Sunday, July 26, 2009

Support the Campaign to Encourage Michelle Obama to Meet with Autism Community


Guest blogger Tim Welsh (@TannersDad on Twitter) is an "older father" of Tanner (who turns 12 this November). Tim suffered two heart attacks at 38 and moved his family back to the family farm area for support from family, church, and friends. Tim has been an active voice in autism advocacy for the last six years. He fights for vaccine safety, insurance reform, fiduciary responsibility of donated funds, services across all ages, and many other areas.


I do believe there is a rising autism pandemic evolution in the world and we must do something about it. I am not asking for anything but your voice: on your blogs, at your church, service club, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or YouTube.

We are not even doing the basic things like cover medical expenses for military families dealing with autism. According to the website www.autismsalutes.com, less than 10 percent of the needs of these families are being covered.

On a national basis now, we have real discrimination going on. Just 14 states mandate insurance coverage for our loved ones dealing with autism. So this really gets me moving, mad, and vocal.

A couple of things happened this spring. I was honored to be invited to the AutismOne conference in Chicago as a guest of Ed Arranga, the founder of AutismOne. It is one of the world’s largest autism conferences with over 120 speakers from around the world.

I met Angela Warner there. She is the mother warrior autism advocate for families dealing with autism in the military and founder of AutismSalutes.com. Her passion, creditability and mission struck me.

I said on the site www.ageofautism.com that we should send a representative to meet with the White House and President Obama. We decided it had to be somebody who united not divided the community.

We knew that President Obama had much on his plate. We also knew that Michelle Obama has said she supports three things -- families, military and health care issues – and that those would be the mainstay of her work during her stay at the White House as First Lady.

When Angela Warner put up her hand and volunteered to start a campaign to get Michelle Obama to meet with the autism community, I jumped on it and ran.

We set up an event page to encourage a meeting between the autism community and Michelle Obama. Please join us at our Facebook campaign page at http://tinyurl.com/m9r8ws.

Your support can make a difference!
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

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