As I sat down to compose a Press Release for my new Citizen Action website, "Advocate For Texas" (http://advocate4texas.4mg.com) the morning T.V. news story of the Delaware couple who allegedly abandoned their disabled son in his wheelchair at a hospital was on my mind.

There have been countless times, when out of desperation at NOT being able to obtain services, in Texas, for a child with Prader-Willi Syndrome (a rare birth defect and named developmental disability/related condition under both State and Federal law), or frustrated by being a single, unemployed parent to this very demanding child, that I have been tempted to return her to the hospital where she was born. I fantacize about leaving her there, with a bag and a note saying, "I received defective goods and I'm returning them to you!!!".

Instead, to date anyway, I cope with her, advocate for changes in the system, and TRY to call bureaucrats, politicians and the media to task -- making the website was one such effort and I hope you will help publicize it, AND the plight of parents burdened with disabled children and a non-responsive 'system'! Nothing is being sold there, I just want other voices added to mine in the struggle for better, more timely social services!

NO ONE should condemn beleaguered parents, whatever their economic status, who have responsibility for a disabled child with pitifully inadequate response from the social services systems! Texas, with a $96.4 BILLION dollar budget, and a wait list of 10 to 66 years for services to the disabled, is a leader in the "do little" group of states. Texas is also number three in the number of homeless vets in all 50 states, and number two in hunger! More data at my site, which I hope will encourage citizens to become more active!