Perhaps you might wonder why this topic is related ...I express my observation!
In honor of the the March on Washington and the effects, intensions and accomplishments that day meant to so many I express my sincere appreciation to those who not only showed up and demonstrated but for those who had the ability to listen, observe and do something about this cause....
It was 1963 and I was barely old enough to truly understand why this march happened and what it actually meant. I lived in a place where segregation was not prevalent and our neighborhoods as well as community was liberally integrated. My parents , neighbors and people whom I came in contact with didnt display the hatred and jaded opinion towards someone who might not be or look exactly like them....I don't pretend my world was perfect but for a kid going to school and living where I did, I never thought any of the other kids were really any different from me ..perhaps one might have ethnic food aromas coming for their house , or someone's mother required them to take their shoes off before entering the house or another was required to go to church EVERY SUNDAY no exceptions and had to sing gospel music in the church choir .. It wasn't because they were Afro American or Asian or even Hispanic ...it was just because that was they way they lived!
OK so my first real experience with segregation and discrimination was Junior High when they started the bussing programs with kids being brought from the other side of the city for mandated integration...quite honestly I believe that most of us kids were totally OK with it and didnt even realize that these kids didn't live in our neighborhoods. It was the adults who were having the struggles.We made friends and still dealt with the angst of puberty and just getting by...Oh make no mistake we had our share of incidences and there were kids not happy but again I have to say I do
not ever remember it being a big deal ..
As we all grow and learn , we develop our own opinion and perception and again I dealt with my
own "discrimination" as I was the chubby girl...that never bothered me either..(I thank God that I was lucky to have the type of personality that allowed be to be well adjusted) What I will say is one incident in High school was empowering and probably the one and I only time I felt in the crux of "racial unrest" . Ironically I was in the quad with my "sister" holding her hand and protesting with the predominantly black population of the school because we had a homecoming game and they were not going to allow one of our star players,who just happened to be Afro American ,play because he did poorly on a test...Well befor it was over the school was I lockdown and the Army National. Guard was called in...
Now with all that back ground I will bring it full circle to my most current experience and why this March is and was so important but how we still have so far to go...
In dealing with a child who has autism and for the most part is classified as Special Education, there
a fine line that has to be walked in order to get what your child needs but accommodate many who
don't necessarily have the propensity to tolerate or accept any human being who is not "typical or normal" ..this is with the school districts and the community of "school" ...Yes there is a large population of people teachers and professionals that are on board and have the right spirit in their hearts to give our kids the most typical experience possible yet throughout our years I saw infraction after infraction and situation after situation where I would proclaim "what is this????are we back in the 60's"
Time after time I can tell you that walked my child to EVERY SCHOOL HE ATTENDED to a segregated area of the school,usually in the back ( like the back of the bus)....in area where NO TYPICAL CLASSROOMS were,normally surrounded by fencing and almost always "portables" ....their lunchtimes were most always different than the typical kids and often time they didnt even eat in the same place as the other kids ( God forbid that you request that your kid might take lunch out in the quad with the others)...they often times had different PE and here's the kicker they loaded the
buses in a different area of the school and they were excused up to an hour before reg school got out
yet required to be up sometimes as early as 5:30 in the morning get there for school by 7:30 because of the arduous bus schedule....
I guess what I am getting at these kids didnt have anything to do with the March that occurred 50 years a
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