EDWARDS IN THE DUMPSTER

He's in the dumpster, more or less, with quite a few other famous names.

We often throw out our heroes after we've put them high above us on pedestals, because of who they are, what they did, said, or accomplished.

John Edwards, before and after running for vice president with Senator John Kerry, has created and supported many important projects that helped people socially and economically. He was certainly someone to consider as we were looking over Democratic candidates, along with Hilary Clinton and Obama.

Despite the fact that Elizabeth Edwards, his wife, had cancer, she stood bravely, lovingly by his side. While they were campaigning -- and they were a powerfully sympathetic couple.

John had an affair. The details made salacious headlines. The woman got pregnant. He lied and said it wasn't his baby; later, he admitted it was. Meanwhile, wife Elizabeth, who'd published a first book about finding solace after the death of their son and her struggle with cancer, published "Resilience," about living with an incurable cancer, and becoming a victim of her husband's adultery.

What's the story behind her story? We'll probably never know, but maybe the years of sadness and woes parched John Edwards sexually, and made him vulnerable and desperately needy. Yes, clearly he lied about his love life, and also, he apparently, finagled with campaign financing. His selfish, recklessly irresponsible behavior devastated his dying wife, and their children, and hurt his mistress and their child.

At the moment, in Raleigh, N.C., Wade Smith, one of Edward's lawyers has withdrawn from Edwards' defense team because Smith himself has a conflict of interest. The trial is scheduled for January 2012 . Edwards could be fined $1.5 million for misusing funds, and could go to jail for 30 years. Also, heavy, heavy hanging over his head is what he did to Elizabeth and their family. .Now she's dead and their children live with their grandparents. Does he see them, I don't know.

What about his extraordinary record -- all the good deeds he's done for people with medical problems, money woes -- all the money he's donated, and money he's raised for those who desperately need it?

Can we, can the world, can you and I ever trust a man who has lied the way Edwards lied? No. I don't think John Edwards can return to politics, but he could be helping people as he did before he toppled off his pedestal. This man has skills and enormous knowledge, expertise -- like Tiger Woods, like Eliot Spitzer -- he does not belong in the dumpster.

What's my personal feeling about all this?

I am hoping that one of these days John Edwards will be out in the world, back in the world working -- working harder than ever -- helping people and redeeming himself.

AUTISM

Kids? What's happening to them?

They're being studied, measured, medicated, tested, taught how to play, and communicate with other kids and adults.

A kid with communication problems, who doesn't pay attention or talk, or reach out to play with other kids, is said to have "Asperger's." In 1944, Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who studied thousands of patients, published a paper defining people who are "autistic" as impaired in social interaction.

Okay, back then it was a major, fascinating new idea.

In the 70's and 80's the theory emerged that these disorders had to do with females -- mothers, who were college graduates, marrying college graduates -- that people of similar temperament were mating. By the 90's, the categories of unions that produced autistic children were proved by statistics that showed (are still showing today), that those who have higher than average levels of autistic traits, without any full blown disorder, are marrying and having children at a higher rate than ever before -- thus, we have more autistic children.

Okay, autism was affecting a lot of people, and more and more research was important, and being funded.

Today, there are tons of articles, photos, advice, pills, and talk about autistic children and why, nowadays, there are more autistic children. Is it chemicals -- stuff in the air, in the home, in everything -- in furniture? cars? food? pets, clothes. toys,. games, electrical outlets? Do kids get it from watching television?

Wise men -- doctors nad, scientists -- have come up with diagnoses: Hyperlexia, Dyslexia, Angelman Syndrome, Autism Dementia; Alexia, Rett Syndrome,- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, (ADHD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (OCD), etc. etc.

Hmm. Do I have Asperger's? I'm verbally adept, and definitely impaired socially -- I don't like parties, have very few friends -- write them -- rarely, hardly ever, even chat with them on the phone for more than a minute.

I can't help mentioning my personal mother/wife, experience -- and EM logic. It seem to me that as you're growing up, you make choices about who to play with, what's fun, what interests you. The choices you make very early on are what you see, hear, and feel from your parents and family.

Is Asperger's like Altzheimer's -- a disease that can be seen in MRI brain scans? Or is it an affliction that's been created by medical doctors and scientists attempting to explain, treat, help people -- make, in fact, a big business over what happens to people as they grow up in today's world?

Yes, MRI's, scans have been made. Thus far, Asperger's is not seen, not yet diagnosed by brain scans.

Could autism be normal functioning of a certain type of mind? While I'm asking myself this quietly, I read about the Director of the Autism Research Center of London's University of Cambridge, Simon Baron Cohen. He said that autistic behavior can been seen in any group of people who have had strong math, science and tech skills, people who can be sorted out by socio-economic standing, relationships, and psychiatric profile -- people with depression, bi-polar disorders, and substance abuse issues.

Cohen reminded his colleagues that their tendency to mate with others of similar background is also typical -- birds of a feather, flock together.

Other scientists, with high ranking credits, agree. Others are horrified by this idea.

I feel like a kid -- I'm trying to figure out if "autism" is a real disease?

I feel (don't know, just feel) that many fears, many things that depress us and haunt us have been created by what we see, feel, hear, watch, use, buy, crave, participate in, learn from observing, identify with in our everyday more complicated, confusing world.

Yes, I think we have created "autism."
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LOS ANGELES VERSUS NEW YORK CITY (video)

Oops, this video came out very yellow and we ought to record it again, but the second time might not be as much fun as this first time.

Where is living day-to-day better? Where's the better place for John Cullum, for Emily Frankel to earn a living?

It doesn't matter to Em, writing can be done anywhere. But John needs to be in NYC. In LA, even 10 years ago, JC found himself sitting around, sometimes for months, without even an audition for a grandpa role. In New York City there's always work. Auditions, play readings, meetings, benefits, tributes.

Life for the Cullums, living in the heart of Manhattan, means noise, congestion, shopping problems -- getting food and supplies. Home means climbing five flights. They don't have an elevator in the building they own -- an 100 year old 5 storey loft building where they have a big home on one floor, a theater, dance studio and offices on another floor.

Life is LA is easier, more relaxing -- there are stars in the sky, wonderful vegetation, flowers. But John and Em agree, life in NY is what they want right now.

GLORIOUS GLORIA STEINEM

She's a big name woman who helped to change the face, the stance, the status, of girls, gals, sweethearts, babes, mistresses, brides, divorcees, ladies -- all women.

(Including me. And when all women are involved, so are all men.)

Steinem's still talking, taking on the masculine world, defining and redefining what a woman is, what a woman can be.

One of the founders of what we came to call "Women's Liberation" -- Gloria Steinem has more than survived moving out of the limelight, into what she is now.

She states what she is with humor, clear speech, the ability to communicate on the level of the best reporters, and shapes her idea of what a woman is by revealing who Gloria Steinem really is -- a caring, nurturing, person who teaches, and reaches out to others.

I admired Gloria Steinem when MZ Magazine arrived in my mailbox every week. I admired G.S. when others said important things that rang the bell in my head and the heads of woman throughout the world. I used the names, wrote about these women in my novel, "Somebody, Woman of the Century."

(...Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Emmeline Pankhurst, Victoria Woodhull, Simone de Beauvior, Kate Millet, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm. Bella Abzug Germaine Greer, and quite a few others -- too many names to list here.)

Gloria Steinem, in my novel, affected the lives of my main characters in various ways, borrowed from my experience, and the way she affected my life. I didn't need woman's liberation to tell me that I could do and be and take on whatever I wanted, whether it was a male or female thing. I didn't accept the rules, mores, or standards that were my mother's, her mother's, and the hand-me-downs from the last century and centuries before that.

But gee, every female friend I ever had, every woman that I know, every female I've identified with, and every character I have created has worn, dressed in, and covered her naked real self with the hand-me-downs.

Gloria Steinem took on that mountain of vintage things. She's climbed the mountain of what womanhood was supposed to be, and from her work has made the route to the summit, a pathway for all women.

All woman? Listen to what Gloria Steinem says and see for yourself.