John has flung plenty of fecal matter at my person over the course of the campaign, and for the most part I've grown numb to it. It's a law of nature - Dogs don't like cats, cats like mice...a lot, the sky is blue, John McCain's campaign lies like a pedophile in front of a parole board.
When he floated the autism thing, though, I was forced to tighten my jaw, wipe the drool off of my chin and actually listen to what the old white guy was saying.
My backside tightened when I heard the Mac Daddy use the words "knows", "more", "about" and "autism" in the same sentence as "Sarah" and "Palin".
If you were to believe McCain, Palin is the finest and most admirable woman on Earth and she knows everything about anything.
If you were to do a little research on Palin, however, you'd come full-circle to that whole pedophile-parole board analogy I mentioned earlier. So when he threw autism into the ring, I immediately dropped a few choice expletives.
You see, my 5-year old daughter is high-functioning autistic & was diagnosed as such earlier this year. You may think you know a lot about autism, but unless you are actually the parent of an autistic child or have spent thousands of hours studying and spending time with autistic children, I dare say you shan't profess an expertise of the same.
Making autism a political "hot issue" is one thing, but making autism a bullshit political issue is quite another. So when the distinguished Senator from Arizona proclaims that his hapless running mate knows more about autism than any American he knows, this suggests that he's viciously lying and playing this horrible disorder for political gain, or that he hasn't met too many Americans.
I suspect the former.
Janet Grillo:
McCain claims his regime will support research for a cure. Yet he also wants to freeze government spending. He claims he will advocate for families. Yet his health care policy offers a $5000 tax deduction, which Americans can put towards purchasing coverage. Any parent with a child on the spectrum knows just how little $5000 buys you. Services to support my [autistic] son's development (outside of, and in addition to, tuition at publicly funded Special Ed day programs) easily runs past $90,000 per year. Thank God that California state-funded regional center services have absorbed the lion's share of those costs. But, as everyone knows, California is now bankrupt. Those services have been frozen. Children and parents are floundering. McCain proclaims to be a "Federalist." As often as possible, he would have individual states determine the welfare of their denizens versus Washington D.C.. If ever there were a time for the federal government to rise to the occasion of serving the needs of our people, it is this national epidemic. Twelve years ago, the rate was one in 10,000. Today (according to the NEH), it is 1 in 150. States cannot, and should not, be expected to sustain the demands this crisis presents.
Tonight, Senator Obama told us that every autism advocate he has met, stresses the urgent need to increase funding for medical research. He was right to tell the American people that this essential work will cost money. As a former board member of Cure Autism Now foundation, one of the first parent driven organizations to fund and grow bonafide, university based research, I attest to that. Piece meal tax rebates will not cover health costs for our families, as they contend with this lifelong neurological disability. Tonight, John McCain told us that Governor Palin "knows more about autism than any other American I know." Perhaps he should get out more.
I've spent the last four days straight at DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan with my daughter who landed here as a result of her condition. Mr. McCain's pathetic attempt to shine a light on the disgraceful Sarah Palin by using autism as a lever makes me physically ill, and if I had any doubt that he's shed all semblance of dignity that he may have once had, that doubt was wiped clean during last night's debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment