Thursday, April 19, 2012



April is not OK

Today is the 17th anniversary of the bombing in Oklahoma City, OK. Swing by Fox News if you're so inclined. Nothing on the home page. Pop over to MSNBC. Nothing on the home page.

How is it that the nation has simply "gotten over" the horrific day when a deranged man who looked a lot like many of us white Americans murdered 168 men, women and children? From the Memorial website: On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a rental truck with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and at 9:02am, a massive explosion occurred which sheared the entire north side of the building, killing 168 people.

April is also "Autism Awareness Month," although our kids are also forgotten in so many ways. Our government has sat by and calculated how to hide the unfolding catastrophe that is swallowing families as greedily as the brick and mortar crushed so many in Oklahoma on that terrible day. Autism rates have skyrocketed from 1 in 250 just a few years ago to at least 1 in 88 today. 1 in 54 boys. If you are a woman of childbearing years you should be quaking in your boots. Autism takes the entire family like a bomb. Nothing is ever the same even where there is joy and happiness. NOTHING is ever the same.

There are Tim McVeighs behind this epidemic. They hide in high places. We've elected them. They work in the media. They create laws and medical edicts you must follow. They set policy. They know. They loaded the truck and haven't taken their foot off the gas pedal yet.

I visited the Oklahoma City memorial several years ago courtesy of autism. We went to a Chiropractic clinic there, after mainstream medicine had told me to take my kids home, love them, watch them seize and suffer and then prepare for a group home.

It is a simple, moving memorial of elegant chairs. I'd like to sit down and rest. Not this month. Not ever.



Friday, April 06, 2012

Monday, April 02, 2012

Leg Injury

Light it Up TRUE.

By Kim Stagliano

Today is April 2nd. Some are celebrating Autism Awareness Day. I am not. To me, today is like Good Friday and Yom Kippur - somber days of reflection.

Above is a photo of my daughter's leg. She has autism. A week ago, I put her into the bathtub, and while undressing her - was visually assaulted by these two angry red scratches - parallel, as you can see.

I touched them. She winced. She did not say to me, "Mama, I hurt myself doing such and such." I held back tears and examined her wounds. Did she scrape against something sharp under the kitchen table? I've been feeling under surfaces ever since, trying to find the nails or screws that bit into her tender flesh.

I have no idea how my child was so badly hurt. She was at home all day. She can not speak to tell me. My daughter has autism.

Take a look at her leg. The scratches. The black.

The BLUE.

House of Cards 200 pixelsKim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism. Her new novel, House of Cards; A All I Can Handle 50 pixel Kat Cavicchio romantic suspense is on SALE for $.99 as an ebook and is available from Amazon in all e-formats now. Her memoir, All I Can Handle I'm No Mother Teresa is available in hardcover, paperback and e-book.