Simland

Soooo... I started this blog. Intended to write all about my thoughts on the topic of chronic sorrow, my feelings about raising my son with disabilities, my perspective as a mother of a child with disabilities on issues such as policy, law, health insurance and health practices, education, counseling, criminology, and social stigmas. So why is it two months later before I'm submitting my second post? Because I've been consumed with my sims character on facebook, lol. Can you blame me? It's a safe place there. A happy place. I have a beautiful house, great neighbors. I'm given these random quests and ALL of the supports I need to complete them. It's so easy. Why would I want to go anywhere else?

Still, my heart comes back here. I hear myself in daily conversations with my partner, spewing my thoughts on HLN's Nancy Grace and her frequent persecution of parents and families of whom she knows nothing about. Take for instance the latest in which Hillary Adams released a video of her father beating her 7 years ago (http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-03/justice/justice_texas-video-beating_1_video-game-store-criminal-charge-statute?_s=PM:JUSTICE). The girl was 16 years old at the time...OH, and she has CEREBRAL PALSY. According to Nancy Grace I suppose we are not to discipline our children if they have disabilities. I have never beaten my child like that, but I have certainly had my share of beatings like that when I was a child. It did me no harm whatsoever. In this particular case, the girl was downloading music from the internet...illegally. Her father's a judge. That's a felony. Committed in HIS house. Can't say I wouldn't have beaten the hell out of her myself. The point is, Nancy Grace watched a 7-minute video made and formed an opinion about this family, these parents. And that is the trouble with the world today. How can anyone, yes even the almighty Nancy Grace, justify forming an opinion of an entire family after watching a 7-minute video?? She has no IDEA what led up to that moment. She has NO idea what it's like to live in that house. She can't even begin to take a meaningful perspective on THEIR experiences of life. But she does. And so does everyone else. The people who called in that night to Nancy's show, the bloggers, the facebookers... they all immediately went on the attack. "I would NEVER do that to my child!" "He should be in prison for LIFE!" Such strong statements. And the damage done with statements like that, especially to those of us who raise children with disabilities, seems almost irreparable. And that is another reason I haven't been here in a while, I suppose. I want to change things. I want to share a perspective with the world that the world doesn't want to see or understand. I recognize the overwhelming challenge in taking my stance... I recognize that I am just one voice, and sometimes I just throw up my hands and say, "screw it."

But THEN, I come back. I can't give up, and I know I never will. I can't give up for myself, for my child, and for mothers like Kristen LaBrie. This morning though, this is all I have. And so I go back to Simland. More later....