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This is a quote from the comments section: "I travel with my emotional support dog, Lola, everywhere I go. She has all her documentation and is allowed to sit

by EpicEng 13y ago

This is a quote from the comments section: "I travel with my emotional support dog, Lola, everywhere I go. She has all her documentation and is allowed to sit on my lap during flight." ..."Emotional support dog?" Really? Yeesh. I don't know, maybe I'm just a jerk, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for either of them. This person rants on and on because of a misunderstanding between her and a Delta employee. She got on the plane, right? Who cares? My gut feeling is that this woman enjoys playing the victim. My initial reaction would probably be the same; why does this woman who can seemingly get around just fine require a service animal? Is she playing the system? Perhaps the delta employee was rude. People are often rude. It happens. I think the writer gets off on feeling victimized, which is annoying.

ianstallings 13y ago
My friend has PTSD from his tour in Afghanistan and he has an emotional support dog. He's one tough mofo but the dog helps him from having panic attacks and becoming a "normal" person again.
- EpicEng 13y ago
  Well, if this woman has severe PTSD from combat I'll give her a pass. For some reason I doubt it though. I don't mean to come off as a heartless jerk, and I'm certain I'm going to be proven wrong in some cases, but, like I said before... I just get the feeling that this woman enjoyed the whole thing at some level. I come into contact with rude people like everyone else. I don't run off and write a blog post about it.
  - russelluresti 13y ago
    It's not up to you to give someone "a pass" or determine who qualifies for a service animal and who doesn't. There are professionals out there whose job it is to determine these things based on need. If you're not one of them, then you should keep your opinion about who you think deserves what to yourself. Also, at a certain point, being rude crosses into being bigoted. Imagine if someone said a person didn't "look rich enough", or poor enough, or white enough, or black enough, or young enough, or old enough, or whatever other type of judgement based on someone's physical appearance. To me this is akin to a cop pulling over a black guy driving a nice car and asking if he stole it. It's a person in power abusing their power because someone else has something that the person in power doesn't believe they have any right to have. Finally, people who are bad at their jobs (like the flight attendants in this story) deserve to be publicly exposed and fired so that they can't cause inconvenience to anyone else who has the misfortune of getting them on a flight.
    - EpicEng 13y ago
      It is in fact up to me when I'm giving my opinion on an open forum. You also seem to have completely missed the point. I never intended to defend the Delta employees. All I said was that this woman (as well as the commentor) come off as whiny to me. You are free to disagree, and you are also free to cut the holier than though attitude. Some people are just whiners and enjoy feeling victimized.
Va1uE 13y ago
She didn't have a problem with one Delta employee, she had a problem with multiple Delta employees who harassed her, ridiculed her, and questioned her disability. If I had been treated that way by employees of any organization I'd be livid, and must less restrained than she was. By your logic, Rosa Parks still got on the bus right, so who cares? If people don't stand up for their right to be treated equally, then we all lose.
- EpicEng 13y ago
  You lost me when you compared the civil rights movement to a couple of rude airline employees questioning this woman's right to carry her dog onto the plane. False analogy much? Also, you're setting up a straw man here. I need once excused the behavior of the employees past their initial skepticism. I was commenting on the way in which this woman presented the interaction.
  - Va1uE 13y ago
    They are both examples of discrimination, and I compared one specific incident to another, not the entire civil rights movement to this (and I'M the one setting up a straw man?). Not sure what you meant by "I need once excused the behavior"...I typo a lot too so I get it (see my first post). What was that point you were trying to make?
    - EpicEng 13y ago
      Yeah... That's what I get for typing responses on my phone. My point was simply that I left that article with the feeling that the author gets off on feeling victimized. I could be wrong, and I said as much, but that was my gut reaction I tried to preface what I said because I'm not the most empathetic person in the world and sometimes I judge prematurely. My girlfriend reminds me of this fact often. The rosa parks analogy is a false one because of both severity and circumstance. Discriminating against a person solely because of their race is far worse than questioning the reason for which a person is trying to bring a dog onto a plane. People can be jerks, but I am not convinced this was an act of discrimination. To suggest that I am fine with racism because I suggested that the author enjoys feeling victimized is ridiculous.
mapt 13y ago
What precise purpose do pets serve in their 'normal' capacities, if not 'emotional support'? I'm not necessarily saying such a thing is beyond the pale as a support animal, but that this use is contiguous enough with "pets" as to draw into question the validity of a threshold.

by EpicEng 13y ago

ianstallings 13y ago

My friend has PTSD from his tour in Afghanistan and he has an emotional support dog. He's one tough mofo but the dog helps him from having panic attacks and becoming a "normal" person again.

EpicEng 13y ago
Well, if this woman has severe PTSD from combat I'll give her a pass. For some reason I doubt it though. I don't mean to come off as a heartless jerk, and I'm certain I'm going to be proven wrong in some cases, but, like I said before... I just get the feeling that this woman enjoyed the whole thing at some level. I come into contact with rude people like everyone else. I don't run off and write a blog post about it.
- russelluresti 13y ago
  It's not up to you to give someone "a pass" or determine who qualifies for a service animal and who doesn't. There are professionals out there whose job it is to determine these things based on need. If you're not one of them, then you should keep your opinion about who you think deserves what to yourself. Also, at a certain point, being rude crosses into being bigoted. Imagine if someone said a person didn't "look rich enough", or poor enough, or white enough, or black enough, or young enough, or old enough, or whatever other type of judgement based on someone's physical appearance. To me this is akin to a cop pulling over a black guy driving a nice car and asking if he stole it. It's a person in power abusing their power because someone else has something that the person in power doesn't believe they have any right to have. Finally, people who are bad at their jobs (like the flight attendants in this story) deserve to be publicly exposed and fired so that they can't cause inconvenience to anyone else who has the misfortune of getting them on a flight.
  - EpicEng 13y ago
    It is in fact up to me when I'm giving my opinion on an open forum. You also seem to have completely missed the point. I never intended to defend the Delta employees. All I said was that this woman (as well as the commentor) come off as whiny to me. You are free to disagree, and you are also free to cut the holier than though attitude. Some people are just whiners and enjoy feeling victimized.

Va1uE 13y ago

She didn't have a problem with one Delta employee, she had a problem with multiple Delta employees who harassed her, ridiculed her, and questioned her disability. If I had been treated that way by employees of any organization I'd be livid, and must less restrained than she was. By your logic, Rosa Parks still got on the bus right, so who cares? If people don't stand up for their right to be treated equally, then we all lose.

EpicEng 13y ago
You lost me when you compared the civil rights movement to a couple of rude airline employees questioning this woman's right to carry her dog onto the plane. False analogy much? Also, you're setting up a straw man here. I need once excused the behavior of the employees past their initial skepticism. I was commenting on the way in which this woman presented the interaction.
- Va1uE 13y ago
  They are both examples of discrimination, and I compared one specific incident to another, not the entire civil rights movement to this (and I'M the one setting up a straw man?). Not sure what you meant by "I need once excused the behavior"...I typo a lot too so I get it (see my first post). What was that point you were trying to make?
  - EpicEng 13y ago
    Yeah... That's what I get for typing responses on my phone. My point was simply that I left that article with the feeling that the author gets off on feeling victimized. I could be wrong, and I said as much, but that was my gut reaction I tried to preface what I said because I'm not the most empathetic person in the world and sometimes I judge prematurely. My girlfriend reminds me of this fact often. The rosa parks analogy is a false one because of both severity and circumstance. Discriminating against a person solely because of their race is far worse than questioning the reason for which a person is trying to bring a dog onto a plane. People can be jerks, but I am not convinced this was an act of discrimination. To suggest that I am fine with racism because I suggested that the author enjoys feeling victimized is ridiculous.

mapt 13y ago

What precise purpose do pets serve in their 'normal' capacities, if not 'emotional support'? I'm not necessarily saying such a thing is beyond the pale as a support animal, but that this use is contiguous enough with "pets" as to draw into question the validity of a threshold.