Planet of the Blind

Thank you to The Huffington Post

I'd like to thank The Huffington Post for allowing me the privilege of being an occasional guest blogger.  I am honored to have this opportunity.

In this post titled Dogs on the Playing Field I discuss the role of professionally trained service dogs serving people with disabilites in the U.S. today and ask (and answer) this question: ...even 23 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and 70+ years since the introduction of guide dogs in the U.S. life in public isn't always friendly. Lately it seems more unfriendly than at any time since the late 1930s when the blind had to fight for the right to enter a store or ride a public bus. What's going on?

I am grateful to The Huffington Post for allowing me the use of their platform to explore this issue.  You would "make my day" by stopping by and sharing THIS POST with your social circles.  Thank you!

Photo: author Steve Kuusisto being guided by yellow Labrador, guide dog "Corky", circa 1995.

Dog Schmooze

Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“ has just been released. Listen to Steve read "Letter to Borges in His Parlor" in this fireside reading via YouTube. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled What a Dog Can Do. Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com

One Love or Another

Photo: It's a gray day but that doesn't stop this big yellow lab from bounding in and out of the lake to play fetch with a stick.

I sought one love or another, like the great poet, always using up whole days, months.Then the dog, the big dog came into my life. Love seeks you. I knew that. I’d read it in a book. But Corky had to punctuate it. Dogs are punctuation marks with the god stuff inside. That is what a dog can do. She can take apart the omens, reveal what’s right before you. 

--from "What a Dog Can Do: A Memoir of Life with Guide Dogs" forthcoming from Simon and Schuster 2013