In just a week we in the Autism Community will kick off another month long campaign to raise autism awareness.   

In the last few years there has been solid progress in some the issues that affect me as a parent of an autistic child:

* The media has begun to run many more stories about this epidemic that is wrecking havoc on countless families across our country and the world.  This has at least lead to a little more education for the general public whose only real understanding of autism had come from the movie Rain Man.

* In my experience there are a greater number of doctors who are at least somewhat versed in what autism is.  Four years ago when we would go to see a doc we spent a great deal of time trying to convince the physican that autism was in fact a real disorder...and not just bad parenting. Now a days my wife and I have the chance of actually meeting with a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doc who understands and empathizes with a great deal of the day to day challenges we have.

This new understanding from both the general public and the medical community has made a tangible benefit in my families life..but still there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

For the next month I am going to be focusing most of my posts around the subject of autism.  I won't spend too much time on my Dial soapbox, but I want to provide some awareness to some of the major problems that remain unattended to in the world of autism.  Some of my posts will be geared to parents who have a children in the spectrum, while some others will be crafted for people who are just trying to understand autism better, and of course most of the posts will be for both groups.  I promise they won't be boring..so don't take a month off of reading...just open ye' mind to the subject matter.

In the meantime please take some time and get your autism thinking caps on and check out my autism 08 blog located right HERE 

This blog is about my completly unsuccessful attempts on getting any answers from various candidates on the subject of autism.  Some ignore it, ( I am looking your way McCain) while others I am afraid are jus t paying a little lip service to me..(I am looking at you...um...everybody else).  The point of the blog is trying to get some attention from both local and national leadership. I have been invited to attend the Wyoming Democratic Convention  (which is cool...but in Wyoming the Dem's will let just about anyone attend..so this ain't no big whoop)to interview different candidates about what they would do for familes living with autism.  I have not heard back from the Republicans....I am not holding my breath.

Autism is not the only problem the world faces...I know...I get it.  There are thousands of horrible things that need our attention...but this is an issue that is only become more and more complicated if we let it sit unattended.  So this next month I am going to take a workman's like approach to it.

I will be taking a hammer and nail to work everyday to build a little more awareness for autism which is now grabbing 1 out of 150 children into it's net. 

I will be announcing different autism events that I will be taking part in here in Cheyenne, as well as other goodies in the next few days.

In the meantime chew on this stat:


Autism costs the nation over $90 billion per year, a figure expected to double in the next decade





"Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head"

-Indigo Girls "Hammer and a Nail"