April is Autism Awareness Month. Since it's nearly the end of the month, (where did it go?) I wanted to find a good topic for autism . . . so I set out across the broad expanse of the internet to see what I could find. There is certainly a wealth of informants, but what I was really after was a parent's perspective. Parents blog. I just knew they were out there.
And they were. On a blog called Life on the Roller Coaster, written by an autism mom, I found what I was looking for. It's a blog with posts alternating practical advice for the newbie autism parent, mommy rants, and policy statements. You all know how I love a good mission statement! Anyhoo . . . backtracking through her posts, I ran across a fantastic article from the magazine Orion. (The blog, by the way, is at http://thirning.blogspot.com/.) The article is actually an excerpt from a book, a book written by a cancer survivor mom of an autistic child, and it's called Raising Elijah. I will read the book and most likely share more of its content with you. For now, this is a wonderful essay regarding the toxicity of our environment and its profound health effects on our beloved children.
Brief pause.
In my endeavors I am constantly accused of being unrealistic, a bleeding-heart with a lack of budgeting skills. So I am hesitant to share this favorite quote from the article, for two reasons . . . it might scare you away, and it might propagate one of those comments about my . . . practical side. Or lack thereof.
Still, it's a good quote, so I'm going to go for it. It's about pesticides, but the rationale is what I'm drawn to. Insert any industrial chemical and it still works, so I'm not just picking on the pesticides:
"Those who argue that abolition for organophosphates is unrealistic need to explain how realistic it is to run a high-quality public school system when more than 9 percent of children can’t pay attention and one dollar of every four must be directed to special educational services."
Good stuff, eh?
Not that a high-quality public school system is a priority nowadays, as the government at both state and federal levels threatens drastic cuts (and it's funny, the proponents for such cuts scold opponents as being impractical, bleeding hearts lacking in budgeting skills.) (The same folks that defend billions of dollars in waste of taxpayer money paid to non-competitive, non-governmental contractors in Iraq, but I digress.) (Oops, there goes half of my audience of 10.)
While we're in politics, and before that article, though, a word about our Senate and its important work. S. 847, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, is in committee - the Committee on Environment and Public Works, specifically. (In committee is where most bills die.) If you want to support this important piece of legislation, please check this link - http://www.govtrack.us/congress/committee.xpd?id=SSEV - and see whether one of your senators sits on the committee. It has 18 members, 9 of which are Democrat, 8 of which are Republican, and 1 of which is Independent (the very interesting and sharp-as-a-tack Bernie Sanders of Vermont.) Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenburg lead the charge, with primary opposition from Inhofe of the famous McConnell amendment (see my earlier post.) There's not much we can do right now unless you're the constituent of one of these 18 committee members. However, if you want to feel useful, you can sign the petition at the following link: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6639/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4873 and let the prez know what matters to you. The last link is a nice summary of the bill.
http://notaguineapig.org/files/2011/04/Denison-TSCA-vs-Senate-reform-legislation-summary-April-2011.pdf
Another petition of a more generalized, we-demand-safer-products variety, can be found on the Environmental Working Group's website . . . http://www.ewg.org/kid-safe-chemicals-act-blog/sign-petition-b/
S. 718 has also gone into committee and has yet to emerge. It's assigned to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Again, you can check the link - http://www.govtrack.us/congress/committee.xpd?id=SSAF - and see whether your senators are on this committee. There are 21 members on this committee, including one of mine, Senator Stabenow, to whom I will place yet another three-minute phone call. You can do the same, just remember that your words carry a lot more weight when they're uttered to someone that you could actually vote for or against. (Nothing prohibits you from contacting any governmental official.) Or write a letter. Remember that http://www.congress.org/ will help you write your letter. In fact, when I did an internet search on this topic, I found MY letter on Senator Levin's page. (It's nothing to brag about; I've seen some pretty illiterate rants posted. Must be random.) My letter to the senator isn't anything fancy, but it's to the point. Be specific, be brief, and most importantly, be present.
Now back to that article. Enjoy!!!
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6162
And don't forget my ORIGINAL premise: these things are ALL related. Our cause is all the same . . .
Speaking this morning with one of Senator Stabenow's aides, I learned that the senator has not yet decided on S. 718 (the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011.) Let's face it, this stuff is complicated, and the last thing a politician wants is to be against reducing government red tape. So my lightbulb moment happened sorta like this: she's on the committee, and she's undecided? Wow. What an opportunity, an opportunity to influence her thoughts . . . an opportunity to let her know that I'm here, don't discount me . . . a window of opportunity. It took me three minutes, as promised. Not counting the time I spent getting on here to tell you about it, that is. :)
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