As I've mentioned before, I have a cousin with Autism. My aunt had a face-to-face meeting with Obama at some point during his campaign, and has high hopes that he will be able to do something for kids like her son, and mine.

I'm just going to post some snippets from her latest blog post, with my comments to follow:

I asked “Senator Obama I am a single mom, a business owner, a minority and the mother of a child with a severe developmental disability, Autism. Health care and entitlement systems are inadequate to care for my son. My son is part of an epidemic that our society would prefer to ignore or at least not help. I pay $700 a month health for my health care plan who provide limited coverage and routinely try to cancel us. Their position autism is not an Insurance covered diagnosis. It is horrific that the most fragile of our society are treated with such disregard by insurance agencies and social services. That said, Hillary worked so hard for get universal health care, she had passion, intelligence, a great team of brilliant thinkers and support, yet she failed. Why do you think you can be successful?”

Senator Obama took a deep breath and said “I am familiar with Autism and I am sorry”. “I believe I can make a difference, because I will not accept no for an answer. I will bring everyone to the table with a mandate that this must be done. All Americans are entitled to health care. I acknowledge that all sides will have to give something up, and a lot of people will not be happy about giving something up. I know it will be difficult, but I will not approach it like an option it will be a mandate and I will work until we find a solution”.

I showed him a picture of my son and he said “I know this is tough I’m familiar with Autism and we will help”.

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My immediate thoughts:

Twice he said "I'm familiar with Autism". He may as well have stated he's "heard" of it.. He probably doesn't have any personal experience with anyone who has Autism, nor does he have any idea about what it is like to raise a child on the spectrum, not to mention the myriad of other issues like therapy, education, medical expenses, etc. Notice that the rest of his statement could be about *any* health issue.

And why should somebody - let's say a poor, unemployed parent of somebody with a disability - have to give something up to get help (for their child)? Don't they have enough problems to deal with? How much more do they need to struggle? How much more do they need to sacrifice before the new guy says "Ok, you've earned your keep. We can help you now". ??

It's very hard for anyone (including a politician) to be passionate about things they know little about- like Autism. What's more, they're going to say anything to make you feel good about voting for them- this is true of any candidate. He may very well have good intentions for ALL people, but that does not mean he will be able to follow through for ALL people.