Wampum

Milestone

Today marks the one year anniversary of Wampum (the original site hosted at Blogspot), and we want to thank you all for the nearly 200K unique visits at both sites since then. I started blogging as a way of venting my frustration after coming off a particularly disappointing campaign where my candidate, and friend, lost in her bid to unseat a mediocre, though moderate, Republican Senator. I fashioned my site initially on a particularly impressive one I noticed during my first stint surfing through the blogosphere; that of a witty, Progressive attorney from Georgia who also happened to be parenting an autistic child.

Just three days post-inception, I was discovered by that same well-respected blogger when the Thimerosal rider in the Homeland Security Bill story broke; in the span of a few days, I went from obscurity on the Net, to a place on the sidebars of writers and pundits far more remarkable than myself, essentially due only to blogging the right piece at the right time. Serendipity, pure and simple.

That my friend and mentor Dwight Meredith now hangs his hat at Wampum makes me feel as if things have come full circle, in the best possible sense. I can't speak for him specifically (he does a great job of expressing himself), but I want to thank our readers and colleagues, on both the Left and (center-)Right, who have supported us over the past 12 months, in particular giving us the chance to share the challenges and joys of parenting special needs children. As IDEA reauthorization comes to a head in Congress over the next few weeks, we'll be asking many of you to act on that support and contact your legislators; but more on that in upcoming posts. For today, I'm just thankful for the opportunities the last year has provided, and the many friendships which have blossomed, and look forward to more of the same in the future.