HCTD Articles

Resolve to do the following for a better You, a better Family and a better Country.

1. Trust God. 2. Take care of self. 3. Empower the family. 4. Eat better to live better. 5. Volunteer-somewhere. 6. Mentor a child 7. Mentor a new peer. 8. Service country. 9. Conserve energy. 10. Live, Love & Laugh!

America's Health Reform {Passed March 21, 2010-YES WE CAN!}I listening to the health reform debates and I am astonished how those politicians who keep saying the American People don't want-who has asked the American People. Certainly no politician has consulted me. This new administration under the leadership of President Barack Obama is an administration that includes the people. I-The American people- have not been consulted in full by the elected officials that are supposed to carry our wishes to the White House steps. I am one American that wishes that my neighbors could be afforded healthcare at any time without the polictical bull that prevents them from having access 24/7 to affordable healthcare. Pass the bill already. Give to those who have not. Once it is passed revisions can be seen best when the Bill is in operation.

Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) To my Visitors: Please make donations at AutismSpeaks.org under Team Here Comes The DAWN in Honor of Xavier Workman
Make a difference – bring compassion and hope to families around the globe who are affected by autism by participating in WAAD at home and in your community.

Do you need a parent partner to speak to your family, organization, employees? Contact:hctd@herecomesthedawn.com

Autism Insurance Reform in New York State
Autism Speaks recently announced support for an autism insurance reform bill in New York State. The bill is sponsored in the New York State Senate by Senator Charles Fuschillo and in the State Assembly by Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, both from Long Island. The legislation would require private health insurance companies to cover the screening, diagnosis, testing, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder for individuals up to the age of 21 with the maximum benefit of $36,000 per year. This includes coverage of Applied Behavior Analysis as an evidence-based, medically-necessary autism therapy. To learn more about the bill click here. Remember to register at www.autismvotes.org to receive email alerts about this bill and other legislation.

Research Study on Long Island Seeking Participants
A researcher in Clinical Psychology from the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute is looking to interview mothers of children recently diagnosed with autism. The doctoral dissertation research focuses on mothers' experiences in early interaction with their children. For more information and to get involved click here.

Mailing Address:
Autism Speaks Long Island
380 Oakwood Road
Huntington Station, NY 11746

Contact Name: Long Island Walk Staff
Telephone Number: 631-521-7853

Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person's lifetime. It is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Today, 1 in 150 individuals is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. It occurs in all racial, ethnic, and social groups and is four times more likely to strike boys than girls. Autism impairs a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associated with rigid routines and repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following very specific routines. Symptoms can range from very mild to quite severe.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/index.php

Many observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline and has yet to yield concrete achievements in peacemaking.

Some around the world objected to the choice of Obama, who still oversees wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has launched deadly counter-terror strikes in Pakistan and Somalia.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee countered that it was trying "to promote what he stands for and the positive processes that have started now." It lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change.

The peace prize was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts but Obama's efforts are at far earlier stages than past winners'. The Nobel committee acknowledged that they may not bear fruit at all.

"He got the prize because he has been able to change the international climate," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "Some people say, and I understand it, isn't it premature? Too early? Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us."

The selection to some extent reflects a trans-Atlantic divergence on Obama. In Europe and much of the world he is lionized for bringing the United States closer to mainstream global thinking on issues like climate change and multilateralism. At home, the picture is more complicated. As president, Obama is often criticized as he attempts to carry out his agenda — drawing fire over a host of issues from government spending to health care to the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.

U.S. Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele contended that Obama won the prize as a result of his "star power" rather than meaningful accomplishments."The real question Americans are asking is, What has President Obama actually accomplished?" Steele said.

Obama's election and foreign policy moves caused a dramatic improvement in the image of the U.S. around the world. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the U.S. favorably in countries around the world. That indicator had plunged across the world under President George W. Bush.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Jagland said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made no secret of his admiration for Obama, called the decision the embodiment of the "return of America into the hearts of the people of the world."

But Obama's work is far from done, on numerous fronts. He said he would end the Iraq war but has been slow to bring the troops home and the real end of the U.S. military presence there won't come until at least 2012.

He's running a second war in the Muslim world, in Afghanistan — and is seriously considering ramping the number of U.S. troops on the ground and asking for help from others, too.

"I don't think Obama deserves this. I don't know who's making all these decisions. The prize should go to someone who has done something for peace and humanity," said Ahmad Shabir, 18-year-old student in Kabul. "Since he is the president, I don't see any change in U.S. strategy in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Obama has said that battling climate change is a priority. But the U.S. seems likely to head into crucial international negotiations set for Copenhagen in December with Obama-backed legislation still stalled in Congress.

Lech Walesa, who won the prize in 1983, questioned whether Obama deserved it now. "So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," said former Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate. "This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said.

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the committee has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-center parties. Jagland said the decision to honor Obama was unanimous.

The award appeared to be at least partly a slap at Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage.

"You have to remember that the world has been in a pretty dangerous phase," Jagland said. "And anybody who can contribute to getting the world out of this situation deserves a Nobel Peace Prize."

Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.

"The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given to someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said Obama's award shows great things are expected from him in coming years.

"It's an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all," Tutu said. "It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope."

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919. Wilson received the prize for his role in founding the League of Nations, the hopeful but ultimately failed precursor to the contemporary United Nations.

The Nobel committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.

Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming. In July talks in Moscow, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed that their negotiators would work out a new limit on delivery vehicles for nuclear warheads of between 500 and 1,100. They also agreed that warhead limits would be reduced from the current range of 1,700-2,200 to as low as 1,500. The United States now has about 2,200 such warheads, compared to about 2,800 for the Russians. But there has been no word on whether either side has started to act on the reductions.

Former Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Obama has already provided outstanding leadership in the effort to prevent nuclear proliferation.

"In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself," ElBaradei said. "He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts."

Obama also has attempted to restart stalled talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but just a day after Obama hosted the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York, Israeli officials boasted that they had fended off U.S. pressure to halt settlement construction. Moderate Palestinians said they felt undermined by Obama's failure to back up his demand for a freeze.

Obama was to meet with his top advisers on the Afghan war on Friday to consider a request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the U.S war there enters its ninth year.

Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year and has continued the use of unmanned drones for attacks on militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a strategy devised by the Bush administration. The attacks often kill or injure civilians living in the area.

Nominators for the prize include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided not to inform Obama before the announcement because it didn't want to wake him up, committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said.

"Waking up a president in the middle of the night, this isn't really something you do," Jagland said.

Associated Press writers Ian MacDougall in Oslo, Celean Jacobson in Johannesburg, George Jahn in Vienna, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

I know this is the dawning of a new day, a new era. And still we rise! I am fighting foreclosure, my bills keep mounting, my car with the note is beginning to have problems, paycheck is still the same as five years ago...and still I Rise!! I get some four/five times a week, my children eat...all at a cost...and still I rise, I had a baby at forty-five, am eligible for WIC and am welcome at the food pantries, and still I rise. My son with special needs-needs more, my daughter wants more, my husband can do know more; and still I rise. And last year I spent moments I didn't have participating and contributing to the efforts to elect the first African American President who was foretold to us forty years ago-He is here; and his name is not Jefferson, Washington, Roosevelt He holds no slave name of American slave holders.

I am proud to honor this President the Nation’s

President Barack Hussein Obama

I am not going to play like this isn’t big. This is the biggest moment in World History! The is enormous tremendous, This is the manifestation of millions of prayers. God is truly awesome. And we need a President that recognizes the importance of race-the Human Race. Can ya’ll picture it: Malcolm-holding Emmett on his shoulders with Martin, Medgar, Nate, Harriet, Sojourner, Fredrick, Marcus, Coretta and Yolanda holding hands , triumphantly…can you see the four little black girls in their finest dresses, and Booker T. telling the angels there are more than ten. And what’s Biggie and Tupac rapping about now, I’m not made at ya, James says say it Loud we are overwhelmingly proud. And Marvin turns to say Ya’ll know what’s going on, this is the freedom I told ya’ll bout in my songs. An Old Dirty Bastard says it’s time to clean up, Who do you see at this moment it’s to big for me –Mary McCleod Bethune telling me it’s not to late for school while sharing tea with Betty and Fannie, and my Great grandmother Essie and my grandmother, Rose. Tell me now tell me who do you see, every angel in heaven is looking at this day in History…

Go to my website www.herecomesthedawn.com and post on the message board: Who do you See-this is too real for me!....

Peace.

Love.

Obama.