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I have a 15 month old son w/ spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. He just learned to crawl last week,and we are all SO proud of him. We almost lost him twice,once at birth ( I had placenta previa & a placental abruption and began to hemmorage,& was rushed to the hospital via ambulance for an emergency C-section.) and again a week later. It's a miracle he is still w/ us. Palin absolutely makes me ILL regarding her baby. I KNOW the difficulties of having a special needs child ,she doesn't. Why the hell isn't she WITH her child? I could care less if she's a man or a woman,that baby needs her FULL TIME. The way they exploit him & try to get sympathy votes discusts me and many of my friends on special needs parenting forums.
Can someone please help me find proof whether or not she cut special olympic funding in Alaska? Some have said she did,others said she didn't. Thanks for any help you can give me!!
Let’s look at a recent one, #83. The rumor, as it was reported, was that Palin had “cut the Special Olympics funding in half.” Now, here are the facts (and thanks to Warren Throckmorton for digging this out):
The 2006 budget was $250,000.
The 2007 budget as passed by the Alaskan legislature was $650,000
After Palin used her line-item veto authority, the new budget was $275,000
I have to disagree with that analyzation. Normal children have needs yes, but children like hers and others' with down syndrome need more. It starts at day one not years from now and I don't understand how you can say it's insulting.
I have a special needs child and I agree with the original poster. We could have never foreseen how hard this road is. We had no idea. My child is six and we are just at the tip of the iceberg. She is absolutely 100% correct in her statement.
Here's another thing about Palin's personal interest in special needs children. Right now, her baby is just that: a baby. She is new to special needs parenting. All she can see is an adorable little baby with bright eyes, and all the other adorable little babies with bright eyes on special needs parenting boards or (eventually) in her child's special needs preschool (or at OT/PT), and it's all about "the children". "Let's help the children, let's save the children."
Everybody wants to help a child. A cute little cuddly chubby sweetheart.
I GUARANTEE you that when my son is 45 years old, 190 pounds and still shrieking, stimming, licking objects and speaking in two-word phrases, NOBODY is going to say, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh! What a little sweetie! Oh what a blessing from God. Let's help him!" No, the reality is, they'll say, "Ugh. I'm glad he's somebody else's problem."
(Yep, crying while I write that last part. But this is reality. This is a future I have to think about. And no, I never started really thinking about it until my C was four years old and we had a clearer picture that we weren't going to be in the miracle 7% or whatever. NO parent of a differently-abled person does.)
Palin is all on fire right now to help "the children!" but what would she intend to do toward the rest of a special needs person's life? You know...the vast majority of the special needs person's existence?
She'll be hurrying to better the conditions of halfway houses and special needs work programs? That costs money. From where? She won't have huge success showing sniffly commercials of special needs adults. That only works with children...remember? Palin from what I've seen of her is extremely short-sighted. I don't see her looking into the future this way and really bettering a differently abled person's life. That's a problem right there. Some of this isn't her fault, though. The bottom line and point of this post: As a new parent to a special needs person, you're all on fire to "Do something!!!!!!!!!!" (Trust me. I know.) Can you? Sure. With money. A LOT of money. Can Palin see the big picture right now? No. None of us parents of differently abled people can. How can we? We're so full of hope that our own children will be in the 5% that live independently or what have you. Palin may have the "fire" to do it, but she doesn't have the experience to understand the long haul...and she isn't the right political affiliation to turn any of that passion into an actual usable program. Her very own own prez ("soul mate! giggle, burble" will NEVER allow her to. And you, the taxpayer, would freak out at having to pay anyway.
So there's my stance on it.
God bless you, a good reminder that it takes more than words.
I believe this is what special needs children and parents need. Someone with their own experiences leading the way at a top level. There are some great programs out there that need the backing and aren't getting it and the parents are either broke or going broke with no assistance for these children. Our son has asbergers and when he was a child, it wasn't understood. Today, we have a better handle on it and now that he is an adult, he understands his social anxieties and works with them. Had we been in the same position today, the kid would be doped up all the time.
I agree and I am very glad that Palin will make this a project of hers. I worked with special needs populations for years and believe me the programs and funding available need all the help they can get. I think she will make a difference and I do not think she is "exploiting" her situation in any way. That is just ridiculous. I guess you have to have a special needs child or be close to those that do to know how silly that sounds.
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