I offer for your consideration my first diary. Let me know how I do.
In the suburbs of Rochester there exists a town called Greece. In this suburb, lives teenager Jason McElwain, also known as J-Mac. This high functioning autistic teenager had a position as team manager of his high school basketball team. He dreamed, of course, to play in a game with the team. Sometime in mid-February, on the last game of the season, with his team winning, and with the outcome of the game never in doubt, the basketball coach allowed J-Mac so suit up and play. J-Mac stunned all present, including his coach and team members, by making six three-point baskets and one additional two-point in the closing few minutes of the game to score an additional 20 points. As chance would have it, video cameras rolled during this score fest. The videos and J-Mac's fame went national.
More after the fold:
Fast forward to Tuesday, March 15. On that day, President Bush flew into the Rochester, NY airport on his way to do some popularity-pumping "speechifying" in the sleepy berg of Canandaigua, NY. On the tarmac, as Bush stepped off Air Force 1, J-Mac and President Bush met.
J-Mac trumps Part D in news
President Bush's visit to Canandaigua on Tuesday made national news, but not necessarily because of his push on Medicare Part D.
ABC Nightly News and CBS Evening News featured stories about the visit, but they highlighted his meeting with Jason McElwain, the 17-year-old autistic basketball phenomenon who went from team manager to score 20 points in four minutes.
Their meeting also was shown Tuesday night on ESPN and Fox News and reported by The Associated Press and USA Today.com. Pictures of the two embracing were distributed nationally.
Fast forward to Sunday, March 19, 2006. On the op-ed page of the Sunday Rochester Democrat And Chronicle I found the following letter to the editor by Steve Drury:
Bush cut funds for autism study
Like everyone, I was quite moved by Jason McElwain's accomplishment on the basketball court, as well as in his life. Unfortunately, this story caught the attention of someone at the White House -- a photo opportunity too good to be true. I don't want to diminish the moment for Jason; it's not everyone who gets to meet the president. It's just too bad that it was this president.
While the cameras were rolling, Bush stated his admiration for the young basketball star. What has not been widely publicized is how Bush cut funding for the National Children's Study in 2007, a project planned to study the causes of autism, asthma and other illnesses. Of course, in the pre-screened audience, no one would have asked the president the reason for this. So much for "No child left behind." As if children afflicted with autism or asthma don't have enough to overcome, they have one more hurdle in the form of our current government. Jason mentioned afterward that he is a Democrat. Jason, I hope to see you at the voting booth ... and nice job on those 3-pointers!
I hate how President Bush and his handlers will hype the media with value themes at every opportunity when they think those themes will resonate with his base; but when push comes to shove, the president never demonstrates legislative or financial support for those same themes.
I also hate his use of "PowerPoint" like backgrounds at speeches to try to get across a goofy political message.