The Deculturing of America

We thought the nation had gone round the bend for voting for W.Bush into the Presidency with his bumbling; yet his intelligence, charisma, and ability to unite people was enough to get him reelected.  Of course most people who did reelect him regretted it. We were so certain that our nation was fracturing from the pressure of the issues caused by the military conflicts and domestic political differences that he and VP Cheney were at the heart of.

We fought hard to sort that out; we were still working on sorting it out with President Obama, fighting to overcome global community’s view that we aren’t concerned with:

1. 1. our leaders being educated or
   2. inherited Eurocentric imperialistic attitude
   3. an inability to self-police human rights violations and war crimes
   4. the rights of all of our citizens
   5. the fact that our politics, attitudes, actions affect not only our nation but globallyPost President Obama, and that list is longer than my left arm. We can thank certain politicians who encouraged the fanatical extremist evangelistic religious right and tea partiers to take up a torch, run for office, and lobby hard. We ended up with men who were willing to allow a criminal onto the GOP ticket, without vetting him, even as he made disqualifying comments about his intentions for the presidency frequently including his intent ignore the U.S. Constitution.

The GOP thought they could puppet this man because their Vice President pick, a thoroughbred tea partier fanatical extremist evangelist on the religious right, a man as corrupt and neck deep in campaign corruption, election corruption, and corruption all throughout the new administration. They were wrong. Instead there was already a hostile foreign puppeteer’s hand up the devil’s arsehol… err… the man they chose had already been corrupted years ago by a hostile foreign nation and been approached in his campaign. There wasn’t room for a second set of hands up there. And then scandal after scandal has ensued.

Scandal is the wrong word. We have to find a different word, because “scandal” minimizes” what this uneducated, un-presidential, divisive, racist, bigoted, misogynistic, sadistic, ableist, chaotic, anti-government, anti-veteran, anti-education, incompetent, weak, unintelligent, boorish, gauche, pro quid-pro quo, unpatriotic, anti-American faux president has been doing to our country.The entire presidency has been an extended exercise in abuse on a massive scale by a man who is being allowed to use more power than he legally is allowed to use for personal gain, for petty revenge, and to aid countries who are not our allies.

I almost…. al.most long for the days of W.B. Then I remember we were lucky enough to have President Obama.

We’re still a young country, but one might still think that by 2020 we’d be much more enlightened than we are now. I mean, we elected a Black American for our President. Twice. With a House and Senate both packed against him he still managed to get a lot of good things done, but was blocked on far more.  He was mistreated beyond belief. Effigies of him were burned in the streets and hung.  We’re still fighting over the rights of marginalized groups of people in this country, and whether their rights infringe upon religious groups and supremacy groups rights to behave in hate speech and hate acts. Obviously, nah.

We’re still fighting over whether people deserve the right to live and expect affordable health care and health care coverage.

It’s become, somehow, a “far left wing liberal agenda” to believe that Human Rights, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Children’s Rights, Disability Rights, etc. et al, are important ideals to not only uphold but to fight for and encourage. That it’s an extreme idea. That these “extreme” ideas, these “extreme left liberal” ideas are something hateful and not a true entitlement. The words Democrat, Liberal, and Left are spat out like they’re epithets or slurs. I mean, sure, there actually is a far left but in the current Democratic Party, the most liberal of them aren’t nearly as liberal as “far left” gets. That’s a whole different post, differentiating aspects of different parties.

It’s a left wing liberal agenda to believe that every United States citizen deserves equal rights to be given a free and equal education. It’s a left wing liberal agenda to believe that people of color in the United States do not deserve to be receive police brutality, and that police reform needs to occur. That’s not a liberal agenda. That’s Human Rights. That’s Civil Rights.

If you poke around the internet, say, Twitter to start, you’ll notice that people dedicated to Trump politics until their dying breath, will hatefully vomit up that “liberalism is a mental illness.” Aside from the obvious issues I would have with that as a disability advocate, this is just one extreme example of the Us vs Them mentality I’ve mentioned in the past. It’s an example of encouraged hatred and division. Every word coming from Trump’s mouth, every single staged photo, every publicly scripted act since the death of George Floyd a little over a week ago has been intentionally divisive, corrosive, and encourages more violence. He’s taken the approach of Him + MAGA & Military Might vs Not Racist Americans.

The message is that those fucking Democratics and god damn fucking nutters who who side with them don’t deserve to be viewed as humans, individuals, sane, to be treated humanely, deserving of living, or hey even health coverage. Simply disagreeing with actions, speech, and particular ideas has become “left wing liberal conspiracy to bring down ‘real American patriots'” and you can guess who the real America patriots are. Not Democratics. Only those people who tow the Trumpian GOP line. If you’re a Republican that doesn’t stand with Trump, he’ll threaten to rip your life to shreds. If you’re serving in Office, he’ll threaten to destroy you. Publicly. With him? There isn’t any room for discussion or real argument.

You may notice I’m differentiating Trumpian GOP from something else. The “something else” would be the Republican Party as it was intended to be, before the Tea Party warped it into something unrecognizable. The other “something else” would of course be the Tea Party who I think also would qualify as “the religious right.”

The Trumpian GOP isn’t truly Republican in any form we’ve ever seen. The Administration as it is now? The GOP Tea Party with Trump sitting in that tea? It isn’t anything I think that GOP TP wanted. Again, this belongs in another post differentiating aspects within each party.

So going the long way round, I come back to this.

It’s worrying when I see and hear people saying that this isn’t the America they know; this isn’t America. I may feel as if I’m waking up in a parallel nightmare universe every single day, but I have no delusions that this isn’t how America really is. The evidence is in front of us in the daily news cycle; we can look back at every daily news cycle for the past 5 years. Racism has always existed in this country. We inherited that as colonists and slave owners. We fought a Civil War over it. We started a Civil Rights Movement over it. It’s always been there. The flames were fanned when we had a Black President because racists, White Supremacists, simply couldn’t handle it. The White Supremacist in the highest office of our land has made it appear more acceptable, since he encourages racism and wants to increase the brutality of our police.

I’d always heard from certain people that race relations were fine, racism wasn’t such a big deal any longer, that POC were just using the Race Card just like disabled people use the Disabled Card, to get a leg up on other people when it’s not deserved. Which is guess means is every time someone notices someone is not white or someone is disabled or they’re part of another protected class that they can’t discriminate against.

He allows his Secretary of Education to break down our education system, just as when she ruined her own state’s education system. I mean, yes he’s breaking down each aspect of the government and social services, entitlements, benefits, etc. He told us that’s what he wanted during the campaign. No one believed him, or it was ignored, but he told us. It’s what he’s been doing. It should has disqualified him.

But hey, for a second, let’s look at history. I’s the dictatorships and medieval kingdoms that preferred keeping their citizenry uneducated.  If they’re uneducated, then an automatic inequality between the gentry and the masses. The People don’t realize there’s a problem because they have no choice but to believe the spoken words and decrees of their leadership. Again,there’s no possibility of equality. Any chance of learning about history, philosophy, maths, sciences, arts, and how to teach others the same with new ideas, how to research, is stifled and again… there’s no chance of equality. What is learned is controlled. How it’s learned is controlled.

The more we, the masses, are educated and encouraged to think things through logically, independently the more we understand when we’re being duped. We recognize propaganda and misinformation more easily.

We know better when our rights are being trampled upon.

We are more likely to use our voices collectively to fight for and demand our rights be recognized because trust me, they won’t be freely given.

Whether we’re women, disabled, a POC especially now when there are peaceful protests; or if we’re part of another marginalized group, we’re more likely to use our voices collectively to fight for those whose voices might not be loud enough, and encourage others to do the same, by showing them they’re not alone.

We’re more likely to demand to be treated equally.

We’re more likely to work in better jobs; we’re less likely to have very large families that would be guaranteed to keep us in poverty.

The more educated, the less poverty. The less poverty, the less control a government has over abusing the people. The governing force is no longer forcing the people to work for it, but now the governing force must drop the farce and work for the people.

The fight is against a reduced, concentrated government; a government-enforced poverty in order to maintain its own dominance and wealth. Some administrations are more guilty of this than others.

So I purged. A lot. I feel better. I may come back and read some of this later and be like, hmmm, let’s edit that. But feelings are feelings. So this might be a good place for me to ta-ta on out. Talk to ya later, loves.

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Inauguration Day

It’s Inauguration Day 2017 in America. What’s the appropriate way to react, or how to feel when you’re not among those who voted for someone … well… for Trump?

It’s still not to simply accept it. It’s not to just move on. It’s time to defy all that Trump and Pence stand for.

Acceptance and moving on can never occur when Inauguration Day is placing a criminal and traitor as a dictator into the place of President. Someone who doesn’t value all lives equally; who doesn’t value anyone except himself.

The appropriate response is, I’m finding, to pray.

The inauguration is occurring right now.

And so I’m praying for my fellow Americans. I’m praying for my fellow Americans who did not vote for this unpresidential domestic threat nor the Russian threat that this criminal has invited into our nation.

I’m praying for all Americans that Trump doesn’t value. As he listens to Senator Schumer discuss America’s great values, Trump sits there with a frown, rocking back and forth, and instead of sitting up straight with rapt attention, he slouches and looks around behind him, shaking his head.

I’m praying as I discover that police are using pepper spray at peaceful protest marches.

I’m praying as Pence dares to stand up there and take the oath of Vice President to protect this country, even as he’s been leading the charge to dismantle human rights and civil rights in his very own country in the past weeks.

I’m praying as Trump has the utter gall to take an oath he’s never had the intention of keeping, as his entire campaign was about destroying the Constitution… his cavalier words that the Constitution means nothing to him during his campaign. His only allegiance to any country, to any god, is to his Trump Tower, himself, and money. I will not stand. I will not honor him. I will not accept.

I’m praying, because there’s no way possible that this is God’s will as so many dare to claim. This was the doing of GOP fraud, Russia, and Trump. I’m praying because to celebrate this farce would be to become an unpatriotic traitor to America.

This is a tragic, sad day. His words have no meaning. His oath has no meaning. He lies even as he gives his dictatorial acceptance speech. Even as his tiny baby hands look even more tiny and pudgy than usual, and his usual healthy day-glo orange is muddier than usual.

He dared stand up there and said, “Make America great again.” A nation that has always, always been great and now has a real stain against it. An unpatriotic criminal and traitor is now our fake President.

Only America and her most fragile citizens, her citizens that must be protected by Federal Laws must be prayed for. Those who are discriminated against regularly for their sex, gender, religion or lack of religion, their low income, their ethnicity, race, color, national original, disability, age, pregnancy, and even genetic information or political party.

I pray.

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Separate Church and State in Public School: Protect Science Class

Up front, I’m Catholic. This entry is about education and freedom of religion.

Darth Pence wants to do to “reform” our public schools. I bow to the fact that some changes ought to be made, the main one being to pay teachers what they’re worth and put more funding into education so that we don’t continue to have a nation that doesn’t value intellectualism or education. That’s not at all what Darth Pence plans to do in his reform of public schools.

Darth Pence wants to unschool our children and remove science classes. He wants to replace science with teachings from the Bible.

I kid you not.

Biggest headline: Darth Pence, with the help of Trump’s cabinet pick Betsy DeVos, plan to evict the Big Bang and Evolutionary Theories from the public school curriculum and replace them with Biblical Creationism.

This is offensive regardless of your political affiliation or religious affiliation. It’s offensive no matter the end of the conservative or liberal end of the spectrum you fall. In spite of the smoke and mirrors, this has never, ever been Democrats versus Republicans, nor has it been Liberals versus Conservatives. The value of keeping Church and State separate is a value of all major parties that are seen as legitimate except for one.

It’s a Tea Party value, the Tea Party who are a bunch of jokers that know nothing about politics and are trying to destroy it from the inside out (admittedly, especially since. A bunch of evangelistic biblical literalists who are destroying the christian faith and the reputation of all Christians.

For a person of faith, like me, it’s about being balanced, faithful to God, being a better mother, wife, person, being truthful in how I live my life, respecting the world I live in, respecting the people I share the Earth with, being in awe of the Earth my God created, and loving this life. And in order to do that and to teach my family how to do that, I don’t need some judgmental, creepy, selfish, criminal, vile, wannabe, fake-ass President and his sidekick VP dismantling our schools, our special education programs, and our religion.

 

How I choose to indoctrinate my children is my choice, with my husband. Where it occurs is our choice. I want them indoctrinated in our family church that we carefully chose, and in our home. Indoctrination is to be fully controlled by us. The separation of Church and State is to be held as a sacred value.

If my children wish to pray before a test, or they wish to pray during their free time, they’re allowed due to the freedom of religion. The key is that they don’t try to convert anyone or “witness” at school (well, as Catholics we don’t do that as a rule); during free time at school they can discuss each others religions to get to know each other, and they can pray together if they want. That’s fantastic. But no class led prayer. No indoctrination.

If children … students … are to learn about religion and their creation stories in a public school there are Humanities courses or World Religions courses, Social Studies, and they teach “This is what this religion is about, what they do,” ie. the facts of various religions without commentary of the validity of any of them. If it’s indoctrination and proselytizing, then that belongs in private schools.

For those who are devoutly Roman Catholic, there’s some good news

Numerous sources confirm that Pope Francis has stated that he accepts the Theories of Evolution and the Big Bang (go to article below, and then click it).

And that is awesome. Essentially, Pope Francis recognizes that behind the Scientific Theories, there is God. Behind all of the science, there is God speaking to us and guiding us. It means he’s continued to move the Church back into the light, back towards God and away from the Dark Ages that Benedict was so determined to plunge us into. Pope Francis is a beacon of hope.

 

The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand”, Pope Francis has declared. Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Source: Pope Francis declares evolution and Big Bang theory are real and God is not ‘a magician with a magic wand’ | The Independent

 

 

Me again.

Science explains the “how.” Religion explains the “why.”

I’m sure some of you disagree with me. You might say,

“They’re ‘just’ theories. They can’t prove it. Science is its own religion, and you can’t trust it! You’re rejecting the BIBLE AND GOD! YOU’RE JUST A LIBTARD!”

When I’m feeling generous, I don’t assume that those people I hear that statement from are also rabid anti-vaxxers and give them the benefit of the doubt. 😉 I instead assume that they’re open to listening to reason. I don’t assume that they’re Sophophobic (have a fear of learning and being educated).

They’re actually not “just” theories. When someone dismisses a Theory out of hand, they’re forgetting middle school and high school science when they learned about the Scientific method and how to write a lab report. It was such a valuable experience learning those things, because it taught us how to approach the world. It was supposed to teach us how to be curious and question, how to touch things and be involved in the world. It taught us that we didn’t have to be scientists to value science.

Most people seem to think that a theory is vague and maybe possibly could be a fact if there were enough facts to support the idea… to support the opinion. They think that a hypothesis mean “to guess the result of an experiment.” I thought that maybe going back to basics would be a good idea for a minute or two.

A hypothesis isn’t an educated guess. It is a tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation. Once you do the experiment and find out if it supports the hypothesis, it becomes part of scientific theory.

http://www.sciencekidsathome.com/science_fair/what-is-a-hypothesis.html

A hypothesis doesn’t become a Theory, but can contribute.

Next we have Theories, with tested results that can be repeated and WILL BE repeated. A Theory is something that we know is true even if aspects of the Theory change due to obtaining new information, new interpretations, or a change in some information. A Theory can be voted on in the Scientific Community. A Theory IS NOT an opinion and takes precedence over opinions, as a Theory is in fact, factual.

A scientific theory is an explanation for why things work or how things happen. Scientists develop theories based on their observations of the world around them.Theories are based on ideas that can be tested. Theories are not speculative, or based on a guess.

kids.britannica.com/elementary/article-544886/scientific-theory?

 

Finally, we have the Scientific Law. A Scientific Law is so certain that it’s absolute and unchanging. You can’t vote on it, create a new interpretation of it, or change it in any way. It’s a description of observable phenomenon and doesn’t require explanation. It can be the basis of creating new Theories. Theories don’t become Laws, and neither do Hypotheses.

A scientific law is a statement based on repeated experimental observations that describes some aspects of the universe. A scientific law always applies under the same conditions, and implies that there is a causal relationship involving its elements.

 

If you’re Roman Catholic, and you trust in the plans of God and how he’s using Pope Francis, have hope. If you’re not Catholic, but Pope Francis is still a cool dude in your eyes, hopefully this gives you hope that Christians are not represented by those who claim christianity in the government. At least there’s something positive from 2016 moving into 2017.

The plans of Darth Pence for Education, and Trump’s cabinet pick for Education, Betsy DeVos, should upset you greatly no matter what. If you’re not upset, then you should at least be concerned or moved enough to want to write to your State Representatives, your Senator, your Governor. Be your own activist, be your childrens’ advocate. If you want the future of our country to be in the hands of godly, educated men and women then speak up. If you want your nation to be in the hands of educated men and women, speak up. We don’t have to just shut up and take it.

We don’t have to just accept it. We don’t have to just get over it. We need to do something, because he’s been following through with everything he said he would and he’s not even President yet. We’re not talking soundbytes. These are the “great things” and big changes he was talking about.

 

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Two of the Most Important Autistic Blog Entries Ever

I’m a non-autistic mom who is blessed to parent an autistic daughter along with her two sisters. She’s an amazing, incredible young lady who is one of the three brightest lights in my life. This Sweet Girl finds being autistic to be a wonderful thing, something that she needs, something she doesn’t ever want anyone to take away from her. She says it makes things hard for her but she still needs it or she wouldn’t be who she is. She finds it shocking and appalling, and it hurts her deeply that even if Autism can make life difficult enough to cause some disabilities, that anyone would think up the idea, let alone that it’s a good idea, to cure anyone of Autism. She finds the notion of vaccines causing or having a correlation to Autism as ridiculous and silly. She can’t find words to explain how odd it is that she should have to defend her existence, or that anyone would insist on separating her from one of the very things that makes her the Sweet Girl that she is.

“Without Autism, I would not exist.” ~Sweet Girl

And so, with that reminder, I’ll just add my caveat now, before April: we shall NOT light up anything blue. We do NOT support puzzle piece comparisons. There are autistic self-advocates and bloggers who explain why far, far better than I can because it’s not my life on the line… it’s theirs. I value their opinions highly, especially those women who I’m so grateful to have found to show me what my daughter’s adult voice might appear like. Through their suggestions and sharing of experiences, it’s helping to make our journey through her childhood and my parenting go more smoothly. I enjoy the insights as much as I appreciate them.

Women like Amy Sequenza are your child. So I’m going to share two of her blog entries.

Why Autism Speaks Hurts Us – Amy Sequenza

Is Autism Speaks a Hate Group? – Amy Sequenza

Plus a bonus one from a different blog.

This is the last time I’m going to say this – The Autistic Beekeeper

And I’d like to suggest looking up #BoycottAutismSpeaks. You won’t regret it. Oh yes, and this handy dandy info-graphic. Share it. Download it. Memorize it. If you’re a parent to an autistic individual, pay special attention to the organizations that help autistic people. Include the Autism Women’s Network in there too. They’re pretty fabulous.

 

You may say, “But my child is autistic and we went to Autism Speaks, and they were really good!” or “But I know someone who speaks very highly of them because of their experience!” My response to that is, “Great. Good for you, I’m truly happy for you.” The issue I have is that any money you donated went towards research to remove the uniqueness from your child that makes him or her who she is. And if nothing else, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I mean, last year even Autism Speaks came out and said, “Hey y’all, get your kids their measles vaccines.”

And on the Today Show yesterday, their founder, the father of an autistic son, floundered over how amazing his organization is for parents. Parents, not the autistic individuals. The support is there for parents who are stuck in the loop of believing Autism is a tragedy that happened to them through their child, or that God is punishing them. Parents who believe their child is damaged, sick, and imperfect. Not whole. Hiding behind the Autism. The Autism took them away. Broke them. And you know what? Matt Lauer sucked it all up with a dewy eyed spoon. He may have been a little drunk.

Parents… I remember that initial shock and the feeling of wondering what to do next. I remember wondering what *I* was going to do. It took me too long of wondering “why me and my child, why my family” before I was hit with the bitch stick. It’s really not about me, it’s about this spirited young lady I’m privileged to parent. The only “me” part about this was what was I going to do for my child and how to teach her to self-advocate. How would I teach her to become an adult that could navigate an amazing world.

Your child needs you. Show your child how amazing the world is and you’d better remember that the world is still amazing. The world is only as small as you allow it to be. The world is only as tragic as you allow Autism Speaks to let you think it is.

Stop the silencing of Autism Speaks and listen to the autistic self-advocates.

#AutismSpeaksSilencesAutisticVoices

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“How To Choose A Candidate and What Matters” by a blogger who’s not a political blogger and is happy she’s not

Did you know that people choose their candidates in very similar ways? We do. We all think that we have a system, the best system, and we’re so eager to share it so that others can try out our system and we just KNOW that if they use our system they’ll vote the way we vote. They’ll choose Our Gal/Guy.

It turns out that My Way is a very typical way to choose a candidate:

I think it’s important to learn about the candidates platforms and policies; think about the individual’s histories and how they treat their friends, spouses, and coworkers; consider how they treat individuals they dislike and are in competition with; look at their experience and voting history; examine employment/employer history in tandem with leadership skills; examine their skills in how they choose their advisers and their decision making process; weigh personal character; fact check them with reputable, unbiased sources, whose job is not entertainment but to inform with truth in order to educate.

We need to do all of this with ALL of the candidates, with the knowledge that with candidates we may have disliked or even “hated” in the past may actually be candidates that line up more closely with what we believe in. I also believe we may need to go into this with the humility that previous dislike and hatred of an individual candidate could have been misplaced due to deceit copiously placed in news media by opposition over the years.

These are the things that I believe opinions should be formed from.

Even before all of that, I think we need to commit to something more important. We first ought to commit to learning about ourselves and what matters to us BEFORE we actually choose a candidate for office. How can we know who should stand for us if we don’t know what we stand for?What issues are important to you? How strongly do you feel about them? What do you think about issues that other people find extremely important? There are dozens of topics we think about and research for ourselves and in our candidates. For instance, what do you think about:

• Medicaid
• Income Tax Revision
• Cost, Availability and Quality of Clean Water
• Minimum Wage Laws, and increase in mimimum wage
• Prescription Drugs and Specialty Drugs
• Aging and elder issues
• Pensions
• Higher Education
• Employee Compensation
• Moving American Jobs Overseas
• Freedom of the Press
• Freedom of Speech on Government Land
• Transportation Funding
• Disability issues & Disability rights and Human Rights
• Hospital funding and staffing
• Fracking
• GMO’s
• Funding CHIP
• School Testing
• Common Core (yes, these are two different things; one is tests, one is teaching methods)
• NASA
• Stem Cell Research
• Scientific Discoveries
• Gun Control
• Overcrowding in Prisons
• Scientific research funding for curing diseases, disorders
• Mental Health, Emotional Health, Physical Health Issues
• Medical Insurance and what you would like ideally for yourself
• Funding Social Service agencies that would save the state agencies millions of “your tax dollars”
• Social Security
• Privacy Laws
• Immigration Law & Immigration History
• Social Inclusion Laws
• Emergency Disaster Preparedness (did you know there’s actually a Zombie Apocolypse Plan?)
• Funding our state and national infrastructure (Highways, byways, streets, railways, bus-lines, etc) for repair work and new systems
• Carbon Emissions
• Cleaner and Less Expensive Energy Sources for Cars; more efficient and cleaner cars
• Cleaner and Less Expensive Energy Sources for Home Heating and Cooling
• Green Living Initiatives and Legislature; Not just “climate change” but the stuff that directly affects you every day such as the quality of the air you breath and the water you drink
• Regulated food industry promoting healthy eating and living
• Funding education, both primary and secondary
• Relations with other countries
• United Nations
• Political Parties working across the aisle
• Gender Equality
• Marriage Equality
• Human Rights, Equal Rights, Civil Rights
• Section 8 Housing
• Public Housing
• Unemployment Benefits
• SNAP Benefits
• Medicaid
• Medicare
• The right for anyone to eat, drink, and have a roof over their heads
• What constitutes war crimes
• The Draft
• GI Bill
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Terrorism
• Profiling
• Torture
• Homeland Security
• Racial Politics
• Free Trade
• Homeschooling
• Military and Defense
• Abstinence Only Education
• Women’s Health Protection
• Maintaining the Freedom of Choice Acts (FOCA) (only 7 states have codified a woman’s right to choose, making the protections of Roe v. Wade part of state law: CA, CT, HI, ME, MD, NV, WA)
• Freedom of Religion, to practice as you choose in the religion you choose
• Freedom from Religion, to be able to choose to refrain from practicing any religion at all
• Freedom to choose your own healthcare, doctors, hospital, clinic, services without interference
• Freedom to parent your children regardless of disability whether physical or mental health
• Defunding of social services and human services that would help disabled, women and children, elderly, and veterans
• Police Brutality
• Mandatory Minimum Sentences
• Corporal Punishment and the Death Penalty
• School Prayer
• Separation of Church and State
• Intelligent Design
• Pardons in the Court System
• Judge Appointments

Honestly, right now my head is swimming, yet I know there are dozens upon dozens more topics and subtopics to consider.

Things that we don’t really consciously consider when choosing a candidate can be unorthodox, for lack of a better word, and aren’t helpful at all. In fact, people end up voting against their own best interests if they use the below “methods” to vote with. They do it because they’re not really voting issues, platforms, policy, or even history.

• The pleasantness of a candidate’s face
• The pleasantness and pitch of a candidate’s voice
• The taller candidate tends to win
• Personal charisma
• A nice smile
• The appearance of being kind
• The appearance of caring about doing their job well
• The appearance of caring about their constituents in general as well as the people who are immediately in front of them
• The appearance being a peace-keeping, even tempered individual
• The appearance of being competent, educated, qualified, and capable
• Individuals who behave and appear Presidential
• The appearance of truthfulness and trustworthiness
• A calm and even temperament

There are worse methods than this, I suppose. I’ve actually heard people explain that they use these methods in choosing candidates:

• Mix it up a bit locally. We may not know who the candidates are, or exactly what their platforms are, but we vote a mix of Republican and Democrat to shake it up and we can try to make sure to “keep them in check” and keep things even
• We play Eenie-Meenie-Mynie-Moe and we catch that mousie by the toe
• We close our eyes while in the polling booth and click like mad at the little levers and then just yank that huge one or, if you’re back in the stone age like some towns, you close your eyes while filling in dots on what looks like a multiple choice test sheet
• We pray right up until it’s time to choose and listen for God to whisper in our ear
• Our minds are already made up, it’s easy peasy, because it’s made for us: we vote party line
• The Candidate who “wins” the debate based on how many insults they can hurl
• The Candidate who seems strongest based on their willingness to sling mud

Those particular methods don’t work, and to be honest they’re insulting.

And yes, to get a bit personal:

Can I help it if it matters to me when a candidate tries to impress people with his business savvy and know-how and insists he’ll get the nation out of debt in no time at all when in fact he’s declared bankruptcy four times and every single venture he’s ever attempted has failed? Every. Single. One.

It matters to me when he is not only proud to be a bigot and racist, but he plans to legislate bigotry and racism.

It matters to me when he has absolutely no education of value at all (since the education he does have hasn’t worked for him), doesn’t have a mind to hire advisers to help educate him as he believes he’s his own best adviser, and doesn’t know the first thing about U.S. or domestic history.

It matters when he doesn’t care about education of others, or about science, or the state of the world or its ecology.

It matters when the most benign emotions he elicits from his supporters is apathy, but the most frequent and dangerous emotion is rage and as it happens, rage is the emotion that he uses the most in order to attempt to gain supporters by twisting them up with fear of Other.

It matters to me when he is anti-disability, anti-women, anti-non-rich-non-white, anti-government and anti-American in every single word and action, anti-education, anti-generosity, anti-kindness, anti-human rights, and has a very tenuous relationship with the truth including his own documented history.

It matters to me that he’s anti-vaccination and believes Autism is a disease that is caused by vaccines; and that Autism needs to be eradicated.

It matters to me when he beat his ex-wife and then intimidates her to drop the charge and lie to the press; calls women disgusting names; bullies reporters for asking typical questions thinking they’re “too tough for any reasonable candidate;” says he’s going to prosecute every single person who says anything negative about him at all during the campaign once the campaign is over, even if he’s President; is anti-American military especially those who are disabled and/or are MIA or captured; makes fun of disabled people; lies about his personal connections to the KKK.

This is a man that has widened the fracture in America, and other countries in the world as as terrified as the majority of Actual Republicans (conservative or middle of the road or liberal-ish) and All Democrats (liberal or conservative). In fact they’re even more terrified because they see him with a clearer lens than we do. It turns out that the horror we’re feeling isn’t quite turned up  high enough.

This matters. People can claim that President Obama is responsible for the current fracture, and that may be partially so except for the fact that it’s because he hasn’t allowed himself or the Democratic Party to be bullied as much as the Republican Party has tried to bully over the past eight years. And I’m thinking that in the state the Republican Party is in right now, they’re wishing they had their own Barack Obama right now.

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Daylight Savings Funny Business

I’m going to start right out of the gate admitting that I realize there are probably hundreds of blogs addressing displeasure, calamities, and reasons for and against DST.

I’m not those blogs. 🙂

I know it’s a struggle for households that don’t have children, and households that don’t have children or adults with any sort of disabilities or neuro-diversities.

We’re not those households. 🙂

I could talk about the fact that during the week after Daylight Savings Time kicks back in and we’re forced to move our clocks ahead an hour on that predetermined agreed upon day, are the most car accidents and fatalities. People are late to work that entire week. It takes a week or two for most people to get their sleep cycles adjusted because it may seem like a simple one hour change, but we’re actually shifting our entire day to accommodate this change. We’re losing more than an hour of sleep.

I could do more than mention them and go into lots of detail, but I won’t. I’m too tired.

In a household where there’s someone with physical disabilities (me) and someone with neurological diversity (two teens) there’s far more involved. As small children and through elementary school we would try to prepare by adjusting bedtimes two weeks prior to DST. We’d try to adjust meals as well. Slowly, but surely we’d try to adjust the routine and schedule.

It didn’t matter. We end up dealing with a minimum of two weeks of tragic drama, and with Sweet Girl it’s gone as long as six weeks. With Dear Girl she usually adjusts within the two weeks, but it’s a tough two weeks. Youngest, Darling Girl goes with the punches.

This year, it’s only been five days in and I’m wrecked. My five hour work day should feel like it’s over earlier in the day, but it feels longer, and so I hit my wall earlier than usual. I’m up earlier than usual this week, that’s what my body is saying. I get home and if I don’t prepare supper early to heat up later, I know I won’t be able to from the pain or chronic fatigue. Already this week I’ve had days where I had to go straight upstairs to have a good lay-down.

Sweet Girl’s already-difficult time due to needing a break from school (our town skipped February vacation and they have to wait for April this year) has just been exacerbated. Mornings are already difficult, so ultra-creative motivations and soothings are in order. I just feel terrible because some days I have to simply get Completely Parental and use my I’m Serious Because I’m Your Mom Voice. 😦  Prior to coffee sometimes. Sometimes I’m so tired and grumpy right along with her that I actually forget to make my coffee.

Dear Girl informed me on Monday or Tuesday that I need to get to The Guy Responsible For DST prior to having my early-morning coffee while still in my prior-to-early-morning-coffee-mood and Have A Talk with him. I wouldn’t be making any friends. But he WOULD stop fucking around with time changes.

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Bliðe Hāligdæg – Happy Holy Day

 

In my world, words matter, so take a gander.

Holiday:

Old English,  ‘holy day.’

The word originally referred only to special religious days, which is really kind of cool. Thanks to how language works, the word has evolved and is nuanced. That’s called etymology, and it’s really fascinating. So yes, it’s evolved to include non-secular celebrations such as these, and that’s all right:

• Thanksgiving
• Independence Day
• Father’s Day and Mother’s Day
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Labor Day
• Presidents Day, in observance of Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and some additional figures

 

Yes, there are non-religious people who co-opt the traditions of some religions in a secular way for their own families and enjoyment. There are people of other religions that perhaps pick up the traditions of another religion in a secular fashion simply because they enjoy it. Perhaps they adopt it into their own religious or spiritual traditions because they belong to blended families. I get it that this may upset you, and you may find this to be cultural misappropriation [Cultural appropriation, or cultural misappropriation is a sociological concept which views the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon].

And it is, you’re right. It’s cultural misappropriation if you choose to look at it that way.

The thing of it is, it’s not malicious intent. It’s not hurting you or others in any way. In fact, it’s binding us all together whether we share a common religion or not. It’s giving us all a tether to each other. 

I believe that when someone wishes me a Happy Holiday, the person is offering a blessing.  I’ll accept it because it’s a gift. It’s a promise that they wish me well and that in that moment I can trust them to be kind rather than malicious. The only “war” in these words is in how the recipient of the words chooses to respond.

Let’s make a promise:

 

No matter where we fall on the spiritual spectrum, please assume the best of each other rather than the worst. We’re wishing good blessings upon each other. We’re wishing each other to be happy and blessed. Whatever form that takes, whatever the words, the meaning is the same.  

 

P.S.

Fair warning: if I catch you reprimanding my children for being thoughtful, kind, and considerate because that’s the kind of children I have (most of the time, at least in public) no matter the particular, specific words they use, I’ll cutch-you. 🙂

But yeah… here’s a nice quick screen capture for you to take a peek at and revel in. ❤ Go ahead… ask Google. This is just a snippet.

 

Origin of “Holiday” is “holy day”

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The Pledge of Allegiance on Veteran’s Day

My littlest advocate, Darling Girl, is in 5th grade. She joined the Sign Language Club at school and the first thing she’s learning is the Pledge of Allegiance. Her first day was yesterday and she already knows the majority of it in ASL. She and the rest of the SLC will be saying the Pledge at the Veteran’s Day Assembly on Veteran’s Day at her school next week.

Watching her practice last night was such a treat for me. She took pleasure in not only knowing the signs, but putting them together in a way that was beautiful and fluid. It looked like a song.

She told me what each individual sign meant. She showed me which signs were appropriate to put her own flair into and how she planned to do that.

She told me how she values her hearing, but wants to learn signing so that she can help make things easier for deaf people because it’s not right to always force them to try to communicate like a hearing person. Communicating is important.

She’s so very right. I think maybe she’s listening. 🙂

This darling girl is such a blessing.

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In The End, I Didn’t Wear Blue

I ended up wearing rainbow colors that day that I wrote about doing anything, even wearing blue. I just… I realized that supporting her meant more than wearing the blue because it’s her favorite and she asked me and she thought I’d be celebrating her. It meant so, so much more and I tried to explain why I wore a rainbow-flower skirt with a purple shirt (my own favorite color) in a way she could understand. But how do you explain that wearing blue, lighting it up blue, is a trigger event and silences Autistic Voices? That anything explaining away why it’s okay is really not okay?

And that’s what I think I did in that entry, and I wholeheartedly apologize, no qualifications.

So how did I explain to my daughter why I broke the blue promise…

Rainbows and flowers are love, and everyone loves flowers. Autism is full of wonderful colors, not just blue, and even if the flowers in my skirt were fuzzy at the edges they were far prettier than puzzle pieces all over the school walls. She nodded in agreement.

I told her that I wanted her to be able to choose from all of the colors in the rainbow when she’s making friends, when she’s thinking, when she’s getting dressed, when she’s looking outside, all just like when she’s painting or making crafts. She nodded more with each example.

I told her that an agency named Autism $peaks created the Light It Up Blue idea, and that we don’t like all of their ideas because some of their ideas include wanting to cure Autism. I asked her if she remembered hearing about that several days before, and she nodded with a Very Serious Expression on her face.

Then I explained that there are other supportive agencies that want to help her and others like her grow and be happy, and learn to be a self-advocate as she grows up and becomes a teenager and an adult.

I explained that sometimes we were going to have to have different kinds of conversations now about how some people think Autism is not a good thing and how we can change those ideas by showing them the good things and teaching them about the ideas that they don’t quite have right. That sometimes people believe things about Autism that aren’t true, but that we can help educate them. She nodded. She seemed to like the idea of being an educator instead of the student.

I explained that there would be times we would be talking about the better ideas that Mommy has read about from the good agencies so that Mommy can better understand who is a helper and who is not… and that I think she’s getting old enough to learn those things too.

She nodded her head, with a furrowed brow, and said, “Mm hmm.”

“Do you have any questions?”

“Can I still wear my blue skirt?”

“Yes. Always. You can even keep blue as your own favorite color.”

“Mm hmm. Yes.”

“Do you want to ask me more?”

“I don’t know.”

She walked away. So that was that.

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I’ll Do Anything, Even Wear Blue

My Sweet Girl loves blue. Of course, she also likes green, pink, and purple, but she says she loves blue the best.

Last year she started to notice that her elementary school was taking part in encouraging the students ahead of time to wear blue and “light it up blue” for April 2nd in order to show solidarity and celebrate Autism. They teach the children about Autism and why it’s important to be accepting of differences, and how autistic children and teens and adults might think differently but are still just the same as everyone else. They show the children the positives, but also teach the children that there can be difficulties, challenges, obstacles, that might be hard for them to understand if they aren’t autistic themselves, and it’s very important to know that they don’t have to be afraid. They shouldn’t bully children that show autistic behaviors, but should be friends with them and protect them. They don’t have to accept being bullied themselves by anyone, and if they see a child that they think might have disabilities such as happens with Autism, they should speak up.

Now, this isn’t what my Sweet Girl told me. She came home and told me that the whole school dresses up on April 2nd in her favorite color, blue, especially and specifically to celebrate her.  As a 6th grader she plans to wear blue tomorrow to celebrate herself.

I learned that this is what the elementary students are being taught by a neighbor’s daughter this morning because she was so excited to tell me about having learned about Autism in school to prepare for tomorrow. She’s excited to learn more, and she’s even more excited that she can share positive experiences with classmates because she’s at our house nearly every day. I remember how sad she was when she heard that there are people who would want to cure Autism and prevent people from being born with it. She immediately said, “But then there wouldn’t be awesome people like G!”

This morning my neighbor girl also told me how much she enjoys Sweet Girl and there are lots of things she loves that Sweet Girl does. Her very favorite thing is when I hold up my hand to give a high five, and Sweet Girl goes to give me a fist bump instead… but when I hold up my hand to give her a fist bump she puts up her own hand to give me a high five. She loves Sweet Girl’s sense of humor; she loves seeing how Sweet Girl can start her morning routine with the worst of moods and then change it around by helping me bake muffins or smelling coffee and giggling that giggle that Sweet Girl does.

Those are the things she wants to share. We’ve turned our little 9 year old neighbor into an advocate and ally already. 😉  She plans to wear blue head to toe in honor of Sweet Girl.

This does present a dilemma in my own mind because these girls really don’t connect lighting themselves up blue with the damage done by Autism $peaks. How do I tell these children that they shouldn’t because it’s offensive to those of us who know what it’s connected to? That if they come across an autistic individual who would be offended knowing the significance as a self-advocate, it could cause a trigger effect for that person that could last hours or days? How do I justify taking away their excitement to learn more positive things and their desire to educate and not just make people aware but ACCEPTING?

These kids get it, you know… that it’s about accepting now and not just awareness. After all I think that there are probably only 12 people left in the developed world that have never heard of Autism. As a nation, we’re definitely aware. The problem is that as a nation, we’re not educated and we’re definitely not accepting. We can’t even accept disabilities as a whole let alone Autism. We have a self-proclaimed Autism support agency, Autism $peaks, who takes donations and doesn’t put them towards services but towards research that would try to find cures and prevention. We have parents who try to murder their disabled children, and apologists for them who “understand what they’re going through” hoping courts will be lenient and demanding others not judge them. We have comedians making vicious fun of disabled people. We have musicians writing offensive song lyrics against autistic people. We have every day people using the word autistic as a slur and an insult just as they use stupid, moron, idiot, and dumb (all ableist language).

These kids are getting it. This is why I support mainstream education rather than separating the students that have disabilities from the non-disabled students. It’s not just about educating them and telling them in a Do As I Say, Not As I Do situation. It’s about seeing each other as equals because heads up, they are, and treating them as such because guess what, they are. It’s about learning that being different doesn’t mean less, and it doesn’t mean segregation. It shows all of the children, including the children with disabilities, that we ALL have challenges and obstacles and we all need different kinds of help.

It teaches more than tolerance, more than awareness… it teaches acceptance. A quiet, natural acceptance.

A major issue with what April as Autism Awareness Month means is that for the teen and adult self-advocates that are aware and educated about the intricacies of the history of how society treats disabled individuals; that have been through traumatic experiences as they’ve grown up for various reasons at the hands of their parents, peers, education, therapies; how society specifically currently views Autism as a whole; and last but not least the intense spotlight that this “awareness month” puts on Autistic individuals is this:

It’s not the right kind of attention for many Autistics.  It’s anxiety inducing.

Donations often go to agencies that are not supportive of Autism at all, nor of Autism Services (Autism $peaks I’m looking at you).

It’s a huge burden to bear to be the face of Autism for an entire month.

It’s a huge burden to bear to be expected to educate people for an entire month.

It’s a huge burden to bear to have to argue with parents who have not accepted their child’s neuro-diversity even if their child is in their  40’s or 50’s.

It’s a huge burden to bear to be expected to “overcome” their disabilities or show them off for others.

It’s an even worse burden to have to defend being Autistic in a world that still wants to cure you and insists that it needs to prevent Autism in others. Autistics around the world feel that if their parents wished they weren’t Autistic, that if they could stamp it out, then they’re also wishing they were stamped out. There is no distinction between their person-hood and their autism.

It’s not fair when parents use this month to spotlight how much they hate Autism, causing Autistics around the world to feel that they are hated. If you hate Autism, they feel you must hate them as well. That’s a reasonable feeling. There is no distinction between their person-hood and their autism.

I can’t say that I disagree.

That’s an awful lot to bear. That’s why at only 12 years old, I’m really not sure that I want to take the joy out of my daughter’s eyes when she sees her classmates wearing blue because her interpretation is that it’s all in her personal honor. It’s Sweet Girl Day tomorrow. I know she’ll ask me to wear blue for her, just as she did last year. I sigh as I write this because I know the social implications, but for my daughter? I’ll do anything. Maybe I’ll wear a multi-colored something.

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