It was thanks to Laura that I listened to this memoir of a blind federal judge. I was immediately charmed by the mention of locations of his youth in Washington, DC: Glen Echo, Rock Creek Park, these are magical names from my childhood in then-rural Northern Virginia. I’m not sure I ever went to Glen Echo Amusement Park, but my siblings and I sang the Glen Echo jingle, “Glen Echo, that’s the place to have some fun!” many times.
Even without that little connection, I would have found the story of his life and the way he tells it to be fascinating and familiar and inspiring. He was born in 1942, three years before me, so the story of his civic life was relevant. He studied law at Michigan and worked for Sidley Austin law firm in Chicago, the firm where Michelle Obama supervised summer intern Barack Obama. Over many years he worked to gain civil liberties for all; the law firms where he worked considered that work important to them. He and his wife Edie have been married since the 1960s and have four children.
In 1994 President Clinton appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There are thirteen appellate courts of appeals, but the DC Circuit is the one that hears cases relating to actions by government agencies on matters such as health care, national security, environmental rules. He describes some important cases he heard, how he worked with his colleagues, and how alarmed he is by the current Supreme Court.
The story he tells of his diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager, then the gradual loss of his eyesight is affecting. Initially he and his family acted as if his narrowing vision could be ignored; he drove a car as a teenager. He told Edie that he had an eye disease while they were dating, but did not regard it as a serious problem. Because he was a brilliant and determined man, he could work around his diminished vision for many years; he could navigate airports, ski, and hike while not admitting he was blind. Edie gave him critical support and his children acted as his eyes. He tells many stories of colleagues in courtrooms who knew of his blindness, but never mentioned it.
For many years he resisted using a cane; he considered that an admission he did not want to make. In this memoir he acknowledges his unhealthy attitude. Perhaps the most fun part of the book is the story of learning to use a guide dog. The training for those dogs takes two years and costs thousands of dollars. Then there’s the training for the person which is usually done in a month-long residential setting. He was told to give each command to his guide dog only one time because repetition gives the dog the power to ignore the command the first time. “Apparently the same was not true of me, as Pete was happy to repeat his instructions over and over until I finally internalized them.” Learning to work with a guide dog was the hardest thing he ever did.
He has many stories about how amazing Vixen is:
How on earth does she know which hotel door to take me to when she was only there once before at check-in? And how, how, how did she know to guide me to our parked car at the airport garage five days after we’d parked? We’d even returned via a different elevator, but she led us straight to our car like a laser beam, walking by eight successive lanes of cars, turning right at the ninth row, and left at the fifth car. Amazing.
The dogs are trained to find a way around obstacles. When there was construction around the courthouse where he worked, Vixen threaded him through barriers and parked cars “like a mouse through a maze.”
“Vixen is a member of our family and we love to watch her on her off time. But we always have to remember that she isn’t a pet.” If he steps near her, she is up quickly and makes sure to be prepare to help him if needed. As soon as she has the harness on, she becomes a working dog, prepared to perform a task.
This was inspirational and just a pleasure to read.
David S. Tatel, Vision, Little, Brown, and Company, 2024, 343 pages (I listened to the audiobook). Available in the public library.