For those who truly need and benefit from service animals, my apologies right up front. This isn't about you.
With that out of the way, I have to say that I'm seeing more and more service animals everywhere, and the skeptic in me has begun to think that the "Service Animal" class is rapidly becoming the next, "Look at me, I'm special" craze for those who would otherwise be unnoticed and uninteresting.
My wife was in the grocery store the other day and there was a woman buying groceries, with a Great Dane.
She seemed otherwise normal and ordinary, but what kind of condition does she have whereas she can't go the grocery store with a horse-sized dog?
Yesterday we went out to eat at a small cafe. A group of people were seated next to us and one of them had a large and somewhat smelly dog.
The dog laid down between their table and ours. It was essentially non-existent, other than the smell and the fact that my brother had to step over it. So what was the point of it being there? Emotional support? Was she going be suicidal in a group of six without it? It smelled like a dog. Not really what you want when dining out.
My sister-in-law told us about kids bringing their service dogs to school with them. She's a substitute teacher and tutor.
Same thing. The dogs didn't really do anything other than flop down in the floor and be in the way.
The teachers and aids had to make sure the dogs were accommodated as needed with water, bathroom breaks, etc.
Can people just be people anymore, and forgo the labels and the weird things that make them "special and different?"
I have a young friend I've been trying to help with some things. She's constantly citing her "weirdness" her "white privilege" guilt, her "sexual abnormalities", her "I may be slightly Autistic or have Asperger's", and I keep telling her, "Just be you. Be a person. Drop the stupid labels and just be you. Some people will like you and others may not. That's life. You shouldn't allow your most immutable traits to define you. Why would you?"
OK. I guess that was a rant. See opening statement.
With that out of the way, I have to say that I'm seeing more and more service animals everywhere, and the skeptic in me has begun to think that the "Service Animal" class is rapidly becoming the next, "Look at me, I'm special" craze for those who would otherwise be unnoticed and uninteresting.
My wife was in the grocery store the other day and there was a woman buying groceries, with a Great Dane.
She seemed otherwise normal and ordinary, but what kind of condition does she have whereas she can't go the grocery store with a horse-sized dog?
Yesterday we went out to eat at a small cafe. A group of people were seated next to us and one of them had a large and somewhat smelly dog.
The dog laid down between their table and ours. It was essentially non-existent, other than the smell and the fact that my brother had to step over it. So what was the point of it being there? Emotional support? Was she going be suicidal in a group of six without it? It smelled like a dog. Not really what you want when dining out.
My sister-in-law told us about kids bringing their service dogs to school with them. She's a substitute teacher and tutor.
Same thing. The dogs didn't really do anything other than flop down in the floor and be in the way.
The teachers and aids had to make sure the dogs were accommodated as needed with water, bathroom breaks, etc.
Can people just be people anymore, and forgo the labels and the weird things that make them "special and different?"
I have a young friend I've been trying to help with some things. She's constantly citing her "weirdness" her "white privilege" guilt, her "sexual abnormalities", her "I may be slightly Autistic or have Asperger's", and I keep telling her, "Just be you. Be a person. Drop the stupid labels and just be you. Some people will like you and others may not. That's life. You shouldn't allow your most immutable traits to define you. Why would you?"
OK. I guess that was a rant. See opening statement.
