Posts from — February 2010

First Lady, Michelle Obama visited Philadelphia to provide details about her program to end childhood obesity.  Read more about her visit:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10051/1037337-84.stm

I concur, we are in tough times, and…..no, I’m not talking about the record setting snow fall.  The economy continues to struggle and that mixed with budget season means decisions will be made on what to cut and what to fund.

You’ve heard it said before, and I do believe that a budget (personal, organizational, state, or federal) does reveal what we value, what matters.

To put it another way, view the budget as a mirror revealing what matters. That said, I am troubled by what our current state budget reveals about Pennsylvanians.

From places of fear and needing someone to blame and to loathe, we have placed that target on the backs of the most vulnerable and those made poor: the vulnerable elderly, persons with disabilities, and people living far below the poverty line.

Read the following article from the Philadelphia Inquirer http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20100215_Fears_that_Rendell_s_budget_shortchanges_needy.html

Now…..tell me what you’re thinking………

Last evening I watched the HBO film, “Temple Grandin” and recommend it most highly.  The film, starring Claire Danes, in the title role, is the story of Temple Grandin, a woman with autism, who through the support and push of her mother (played by Julia Ormond) and family achieves mightily in a time, the 1960′s and early 1970′s, when autism was misunderstood and treated by institutionalization.

The film does an accurate portrayal of the view of the world from the perspective of Temple Grandin and how she sees and understands with pictures and images. 

Empowering, is her persistence and creativity in finding and going through “doors” (a key metaphor and image in the film) and at the conclusion of the film being a mentor and offering hope for persons with autism and their families.

Temple Grandin’s work with cattle and creating humane systems for the cattle industry is given a fascinating portrayal.

Temple Grandin currently is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and has been a guest on the NPR program, “Fresh Air.”

SNYDER SEALS:   4.5 SEALS!

How we define and categorize something matters and has lasting impact and consequences. Read the following article on proposed revisions to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/10psych.html?scp=1&sq=Revising%20Book%20on%20Disorders%20of%20the%20Mind&st=cse

Let’s look at the facts:

1. We live in a northern city, snow should be expected….for some, even eagerly awaited.
2. We got hit hard with a major winter storm.
3. We are Pittsburghers! The sons and daughters of steelworkers! This, my friends, we can handle.
4. The clean-up of the roads and city has been atrocious.  If we want to call ourselves a major city, then, surely, one can expect all streets to be plowed, electricity to be restored, and, at the very least, the downtown area to be open and able to be traveled.
5. Spring will come………and, O, how glorious it will be this time around!