Letters from Lisa

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express my outrage at the recent comments made by Michael “Savage”, a radio host on Talk Radio Networks, targeting young children with autism and their families. We live in a society and age in which there are plenty of legitimate grievances and issues about which to express one’s anger; there is no need to blast the innocent and defenseless and to spread misinformation about medical and educational issues.

I am a teacher, learning specialist, and adjunct professor. I have worked with autistic children and their families; I have never once encountered a child whose problems could be fixed by verbal abuse such as Savage advocates. Telling a nonverbal three year old, who barely responds to his own name, that he is a “brat” and to “cut the act out” accomplishes nothing. There is no act involved. These children are not brats. Their parents are not lax. In many cases they have spent thousands of dollars (in some cases, hundreds of thousands) of their own money on lawyers, medical treatments, and private schools in a desperate effort to get their children help. Furthermore, I have never met any parent eager to convince me that a child is more disabled than s/he actually is.

While I advocate free speech (I am an educator, after all) I don’t see any reason why companies such as yours would choose willingly to financially support an individual whose hatred for innocent children and families and prejudice towards people in general is so evident. Is this the sort of message that your company endorses?

Finally, I would not underestimate the power and determination of the autistic community. These people have fought long and hard for their children and, in the case of autistic adults, for themselves. They are not about to stand by while they are slandered and verbally abused on national radio, or in the mainstream media as a result of these comments.

I urge you to take immediate action and pull your financial support from Talk Radio Networks and The Savage Nation Radio Show in response to these hateful comments.

Sincerely,
Lisa Fischler

For a list of Savage’s sponsors, visit this page on the Autism Self Advocacy Network.

New Year’s Eve! about 7:45 new Argentina time - We switched over to daylight savings.

It got a bit rocky last night as we entered the Drake Passage. We have breakfast at 8, and then I don’t know what’s planned for the day. I anticipate taking things VERY easy today. We are sailing right into a 20-knot headwind.

about 7 pm I’ve been a bit miserable today from the rockiness of the boat as well as my stomach feeling rather weak. I do not think this patch is working all that well. I did get to one presentation in the morning and then saw the DVD of the trip in the afternoon. Otherwise I’ve been in bed. I listened to a good part of the History of Rome, two astronomy lectures, and the whole of the Persuasion recording. I read maybe one chapter of The Crystal Desert as well. I have to admit I am feeling tired of all this and it is not comforting to think that we have a whole second day and night of it. Of course, it could even be still worse. I have a feeling this New Year’s Eve is going to be spent very quietly.

The Fram saga continues. We have been asked to escort them back to Ushuaia, to be standins for the lifeboat that was crushed in the accident. So they are tagging along with us to Elephant Island. We are supposed to try to land there this morning - our last stop before the Drake Passage back to South America. Right now it’s very foggy and windy - not a great hope of landing under those circumstances. There is also supposed to be an enormous tabular iceberg that is 30 miles long. At the very least, we’ll try to cruise around it.

later still cruising. I can see an island outside my window - perhaps Elephant Island. I would honestly be fine if we just drove around it and didn’t leave the boat anymore. I’m tired of suiting up in all those layers - I like being able to lounge around in my regular clothes. I may feel differently when we are getting bounced around in the Drake Passage, but for now I’m totally content to just stay in my room and read a book or lie down listening to the iPod. I finished Pride & Prejudice and started on Northanger Abbey, but I really didn’t like it, so I switched over to the History of Rome, which I like but I find I’ve been falling asleep and missing information here and there.

after lunch I tried to burn a DVD with the stuff on the first 4GB card, with no luck. The computer in the presentation room seems quite feeble. Another passenger offered me the use of his computer and i think I am going to take him up on it. I just don’t trust the “multimedia center”.

I was up on the bridge just now and heard several pieces of news. One - the Fram has left us and is returning to Ushuaia on its own. Apparently there is another medical emergency. It’s terrible for all those people on board. Coach said that when the staff went over there for a visit, he thought the average age of the passengers was about 75. These big, fancy ships attract travelers who are fragile and who may not have any business being down in these conditions.

The other news was the prognosis for the Drake Passage - similar to conditions today but in higher wind. I think I have let the Drake Passage take on exaggerated status in my imagination.

Right now we are headed to a “secret” spot - Gibbs Island - where we might see macaroni penguins. But only if the weather is right for us to land. (or even zodiac cruise) We are following the coordinates that the Fram gave us.

If it turns out that Penguin Island was our last landing, I’d be fine with that. That was a very pleasant excursion and we got to see seals up close, which up to this point I hadn’t really gotten to do. I’m starting to anticipate coming home, and with that, all of the tasks/chores I have to do.

• scheduling field trips
• grading and commenting for Bank St
• preparing for my new semester - updating the syllabus
• putting together Antarctica presentations

It still feels far away, but not so far that I can push it wholly from my mind.

11:04 pm Apparently Argentina has switched to daylight savings time - and now, so have we.

We did our excursion to Gibbs Island and saw some pretty dramatic scenery. Chinstrap penguins and other birds nesting on high cliffs. Supposedly there were macaroni penguins too, but we didn’t see any. We did see two skuas tearing at a dead penguin and a gigantic wave washing some penguins into the water. Hopefully they were OK. Another boat saw a leopard seal with a penguin in its mouth, but I didn’t see that. Yikes. This is how the food chain works, but it’s still a little sad.

We did see a number of seals of various types resting on the beach - elephant and Weddell. I think Weddell seals have a very Teddy Roosevelt look about them. I have some very good closeups from yesterday at Penguin Island.

Eventually it began to rain pretty hard and we packed it in. In a way it was nice that the last excursion was a bit rough in the conditions - giving us a taste of what, perhaps, Antarctica is more typically like.

After dinner the ship cruised around Elephant Island, where survivors of the Endurance lived for four months of winter before being rescued. It was very dramatic scenery - mountains, sunlight, fog, and tabular icebergs generating their own chilly clouds. We think they may be the remnants of that supermassive tabular iceberg that we were searching for this morning, without success.

4:50 pm  Quite a lot to catch up on. Last night we had a very enjoyable “two truths and a lie” competition between Hayley, Jacques and Ray - lots of insults flying around, and the whole thing ended with Hayley informing the packed house of how she came to fall overboard. I went to bed shortly after that. There were a number of announcements over the loudspeaker, but I ignored them. As it turns out there was some high drama up on the bridge last night.

We were heading through the Bransfield Strait but turned back upon receiving a distress signal from the Fram, a posh Norwegian cruise ship with 500 passengers, chandeliers in the dining room, expresso machines, and other luxuries to be sure. They had been pulling up anchor from Brown Bluff (we were there recently) and suffered a double engine failure. The wind drove them toward the cliffs, which they narrowly missed, and they then sideswiped the glacier, breaking a window and crushing one of their lifeboats. Fortunately, they were able to get both engines up and running shortly thereafter, so we were able to un-divert ourselves. Otherwise we might have had to take on all those passengers! We had already started calculating how much food we had and where to move the zodiacs to make more room on the deck.

This morning we actually saw the Fram because in addition to their engine troubles, they also had some sort of medical emergency and they needed to use the Chilean airstrip on King George Island to med-evac the person out. We ourselves visited the Bellingshausen Station, the Chilean station, and got a look over the hills at the Chinese station. I decided to join the hike to the Chinese base but very stupidly wore too many layers, and I ended up absolutely roasting. King George Island has eight different stations on it. Crowded!

I came back sapped of energy and feeling rather dehydrated. I didn’t think I would even want to go on the afternoon outing. I was relieved to learn it would be later in the afternoon. I got into bed and a while later was roused by an announcement that there were humpback whales nearby! We watched them for a while, diverting our course to follow them. I was not able to get any good video or photos this time. Then we headed around King George Island intending to land at Turret Point. The water around King George Island felt deceptively calm - there were swells of water that crashed onto the beach as waves, making it difficult to land there. Instead we landed on the island next door, Penguin Island.

This turned out to be a great excursion. I was most excited about the Weddell and elephant seals, all sprawled on the beach, some in great heaps for increased warmth. They are undergoing a “catastrophic molt” meaning that they completely shed their skin in one go. Some of them made funny burping and gargling sounds, which I hope I got on video. There were also gigantic petrels nesting on the rocks, and of course the ubiquitous penguins. We didn’t get out on the zodiacs until at least 5:30 and I didn’t get back to the ship until around 8.

Everyone’s been asking me what my big adventure for the summer is going to be - and I’ve had to break it to them that I am not traveling anywhere. At least not out of the country - I’m going camping with Christine and Joseph in a few weeks. But I’ve already taken my big trip for the year, and I’m satisfied with that.

It IS a bit strange that my summer is so local - since most of my traveling is done during summers and I’ve been taking some time almost every summer to travel around. This is a departure from the regular pattern. But it’s good to be at home and at work, too.