Ok so once and awhile I stray a bit from Asperger's, per se. But today's story is a good one, although I'm not sure yet what the moral is...
Two days ago I was picking up my College email when the following message appeared from our Campus Safety Office:
-----Original Message-----
From: Warman, Amanda
Sent: Wed 6/8/2005 11:00 AM
To: _GAL
Cc:
Subject: Reminder - Vermont Yankee Drill Friday June 10th
Good morning –
This is a reminder that there will be a Vermont Yankee drill at Spaulding Gym on Friday, June 10th from approximately 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This is the final drill in our biennial series of 3 drills.
As mentioned in my previous e-mails about the drills, Keene State College provides the gym as space to set up a reception center for folks who are evacuated from potentially affected areas. The reception center is a place for people to come to contact and meet family and/or to be assigned emergency shelter.
The gym will remain open for use however you will see a number of emergency vehicles and personnel in and around the area.
While I was grateful to get the message since it alerted me to avoid parking on campus on friday, I wondered if people on campus knew much about the purpose of the drill or about all the problems that had occured during previous drills in Vermont (e.g., school buses not showing up to pick up school children). So, I sent out a message asking for an "informational program" to be held simultaneously with the drill to help us "begin a conversation" about these issues. I started getting email responses very quickly...90% were very positive, including this one from a college staffer (name withheld):
Hi, Larry: I just wanted to thank you for helping folks see the middle/common ground between these two events. I had visions of war-of-the-worlds scope from the e-mails that were flying! Personally, I'm no fan of nuclear power, but I know I would dearly appreciate the fact that the folks who work in emergency response have practiced trying to save all our hides, in spite of our beliefs/politics, no matter what the disaster might be
What really took me surprise though, was several messages that were quite nasty, inclulding one accusing me of endangering children's lives (I'll withhold the message for now). And one that told me that I should embrace Jesus as my savior (an odd thing to tell a Jew, isn' t it?). Clearly, these folks were angry...but their way of letting me know was hostile...and off putting. My intention, in the words of Comedienne Joan Rivers, was "Can we talk?" I'm always surprised when people do the aggressive thing...why not play nice? Isn't this a basic social rule that we'd like people to follow in a civilized society?
In today's podcast, admittedly a bit off the Asperger's/Autism track (but not so far), I bring you today's informational program held on the campus of Keene State College, not far from a large evacuation drill being carried out by local, state, and federal officials. Click on the MP3 file below to hear today's podcast:
Download VermontYankee.mp3 (2.14MB; 6mins,14secs)
