Tuesday November 11, 2008

It's Tuesday, a week after election day. I've been through all the emotions one could imagine. I've felt anger, sadness, depression, fear, worry, indignation, disbelief, you name it.

I am connected to a group of people who keep me hanging on. They are my lifeline. I still have hope, but it feels as though it is dimming and somewhat diminished. This is the life of a parent who happens to have a child who is developmentally and physically disabled. I also have Hope because of the President-elect Barack Obama, Hope that he can fulfill promise to our children. Hope for a future beyond my years that his adult life will be bright and meaningful, but safe and not neglected.

Planning for my adult son's life is as uncertain as anything I have ever imagined. We are in an uncharted territory and the economy is even more daunting. I am reading "The War Against The Poor."...by Herbert J. Gans, subtitled..."The Underclass and Antipoverty Policy" "A prescient, clear-eyed analysis of American Social Policy."

From the Book are the following Reviews and go to:

http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Poor-Underclass-Antipoverty/dp/0465019919

"The War Against the Poor should be required reading for the 1996 election." Jonathan Freedman, Washington Post Book World

"The War Against The Poor" may be a painful book to read, but we avoid it at our peril." Andrew Hacker, Author of Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal

"The arguments in this book demand our attention if we are to overcome the politics of blame and resume the effort to...humanize a market society out of control" Frances Fox Piven, co-author of regulating the poor: The functions of public welfare"

Herbert J. Gans, the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, is the author of numerous other books, including the Urban Villagers and The Livittowners. His writing has also appeared in The Nation,m the New York Times Magazine, and Dissent. A former president of the American Sociological Association, he recently received an award for "lifetime contributions to research" from it's urban section. By Basic Books A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers http://www.harpercollins.com

This is a tough read and it'll take me a while to get through it. It IS a painful read.

Lost but not forgotten

In Colorado, 40 percent of citizens who educated themselves about Amendment 51, supported and voted Yes. Another 60 percent who were not educated on the crisis of 12,000 individuals (both children and adults) who through no fault of their own have a developmental disability, such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome and other kinds of moderate to severe conditions of intellectual disabilities....voted NO. This was a crushing defeat, but parents and other grassroots advocates are not down and out. We are mobilizing our next steps. There was no organized opposition, but there were opponents that said we should go to the legislature. Ironically these were legislators who knew that we'd already been to the 2008 Legislative Session and there were minimal funds allocated by the governor. Most of the interim committee members, some of which were fiscally conservative Republicans, agreed that Amendment 51 was the only solution. The two legislators who voted no on every bill that came from the interim committee on long-term care healthcare services and supports, were the ones opposing amendment 51. They are the ones who said we should go to the legislature. It's a dog chasing it's tail. Colorado has a unique amendment to the constitution that says we must go to the voters and ask them for any statuatory or constitutional changes. This is what we did. The Tabor Amendment requires there shall be no spending beyond a 6 percent spending limit. The legislators are strapped to do the job we have elected them to do.
The loss of the A51 is a loss that we couldn't afford, but families and advocates will continue to fight the good fight. We need to set a precedent for other states, as there are nearly a million individuals with developmental disabilities waiting a decade or more for the needed services for which they are deemed eligible. The United States has 15 percent of it's population who have developmental disabilities. This is not that small a minority. We can not afford to continue and neglect the needs of this vulnerable population. If you multiply their parents, siblings, grandparents, friends and neighbors...that is more than half the population. Not everyone will care about the less fortunate, but something has to be done!