ACTION ALERT :: Child with autism charged, others same age NOT..

Clueless as to why I'm surprised, but here goes..

THANKS to that I am again back at the keyboard 24/7 as of this very past weekend, I just caught the following via a post over at Georgia Childrens Network (GCN) in tandem with only the second ever WSBTV weekday news alert I've ever received.. Fate being what she has been for me of late, these came within, say, an hour of each other today..

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Story #1 from the Tifton Gazette :: Autistic child charged with biting teacher: Student arrested for selling bogus drugs in seperate incident:

"An eight-year-old student at Horizon Academy school bit his teacher Thursday morning and was charged with battery."

*LOVE* how they tied the two stories together there, btw, even though they are unrelated.. Not.. :frown:

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Story #2 from WSBTV :: 3rd-Graders Allegedly Plotted To Attack Teacher..

"The nine students are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law, a prosecutor told the Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla. They include girls and boys, ages 8 and 9. Authorities withheld the Center Elementary School students' names."

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Cool, huh..?

Exact same ages.......

Exact same state.................

DIFFERENT laws...........................

Anyone catch my....... drift..? :raises left eyebrow:

United In Advocacy..

I Just Don't Get It :: All The Service Funding Cuts Going On..

Rumors (translation: no associated link of confirmation to share) came my way recently (waves to disABILITY LINK NW) that, here in Georgia, funding is in danger of being stripped away from supporting full community inclusion for PWDs and instead will be poured back in to nursing homes and other similar long term care facilities, i.e. jail and segregation.. With all the forward-thinking universal inclusion strides made through individuals' undaunted advocacy and self-advocacy efforts over the years, can we say, "Bass ackwards or what..??!!"

Another desperate "help stop this funding cut" action alert that just hit my inbox (waves to Glynda and Jeannie over at MHDDAD) comes from Mental Health America.. The Mental health slammed in Bush Budget, help fight back! alert states:

The President's $3.1 trillion proposed budget for FY 2009 abandons the millions of children and adults with mental health needs and others at risk of mental health problems. It slashes Medicaid funding by $18 billion over 5 years, and drastically cuts funding of a wide range of other federal programs critical to people with or at risk of mental health problems.

On behalf of the most vulnerable, we CANNOT let this happen. Raise your voice with others and call on Congress to reject the Administration's budget and adopt a budget that makes children and adults living with, or at risk of, mental health conditions one of the nation's most urgent priorities.

What's getting these fingertips more than just a little bit bent of late are the seemingly gabillions of Marines.com U.S. Marine Corps ads running right now...........

Proudly announcing sponsorship of...........

Totally Life-altering...........

Totally Life-affecting...........

Basketball games.

Am I completely mistaken, or is not the military also funded by federal dollars..??

Perhaps near even wholly supported by the same..??

And, if so, could not those dollars being wantonly spent on frivolous ballgames not be redirected to rescue Life-saving, Life-sustaining, non-segregation-supporting community services constantly in danger of being cut..?

:scratches head and furrows brow:

Guessing that those who hold our Nation's purse strings do so have their priorities, doesn't they.. :wink:

Warm cyber hugs from the Hills of Northwest Georgia..

Celebrity Privilege :: Paris Hilton released from jail already..

Just now got a Yahoo! news alert saying that Paris Hilton has already been released from a Los Angeles County jail.. And I'm genuinely surprised, WHY..?

Saw a piece about her whining on some wee hours entertainment program just a few hours ago.. Never crossed my mind she'd get away with it..

Celebrity privilege.. Unbelievable dadgum nauseating celebrity privilege..

Sigh.......

Oh, yeah, PS forgot to mention that, bless her little heart, she will be confined to her home, i.e. her mansion.. Advocacy op in the form of a discrimination lawsuit for anyone who does not receive the exact same treatment forever more into the Future..

PPS.. If Paris sincerely had Life-affecting mental health issues concerning her incarceration, does not the Los Angeles County jail system have responsible mental health care services upon demand in place at this time..? Are jail systems in this day and age still so dehumanized they do not get that facing one's wrongs in a cold, hard jail cell does a little something to even the very strongest of Minds..?

A personal observation slash prediction: Documented triple digits die here in Georgia under very questionable, DOJ-intervening circumstances, and nothing hits the biased media circuits save for the generous front page coverage the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) has consciously elected to regularly provide.. Yet let a rich, whiny brat celebrity worm her way out of a judicially issued jail sentence, and it will be clogging, inundating my inbox from all directions for days..

Personal to Self-Advocates :: Two questions to ask any entity..

You're contemplating supporting, be it virtually, financially, or spiritually:

• Does the organization in question advocate the support of the self-advocate Voice under all circumstances..?
• Does the organization in question advocate the desegregation of persons with disabilities under all circumstances..?

If you encounter a "yes" answer to the first, cool beans, for there are those who answer "no".. Should an entity choose to advocate the squelching of the newly empowered self-advocate Voices springing up all over our World, one cannot help but doubt the motivation of an entity that openly, publicly advocates to (seemingly) more powerful entities that they throw the self-advocate Voice into the figurative Trash, especially should that original entity be one that itself presents a public facade of encouraging independent living..

If you encounter a "yes" answer to the second, the desegregation of persons with disabilities under all circumstances, cool beans, again.. To those who answer "no" to this question, one might do well to ask why they choose to support an action that will only serve to encourage other entities to follow suit, thus setting backwards a movement that has taken some 30, 40-odd years plus to create, the 100% full, unfettered inclusion of all persons with disabilities in our communities..

Just one person's most humble O.. The Choice, as always, is yours..

Personal to Neal Boortz :: Meet your future, er, Don Imus..

First encountered this during.. a bit of a downer so it lay dormant in my inbox, just biding its time.. Hit me today that.. Timing is everything thanks to MSNBC's Don Imus and his recent racial slur debacle..

Not being able to process streaming media (probably most thankfully in this case), no idea what exactly was said on air by Neal Boortz during one of his regular shows.. You all will have to find out and tell me.. Neal's website offers a media stream version and a media download of Neal's apparent editorial on individuals with visual impairments (blind community) and the danger they face when encountering quiet hybrid cars..

Didn't have to hear the download, though, to get the gist of his projected contempt for persons with disabilities.. Number One of his two choice poll stated, "Neal's right...slap a strobe light helmet or a dayglo orange overcoat on those blind people"..

First thing came to mind then and continues to come to mind now is.. Mr. Boortz, you would not have said anything even remotely close had it had an ethnic twist to it.. You'd have lost your job, your livelihood because of the outcry..

But.. Obviously it remains, like, totally cool, fully acceptable by public standards to psychologically beat up on a PWD (person with a disability) because..

You're still employed and spuing your trash talk while Mr. Imus will no longer be just days after whatever it was he pulled in undeniably similar circumstances..

P.S.. Neal does prove that he doesn't discriminate in stereotypically portraying disabilities, mental illness in this next snippet.. The same time the above came out, his supporters were making teehees over him apparently getting away with some story about a "diaper-wearing crazy astronaut" (their quote, not mine).. Again, someone out there will have to hear it (streaming media, download) and share whether the "crazy" theme carried any further than attempted childish newsletter shock value as my 'puter's too slow to handle his cr#p right now..

P.P.S.. While we're at it, we need to put in a request to Mr. Boortz's webmaster.. Links to a text version of the above media streams were not readily available, accessible relational to those same streams at the time they were stumbled upon.. Without that type of alternative format being provided alongside the other, access is being denied to persons with hearing impairments, but, then one would be surprised, why..?