Friday, July 26, 2013

Stand Your Ground Laws

Folks the Stand Your Ground laws that are getting so much news today are NOTHING like what the media wants you to think they are. . .

Lets look at the dis-information shall we?

1 - Zimmerman proves stand your ground laws are bad. . . Folks the FLA stand your ground law was NEVER part of this case. . . or his defense from DAY ONE!  it was a self defense case.

2 - Stand Your Ground laws are a licence to kill. .. . . no.  Every shooting is investigated by the cops/state and can go to trial if it is not justified.  Stand Your Ground is no different.  If the investigation shows there was no threat at a level justifying deadly force response you still go to jail, even under SYG. . .

Now look at what Stand Your Ground does.

It is simple.  It says if you have the right to be there you do not have to run away from an attack.  Without these laws you must retreat, even if unsafe to do so. . . the burden is put on you the defender to show you could not retreat.  In other words the Thugs get to rule the streets because you have to give in to them and leave if they threaten or attack you.

With Stand Your Ground you have the right to say NO to the Thugs, and defend yourself appropriately based on their actions.  The streets belong to the law abiding citizen under SYG, not the thugs.

Some even prevent the Thugs family from suing you for defending yourself.

Imagine  that for a moment will you?  You are attacked, you are forced to defend yourself or family and then the attacker or his family sue you for all you are worth because you defended yourself.  You were doing nothing wrong, minding your own business when the Thug attacks, yet you have to pay him/her or the family because of the attack. . . . yes, it can go that way.  Watch what they try to do to Zimmerman even though the jury found him not guilty. . . . it is disgusting.  We need these laws to protect the law abiding folks from criminals both on the street and in the court room.

Something to think about

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Autism at Disney World

We just got back from a great trip to Disney World with my two teen age daughters and our six year old Autistic son.

I have got to tell you Disney is a great place to take an Autistic child.  They are absolutely great with dealing with the issues that come up.

A few days into our trip we did a character breakfast at Ohana where my son could meet Micky and friends including Lilo and Stitch.  If you have never been to one this is an all you can eat buffet breakfast where the characters come around the tables to meet the kids and get photos with them.

Well as you can imagine my son was not really up to interaction with the characters as he was still getting use to Disney.  Things still went great (other than the first group photo he would not get in. . .).  When the first character (Lilo) came by Jack would not really interact with her.  He was a bit scared I think. . . . anyway my wife whispered to Lilo that he has Autism and she nodded.  She took her time to get him to be at ease, eventually getting him to high five her and fist bump. . . . it was AMAZING!  Disney gets some really special folks to be the characters is all I can say.  I literally brought a tear to my eye to see how she got him to open up and play a bit with her. . . . And every other character (Stitch, Micky, Minnie) were just as good with him!  It really got him to open up and play with the characters and have a great time.

We did one other breakfast and a character dinner and they were all great with working with Jack.

The parks are great too!  The first day we got there we went to guest services and told them we had an Autistic six year old in the party.  His safe place is his stroller which a bunch of places don't permit in lines.  So they gave us a tag so it was treated as a wheelchair and we could take it anywhere we needed!  They also gave us a pass so that if the lines were long and he had a problem we could talk to a cast member and either go through the fast pass line or wait our turn out of line with Jack where he felt safe then when the rest of our party got to the ride we could join them.  Disney goes way out of the way to help kids with special needs and I can't thank them enough.

By the end of the trip Jack was getting photos all over and interacting with the characters at all the photo spots.  He was even going for the fist bumps and high fives with them!  When it was time to go home he told me Micky would miss him and he was going to miss Mickey.  We assured him we would be back again to visit his friend Mickey.

This is why we go back to Disney year after year. . .  it really is the Happiest Place on Earth and they are so good with Jack.

So if you have a child with Autism I can not recommend Disney enough.  Don't worry, go, have fun, and let them help your child have fun too!  They are great!