[Fwd: Choosing Savage as a Teacher]

[Guest guest]

My letter to Jon Van

Hooggenstyn at the station that airs Savages show locally in Portland,

Maine

When I called him last Friday, he said that they didn't know what they

were going to do about Savage yet, but were considering on doing a show

on the subject this morning by their local morning team. He said he

was interested in me participating in the broadcast, but I didn't hear

back from the station.

Here is my letter to him this morning.

Please join me in helping him understand how detrimental Savage's words

are to our kids (and our society) and encouraging him to drop the

Savage show.

Ginger

---

Choosing Savage as a Teacher

Date:

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:06:44 -0400

From:

Ginger

To:

Jon Van Hoogenstyn

Mr. Van Hoogenstyn,

I didn't hear back from anyone at the station, so I assume that you

decided to go in a different direction.

As such, I would like to send you the piece I wrote today that gets to

the heart of why Mr. Savage should no longer be someone whose message

you deliver to the people of Maine. It was written with those like you

who influence programming decisions in mind.

As much as media outlets are fond of saying, "we take no responsibility

for the content of this broadcast", because you have chosen to air the

broadcast and profit from the broadcast, you really are responsible for

the impact that it has on our vulnerable children. On my vulnerable

son.

You have sent his message out into Maine, and increased the chance that

one day my son will come across someone who, influenced by Savage's

utterly inaccurate assessment of what autism is, will decide that

Chandler needs discipline rather than patience, and behave in a way

that is cruel to him. That I will have to spend more time in checkout

lines and in school cafeterias and Sunday schools trying to educate

people on what is really going on with my child and others like him.

Your profiting from Savages messages puts a burden on children and

families that are barely making it as it is. Families that are

grieving because they long to know and by known by a child who may

never say, "I love you mommy" and may be excited to see daddy when he

gets home from work. Families that have to sell their homes to pay for

treatment because insurance does not cover autism. Families that have

not had six consecutive hours of sleep in years because their child

with autism does not sleep. Families that spend a decade trying to

potty train their child and clean poop off the walls daily. Families

that loose

their children to accidents because their child had no sense of

danger.

Last night, just after 10pm, my six year old son tore out a screen and

jumped out the window of our home, dropping five feet from the window

casement to the grass, in a t-shirt and his underwear. I was in the

next room, but I didn't hear him and didn't know that he had left the

house until I heard the back door slam and went to check on him. He

was back in bed... with muddy feet. I have no idea how long he was

outside, and if he had not come back on his own, I would not have known

for about two hours that he was missing. We live in downtown

Brunswick. I am sure you can imagine how upsetting it is to live with

this kind of a reality, with these kinds of threats to your beloved

child, day in and day out.

I am sure you can imagine how detrimental it is to a family like ours

for the public at large to be taught that my son does things like this,

puts his life in jeopardy, because we do not discipline him enough.

I hope that your decision to continue to air Savages program thus far

will weigh on your conscience, and I hope that the better angels of

your nature will convince you that there are some things that are not

worth any amount of market share.

I respectfully request... no I beg you... please do not let someone

this cruel to this vulnerable a people continue to run on your station.

Ginger

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2008/07/choosing-michael-savage-as-teacher.html

When we give someone a national radio show, we are, in effect, choosing

a teacher. When we pay that teacher, or go back again and again to be

taught by him, we endorse that teaching.

Ask yourself, is this a man that you want teaching your children, your

parents, your friends, your neighbors, your child's bus driver, the

woman at the grocery story and the angry young man on the corner? Is

this the teacher that you want to learn from?

There are SO many voices today available for us to learn from. There

are teachers out there who have many of the same core political and

social beliefs as Mr. Savage, but speak to those issues with engaging

wisdom rather than the irresponsible cruelty.

If there is one theme that conservative talk radio can be boiled down

to, it is that of personal responsibility. The irony of being taught

lessons in personal responsibility by someone whom cannot simply

apologize when they do something wrong, something my six year old with

autism can do, should be obvious to everyone paying attention to this

issue. I want to remind everyone of Mr. Savages response to the

criticism of his comments when they first appeared. From Radar:

While advocates for those suffering from the disorder are

outraged, the unrepentant chatterer expressed pride in his ability to

inspire "discussion on the subject," which has resulted in exactly the

kind of publicity he desires. "What else do you think I should make fun

of," he went on to ask a reporter, "pediatric cancer? Juvenile

diabetes? Seriously, I'll say anything! Just keep writing about me!"

One of the themes in my writing is the immeasurable damage that is done

in our world, and to our disabled children specifically, simply from

the inability to repent. We teach our children to say that they are

sorry and clean up their messes when they do something wrong, but we

don't hold ourselves to this standard, nor do we hold our leadership to

this standard.

If we do not hold Savage to even a minimum standard of wisdom

that someone with a bully pulpit like his should maintain, and if we do

not hold him even to a minimum standard of repentance for this attack

on disabled children and their struggling parents, then truly, there is

no minimum standard. If this is not enough for people to walk away

from him, then ask yourselves if there is anything that can be said

that will leave a bad enough taste in people's mouths to cause them to

walk away?

And if not, what does that say about what we have become?

It is time for us to move on from this teacher to one who will exercise

his or her gift for teaching with more wisdom and grace, who has the

maturity to learn from those they injure and is responsible admit

culpability and clean up their mess when they wrong.

HT: Theresa Cedillo

--

Posted By Ginger to Adventures

in Autism at 7/28/2008 08:49:00 AM