Friday, August 10, 2012

Listening Goes Both Ways

We've already heard a lot of name calling in the months leading to the upcoming elections.

Our governor has told us that to help balance the budget, we as middle class citizens will need to pay more in taxes.

The past two governors talked about having to cut costs by increasing our hardships --  many of us pay for our childrens' supplement for services on a reduced family budget, because funding has been slashed for the Regional Centers. Our schools are reeling from recent budget cuts and broken promises to replace monies already robbed from their budgets.

Our Congress seems more intent on religious and political vendettas rather than listening to their constituents, building consensus with We the People, and taking steps to preserve our quality of life now and in the future.

The presidential candidates don't seem to have those on the spectrum on their radar. This is not good, because in 10 years, the first waves of 1 in 88 children diagnosed on the spectrum will be adults. What will their lives be like? Where will they live? What jobs can they hold? What is our national plan to integrate them in society?

It's not Chick-A-Fil; it's about children.
Our children. Our future.
In a decade, 1 in 88 adults will be on the Autism Spectrum; will we be ready?

It's time for our politicians to listen to us, and those on the spectrum.

Please register to see how you can get involved and make your voice heard.

My confirmation of registry email.
This is how we start.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oy, has this been a contentious race so far! And, yes, I totally agree with you that Autism does not get the attention it needs. I know that it gets attention, but I feel that the message should shift somewhat. I feel that the focus should be on educating the public about what Autism is and is not and make positive steps to correct our educational system to accomodate all of the different styles of learning.

And, while I'm glad people are concerned about discovering what causes Autism, that does very little for those of us who are parenting someone on the spectrum or on the spectrum themselves. As you said, there needs to be better access to educational tools, professionals, etc. I feel that we have come a long way in understanding ASD's better, but we still have a long way to go.