Today i am going to begin by writing a little about my children.Regardless of my struggles with health issues,i am very lucky to be a stay at home dad.I get the privlige of sending them off to school,and welcoming them home.From bathtime to bedtime stories,these are days i will cherish as the boys grow into men.My usual daily routine is mostly domestic duties,but tonight we begin a social skills program that Matthew needs to aid him due to his being in the autism spectrum.It will last ten weeks and i am hopeful he and i will both learn alot.I look forward to the parent componant as it will be open forum to discuss topics of currant importance.
Matthew would be considered high functioning as far as his placement within the spectrum.At eight yrs old he sometimes struggles with recognising social cues,and he requires a pretty rigid schedule to maintain comfortable transitions from one task to the next.When things randomly change for whatever reason,this can upset him greatly.We use social stories to help with changes and we have been preparing for this class for several weeks now.
One of the meathods this group uses to help the kids define their personal space is they have them sit inside a hula-hoop.Some therapists use rug squares for this as well,a friend who works in the field tells me.I want my older son,Jeromy,to feel involved in helping Matthew too.Since his mother is at work he is forced to accompany us albeit unwillingly,so i offered to take them out to dinner after each class as a fun reward for participation.Jeromy has always been helpful in caring for his brother,including changing schools this year so they could be in the same school.He had to leave behind classmates he had been with for six years and enter a completely new peer group.I will continue to post comments on our progress in this class as move along through the weeks.
The news today includes familiar headlines,from a bombing in bagdad that killed three dozen and wounded many more,to the partisan rancor paralyzing the political process,to the upcoming state of the union speach by our president on wednesday.All of these topics are worthy of comments,and i am going to try to briefly touch on each for my personal opinion.I speak without any malice toward folks of opposite opinions,and if i offend anyone for my position please comment so i can understand and possibly ammend positions.Every single life lost is of consequence in this global fight we find ourselves in.Supporting our troops while opposing the war is a difficult balance to make.The changes in policy since the new administration has been in office have had a year to develop,and in my opinion we are not in a better position to bring these conflicts to a conclusion.Guantanamo Bay is not closed,and dozens of the captives have been deemed to dangerous to release but cannot be tried due to the sensative nature of information deemed classified from their captures.To hold people without charges in a war that seems open ended in nature is against all that freedom represents.The declaration of war on "terror" which is really a battle technique of small group of fundamentalist religeous extremists cannot meet the strict constitutional requirements to grant the president the "unitary executive"powers used in our democracy in war time,in my opinion.These powers bypass congressional and judicial oversight,and can only be used under limited and extrordinary circumstances.War on an ideal could last for decades or even longer and unchecked executive powers would leave our nation a broken shell of a once great demcratic republic.
The closer we move to the elections in november,the more evident it will become to everyone what unchecked corporate and union spending will do to the legaslative process.Already in turmoil from the partisan nature of our current political environment,fear of special interest attack ads will cripple politicians ability to address lightning rod issues that are critically important and need to be solved.From health care issues to security and foreign policy,they will avoid anything that threatens their electability.We can expect the process to become more bogged down,less progress on key legislation,and alot of finger pointing at who is to blame.Airwaves will be flooded,from radio and television,to billboard and internet.As our overloaded senses become numb to the deluge of information,local and national media outlets will reap finacial rewards.
As we lurch ahead in this poison partisan atmosphere,washingtons ugly underbelly will be revealed.Some liken the legaslative process to making sausage,but the meat grinder has completely frozen.For most of our countrys existance sunlight has been the untimate way to expose truth in politics.Since the sidestepping and delay tactics that have paralyzed Washington continues,fear will continue to allow lobbyists and special interests to dominate the political system while media outlets continue to benefit from new rounds of spending on political ads.I love this country,and i hope the next election will bring the change neccessary to give my children the future they deserve.I will end by saying until next time thank you for reading. spacewalker
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