Friendship Magazine Fri February 2023
https:// funandfunction.com/
www.ablenow.com
The federal Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act authorized states to establish tax-advantaged savings programs so individuals with disabilities can save and invest money without jeopardizing eligibility for public benefits.
2nd April 2023
World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognized day annually on April 2nd, encouraging Member States of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness about autistic individuals throughout the world.
(BPT) - When Bella received a kidney diagnosis, her childhood was turned upside down. Her whole family rallied to help her, but as someone who always puts others first, she wanted to turn her personal experience into something that would bring hope to others.
Bella was connected with Make-A-Wish®, the nonprofit that creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. For kids like Bella, a wish creates a turning point in their treatment and recovery and empowers them to reclaim their childhood. After some consideration of what to wish for, Bella ultimately decided that she wanted a goldendoodle after seeing that her favorite local news anchor, Shelly Ribando, had one. Shelly herself helped Make-A-Wish surprise Bella with a goldendoodle named Captain Rodney Hook and she brought along her own dog Annie.
Now a wish alum, Bella helps bring important attention to Make-A-Wish by attending wish events along with her dog. She knows how much this wish helped her and wants other kids with critical illness to feel the joy of having a wish granted. In fact, she recently attended an event launching a program that allows anyone to make a difference for kids with critical illnesses simply by shopping for some delicious food.
Shop to give back
On Nov. 1, 2022, Bella excitedly attended the event that launched a partnership between Make-A-Wish and WisePies Pizza. The certified minority-owned and female-led company has created the WishPie,
a cinnamon apple drizzle dessert pizza made from a stone-fired, cinnamon-infused traditional crust, topped with cinnamon-sugar sauce and diced gala apples. A vanilla icing packet is also included.
The WishPie will be sold exclusively at Walmart stores nationwide for a limited time during the holiday season. One dollar from each dessert pizza sold now through Dec. 24, 2022, will go to Make-AWish to grant wishes that help children build the physical and emotional strength needed to fight a critical illness. You can also support by showing off your creativity through the #WishPieChallenge. For more information visit WisePiesPizza.com and Wish.org.
"WisePies Pizza is humbled and honored to offer a limited-edition dessert pizza supporting the MakeA-Wish efforts to grant more wishes to children experiencing critical illness. The goal of this partnership is to generate community involvement through the consumer purchase of a WishPie that allows more wishes to be granted directly to these children with critical illnesses, leading to more positive outcomes," said Season Chavez, president of WiseChoice Foods.
This effort has special meaning for Chavez, whose family was impacted by Make-A-Wish growing up.
"My brother was granted a wish when he was 12 years old while fighting a rare form of cancer. I know firsthand the positive emotional and physical impact a wish can have on a child and their entire support system including family, friends and their medical team," she said.
A sweet way you can make a difference for kids with critical illness
Couple Wins Fight to Keep Their House Painted Like Van Gogh's Starry Night to Soothe Autistic Son
The mural violated no law, and there is no HOA to object to it, yet the city still fined the couple for their color scheme.
By David Gornoski
Turning our eyes to our home, we see Earth. Inside this blue grain of sand and water, creatures are busy.
In my home state of Florida, I meet a quiet, determined lady named Nancy Nemhauser to interview on my A Neighbor's Choice radio show. She has good news, but her face is war-weary. Her town of Mt. Dora, Florida, just a few miles from where we meet, has decided to drop its thousands of dollars citation against her home.
Mt. Dora is an artsy little hamlet known for its murals and art festivals. A year ago, Nancy and her husband Lubomir decided to paint their house wall in an interpretation of Vincent van Gogh's famous Starry Night painting. They had no homeowners association, they checked with city code and no issue was raised. Yet after they painted it, they received a city citation claiming the wall art was graffiti—that the wall had to match the color of the house. So the couple decided to paint the whole house to match to avoid any issue.
After they painted it, they received a city citation claiming the wall art was graffiti.
This gesture—painting their whole home in the style of Starry Night—was not received well by the city magistrates. They began to issue rolling hundred dollar fines for every day the Nemhausers failed to comply with their demands.
Busybodies Who Presume Control
Nancy and Lubomir commissioned the mural as a gift to their son, who has autism. They found that the Starry Night painting was a particular source of comfort and fascination for the young man. Also, in instances in which he might get lost from home, his difficulty in communication could be overcome by saying “the Van Gogh house” to a person looking to help.
May I ask your advice? If I do not like the color scheme of my neighbor's house, do I have a right to come to their door and demand that they pay me a hundred dollars a day until they fix it? If they resist long enough, can I bring men with guns to force them out of their home?
Such behavior sounds insane. Because it is.
However, when we form groups, we start to think we can get away with doing really insane or cruel things. Toxic groupthink can be playground bullies mimicking a child's unique speech pattern. It can also produce groupthink in governments that maintain the right to do things they would find abhorrent to do individually—just because a majority of voters in a space hired them.
They were merely victims of an arbitrarily banal exertion of power by busybodies that presume control.
Who Are We to Do This?
Should we ever use the threat of theft—an act of violence—to change a person's nonviolent behavior or choices? Should we have a culture that produces laws to coerce people's expression, personal choices, property use, or means of caring for their children? If there is no flesh and blood victim that can be named in a citation or police report about an event, how could we ever accuse a person of a crime or violation?
Who are we—floating on this magnetic marble of land and water—to assert our domination over someone else's home by demanding their money—the fruits of their finite time on Earth?
Private contracts are mutually agreed upon covenants that can be enforced if people violate the terms. However, public contracts—the domain of states—are often arbitrarily decided piecemeal based on the ever-changing whims of the people close to power.
As long as human beings are not stealing, defrauding, or initiating violence, they should enjoy their lives free from meddling.
No one truly owns a piece of the Earth in any cosmic sense. But so long as we are to live together, humans must live in a way that is harmonious and sustainable, one based on respect for differences and freedom. As long as human beings are not stealing, defrauding, or initiating violence, they should enjoy their lives free from meddling.
Triumph Over Meddlers
Thanks to their courage and the Pacific Legal Foundation, Nancy and Lubomir were victorious. Facing a federal battle over constitutional rights and an onslaught of media attention, Mt. Dora reached a settlement. As part of the agreement, the mayor publicly apologized in a press conference.
Nancy told me the ordeal cost them greatly in health, stress, and many sleepless nights. For painting their house to help their son.
Human busybodies will always exist, but it is our job as role models for future generations to never let the law be used in such a farcical way that bureaucrats without skin in the game can weaponize their monopolies to inflict pain on someone else.
It is our job as role models for future generations to never let the law be used in such a farcical way.
David Gornoski is your neighbor – as well as an entrepreneur, speaker and writer. He recently launched a project called A Neighbor’s Choice, which seeks to introduce Jesus’ culture of nonviolence to both Christians and the broader public. A Neighbor's Choice is also the name of his weekly radio show on state violence and alternative solutions to it. Email him here.
David Gornoski
FEE Foundation for Economic Education
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