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AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Tuesday January 22, 2002
INDEX:
* Bush Proposes $1 Billion
Increase for IDEA
* Enron Hits Autism Family Employees Lost Jobs, Savings and a Sense
of
Trust
* Giving Kids A Helping Hand: Little Wonders Spark Sweet Joy
* IF I COULD ONLY TELL YOU WHO I AM
******************************
Bush Proposes $1 Billion Increase for IDEA
Bush Links Education Funds, MLK Day
By Sonya Ross
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, January 19, 2002; 12:53 PM WASHINGTON ––
President Bush announced plans Saturday to devote an extra $2 billion to
federal programs for special education students and the nation's poorest
schools. Such a commitment, he said, is in keeping with the philosophies of
Martin Luther King Jr.Bush used his weekly radio address to link the federal
King holiday to his efforts to improve education, saying the
"institutionalized bigotry" that King fought has been vanquished, and
it is now time to take on less tangible struggles, such as ensuring equal
education."Our challenge is to make sure that every child has a fair
chance to succeed in life," Bush said. "That is why education is the
great civil rights issue of our time."Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would
accept no less than an equal concern for every child in America, and neither
will my administration," Bush said.Earlier this month, Bush signed into
law a far-reaching education bill that requires annual reading and math tests
for children in grades three through eight beginning in the 2005-06 school
year. It also mandates that schools bolster teacher qualifications and develop
periodic "report cards" ranking their standardized test scores with
other area schools.Under the new law, schools must improve reading and math
proficiency among students and close performance gaps between wealthy and poor
students and between white and minority students.Bush said he will propose, in
his 2003 budget plan, a $1 billion increase in funding for federal Title I
programs for disadvantaged students. He will also propose a $1 billion increase
in assistance for "special needs" children under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act."But we want these new dollars to carry to
special education the same spirit of reform and accountability we have brought
to other education programs," Bush said. "We must have high
expectations for children who are more difficult to teach or who have fallen
behind."The White House said the money announced Saturday represents a 10
percent increase in Title I funding and a 13 percent increase in IDEA funding
over the previous year.The president said he planned to hold a ceremony at the
White House on Monday to commemorate the federal King holiday. Among those
scheduled to attend are King's widow, Coretta Scott King, and one of her two
daughters, the White House said.First lady Laura Bush will go to Atlanta,
King's hometown, Bush said. She is scheduled to speak at a service at King's
church, Ebenezer Baptist.Bush was to sign a holiday proclamation that praised
King as "a modern American hero whose leadership rallied people of all
races to rise up against injustice," and said the holiday in honor of his
birthday takes on greater importance because of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks."Dr. King's unwavering commitment to nonviolent means of bringing
the people of our nation together provided a foundation for healing and trust.
That trust brought us through our recent tragedy as we reached out to each
other without regard to race or religion."In the Democratic radio
response, Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe called the
Sept. 11 attacks "an act of unspeakable brutality that must be
avenged," and agreed that the nation should rally around Bush's efforts
against terrorism.Looking forward to this fall's congressional elections,
McAuliffe said: "It's true that the president's approval ratings are high.
But we found out in last year's elections that the president's personal appeal
doesn't help other Republicans, and doesn't suggest a national embrace of
Republican ideas."He said Democrats intend to spread the message this year
that "the flag for which our military is fighting must not symbolize a
nation paralyzed by debt and smothered by joblessness, a nation that fails to
protect its elderly or safeguard its natural resources."
© 2002 The
Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7297-2002Jan19.html
******************************
Enron
Hits Autism Family Employees Lost Jobs, Savings and a Sense of Trust
By RICK BRAGG
OUSTON,
Jan. 19 — This is not just hard times, not just one more company to shut its doors
in a sagging economy and leave employees with unpaid mortgages and uncertain
retirements. It is not even simple greed, not merely another boss who
sacrificed people for profits, who moved a plant to Mexico to avoid paying
minimum wage.This, said some of the 4,000 laid-off workers of Enron (news/quote),
was a betrayal by executives who hid the corporation's crumbling finances and
fattened their bank accounts while their employees' jobs and retirement funds —
built from Enron stock — disappeared. "What about us?" said Sandra
Stone, 51, an executive assistant who lost a $49,000-a-year job and Enron stock
rewards that were valued at $150,000 at one point.As the corporation
floundered, executives told workers it had never been more solid, said Ms.
Stone, who said she routinely worked 12-hour days and skipped lunch. The long
hours proved her loyalty to Enron, she said, and the overtime pay made life
better for her and her 71-year-old mother, who lives with her in a two- bedroom
apartment in Houston."They kept telling us, `Don't sell, don't sell, it's
going to go up.' And they issued more options," Ms. Stone said of the
stock. She said that Kenneth L. Lay, Enron's chairman, once told employees,
" `In a year or two, we'll be laughing at this.'
(NYT)
Mark Lindquist, with his son, is one
of many laid-off workers of Enron who say executives betrayed them by hiding
the corporation's crumbling finances.
In Depth
Understanding
Enron
What happened to the company, and what are the implications? A guide
Multiple
Safeguards Failed to Detect Problems at Enron (January 20, 2002)
"No," she said, "we
won't."Instead, as the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange
Commission and Congress investigate the company's business practices, thousands
of employees scramble for new jobs in a difficult economy. They say they may be
forced to sell houses and they wonder how they will pay medical bills.Mark
Lindquist, a Web designer who lost a $56,000-a-year job and all his benefits,
has to figure out how he can pay for therapy for his autistic son. "The
upper-level executives got their money," Mr. Lindquist said. "I was
let go by voice mail," he said.Clyde Johnson, who made $70,000 a year as a
trouble-shooter in information and technology, is not sure how long he can keep
up the $1,245 monthly payments on the home he shares with his 11-year-old son.
"I'm a single parent," Mr. Johnson, 33, said. "The house is
beige brick, on a cul- de-sac, with a nice backyard. It's a dream house for
us." When the layoff came, he said, "They told me I had 30
minutes" to clear out his desk. "Wrap your life up, and get
out," he said.Some longtime Enron employees lost hundreds of thousands of
dollars as the value of stock they accumulated in Enron's boom times tumbled in
a period when they were not allowed to sell it. Some lost a precious weekly
paycheck and crucial health benefits. One employee's wife has had two strokes
over the past two weeks, and the family has no way to pay the bills.For others,
Enron's collapse affected solidly middle-class lives in smaller ways. Enron was
paying an employee's business school tuition so she could make her life better.
Another woman worried that her daughter could no longer go to ice skating
classes because of the cost.Enron was the machine that powered their dreams,
big and small. It would have been different if it had been one of those giant,
sluggish companies where some employees could go at half-speed and hide in the
bureaucracy, said workers here. But at Enron, employees earned their paychecks
or they were let go. Employees called it "rank and yank."In her six
years with the company, Ms. Stone got up at 4:15 a.m. and was routinely at work
by 6 a.m. "You either got with the system or you were out the door,"
said Ms. Stone, who did not consider it oppressive. "You could feel the
excitement at 6 a.m." Ms. Stone said. "You walk in the door and got
energized, all those creative juices flowing. You worked with the best, the
most brilliant. It was a great, great company."There was also a feeling of
invincibility. The company backed political campaigns, paid millions of dollars
to charities and hung its name on skyscrapers and a sports stadium. It was not
unusual, before the 2000 presidential election, to look up and see George W.
Bush in the building, Ms. Stone said. "Enron bred arrogance," she
said. One executive, she said, had $56,000 on his expense account for one
month. She worried that such extravagances were bad for the company, Ms. Stone
said, but it was Enron, and Enron was untouchable.Mr. Lindquist, 39, who said
he remembered a feeling a security when he joined Enron eight years ago, put it
this way: "You can't crush a company this big, this strong. They were into
everything." It seemed to be more than just business. The company bosses
talked about respect and integrity, and passed out paperweights that said so.
"We put our trust in C.E.O.'s," Mr. Lindquist said. "It was a
personal thing. You got to see the company grow," in part from your own
hard work. All that was a myth, he said. Mr. Lindquist is not a wealthy man.
His wife, Kim, cannot work because she needs to stay at home with their
autistic son, Garrett, 3. Mr. Lindquist's paycheck and some small savings are
all that stand between them and foreclosure on their home. "We don't know
how we'll pay our bills," he said. With his benefits gone, too, he does
not know how long the family can continue to pay for therapies that are
important to their son's development.Mr. Lindquist is searching for work, for a
new start, but with a nagging sense of betrayal. "I don't think I'll ever
trust another company," Mr. Lindquist said.People say that all the time
when they lose a job, but for Enron employees, it rings with conviction. Mr.
Johnson tried to do everything right. He served 10 years in the Air Force,
training in computers and technology. Mr. Johnson went to work at a solid
company in Houston, so he could make a good home for his son, Courtney, whom he
raises alone. He bought a house in Katy, far from the noise and crime of
Houston, and when a job opened at Enron two years ago, it seemed like just one
more correct, solid decision to make."I left a good job, but I was
excited, and the money was better," Mr. Johnson said. He had grown up in Houston,
and Enron was more than a paycheck. "It had such strong values," he
said.He moved from department to department, and the work was demanding. But
the workers seemed to relish the pressure. "We built this place,"
they liked to say. "Then they threw us all out," Mr. Johnson said.
His son is old enough to know they are in trouble. "He knows not to ask
for things, now," Mr. Johnson said. "He's a big boy." Now he,
Ms. Stone, Mr. Lindquist and thousands of others are competing in a job market
where Enron has won little good will — the company had hired many of the city's
and the industry's most talented people. "Enron is not a good name in
Houston right now," Mr. Johnson said. But even if Enron is mostly just a
hulk of a business now, it did one thing for its employees: It trained them to
do their jobs at a level above the average. "I know I can outwork those
36- year-olds," Ms. Stone said. "I'll work hard again." Even as
federal investigators move to try and determine how this mess happened, some
employees are still loyal to the company, still trying to squeeze out one last
deal. They pleaded with reporters not to write anything bad about Enron.
Remembrances of Enron seem to circle back to the same thing, that it was more
than work, more than a paycheck. People use words like "family" and
do not care how corny it sounds. They talk about Enron as if it were a stern
but beloved uncle who passed out nickels only when the chore was done just
right."But it wasn't personal," said Mr. Lindquist, of his
relationship with the company. He wanted to believe it was, but it was not.
"It was just business."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/20/business/20WORK.html?ex=1012546909&ei=1&en=127ef34a86905ab2
******************************
Giving Kids A Helping
Hand: Little Wonders Spark Sweet Joy
By Caitlin Cleary
Seattle Times staff reporter
Related stories
Fund
for the Needy donors as of Jan. 20
BELLEVUE — Inside the makeshift walls of the Kindering
Center, crawling, walking and swallowing are not easy or automatic progressions
but cherished victories. In the classrooms, covered gamely with
construction-paper gingerbread men, stunted vocabularies expand to include new
words. Silly songs rescue lost speech. The world, complex and remote, is broken
down into steps and patterns for children to learn and practice. In this way,
parents are given back, bit by bit, the children who started slipping away from
them months before. Every year, 1,000 families with disabled or medically
fragile children come to Kindering Center, a nonprofit neurodevelopmental
center that benefits from the Seattle Times Fund for the Needy. Kindering
Center helps children under age 3 with conditions like cerebral palsy, Down
syndrome and autism to walk, crawl, stand, play, eat, learn and communicate,
and helps parents care for their children. But the waiting list for Kindering
Center, the only such facility of its kind on the Eastside, grows every year.
In 2000, 166 children were turned away. The few other Puget Sound area
neurodevelopmental centers also are full, said development director Jennifer Pineda.
With home visits, family counseling, intensive speech therapy, a specialized
preschool program, and other crucial early interventions, the toddlers at
Kindering Center gradually transition into school, buoyed by better motor,
language and social skills. This is how Molly Morgenstern is emerging, bit by
bit. Molly is one of a rapidly growing number of children diagnosed with some
form of autism. Last week in a classroom at the Kindering Center, she played
with a mechanical frog, throwing plastic pieces into its opening and closing
and rotating mouth, her father, Mark Morgenstern, watching close by. "I
had the book knowledge, the stereotypical view of what autism was," said
Morgenstern, a drug and alcohol counselor. "That it's a kid rocking in the
corner, not affectionate, not interested in the world. That stuff doesn't apply
to Molly." The 2½-year-old, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, is
affectionate and engaging. She knows her ABCs and her colors. She can count to
15, complete puzzles and memorize hours of Blue's Clues videos. Where Molly's
autism makes its mark is in the realm of communication. She can label things
and echo words, but must learn how to communicate that she wants something. She
has to learn how to sign, to imitate the actions of her peers, how to follow
directions, how to eat and sit and play with other children. The currency of
Molly's learning is music. "Music is Molly's most absolutely motivating
thing," said her teacher, Kari Grimit. "That's her best time, when
she makes eye contact and imitates." Five days a week, Molly attends the
CUBS program at Kindering Center, a mixture of preschool and intensive,
one-on-one instruction, modeled after an autism-education project at the
University of Washington. After 90 days in the program, her vocabulary has
nearly doubled, Morgenstern said, interrupting himself to exclaim that Molly
has just made the sign for "more." Once a child who couldn't get
through a 10-minute "circle" of story time, Molly can now do things most
children and parents take for granted: sitting still, singing, listening,
putting her mat away, getting her coat. "One of the hardest things I've
had to do as a parent is to trash all my underlying expectations of what her
life is going to look like," Morgenstern said. "Now I just take it
one day at a time."
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?s
lug=fundforneedy20m&date=20020120
******************************
IF I COULD ONLY TELL YOU WHO I AM
by Dan Huber, MS
The impulses come and go. Some days are good for me, some are not. Many
messages come my way. "I love you very much...If you could only stop that
constant demanding!" "I love you very much...if only you could slow
down!"
But who are you speaking for? Is it truly for me, your beloved child? Or is
it for you, to release the pain, inconvenience, and hard work I cause you? I
try so hard to be good, to be helpful, to find some way to get your love and
acceptance. Most things I try do not work. I know I can trouble you. I know
I
wear you down. I know I embarrass you in front of your friends, our
neighbors, wherever we go. I know I am different. But you forgot that I'm a
child, who speaks only with the tools of a child. My tools are my behaviors.
I know no other way to tell you who I am. I want very much to please you and
to love you, to earn your praise and gentle affection. But, I trip over my
own feet trying to love you.I often do things without thinking first. I know
I am hard for you to raise, but, besides you, I am all I have. I do not
understand your words, though you may think I do. Words confuse me. Speak to
me from you heart, not your head. You yell at me, because nothing else seems
to work. Please forgive me for making you do this, as I forgive you for
doing
this to me. All I am really trying to do, in my own clumsy, childish way, is
get you to love me, in spite of my behavior. I also want very much to learn
how to love you.So, the next time I act before I think, or the next time you
feel like raising your voice in anger and frustration, please understand
that
I am scared, lonely, frustrated, and angry at what I have created and live
with inside of me. Please see through my behavior to my heart. This will
make
it easier for me to see yours, too, for I always follow your example. Be
gentle and kind, yet firm in your love for me. It's hard for me to trust my
lovability. I want you to help me see through to the light of your love, so
I
can discover the truly lovable person I am.Do you now know who I am? I am a
difficult child, perhaps the difficult child in all of us. I am the family's
troublesome youngster. I am trying to teach you to let go and expand the
boundaries you have set around loving yourself and others.As a child, I try
to teach you this through my behavior. As part of your inner self, I teach
you to love that which you do not approve of in yourself. In relationships,
I
teach your through conflict to forget our differences and remember our
hearts. You can do this through times of unconditional love: walks in the
park, an unexpected hug, time spent playing together, or a few quiet moments
with me before bedtime. These things open my heart, and convince me you love
me even when I try to be unlovable for reasons I don't understand.WE ARE
HERE
TO TEACH EACH OTHER. Let's work together, then, to become the loving,
majestic, innocent, and forgiving children of beauty that exist within us,
expressing the highest qualities in us all.
******************************
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