Samantha Pierce

The teenager who joked with me over physics and algebra homework tonight was 6 months old the morning of September 11, 2001. He spent that day like many other 6 month olds spend their days, exploring his world and being saved from his own curiosity by mom. That morning after I got tired of hauling him back from the edge of the bed he was intent on crawling over I took him downstairs to safer level terrain. I turned on the television to check the news like I did every morning back then. At first I was horrified by what I saw. One smoldering tower. Not long after, while all the reporters and newscasters were struggling to make sense of what they were seeing, one plane, another tower, and I was pissed. At that point I understood what was happening. Why did people think, and still think, that kind of wretchedness served their cause? I didn't care what the cause was. These were arrogant fools. But the news kept coming about just how wretched humanity had been to itself that day. The ...

Today is the big day. We start the two days of services culminating with the interment of my sister's body in a cemetery. Not what I wanted to be doing this week. This week I wanted to chase the totality of the solar eclipse as so many did on Monday. This week I wanted to be enjoying Tennessee barbecue and bourbon. But the plot twist of my sister's death at the beginning of the month means I have to adapt to significant set of changed circumstances. Now I mourn in quiet and with patience while others act out their grief. I strive to be thankful for the everyday blessings to keep my world from going too far off the rails. Moms have to keep it together for everyone else. Even people who aren't your children. I'm thankful for the unseen strength that keeps me going even if I drop a detail here or there. I'm thankful that I don't have to be perfect or conform to the standards of others. There is something greater than the opinions of others by which to measure my...

Late night last minute preparations for a CSE meeting for one of the children in the morning. I already know what I'm going to say and I already have information at hand to back me up. New York state education regulations as written and implemented tend to throw stumbling blocks in the paths of students with IEP/504 Plans. A student with an IEP/504 Plan that includes an extended time testing accommodation can end up enduring 12 hours of testing to complete Regents exams if they have two exams scheduled on the same day. New York doesn't reschedule these exams to accommodate students with IEP/504 Plans. One option is for student to take one of the exams months later during one of the other allowed testing period in January, June, and August. The other option is to not take one of the exams at all. I'm not a fan of any of those options for my children or anyone else's. So I've got my copy of the full text of IDEA, all 162 pages of it. Download your copy to...

Thankful for the life my sister lived and the lives she touched while she was with us. Please donate to the Sanchia A Callender Memorial Fund to help us build on her legacy of helping others.

Black and White Mixed People . I saw the title of this post as hubby was working on it and my response was, "What the heck is that supposed to mean?" The post discusses somewhat the changing attitudes in America towards definitions of race with regards to people of (recently) mixed race. People like to talk about the one drop rule as the main factor in how race is assigned to individuals. I am of the opinion the that the one drop rule is more important to certain select segments of the American community than it is to the majority of America. I'm willing to bet that a lot of the people reading this post right now don't know what the one drop rule is and would find it to be nonsensical once they learned what it was.

Thankful Thursday! Shout out to my fellow imperfect people making their way through life. # thankful   # thankfulthursday   # everydaythankful

Large Magellanic Cloud The microscopic patterns of life often repeat themselves in telescopic images of the universe. How we attempt to describe autism has a galactic representative as well. At first I thought to use the Magellanic Clouds but really any galaxy will do and colliding galaxies work even better. A collection of a variety of types of stars, maybe some globular clusters , gases, dust, maybe some planets around those some of those stars, and other celestial bodies zipping about Antennae Colliding Galaxies The Large Magellanic Cloud is a globular cluster in our Milky Way galaxy. Pick any star on the edge of the cloud, is it in or out? Move a bit beyond to the next star, in or out? The edges of the clouds are as fuzzy as the edges of the autism spectrum. The cloud travels through the galaxy as a discreet body. The stars in the cloud interact with each other in predictable ways. Antennae Galaxy close up Galaxies colliding model the changing ground of societ...

Blast from the past when the minions where a bit smaller. "Did you just pee on my computer!" Thankfully the answer was no. "No don't pick my nose!" She was adamant on this point. "It was not a baby gorilla! It's a baby yeti, abominable snowman! It is not a baby gorilla!" I don't remember any more who he was arguing with or what about but that's still funny

Today I am thankful for/that: The personal computer, internet, and wi fi. All of which allow me to be very productive without getting out of my pjs or my bed.Yeah, I said it. Progress! Inspiration. The kids, even when they are fighting and screaming and being extra defiant. Modern medicine. I'd probably be dead without it. What are you thankful for?

When life gets crazy, for me that's at least once a day, I have to readjust my perspective. I remind myself that humanity exists in this one tiny corner of the universe. The odds against our existence are so great it's a marvel we are here. There is so much for humanity to discover, so much we still don't understand. But we burn to discover what we can, learn what we can. The petty squabbles of earth seem like just that petty squabbles. Considering the vastness of space helps me focus on the things that are of true importance. Kindness, humility, grace, the things that leave marks on peoples hearts that give them strength. The Milky Way Galaxy is our home galaxy in the universe. It is a fairly typical barred spiral with four major arms in its disk, at least one spur, and a newly discovered outer arm. The galactic centre, which is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, contains at least one supermassive  black hole  (called Sagittarius A*), and is crossed by a ba...

From December 2007. This brilliant advertising campaign was supposed to raise the profile of autism or something. Still not sure why so many learned people thought this was an okay way to present autism and the people who live with autism to the world. This is quite repulsive. In a society that seems to put self esteem above all else for children it seems that it is quite alright to degrade individuals with developmental delays and psychiatric disorders and perpetuate stereotypes about them under the guise of raising awareness.  NYU ransom notes campaign  [link now leads to the NYU School of Medicine Child Study Center] An Urgent Call to Action: Tell NYU Child Study Center to Abandon Stereotypes Against People With Disabilities "We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning…Autism." "We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and dri...

Today I'm thankful that I recorded this video. It's summer in a city with a mayoral campaign going. The city has been in decline for decades and everyone is angry. I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice what I preach. Give thanks for every biting comment you keep to yourself. We live in the era of clap backs, shade, and general outrage. It takes courage to turn back from tearing others down. Especially when you really want to give as good as you get.   But we know how wretched it feels to be on the receiving end of the kind of vitriol we're capable of dishing to each other. When you hold yourself back from that, from hurting someone else with your words the same way you may have been hurt, that's an opportunity to rejoice. You have mastered yourself and you have shown compassion to someone else. That's spectacular. 

This is how a failing city fights back. After a recent stabbing at a local high school released a torrent of vitriol directed at the 20,000 students in the Syracuse City School District students pushed back ( so did I after reading this ). Students at Corcoran High School made this video responding to their critics. These students hit the mark with their response to the gross stereotypes and immature hyperbole thrown their way. Syracuse has a hard time thinking or believing anything good about itself and the comments made about SCSD students shows that. Living in a city that’s been in decline for decades some of us have gotten comfortable being at the bottom of the heap. Being first in things no one wants to be first in and last for the things everyone wants. Our surrounding suburbs have gotten used to us being at the bottom as well. Every bit of bad news they hear about Syracuse serves to confirm the negative perception. Anything good that happens is surely doomed to f...

The sun shines even when you can't see it.

Some random dude on Facebook posted this dreck. "For those of you who take adderall & swear you aren't a meth head." Alongside a photo of models of the molecular structure of crystal meth and the active ingredient in Adderall. A concerned Facebook friend wanted to know if it was true. #nerdspawn to the rescue. "The two drugs do have similar chemical structures. However, therapeutic doses of Adderall taken under supervision of a medical professional are no comparison to drug addicts abusing crystal meth. Whoever did this needed to spend more time on their organic chemistry and molecular neuropharmacology. People shouldn't try to equate taking Adderall as prescribed with abusing crystal meth. We need less of this kind of foolishness stigmatizing people and preventing them from getting the help they need." Any questions?

I'm thankful for the clarity provided by considering other perspectives. What are you thankful for?

Repost from Autism Attitude: ABLE 2.0 In 2014 Congress passed the ABLE Act enabling families of disabled children to save for long term care expenses for their children without penalty. ABLE qualifying accounts are tax exempt and do not count against individuals when applying to government programs. As expected the ABLE Act 2014 comes with some strings attached. There are saving and spending limits for qualifying accounts as well as penalties for funds used for unapproved expenses. Now a bipartisan update to the original 2014 version of the ABLE Act, called ABLE 2.0 is in the works. The idea of ABLE 2.0 is to transform the current ABLE Act 2014 into what would essentially be government run estate planning. The ABLE 2.0 package includes three bills. The ABLE to Work Act allows individuals and families to save more money — up to the federal poverty level — in their accounts if the beneficiary works and earns income. The ABLE Financial Planning Act allows fa...

Some big news around here the last few days is the story of a Syracuse City School District (SCSD) substitute teacher stabbed breaking up a fight between students in local high school. People are predictably outraged saying all manner of vile things about not only the students involved but all students in the district. Even Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has weighed in on the matter declaring the school district must drop its current approach to discipline. The SCSD Code of Conduct has been a hot topic of late. It frustrates families, students, and staff. There is plenty of room for improvement. But people seem to have forgotten, or don’t care, how we got to this point. Families first recognized the problem with discipline in the schools. The Assurance of Discontinuance details just how bad the problem was. High rates of suspensions of students, minority students disproportionately suspended, failure to notify families about referrals and suspension...

A Michigan special education teacher has filed suit alleging that she was wrongfully terminated for bringing sexual harassment by her special education students to the attention of administrators at Bay City Western High School. Teacher: Special ed students sexually harassed me, then I got fired Melissa Sawicki, 36, filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Bay City in September, alleging sexual discrimination and retaliation for protected activity on behalf of Bay City Public Schools and the district’s board of education,  MLive.com reported  on Tuesday.   Sawicki claims special education students began making crude and lascivious comments to her — some even directing obscene gestures to her — shortly after she started her job in the district at Bay City Western High School in 2013. Two, no three, things went wrong if Sawicki’s allegations are proven to be true. First this teacher was not adequately prepared for what she would face in her classrooms during her teac...

Thankful Thursday! Perseverance can turn "it can't be done" into "it it finished." What are you thankful for?