Outrageous!!!

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned more than half a century of decisions on restricting corporate and union financing of election campaign contributions, essentially opening the floodgates for special interests to pour money into campaigns to persuade officials to vote their way or eliminate those who don't comply. Equating the average citizen's free speech with that of a corporation is almost ludicrous. In fact, when I first heard about this decision, I was on my way to work, and assumed I had misunderstood the radio announcer's words. When I realized I hadn't misunderstood, I can only say I was stunned. Can a corporation vote? Run for public office? No wonder we citizens feel so powerless, and now we will be even more so.

People with disabilities are already at the bottom of the rung in terms of having a voice. Those of us who advocate for their needs know very well that the first services to go are to those to persons with special needs. However will we be able to combat the likes of pharmacy and oil corporations, insurance and union interests? And why will anyone listen to our needs, when we can't offer them tons of money? What kind of a screwed up democracy are we stuck in???

As I write this, we are looking at a week of incessant rain; stormy, windy, can't-play-outside kind of weather. 'Heads-up, 7-up' doesn't quite cut it when we're trying to entertain a school full of students with autism and other neurological challenges!! But, wait - let's think of this as an opportunity to get creative. We always think we are following the lead of the students as we design our curriculum, but days like the next few really will challenge us to see if this is just our own perception of how we're doing - but is it the reality of what the students experience? If they aren't engaged and having fun while learning, they will quickly let us know. And we must be flexible and ready to shift our gears to make the coming days as stimulating and yet challenging to our students as possible.

So, instead of dreading the coming week, I'm hoping our wonderful team at MAC will rise to the occasion as they usually do and create something wonderful. It should be great fun for everyone!