Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Here is a complete list of the foods my son eats: Preferred foods: Pretzels, Cottage Cheese, , Craisins, Fig newtons and similar cookies, noodles (penne and rotini), blueberries (his favorite thing!), cheerios (honey nut), applesauce, oatmeal, yogurt Emerging foods: Saltines, Graham crackers, cereal bars, melon. Of those, only oatmeal and noodles are “hot” foods. And …
In Canada, a few weeks ago, a girl opened a bottle of Vitamin Water (owned by Coca-Cola). The cap had two words on it, reading: “You Retard.” She took a picture of it and showed to her father, who immediately contacted the media and wrote to the company. The girl has two younger sisters (age …
Over the last week, news and reaction about the Ethan Saylor case continued to unfold. I want to use my Monday morning blog to highlight an especially important response from http://kimchilatkes.com/. The author is also a parent of a child with Down syndrome and wrote in response to this story from Maryland. In the story, …
Not long after our son Nico was born and diagnosed with Down Syndrome, we began sharing the news with our community of friends and family. Frequently, people found a way to express their concerns by talking about bullying. I’ve spent years thinking about why that is, how the mental space occupied in people’s minds by …
For the past year, I have been writing about a persistent pattern of police violence against people with disabilities. I have been particularly focused on the Ethan Saylor case, of course. But the stories proliferate, with a new one almost every week. On Monday, I argued that you can read both the Times Square police …
I ran across a story on the Huffington Post. The title – Will And Kate Fight Stigma Against Down Syndrome In Beautiful Way. The story unfolds by talking about the royals first: He’s only a little over a month old, but Prince George may have already learned his greatest lesson from his benevolent parents. Prince …
Yesterday, two New York Police shot two women in Times Square. Both are in the hospital and stable, that’s the good news. They were shooting at someone who they thought had a weapon. Police said officers saw a man on foot weaving erratically through traffic and sometimes blocking vehicles. After approaching him, police said, the …
My son uses words, jargon (sounds that are not recognizable to people who aren’t in the know), signs, gestures, expressions, symbols, and an I-pad to communicate. We’re deeply in to the assistive technology world – it’s helping Nico find a voice that anyone could understand, rather than just his family, teachers, and therapists. So it …
Jacob Barnett, a 14-year-old with Asbergers, is a genius. Now I think the smarter-than-Einstein gimmick that reporters use (here’s one on an 11-year-old English girl) just demonstrates how little we understand about intelligence and how limited the notion of IQ (the number) is. That said, Barnett is clearly a genius. I’m interested in two things …
Dear Governor O’Malley, This morning the family and supporters of Ethan Saylor will deliver over 338,000 signatures to you. They are asking you to do two things. First, call an independent investigation of the death of Ethan Saylor. Second, standardize training for police in how to handle situations like this in the future. Let’s take …