Dan wrote this post last year on November 12.  We run "best of" from him from time to time. I tend to choose the posts by how my heart feels - or how sad my heart feels.    Out of the blue Dan's death hits me like a punch t0 the throat. Hard. And it hurts.  Today is 11/11. Those of you who follow my nonsense in other social media know that I am guided by 11:11 the angels' number.  Dan will always be my guardian angel - in writing, in taking care of my family, and in running Autism Age - which he left to me, and which I will guard with my life  for all of us.  A year after the 2016 election, we're waiting for action for autism from the White House. We've seen more violence than ever before. And the media is more split and crueler than ever to those of us with vaccine injured children. We need to stay focused on sharing our stories and fighting back against the loss of our medical rights. It's what Dan would have wanted.  Kim

By Dan Olmsted

The election just passed still feels so raw and immediate that it almost seems like it’s still going on – I feel like one of those times when I’ve driven for 10 hours and I close my eyes at bedtime and still feel like I’m driving. That happened another time when Mark Blaxill and I were working on our first book and had put in a marathon long weekend session. I tried to go to sleep but words were appearing in front of me as if the inside of my eyeballs was a sheet of paper.

Much could be said, but little needs to be: I wish President-Elect Trump well and I hope this is an opportunity to end the age of autism and confront the damage done by the bloated, unsafe vaccine schedule. Readers of all stripes continue to be welcome here. Partisan politics really doesn’t advance the cause – and as a non-profit we don’t endorse candidates or adopt a political line beyond calling it as we see it.  Yes, we practice advocacy journalism, for which there is a rich tradition. And at least we acknowledge it rather than descend to the sneering condescension of supposedly balanced outlets like the New York Times. (“On Autism’s Cause, It’s Parents Versus Science.”)

As for Milton, I was recalling the last lines of Paradise Lost – no hidden message here, just the idea that we need to leave the past behind to fully accept the invitation to shape our future:

“The world was all before them, where to choose

Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:

They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,

Through Eden took their solitary way.”

Let’s hope and expect that Providence, however defined, will continue to guide our efforts. To invoke another of my favorite quotes, “Continuous, calm, powerful use of the will shakes the forces of creation and brings a response from the infinite.” (Paramahansa Yogananda)

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Our matching fund-raising drive has a ways to go to take full advantage of the $5,000 match being offered by Anonymous Reader. We hope that perhaps with the election over and a few moments before the holidays hit us head on, you’ll consider a donation to keep us going strong in the new year, the new administration, the new era. With wandering steps and slow, with continuous, calm, powerful use of the will, we’ll get there.

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Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.