Update on "Combatting Autism" legislation...

I just learned on Kristina Chew's "Autism Vox" site that the Combatting Autism Act has passed the senate (http://www.autismvox.com/on-money-autism-research-and-autism-education/). Having only just discovered this legislation (see my 3-August post), & knowing that there's no way my senators will have read my protest emails, I am feeling upset & rather ashamed. Why didn't I clue into this issue earlier? Why couldn't I have been more effective?

My main connections to the world at large are through the internet (mostly blogs) & our local, alternative weekly paper. We do not get the daily paper for a combination of reasons. We are not impressed with the quality of present-day journalism. The stories & photos that they choose to print are violent & depressing & nothing I need or want to see. We watch no commercial tv, just PBS. I read tv guide anyway, so that I understand what other folks are talking about :) I have magazine subscriptions- to Handwoven & Spin-Off (handspinning mag), Consumer Reports & Games Magazine, & B gets National Geographic Kids & the Lego magazine as well. C is exposed to more popular culture than we are, by the magazines & newspapers that are in his office, plus he peruses CNN online occasionally & listens to NPR on his 7 minute trips to & from the office :) We have good neighbours that we look out for & get updates from the neighbourhood association online. We have a sense of what's happening in the larger world through our church community, too, which also gives us opportunities to help the community, through contibuting to the food bank & housing homeless people in our church. So, we do not entirely live in a bubble... although our world has narrowed somewhat in the past few months due to B's OCD. We avoid picnics where meat is being served because B can't bear to think of animals being eaten. We avoid taking him to unfamiliar restaurants whenever possible because it's hard to know if there will be OCD triggers there (our trip to Washington DC in June was hampered by this). We struggle to help him ovecome triggers that arise in familiar places, like church, because we don't want to disconnect any more than we have...

I suppose this is the best explanation of my out-of-loopness. My main attention is on my family & what affects us directly. I do not usually wish for more because my life is pretty satisfying, all told. It does make me wonder where the hyper-advocate parents get all their energy (particularly those striving to "cure" their children). And it does make me wish that I could do more autism advocacy on larger level, particularly when I find myself disagreeing with the advocates from larger & more vocal groups, about their attitudes & language (fighting words, in particular). Being a Jedi-sort, I try to keep an awareness of balance in my life. To push myself more in any direction would cause the balance to suffer, so I'm just going to have to suck-up the shame & keep doing what I'm doing, the best way I know how. May the Force be with me...