Born in the USA!

I am proud to be an American! I think if you have a child with a disability this is the country to live in! Is everything perfect, no! Are there still great gains that need to be made, yes! But there are a lot of opportunities for Carpenter here that can not be found elsewhere.

I found this press release when looking up info on the www.ndss.org website(National Down Syndrome Society). This press release came up and had nothing to do with what I was looking for. The title of the press release struck me so I read it! I think that you can tell a lot about a country's character by how they treat people with disabilities. This P.R. just tore me up inside, so very grateful that Carpenter was nice and safe in our home! American servicemen and servicewomen, this is what you are fighting for, protecting us! I got struck at how blessed we were to live in this American society but also how quickly a society can change into an hateful cruel reality. Just like when I watch stuff about WW II, I think that Hitler would have killed my son! I think about the mindset of people who fear imperfection. And that the imperfection is truly in all of us!



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 1, 2008
CONTACT:
David Tolleson Jon Colman
National Down Syndrome Congress National Down Syndrome Society
770-604-9500 212-763-4371
The National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC) and the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) condemned the use of individuals with Down syndrome by terrorists following dual bombings in Baghdad Friday. According to news reports, terrorists used remote-controlled explosives attached to two women with Down syndrome to kill at least 73 people.
Responding to news of the attack, NDSC Executive Director David Tolleson said, “this tragedy is compounded by the terrorist’s vicious exploitation of individuals with Down syndrome.” NDSS President Jon Colman agreed, noting that “this was not a suicide attack, these women were murdered, as surely as the other victims.”
This is not the first time individuals with Down syndrome have been used by terrorists in such deadly attacks in Iraq. On January 31, 2005, an explosive device tied to a boy with Down syndrome was exploded in Baghdad, in an act condemned at the time by NDSC and NDSS and others around the world.
Both the National Down Syndrome Society and the National Down Syndrome Congress urge the Iraqi government to use every available method to end the abuse of individuals with Down syndrome and to use this tragedy as a catalyst to enact and uphold policies and laws that will protect the basic human and civil rights of all individuals with disabilities.