ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 TAG: 9704170094
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO
A blind government economist should have been allowed to bring her guide dog onto the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Tradition can be a fine thing, including in the U.S. Senate.
Traditional rules of procedure can provide a mechanism for compromise and conciliation among clashing points of view. Traditional rules of decorum can help set a tone of civility among competing egos.
But tradition can also be a tyrant.
Tradition is a tyrant, for example, when it in effect prevents, by barring her seeing-eye guide dog, a 20-year government economist from coming into the chamber.
That happened Monday when Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked permission for Moira Shea, who is blind, to bring her guide dog into the chamber during a debate on nuclear waste. The request met objection, apparently in the name of tradition, from one senator - officially unnamed, but identified by the Associated Press as former Democratic leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
Wyden introduced a resolution, and was having little trouble garnering co-sponsors, to allow disabled people to take "supporting services including service dogs" on the Senate floor.
Meanwhile, let's hope Byrd, 79, comes to see the light. He may not be visually impaired physically, but there seems to be a blind spot in his mental makeup.
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines KEYWORDS: TYINby CNB