Filmmaker Will Drinker has a reminder about the importance of this month and about a must-see project he’s working on with his brother:

October Is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month

by Will Drinker

Are you aware of Dan Drinker?

Dan is a 23 year old man with Down syndrome who is not only aware of the current presidential race, he’s participating. Dan endorsed Barack Obama (take that, Sarah Palin), he voted for him in the primary, he even saw the senator speak at Penn State.

I’d like to make you aware of my amazing older brother, who just happens to have Down Syndrome. We are making a documentary together about his life. See him the way I see him at http://dandrinker.com.

I feel a need to preface this by stipulating the following: When it comes to the divisive national issue of abortion, I am reluctantly pro-choice, while finding myself supportive of certain sensible restrictions and limitations on the practice. Further, I understand that not everyone will make the choice to give birth to a child if they know ahead of time that it will be hazardous. I will also state that after a couple of weeks of research, I have more than sufficient grounds to oppose the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. But even given all that, when I read this story from my friend The Lady Logician, I began to wonder about some of the people in this world.

The short version is that there is apparently at least one person out there who thinks that a woman who chooses to bring a baby to term while knowing that it will have serious medical issues is somehow guilty of being greedy and burdening society.

…unless a parent enjoys the wealth to provide for the lifetime of assistance that their child will require, they are essentially stranding the cost of their child’s life upon others.

While I found the story pretty disgusting, it was nothing near the level of outrage they managed to drag out of my radio co-host. Click through the jump and get the full flavor.

If I may, I would like to take a moment to interrupt your normal rage of righteous indignation over this or that with a brand new entry in the “Why On Earth Would You Say That?” competition. Out on the campaign trail once again, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden took time out to say,

I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy, because there’s joy to it as well, the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect. Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don’t you support stem cell research?

I don’t care whether he meant it that way or not, but one of the more idiotic things you could do at this point is is start tossing out arguments that drag Sarah Palin’s child into a scientific debate. Does anyone really think this is going to win sympathy or support for the Democratic ticket? There is a valid debate to be had on stem cell research in terms of whether or not it should be done at all, whether adult or embryonic stem cells should be used, moral and ethical considerations, etc. But it can all be done in a mature way keeping to the science at hand or, at most, the general principles regarding the use of embryonic material.

Somebody has to get a leash on this guy.

Don LaFontaine passed away in LA today, after a protracted illness. He was 68 years old, a man of imposing body mass and a gruffness that hid an “I’m just jacking you around,” sense of humor.

He could say, “Pass the peas,” and make it sound momentous or ominous. A deep baritone with clipped articulation: you’ll recognize his voice immediately as the one used in thousands of film trailers throughout your years on earth.

Known for the tag line intro: In a world… where nothing is sacred; in a world… in which love no longer exists; in a world where nothing is as it seems; in a world where the enemy is also the only hope for saving the planet…

Listen… and remember

“He was the meaning of joy,” said John Nordmeyer, an uncle.

There are a bunch of middle aged men across the nation who tonight sit quietly in their living rooms. The TV set might be off.

They didn’t want to eat much tonight.

Many are at their laptops now, silently tap tap tapping out messages to reach out to others. To try to find some, something. Words would help. But, maybe accurate words would actually hurt.

When my husband heard the news at work, he’d immediately sent me an email. The email header said something this rough gruff guy never says. The subject line read: Please pray with me. His email ended, “I’m so sad for them I can’t even talk about this.” I called him right away. He said in that semi-strangled voice that men use when they feel everything and yet numb all at the same time: “Baby we lost four of our boys.”

I had heard; a call had come from a post-trauma colleague just before who was 20 miles outside Little Sioux camp. It’s bad, my friend said. It’s bad. More than half injured bad. 4 dead.

My husband is a scout master, has just raised by hand along with other hardworking scoutmasters an entire litter of little guys for the last many years. They just crossed over from cub scouts to boy scouts three months ago.

I go to banquets with long tables covered with paper tablecloths and eat baked beans and barbeque and soggy corn. I sit through the many awards and beadings and orders conferred on grown men (and women) of every age and condition …those who give huge amounts of their lives weeknights and weekends to teach wood lathing, survival skills, soup kitchen hash slinging, cooking, sewing, finances, stalwartness, honor and manners to a bunch of darling fissioning young scamps.

Then one day, it all comes together. The young scouts line up and their shirts are not sloppy at the belt line anymore, their ties are on straight instead of flying sideways They carry on a conversation that has content instead of giggling like squirrels, they pray together and mean it, play together and achieve together, and mean it.

There are some who critique the Boy Scouts for various reasons, but tonight, with two dead boys aged a mere 13, and the other two dead boys having merely 14 years on this earth… that they are gone after a fierce tornado hit a special Boy Scout camp, a camp called to rendezvous under the banner of Leadership… well, in the Scouts, even though people don’t know each other when they live hundreds and thousands of miles apart, they know each other. They do. Brothers by different mothers. Siempre.

Details about the four boys lives follow here…
Read the rest of this entry »

The Brazilian government says this picture, taken from an airplane deep over the rain forest, is of a tribal group that has never had contact with the ‘outside world.”

Aside from most of us today who got whiplashed between trying to cover the left, right and middle Obama pundits and watching the Democratic delegates acting like they might be at a Condominium HomeOwners Board meeting what with all the face-making, voice raising, booing, cheering, having to be reminded to act like adult men and women… well

being surrounded by gigantic green things and having no contact with the ‘outside world’ is looking pretty good to me. No doubt some others too.

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Coda
Just a note about the photo; maybe I am imagining it–it’s been a really long day and the pay is so high, as you know…lol– but when I put it up on my forensic program even tho its transmitted resolution is poor… isnt it kind of odd that most things in the picture appear to have no shadows? It is said the darker figure is a woman, and from the placement of her breasts on chest, she would be youngish. But, if the men have run for their bows, what is a woman doing just sort of standing there. It’s a mystery. Like most of today’s flash news was a bewilderment to a good many of us.

In this TMV blog I keep writing occasionally on subjects that have an important role to play in increasing positivity in discussion and debate on matters related to politics. After all what is politics?…Surely, not just the circus where politicians are the key players. Politics percolates down to, and influences, health, education, art and culture…In fact all spheres of life.

As India dreams of (and works towards) joining the big league of powerful/”developed” nations, there are many individuals/institutions that have raised pertinent points as to whether we are headed towards the “right” direction. The big questions relate to the need to retain the vitality of the social fabric and ensuring social equity in this mad race to reach the high GDP targets.

Recently, I came across two write-ups on these concerns, as also about the role of media, by those who have earned a name for their contribution in the field of education and social welfare in India. The first is by Madhav Chavan of “Pratham”, an NGO that was recently given The Hewlett and Gates Foundations Award $9 Million towards its “Read India Campaign”. To read Chavan’s article please click here…

(The grant supports Pratham’s “Read India” initiative, which is working in conjunction with Indian state governments to help ensure that children between the ages of 6 and 14 achieve basic mastery in these skills by the end of 2009. The grant to Pratham will improve basic learning skills in 100 districts of India, touching 10 million children spread over 10 states for three years.)

The second article is by a sensitive young lady concerned at the questionable priorities of the mainstream media. Writes Snigdha Jain:

— Rush-hour murder on Kalkaji street, April 8, 2008
— Tibetan protests burn bright, Olympics torch put out in Paris, April 8, 2008
—Gurgaon pub brawl injured two pilots and their friends, April 7, 2008
— Rape and murder of British teenager, April 6, 2008

“This is all that I get to read in the newspaper and see on the news channels everyday. The news that creates vibes or sells has to be related to crime or political gimmicks. All my mornings begin with reading about incidences of rape, murder, bomb blast, riot, suicide and so on. On the one hand, it instills a certain degree of fear in me but, on the other gives me a sense of comfort that I am not one of the victims. But, is it really so? Don’t we all get affected by things happening around us? Read the rest of this entry »

Unbelievable? It has emerged that Barack Obama is a tenth cousin, once removed, of the man whose job he wants - George W Bush. The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, claims that the politicians’ ancestries show they have more in common than they think. The society is the oldest and biggest non-profit genealogical organisation in the United States.

The society has established that Bush and Obama are linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662, reports the BBC. Obama is also a distant cousin of the actor Brad Pitt while Hillary Clinton is related to Mr Pitt’s girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.

“The ties of the US Democratic rivals were established by a respected US genealogical organisation after three years’ investigation. Obama’s political lineage includes not just President Bush but also Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S Truman, Dick Cheney and Winston Churchill.

“Hillary Clinton’s distant cousins include the singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morisette, as well as the beatnik author Jack Kerouac and Prince Charles’s wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles. She and Angelina Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed. They are both related to one Jean Cusson, who died in St Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.”

Here is the complete BBC story…

Does anyone remember the old classic song “Kissin’ Cousins”? Who was the singer? Now we have quarreling cousins…what?

Up and coming young filmmaker Will Drinker has had his own share of health challenges over the years but he continues on the fast-track to a high profile film career (his Color Me Blind short is truly a classic of message comedy). But now he has a NEW major project: making a documentary detailing the life of his brother Dan, who has Downs Syndrome.

He already has bits of the video on the website he and his brother created to promote the project www.dandrinker.com — including a moving segment where Dan on camera learns of a death and deals with mourning.

But now it’s political season — and Dan is extremely interested in the campaign and following it closely. He can vote and he has his preference. So here in this video you can watch brother Will interview his beloved brother, who has his own short-hand way of articulating his view.

On Dan’s blog Will writes:

Dan has been following the presidential campaign with great passion. He has been talking my ear off recently about Senator Obama and I decided, after his speech in our native Philadelphia, that it was time to ask Dan to share his thoughts. I have always thought my brother to be an excellent judge of character and I feel his opinion is as valuable as the most famous or respected political authority because he speaks the truth and adds nothing more.

Please pass this along if you believe in having something to believe in. Be it Dan, or Barack, or Hillary, or McCain, or Ralph Nader, or yourself.