Unfortunately, Nunzio passed away this morning about 9am. During the night, I could feel him pawing me in bed. He always sleeps on my ankles, but the past 2 nights he slept right next to my back. Around 9am, he did a big arch and I was hoping it was just a big stretch, but I'm sure that is the moment he left me. He had an 11am appt, but I immediately rushed him to the vet. I was hoping that maybe his breathing was shallow and they might be able to do something. I'm grateful he didn't suffer. He died right next to me in the bed. We recently moved into a HUGE 1 BR with wood floors and I was hoping he could enjoy that for a while, but I knew this day would be coming. He just turned 16 yers old and was the best cat in the world and loved me more than anything in the world - except maybe chicken. 😉 He will be cremated and they will make a paw print for me. Will post more later, but I wanted to thank all the outpouring of emotions from everybody yesterday. I couldn't have asked for a better cat. He had an excellent quality of life until that last 2 days. We certainly had a great life together at home and on the road. RIP Nunzio Rogers.
In 2019, a Swiss man named Jonas Lauwiner did something unusual. He crowned himself the King of Switzerland, complete with a symbolic ceremony in a church in Bern. It sounds like a joke, and in a way it is. But what he did next was deadly serious, and completely legal. Lauwiner had found a forgotten clause buried in the Swiss Civil Code. Under Article 658, any citizen can claim ownerless land for free, simply by writing a letter to the local authorities. Most people never knew it existed. Lauwiner decided to use it as a weapon. He began combing through land registries, hunting for plots and stretches of road that no one officially owned. Then, one letter at a time, he claimed them. To date, he has taken ownership of 148 separate properties totaling around 117,000 square meters, including 83 roads, all without paying a cent. Owning the roads is where it gets clever, and a little ruthless. Lauwiner now charges residents maintenance fees to use streets he acquired for free, and sells rights to build or pass through his land. He has described the whole project, only half-jokingly, as a military campaign waged digitally and without bloodshed. In one standoff, he reportedly offered to hand a road back to a local council for free, on one condition. They had to rename it after him. Otherwise, they could pay him around 150,000 francs.
People talk about disability benefits the way people talk about winning the lottery. "Must be nice." Meanwhile, families are over here collecting medical records from six specialists, filling out forms, proving the same diagnosis for the tenth time, documenting every dollar, waiting months for decisions, and praying they didn't miss a signature on page 14. If it were as easy as people think it is, there wouldn't be entire professions dedicated to helping families navigate the process. The biggest myth isn't that disability programs exist. It's that people think access to them is simple.
I couldn’t stop looking at these photos. These aren’t scenes from a horror movie. This is part of our history. For decades, many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities were institutionalized. Some were neglected, restrained, isolated, and treated as if their lives mattered less. Families were often told their children would never learn, never communicate, and would be better off hidden away. We know now that they deserved so much more. That’s why the recent DOJ opinion has so many disability families concerned. The opinion argues that federal disability laws do not require states to provide community-based services in the way many advocates have understood them for decades. It does not order institutions to reopen, but many fear it could weaken protections that help people with disabilities live in their homes and communities rather than in more restrictive settings. As an autism mom, these images don’t just make me sad. They remind me why I advocate. Because my children are not problems to be hidden. They are not burdens to be tucked away. They are human beings deserving of love, opportunities, support, and belonging. History isn’t something we study and forget. It’s something we remember so we never repeat it. 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝. 💙 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧, 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞. 𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝.
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