I’ll indulge here in a bit of a screed against “The Media.” The trouble with such screeds, of course, is that “The Media” is not monolithic and not all media is created equal. But there seem to be certain tendencies in the “mainstream media” (another amorphous entity) which I find objectionable. To drill down even further, my annoyance generally centers on “pack reporting tendencies in television and newspaper political news and punditry operations.” But that’s more of a mouthful than “The Media.”
One tendency is the “Christians are Republicans” narrative. Craig at Reverent & Free has a nice post that highlights James Dobson’s latest antics which contribute to that narrative. To maintain this narrative, you have to favor “the right kind” of Christianity and discount “the wrong kind.” Much of Dobson and his ilk’s power in the political discourse comes from “The Media’s” assumption that guys like Dobson are entitled to speak “for Christians.” After the Reformation, Christianity shattered into a million little pieces, making a centralized voice for the faith problematic.
The words and actions of Dr. Dobson illuminate further the problems that arise when politics and religion collide. Dobson’s interpretations of scripture are specific to his own particular sect of Christianity. Dobson was offended because Barack Obama dared give voice to a worship of Christ that doesn’t involve deference to the standard GOP issues, specifically same-sex marriage, abortion, and prayer in schools.
Will “The Media” get down in the Biblical weeds and try to determine who has the better of the argument vis-a-vis the teachings of Jesus? Of course not. If we’re lucky – something about which I’m not confident – they will at least avoid characterizing this as a battle between “real Dobsonian-Republican Christians” and “pseudo-Christian Democrats.”
My other recent annoyance with “The Media” comes from their discussion of “independent” political groups with particular focus on the Swiftboaters who attacked John Kerry in the fall. The general punditry discourse about the Swiftboaters has completely ignored The Media’s role in giving Swiftboaters power. On their own, the Swiftboaters were just spitting in the ocean; another bunch of cranks pissed off at Democrats, making spurious charges. But, The Media lent the group its power. It’s a little like a virus that invades the body and uses the body’s apparatus to reproduce itself. The discussion of the Swiftboaters has generally been devoid of analysis about how and why the Media allowed itself to be infected.
I can suggest a rule of thumb for spotting the ‘true Christians’ – do they seem to be acting out of love, or for some other reason?
Not that there seems to be a whole lot of love in the political sphere, these days…
Bravo, Parker. Christians = “Following Christ”, Jesus did everything out of love for others, so only those who are using Christanity to demonstrate love for others are “approved”.
And then there are the labor Christian democrats, who hold Dobson’s Christian views, but vote democrat because that’s what their job tells them to do. Lots of them in my congregation! They were a big reason why it took me a long time to give up on my former party and move to the democratic party. I mean, I just didn’t see a difference.
I think Obama will open up some of that dialogue. I just hope that the “pillars” of liberal Christianity move away from Wright and Pfleger and more towards people like me. Thing of it is, pastors like me tend to hold very strongly the seperation of church and state, so we don’t use our titles to talk about politics. So I guess that makes it a problem to get my voice in the Media.
Pleger? Which one was he again? I seem to have forgotten.
Sounds like you have some smart people in your congregation. They figured out that voting their economic interests puts food on the table, versus voting about prayer and gay marriage which does nothing to improve their lives.
It’s Pfleger. He’s the Catholic priest from the south side of Chicago who mocked Hillary at the pulpit. He’s been all over the news up here-the latest being that his suspension from his parish ended this past weekend.
See, I’m not so sure that they are voting their “economic interests,” rather they’re voting how they are told to vote. There’s a difference between the two. I see it as being just as much of a lemming as dirt poor Evangelicals who vote for who Dobson, etc. tells them to vote; even though it means worse economic hardship for them.
You know what I’d like to see from the clergy?
Butt the f out of politics altogether, and concentrate on saving the souls of your own congregation.
If divorce, out of wedlock births, abortion, and all other major sins were non-existant and not rampant among even so called Christians, I could accept a priest lecturing me about, say, illegal immigration or any of the other “social justice” issues.
But that’s not the case. Instead, I get a lecture about homelessness, or whatever.
I don’t think that I’ve EVER heard a homily about divorce. Abortion comes up on occasion, but that’s about it. Fidelity? Never heard it. Chastity? Ditto.
It must be really nice to worry about the economic conditions of people who don’t even belong to your congregation, while ignoring the sins all around you. You never have to account for anything.
See, I’m not so sure that they are voting their “economic interests,†rather they’re voting how they are told to vote.
You could say the same thing about every single one of the posters here.
It is not in the economic interests of any college educated professional working in the private sector to vote Democrat.
In fact, I’d say that the average private sector union member should not be voting Democrat. Certainly the building trades in Northwest Indiana have a lot to lose if an Illinois Democrat who has opposed the Whiting Refinery expansion gets into the oval office.
The Whiting expansion is the largest private sector building project in the history of Indiana, and it will all be done with union labor. It is in jeapordy because of Illinois Democrats.
Then you weren’t in church the week the appointed text was Jesus talking about divorce. Kind of hard to read that text to a congregation and then not speak on it. I have one woman who tells me every year that I am supposed to call her and tell her when that text is being used, so she can stay home-hits too close to home for her.
I agree, and I don’t talk politics in my roll as pastor. I do talk about politics with friends and on this blog.
Now I do talk about social justice issues-but not in a political way. I talk about them how Jesus would want me to talk about them-from a Christian point of view.
We’ve had this discussion before. It wasn’t in my economic interest to have my country go to war in Iraq, put the charges on the national credit card, and pay the minimum each month for eternity. It wasn’t in my economic interest to have my taxes go down a few percent, in return for a doubling of the national debt. Even if you remove wolves, polar bears, clean air and water, and other non-economic issues from the scorecard, I think I would still vote Democratic based on cold budgetary calculations alone.
It’s in jeopardy because some people don’t want increased air polution and ammonia discharges into the Great Lakes. Those people are Democrats almost by definiton, because Republicans almost never give a crap about that type of thing.
funny, buzzy. Republicans may have once been the party of fiscal conservatives, but that isn’t who they are now – which is why most of us white collar people vote Democrat. Oh and that whole part about wanting to legislate my uterus, me bedroom, and who I pray to.
I think Obama is going to make it very hard for you to take that tack, T.
I looked into the details of his SS proposal. He’s going to uncap the payroll tax for HOUSEHOLDS making $250k per year and up, not individuals.
So if your wife makes $150k and you make $150k, you both pay payroll taxes on the first $102k of EACH of your incomes, as well as the amount in excess of $125k of EACH of your incomes. Obama is giving you a break from $102k to $125k.
He has not said if the self employed get to pay the employer share as well on that income. Nor has he indicated if you get increased benefits for your increased “contributions”.
As someone who has complained quite bitterly about payroll taxes in the past, I don’t see how you can be for Obama. Unless you think he’s lying, like he did on Nafta.
Then you weren’t in church the week the appointed text was Jesus talking about divorce.
What’s the chapter and verse on that? I admit I’ve never heard it. Don’t know if that speaks to my attention level or church attendance.
I think that even if you were concerned with social justice, liberal politics is a damn poor way to ensure it, no pun intended. And since so much poverty is a direct result of personal sin, or the personal sins of our direct ancestors in the case of the offspring of single mothers, I don’t see how you can separate social justice from immorality.
Concentrate on the morality. That’s what society can’t get from any other institution other than organized religion. That’s what has been lost by the politication of the pulpit.
It’s in jeopardy because some people don’t want increased air polution and ammonia discharges into the Great Lakes. Those people are Democrats almost by definiton, because Republicans almost never give a crap about that type of thing.
Whatever. The point is that certain Democrats, namely trade unions, want this thing to move forward. So don’t assume just because someone is “downmarket” from you that they should vote according to some outdated notion of yours about who is supposed to be a Democrat.
To your point, you should have been at the public meeting for the air permit. There were a handful of hippie types from Chicago, and literally a thousand building trade types. One of the hippies spoke with a mask on, and said that she was wearing the mask to show what people will need to wear all the time if the project got the air permit.
Well, she almost caused a riot. The trades didn’t take kindly to that kind of political theatre. I thought that she was going to have to pull a Bartman (remember him?) and be whisked out of Wrigley Field by security for fear of her life.
Considering that the expansion results in less emissions of almost every type, and that Chicago releases more ammonia with one thunderstorm than the refinery will in years and years of operation, I think that this is a good project environmentally.
funny, buzzy. Republicans may have once been the party of fiscal conservatives, but that isn’t who they are now – which is why most of us white collar people vote Democrat.
I can understand certain white collar types voting Democrat. Anyone who relies on government for their paycheck (public employees, teachers, “community organizers”, healthcare employees who ultimately rely on Medicare, etc.) should of course be Democrats.
And, on the other hand, any blue collar worker in the private sector, union or not, should really be Republican, because the taxes and regulations that the Democrats throw out there ultimately are job killers in the private sector.
Matthew 5:31-31: [Jesus says:] “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Its in Matthew, Buzz:
and
I can see why many Pastors don’t like to give a sermon on this. There are quite a few sitting in the pews that would take their anger out on the Pastor rather than examine their own actions.
It is much easier to talk about the gays and have (almost) everyone in the building on your side. Kudos to those Pastors that preach on both the “easy” and “hard” subjects in the Bible.
I am self-employed, Buzzcut. Tax rates/cuts aren’t a good enough reason to vote Republican. I have too much of a conscience to vote with a party that cares more about a 8 cell organism than it does about a woman. A party that cares more about who is allowed to marry whom than about the environment. A party that is about war and guns and oil. That’s not a party I want to be a party of, no matter how much money it saves me.
That is the primary different between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats want to save the world. Republicans want to save every nickel they make.
There is a “tough love” way to approach it-for sure. You can’t gloss over the words. And yet in that day, what Jesus was speaking against was that if a man got tired of his wife all he needed to do was write a letter of dismissal and the marriage was over. The woman couldn’t do the same. She had no recourse-and was often left destitute.
Is that the intention of marriage? I’ll stick with you until you get old/ugly/injured/boring/fat/etc. Then it’s “Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you?”
I often then talk about how we all fail in our lives in different ways; but that there is healing/hope-and yes even the chance for new, loving beginnings.
But yeah…there are people out there I find it difficult to make eye contact with in this Sunday.
BTW I’d say 40-50% of all weddings I perform are for couples in which at least one of them has been married previously.
Oh yeah, for me being more liberal and my congregation being more conservative-it would be much more uncomfortable to preach on gays-b/c they wouldn’t like what I had to say. Okay, maybe a few would…but I’m trying to slowly change their perspectives!
Amy-I’m considered “dual status.” I’m both self-employed and employed by the church. Huh? That’s why I use an accountant;-) Have no idea what each of these men will mean to my SSI taxes, but my pocketbook is not why I’m voting the way I am.
Thanks for the chapter and verse, Rev.
Would you happen to have a good reference to a discusion of that verse?
Which denomination are you, Buzz? I’m guessing Roman Catholic b/c you used the word homily.
The “New Interpreter’s Bible Coomentary on Matthew” does a good job exploring this text.
You know, Amy, in the spirit of loving my neighbor and all that…
…you can believe anything you want to believe. But if you think Republicans believe what they believe because they’re just selfish bastards, you’re doing yourself a disservice, quite frankly.
I’m just as concerned for my fellow man as any Democrat. I just don’t think that government action is the way to achieve societal bliss.
I think most Republicans are like me. This is why Republicans as a group give so much more time and money to charity than Democrats do.
I mean, look at Obama’s contributions over the last 10 years. The guy has made $200k per year, and he gives like $2000 a year to charity. What’s the deal with that?
He was a little more generous once his books started paying off, but he was still in the $20k range on over a millions dollars of income. On a percentage basis, he’s just not that generous with his own money.
And what about my favorite subject, Michelle Obama? How many of her speeches are about how darn TOUGH it is being a yuppie mom? That kind of radical sef centeredness is at the heart of Democrat grievance based politics. Not greed per se, but not an attractive human trait.
Regarding abortion, well, I’m not going there with you. If you think abortion is all about “8 celled organisims” or “your uterus” or any other mindless Daily Kos like slogans, there’s really not a lot to debate with you.
Although… I do have to ask. Pregnancy and parenthood haven’t softened your views?
They did mine. We had a miscarage, and before the miscarage my wife had spotting that resulted in an ultrasound at 8 weeks (yes, 8 weeks). To see an obvious human form, however small, with a heartbeat, pretty much changed me from pro-choice to the other side.
I’m not surprised that the pro-lifers uses ultrasounds to try to change women from getting abortions. It’s life changing to see that. I still get vehclempt when I remember my kids ultrasounds.
Have no idea what each of these men will mean to my SSI taxes, but my pocketbook is not why I’m voting the way I am.
And that’s fine. But then don’t go question why blue collar workers vote the way that they do. Their motivations are just as valid as yours.
Sorry, guys like Robert Frank (of “What’s the Matter with Kansas” fame) irk me. A better book would be “What’s the matter with the Upper West Side”.
Having children has only strengthened my views actually. Knowing women who have had to make the gut-wrenching decision to terminate a much wanted pregnancy has too. It’s not all about baby haters.
Republicans ARE just like you. That’s why I vote Democrat.
Republicans ARE just like you. That’s why I vote Democrat.
Ouch. Where’s the love?
Seriously, you can go around and imagine that the people that you disagree with are characatures with the basest motivations. But you’re doing yourself a diservice.
I never said their reasons weren’t valid. Just would like a bit more substance behind their choices than “my union told me to vote this way.” That’s all. And I say this as one who “blindly” followed the Republican party for years-not because my job told me to vote this way-but because I always voted this way.
Religion and politics (not to mention major sports team affiliations) seem to be alike in this respect.
At some point, I came to the conclusion that I was Christian/Presbyterian solely because that’s what my parents were. So, I ended that affiliation. I held on to the Republican designation a little longer, thinking I had more solid reasons – limited government, respect for the Constitution, spent fewer tax dollars, etc. Either those reasons were always more myth than reality or the Republicans moved away from those things (huge budget deficits, government intrusion into personal decisions, etc.) So, I moved away from that too.
(And, for the record, I was a Cincinnati Reds fan for even longer than I was a Christian or a Republican. Then I came to realize that my Cleveland school friends had the better of the professional sports affiliations. Still later, I realized that The Colts were the One True Team.)
I get tired of your schtick, Buzz. The whole Ann Coulter, “If Democrats had any brains, they’d be Republicans” stuff. You come here, tell me I have no reasons for voting the way I do, that I’m voting against my best interests, and then proceed to virtually pat me on the head like I’m a newborn pup. It’s condescending and annoying.
I am well-educated in the politics of the respective parties – how could I not be, living with who I do.
Will you be wearing your “I heart George W. Bush” shirt when you go cast your vote for
McBushMcCain?Many prominent Republicans in national government are exactly as described in liberal characatures.
You’ve got Santorum who fixated on gay sex, and sex with animals.
Inhoff (sp) from Oklahoma, who knows less about climate change than almost anyone (he’s in the Jesus is coming any day to clean it all up camp), so he was in charge of global warming policy when the Republicans had the majority.
We had all the environmental protection and interior jobs filled with people from the mining and timber industries, gutting regulations for the last dime.
We had a bunch of pipsqueak idealogues running around editing the work products of actual scientists with NASA, the EPA, and Interior. Again, disdain for actual science, and making decisions solely for political or financial reasons.
Just a whole lot of incompetence, douchbaggery, and evil is what I see when I look at the Bush Administration, aka the Republican party for the last eight years.
They can tax me to nothing, and the most I would do is stay home and vote for no one. I would not vote under any circumstance to support any of the above, let alone ALL of the above.
P.S. Wife stays at home. With my parents four hours away, so son can receive therapy that used to be available here but got cut to the point that we were waitlisted. Thanks Mitch Daniels. Yes, policy decisions can literally divide families. They’re even in a different time zone. I can assure you nothing could induce me to vote for him.
With my parents four hours away, so son can receive therapy that used to be available here but got cut to the point that we were waitlisted.
I don’t mean to pry, and if its out of bounds just say so, but what exactly is the problem? And why can’t you pay for it yourself?
And a pipe pumping ammonia straight into a lake is ok, because we have thunderstorms? It seems to me that the fish living in the vicinity of the liquid ammonia discharge into their habitat might prefer a thunderstorm.
You come here, tell me I have no reasons for voting the way I do, that I’m voting against my best interests, and then proceed to virtually pat me on the head like I’m a newborn pup. It’s condescending and annoying.
You really have a problem taking offense where none was meant, and reading things into posts when there’s nothing there.
Except for this post, of course. Read right into it.
And a pipe pumping ammonia straight into a lake is ok, because we have thunderstorms? It seems to me that the fish living in the vicinity of the liquid ammonia discharge into their habitat might prefer a thunderstorm.
First of all, there is a diffusor. The solution to pollution is dillution.
Secondly, the problem with Chicago is the combined sewers that get overwhelmed whenever there is a thunderstorm. Raw sewage dumps right into the lake.
And a major component of sewage is urine, and a major component of urine is ammonia.
Now, I can’t speak for the fish, but I think that you are absolutely, 100% wrong.
And if Obama and Dick Durban want to go after the Whiting refinery for ammonia discharge, don’t you think that they should clean up the crap (literally) coming from their own city? Crap that is the true cause of beach closings?
You still haven’t admitted your Bush Love, Buzz. That’s probably the third time I’ve referred to it. You’ve yet to deny it, either. I think a tattoo is in order.
Autism.
I’ve already paid over ten thousand dollars out of pocket in less than eight months. That is with taking advantage of First Steps, which my tax contributions have supported and I am entitled to. Unfortunately, to get those services in a timely manner, wife and child had to relocate to where those services had not been curtailed.
Without First Steps, I could have spent two to three times that by now on all private therapies, had they not relocated in order to have services we are entitled to (again, not as a gift, by by virtue of me paying taxes). With him not yet being three years old, there is a need to pay all that is necessary for him to reach his full potential (and he is much improved just in seven months of therapy), while still realizing that this is a chronic condition that will require years of $$$ (so if we’re entitled to a program that will lessen the burden, we’d be wise to insist we get it). Depending on what insurance ends up picking up (they may only pay twenty therapy sessions/yr, rather than the roughly thirty/month he’s receiving for speech, occupational (learning to hold a spoon and self-feed, etc), behavioral, and physical therapy (one leg is weak, overall poor muscle tone). So depending on how the insurance company rules, and his progress, costs could go as high as $4,000 per month, or as low as a bit under a thousand a month. For a couple more years, or for a couple of decades. Time will tell.
So it’s not just a question of willingness to pay, but of what’s possible. We’re not sparing any expense, but we are coldly calculating of what is necessary in order to provide these opportunities for him. If it costs many tens of thousands of dollars per year for many years, we can do that. Not easily. Not without having to make a lot of concessions to the situation, like being apart in order to have her and our son near good therapies while I keep the good job that makes it possible. Under any circumstances, this would not be easy. My point was that a politician made it that much harder.
Combined sewer overflows are a big problem. A separate issue, but yes a major problem. It falls in the category of infrastructure. Wish we had some money for that.
Oh, a diffuser. So I should be ok with a corporation dumping waste into our public waters, as long as the dumping is done over a large area? Sorry, still not on board.
And BP would love to treat that waste before dumping it. They’re just 12,000 square feet short of the space necessary to do that properly. So they have to dump it in the lake instead.
They’re kidding, right? I would bet some of these BP guys have 12,000 square foot HOUSES. But, for lack of 12,000 more square feet at a $3.8 billion expansion of their facility, they have to dump in the lake.
Give me a break.
I thought baby T was doing very well when we saw him! His cousins loved being with him; especially Josh. Josh has a really big heart for younger kids. The best thing is that you caught this young, rather than waiting for help when the preschool teacher (or worse yet) kindergarten teacher tells you something is wrong.
Didn’t realize you had to pay so much out of pocket.
You want to talk disservice – you are going to do yourself and this entire country a disservice when you vote for McBush. That’s the worst disservice anyone can do.
T, Man that really sucks bigtime. Thoughts and good wishes go out to you as you battle autism. A good friend of mine here in Louisville has a 5 1/2 year old son with autism. He just lost his wife in February of this year due to some complications from surgery. He also has a eight year old daughter and is trying to deal with this as best as he can. There may be some support and therapy groups you could hook up with here in Louisville, at the time of my buddy’s wife’s death she was involved in trying to get something going at UofL with autism research and therapy. I still have on my to do list to read “The Real McCain”, I had intended to get to that, I went on a canoe trip Memorial Day weekend and got sidetracked.
Thought this would be germane to the discussion about BP and the environment. BTW, Doug, how do you embed http into a shorter word like a blue here?
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.
Let’s try this again:-(
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.html
You know, I have yet to weigh on this topic, but I want to say I value your contributions. I appreciate Doug’s excellent writing from and for a local audience. I love Amy’s passion — and we’re both on the same page, sistah! And the good Rev adds so much leavening to the dough. Great sense of humor and insight — and that from a practicing liberal Catholic here.
I feel that stories like T’s however, tell a tale of one of the many reasons I am a Democrat. And frankly, there was a time when I supported the libertarian leanings of the Republican Party, until they drifted into becoming the nanny party without dignity.
There are a few issues I have been wrestling with — with any DEM I see who is even considering NOT voting DEM this fall:
1) women’s rights / abortion – the next President will appoint 1-3 new justices to the SC — do we really want this place to be the long-term bastion of conservative activist judges?
2) civil rights for GLBT (My friends are more liberal than most Hoosiers)
3) the war – at least DEMs have the right direction down
4) the economy – can a Candidate who doesn’t even know how to use a PC actually lead a nation in the 21st century? Gas prices/ Home foreclosures/ Unemployment/ Health Care costs – Republicans use a tax cut/privatize approach to everything and it isn’t working.
And my last Zinger usually reads like…
If ya like the last 8 years — ya ain’t seen nothing yet! (Yeah, Reagan WAS good for something — Obama should steal every line he used against Carter.)
U of Louisville is starting an autism center, announced just four days ago. They’ve got a trial starting, and want to become a regional hub for therapies. Once that gets going, it should be handier, as long as the state line doesn’t get in the way.
I don’t really have a great answer for what the government should be doing about it, really. I mean, autism is a bomb that is going off right now. The statistics are something like 1 in 115 boys born in Indiana has it, and that number is rising. That is going to take some major $$$$ to deal with.
We’re lucky that we have the financial resources to deal with it so far, and my wife doesn’t work. She will be starting preschool with him this year, and attending with him as an aide to help him, and we’ve anticipated starting actual school a year late.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are folks who don’t have the means, have to work a couple of jobs, and don’t have ready access to additional therapies. I have a patient who is seven, autistic with no verbal language, and yet is in regular classes with legally mandated pull-out therapy for 10-15 minutes/day to meet the requirement. Basically this happens when a school system is small, underbudgeted, and ends up just dragging the developmentally disabled student along.
You still haven’t admitted your Bush Love, Buzz.
“Bush love” means something different to me than it does to you. ;)
Sorry, this is a family blog.
T, can I pry a little more?
How did you first notice the autism? And how does he differ from a “normal” three year old.
Regarding Mitch, I think paying for these things is difficult. I mean, the needs are almost unlimited, and as you have found, the bill adds up quickly.
We as a society need to decide what we pay for and what we don’t. I’m a big proponent of means testing. As such, I’d probably stick you, or your insurance company, with the bill. Sorry.
They really seem to like caps in Indiana. I’ve found a number of programs that are funded to a certain level, and then no more.
Regarding BP, I personally know a few of the engineers working on the wastewater permit. There is no doubt in my mind their commitment to eliminating emissions. The issue is not the lack of 12,000 square feet, although space is a huge issue. The issue is technology, or the lack of it.
I’ll give you an awesome example.
BP has a process today to eliminate sulfur dioxide emissions. Back in the day, they just burned the SO2, which made H2SO4 or something, which smells like rotten eggs. This is why refineries smelled so bad before the ’70’s.
So they have a unit that gets rid of the S02. The process really works well, it gets emissions down to the 10 ppm level.
Unfortunately, the process uses Vandium, which is a heavy metal, and there is vandium carryover into the wastewater stream. Not a lot, but its there.
So during the expansion, this unit is going to be retired, and another unit built that uses a different technology, the best available (from Shell, a BP competitor. They wouldn’t use it if they didn’t absolutely have to).
Vandium emissions will be totally eliminated. But S02 emission will increase to 250 ppm.
There’s a lot of trade offs in engineering, and they’re not always fiscal in nature.
Buzz and all,
One good thing is that there are more advocates out there watching over the children. On a lesser scale (much lesser) our second oldest has ADHD. We noticed it a bit ourselves about 2 1/2-3 years ago; when he was three. The attention span just didn’t seem to be there. Started having childcare tell us about him needing “time outs” and not paying attention to group time. He went to a regular preschool in the fall of ’06. By November they were having issues with him, and we had him evaluated by our school district. Lake Central is tied in with Munster, so he started attending a Head Start type program there. They asked for us to have him seen by a child pshychiatrist in the spring of ’07. It took a few visits and many inventories, etc on our part to get the diagnosis over the summer. Last fall he started a Montessori preschool-we held him back from starting kindergarten. They wanted him to start without meds and try behavior modification. That lasted a little over a month. After about thre months of adjusting meds-and two years later-he is finally on a good path.
And most of our programs were either covered by taxpayer/ school district money, or insurance.
I hope that program in Louisville does cross over into Jeffersonville and points west.