The answer should be yes. Not "how can I get my loved one help?"

Author Archives: David's Father

Celebrate the good. Sometimes, he is what I imagine a 13 year old boy is like

/approveToday was by all accounts, a good day.

David had a reasonably good day at school.  No refocuses.  No notes about talking back or being disruptive (more than usual) in class.

So I count today as a success.

I told him so.

He says all he ever hears is what he isn’t supposed to do.  So I kept track.  And he is right.  So I am trying to change my thinking to what he can do.  It won’t be an easy transition, but will try.

It is refreshing to say yes, within these limits, rather than saying no. no.  no.

He still has limits, and he knows that we will enforce the limits, but I think it allows him to experience a small measure of freedom.

Or at least the illusion of it.

====Update====

I gave him prescribed boundaries where he could ride his bike.  Hour later, and no David.  Went looking for him.  He wasn’t where he was supposed to be.  And of course, he denied it.  He got home, dropped his bike in the yard, his helmet, and promptly disappeared.  He turned up about 15 minutes later, said he just went to look at something.

tomorrow is a new day.  Will try again.

What is apathy?

Brown, Gray, Martin and others

Riot police blocking the way to the parliament building on Sunday nightWhat do each of these names have in common?
Brown.

Gray.

Martin.

Grant.

Not only was someone killed.  Rioters proceeded to destroy the very communities that they claimed they wanted to protect.  Why burn down a senior center that was under construction?  What did the seniors in the community do to deserve that?

How does destroying the property of a third person ensure that the victim will be remembered?  How does it bring justice?

It is a travesty.  All the way around, from the killing of the initial victim/perpetrator/drug user/killer to the attacks on law enforcement, the attacks on innocent people who are in no way affiliated with the violent act that caused people to decide to riot.

In Ferguson, reports indicate that agitators who didn’t even have ties to the community helped incite the violence.

What will Baltimore show?  In one example, looters broke through the roof of a liquor store.  What were they looking for?  Liquid courage?  How does robbing and looting further the cause of the disenfranchised?   Tuesday, as the citizens of Baltimore wake from the nightmare that has become their existence, schools will be closed.  CNN, reports that parts of West Baltimore look like a war zone.  The looters raided a CVS Pharmacy.  What role do businesses, schools, and children play in the death of the people listed at the beginning of this post?

It is a sad testament to our society that this has become acceptable response to things that people don’t like.  This 24 hour period of infamy for the stupid and cowardly acts of criminals.  Criminals are the people who use a protest as a means to plunder the resources of another.  Mob mentality at its finest.

Is it sad that these people all died?  Damn right it is.

But.

That sadness is not an invitation for the response that these people are undertaking.  This isn’t protesting.  This is destruction of property under the guise of the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.

It shames me that these people, for the most part, will get away with what they are doing and have done.  Protest an injustice?  Fine, but how does the methods employed qualify as a protest?

I don’t think it does.

But then, I am just a hick from nowhere who has no idea….

In this world, I am trying to teach my son, who has severe mental health issues, right from wrong.  And even he understands that what is happening across our country is wrong.  The methods of protest are wrong.

Stand up for yourself, for your community.  Don’t let these people destroy it.

The Baltimore Sun quotes the mayor as saying “It’s idiotic to think that by destroying your city, you’re going to make life better,”

 

he is anything, but he is not stupid.

David has a tendency to pretend to not be very smart.

Yet, he can manipulate a conversation so that you believe you gave him permission to have the car for a couple of hours.  The conversation could have started with something innocuous, such as, can I take the dog for a walk.

I keep telling him, that anyone who can manipulate conversations, and some people, are not stupid.

He doesn’t do anything with out calculating a benefit for himself.  Sure some things he does appear to be spontaneous, but rest assured, he is thinking hard about the best way to get the situation to turn out to his advantage.

If we could just harness his ability to argue, manipulate and calculate benefits – he could go so far.