...if you noticed a tall lady in jeans, hanging off lamposts in the vicinity of Shannon Airport yesterday that was me.
I took a run over there yesterday where Karen and Damon Wise are standing for two local council seats, (Shannon town, and district respectively), and, of course, got myself into the thick of the mayhem...
...and yes..."Le Famille Wise" are all Aspies and similar.
They have 4 children, 3 boys and one girl. The girl was away, and the eldest boy hung around for 3 weeks or so in 1995 and then decided he would rather hang on till they re-calibrated the incarnator and could put him on the RIGHT planet...so he couldn't stick around...but everything about him is still a good, positive part of the family to this day...and yes, you certainly are allowed to talk about him.
The other two lads would make you cry for those poor souls who get lumbered with NT kids...they really ARE amazing...bright, charming and absolute rascals. They will look you straight in the eye and tell you what is on their minds like everybody else in the house.
But I digress...
Damon and Karen had a bit of a brainwave and decided that, instead of thoroughly annoying everybody with full colour, studio posed election posters, they would re-use the posters from last time, and donate the money to 10 local charities instead.
I don't think I will EVER forget running Damon around Ennis, in the height of recession (and they REALLY know how to do "recession" in the mid-west), springing unexpected cheques on stunned charities...
You can't put a value on the positive vibe Damon and Karen spread around with that one gesture...a sudden piece of hope in brilliant, scorching sunshine...
On the issues, I had, genuinely assumed the Wises to be a "two trick pony show" between disability issues (in which they are heavily involved) and sudden infant death syndrome...but having heard Damon explain current housing policy to an elderly man...I now know that isn't the case...
They know they can't win this election, but they are determined to go on standing, and showing people who they are, and what they have to give, in OUR OWN AUTISTIC TERMS (rather than by "acting the NT"), until they are elected...
...and, I believe that, one day they will be.
It's a day I will remember for my whole life. I learned things about life the world, and autism that I never realised were there to be learned. The autistic in me is stronger, and prouder, than it has ever been as a result.
Damon Wise on facebook
Last edited by mechanima on 29 May 2009, 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
29 May 2009, 12:50 pm
