back in February—it still rings with the optimism she was feeling decades ago about her new home.

Anu and her husband thrived here, and their American born children are doing the same. She told Beth a few weeks ago that her son Rishi Agrawal is running for Cook County Judge, 8^th Judicial Subcircuit.

Since we’re eligible to vote in that contest, Beth invited Rishi to meet us at Hax (the new incarnation of Hackney’s). It was one of countless absolutely lovely evenings we’ve enjoyed this summer (I’ve taken to calling Chicago San Diego by the Lake), so we sat outside.

We covered a lot of ground. Family, education, work, values—his and ours. He’s a good listener. Time flew by and when we parted ways we’d agreed to do what we could to help. So today I’m offering the official Safe & Sound, Mike and Beth Endorsement of Rishi Agrawal.

And I’m inviting you South Loopers to visit our regular Saturday morning Printers Row Farmers Market this Saturday, September 23. Beth and/or I will be there taking signatures to get Rishi on the Ballot, and Rishi will join us for part of the time. To sign, you have to live in the 8th Subcircuit (see map).

We’ll be out with Rishi around 10:30 a.m. Saturday, September 23.  It’s at Printers Row Park, also known as the Fountain Park, on Dearborn between Harrison and Polk.

There’s an old saying about Chicago politics that speaks to all the connections and insider dealing Chicago is infamous for: “We Don’t Take Nobody (that) Nobody Sent.”

To that I’ll reply, “We’ll take anyone Anu sent.” Hope to see you.