McCain - Palin on Children and Adults with Disabilities

Nearly my entire adult life has been defined by my work in the disability field ~~ as a parent, advocate, volunteer, and professional in a variety of capacities related to children and adults with disabilities. My second child was born with Down Syndrome; I was an early advocate developing residential programs and liberating adults from the warehousing and inhumanity of state institutions, a program and agency director, and national-level consultant and trainer, and associate researcher at a university: nearly 40 years working at the local, county, regional, state and national level on issues related to quality of life for children and adults with congenital, familial and acquired disabilities; currently, I work in a school for children with special needs where all have multiple disabilities; some are medically fragile and require 24-hour nursing care; about 1/3 are diagnosed with autism.

Am I an expert? Would you be drawn to say, "she has more experience than nearly every other American on disability issues" after reading my resume?

Well, I heard John McCain use that qualifier when he introduced Sarah Palin to the American public. I listened in disbelief because I know that 3, 4, 6 months into one's exposure to the world of disabilities does not make one an expert. For me, that time was one of groping and grappling with the reality and enormity of the diagnosis .... of wonder and worry about what the future might hold for my child and my family. And let me add that we were not typical in terms of prior knowledge of families with children who have special needs: my husband was a special education teacher with a master's degree; since my high school days, I had volunteered in various community settings and in state institutions for the people with disabilities.

So, on what "my friends", do you imagine John McCain based his description of Sarah Palin as "more experienced than nearly every other American". For answers, we could look to her record as governor of Alaska. If we did, we'd find that programs for special needs children were level-funded or decreased during her two years in office. We'd see that she used a line-item veto on funding that would make improvements to municipal accessibility for people in wheelchairs, those who are blind or with low vision. We'd learn that Alaska lags far behind nearly every other state in educational opportunities for children with disabilities and in implementation of IDEA. We'd see that in her tenure, she again used the line-item veto against funding to provide community-based services for 1200 adults on waiting lists for such services.

Dial forward to the 2008 election season and see that even her own sister, who has a 13 year old child with autism, has written of Sarah that, "...... she has a lot to learn ......". We read the heartfelt words of an Alaskan resident who is the parent of child with disability and advocate who said she cried when she learned that Sarah was the VP pick. We observe that over and over - again and again across the country parents, professionals, academics and advocates at all levels have rallied against Sarah first as McCain's VP pick, then when McCain designated her 'more experienced', and at his announcement that he would appoint her national advocate on disability.

Follow Sarah around the country. In Colorado, she spoke against support of community-based services for 12,000 adults with disabilities. On the stump elsewhere, she said that more funding disability services is not needed. She talks about educational opportunities for children with disabilities as an "access" issue. And I say, come on, Sarah: we fought that battle and won in the nineteen-seventies. The issue isn't access anymore; the issue is getting appropriate services once in the door.

Does she know or care that IDEA has never been fully funded -- that funding to support individual state efforts is only at 17% of what was originally promised in the mid-nineteen seventies. Does she fully understand that the republican health care plan would eliminate coverage or drop children with disabilities because of the pre-existing condition exclusion in their plan.

John McCain has come up empty-handed on these critical issues. And, he has not put forth any real plans or position statements.

Are the 50 million people with disabilities even on his radar? Or only when their issues offer him a sound-bite or a photo-op or when he can showcase and pander to real people with real life problems as he has done with Sarah.

I want to believe again

I have been troubled by the comparisons made between Sarah and Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and John Kennedy saying that they too were regarded as 'inexperienced' for the presidency.

How does one make the leap from Sarah to these men? A Rhodes Scholar? One devoted decades to the political process? Serious-thinkers? Well-educated and well-read? Intellectuals?

I am sorely troubled by the idea that John McCain will win the presidency. But more, I am distressed, frightened by the thought that Sarah Palin might succeed him. A woman who told Katie Couric that she didn't need to ponder the call to be McCain's running mate ~~ she knew immediately that the answer was, "yes". A woman who does not like to spend time focusing on issues ~~ her style is 'give me the essence and I'll run with it. A woman with whom he had spent a total of 3 hours in conversation. A woman he hadn't met face-to-face until he made the 'ask'.

I am troubled that his decision-making style, as evidenced by his VP pick, is exactly wrong for the times. For the problems we face as a nation.

I am troubled that he is throwing old, tired and worn-out platitudes and ideas at entirely new and complex problems.

I am troubled when I see and hear words and actions that divide us.

I believe . . . that what we need now is someone to lift us up......show us the way out of this maze of internal, domestic, and international problems.

Clothes, Hair and Make-up

You read about the $150,000 spent on clothes from hi-end stores?

You learned that costs for her stylist was over $30,000 for October and September.

How does knowing these things make you feel about the 'hockey-mom'?

. . . make you feel more connected to her, does it?

Dear John McCain,

Dear John McCain,
Shame, shame on you for holding ordinary Americans in so little regard that you believe we could be lured by your sad and sorry VP pick ~~~ for thinking that she would appeal to thinking women ~~~~ that Americans in general would be seduced by her barbie-doll-flirtatious-behavior. By her stage-presence-facility-reading-lines-performance-on-the-stump.

Perhaps, you thought her inexperience would be obscured by winking and flirting. Perhaps you believed we wouldn't notice her shallow and narrow understanding of global political, economic and financial issues when we saw her suited and polished in $150,000 clothing.

Excuse me for asking. . . but did you really, I mean seriously engage in an honest reflection of the possibility that she was qualified to take charge of the national economy, the federal banking system, national security. Of domestic and international affairs? Do you seriously believe that she is equal to the task of managing our international relationships, two wars, global financial instability and threats and slams to capitalism.

Imagination

You need a room with no view
so memory can meet imagination in the dark

Blooming all alone

The Last Rose of Summer
Thomas Moore
'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming all alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

Bedside Books

Yesterday, I posted a quotation from Islands by Ann Rivers Siddons whose books I have enjoyed over the years. And, for the most part Islands was no exception. I liked the characters, especially Anny and Lewis, whom the story and other characters revolve around, while she tells the intertwining stories of the "Scrubs", a group of childhood friends and their spouse now middle aged.

The story evolves in Charleston and the Low Country of South Carolina; all of the characters are quite well-heeled and have multiple homes. But the action takes place at a beach house. Some are physicians, surgeons, successful real estate brokers. And, then there is Anny who grew up impoverished, the daughter of an alcoholic mother, a scrappy young girl and woman who made a success of her life in the nonprofit world. The characters seemed believable; the story was compelling -- until the end.

The plot line wanders in and out and around the lives of these 4 couples and their quite enviable lives. Some of them have known one another for most of their lives. And then the unthinkable begins to happen (and for me the story begins to unravel) when first one spouse dies, then a house fire takes the life of another, and another spouse dies on his boat. Enough, you say. Yes, I agree. But clearly, the author didn't agree with that sentiment because she dragged the story line out to an unbelievable and, I think, illogical conclusion.

Here it is, in a nutshell: one of the eight-some, it turns out, is a psychopathic killer who has been orchestrating these horrible events. We are asked to believe that this character, who has been 'best friends' with most of the eight, is actually a crazed woman scorned and waiting decades for vengeance.

Well, I am not such a believer.

And I was really disappointed in this writer. And asked myself: how could she have stooped so low as to manipulate the story line and her readers in so obvious a ploy (no, not plot).

Disappointed all the more because Siddons has been compared to Faulkner and other important southern writers.

And, I ask myself: how would I have brought this story to a more natural and believable conclusion?