If you missed it!

My son Calvin’s interview with Ed Helms of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is available here! The name of the piece is “Water Blogged” so just click on that and enjoy!

I am very grateful to Mr. Helms and the Daily Show for the masterful job they did on this piece in getting our story out but with a sense of humor.

First of all, I think Calvin comes across as just a regular kid who just wants to do a regular high-school-kid type of thing – like join the local high school swim team, particularly since has been swimming most of his life and has a bit of success at it! Ted Helms and the crew brought that out by showning some of the ribbons and things Calvin has won, but Mr. Helms’s comment that Calvin wants to be “a real boy” really put Calvin’s wish into a normal perspective

– not as something irregular, arrogant, or unthinkable to ask, but as a normal everyday type of request, particularly since the school Calvin attends is SPONSORED by the very school board that wants to deny him the opportunity of participating with the team.

I also think Senator Coughlin’s appearance was handled well. This wasn’t “Pork barrel politics.” There really wasn’t anything this State Senator got from helping us with his bill, it was just the right thing to do, the right side of the issue to be on.

Mrs. Didanato, however, IMO shot herself in the foot. From her choice of clothing and hairstyle that day, (Mr. Helms called her “a school board member and part-time Whitesnake tribute band singer,” that should give you some idea)



to her inability to laugh at herself. But more importantly Mr. Helms nailed the real issue, “It’s about control and parameters, and putting Calving outside those parameters.” Yea, that’s really what it always has been about, and I don’t think that’s what a school board member that pledges to be for and about kids, should be concerned about – excluding children.

The Senator and Calvin clearly saw the humor, laughed at themselves and at Mr. Helms’s jokes. Calvin has been called “Cyborg boy” for a couple of weeks now, good naturedly and overall I think that was the best lesson he could have learned – to not take these types of setbacks too hard or too personally. Mrs. Didanato should take note.

BTW, I got word from Senator Coughlin’s office that Governor Taft WILL sign Senate Bill 18 next month, and we have been invited to attend the signing. So All’s well that end’s well.

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