The deadline for candidates to return their nomination papers for the May 18 Marion election passed on Monday, March 26, and the race is on for Board of Selectmen with two seats up for grabs – one three-year seat to replace outgoing Selectman Jody Dickerson and another one-year seat left vacant by Steve Gonsalves when he resigned in February.

While only Community Preservation Committee Chairman and Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission member Randy Parker filed papers for the three-year seat, four will appear on the ballot to fill the one-year seat.

William “Dale” Jones, Michelle Oullette Smith, John Waterman, and Joseph Zora, Jr. all opted for the one-year selectman’s seat, making this Board of Selectmen race the most contested on the ballot.

Jones has run several times for Board of Selectmen, including last year against four other opponents, but he never came in first. He was recently appointed as a member of the Conservation Commission and was also once the Emergency Management director.

Smith is a member of the Marion and Old Rochester Regional School Committees and is also a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. She ran against Jones last year for Board of Selectmen, vying for former Selectman Steve Cushing’s open seat, but came in fourth place. Smith is also the only one running for the Marion School Committee to maintain her seat for another term.

Waterman has spoken publically against the current Board of Selectmen’s decision to jettison the new town house construction option article from the Town Meeting warrant.

Zora can often be heard speaking his mind as a concerned citizen on the Town Meeting floor. His father, Joseph Zora, Sr., was a Board of Selectmen member for 27 years, serving nine consecutive terms.

The three-year Assessor position – the only other contested race this year – is now between newcomer George TJ Walker, a former Planning Board member, and incumbent Ray Pickles, whose name has come up in recent local news after he was abruptly dismissed from his position as executive director of the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District. Pickles is also the current town clerk and a former town administrator.

The remaining uncontested races are as follows: Town Moderator, one year, incumbent Brad Gordon; Board of Health, three years, incumbent John Howard; Planning Board, two seats each three years, current appointed Planning Board member Andrew Daniel and Kristen St. Don-April Rios; Open Space Acquisition Commission, three years, incumbent Alan Harris.

Voting for the Friday, May 18, Annual Election is at the Benjamin D. Cushing Community Center located at 465 Mill Road. Polls open at 8:00 am and close at 8:00 pm.

By Jean Perry

There are 54 different species of seahorses in the world. They live along shallow edges of coastlines all over the globe, but they are rarely seen and are often described as the shyest creature on earth.

Seahorses vary in size depending on geographical location and can be found inside fishermen’s shrimp nets, dredged up while eating their favorite food. The smallest pygmy species is as small as your little finger.

Despite its features being visually similar to many other earthly creatures, including the head and neck of a horse and a tail of a kangaroo, the seahorse is classified as fish, having gills to breathe underwater, pectoral fins to navigate, and an internal bladder to swim in a typical upright posture. They also have interlocking body plates like a crustacean crab for protection.

What is called a ‘prehensile’ (adapted to hold or grasp objects) tail is flexible enough to wrap around its neck like a scarf and to even scratch its own head to wonder about how his curious creation ever came to be. Mostly the tail is used to reach out and latch onto a sea grass blade or coral finger to stabilize its location and position in a strong current.

The seahorse’s eyes can move independently, separately moving and focusing in different directions to both objects coming and going like a chameleon. Even more remarkable is the ability, like a chameleon, to change color at the blink of an eye to camouflage itself into the background of its surroundings to hide from predators.

Seahorse reproductive behavior is even more astounding as the male carries the fertilized eggs in a brood pouch placed there by a female. After an elaborate several-day courtship during with couples swim side-by-side holding tails, they both wheel around doing what is called a mystical pre-dawn dance lasting about six minutes. The female then releases her eggs through her ovipositor tube into the male’s brood pouch. He subsequently nourishes them by manufacturing organic compounds as well as hormones for development.

When ready to hatch in a week or two, he convulses his body frame and expels them through a single opening of the pouch. Almost immediately after that, he is ready to receive another brood of eggs from the female to populate throughout the breeding season. This repeated procreation leads to an estimated world population of millions.

Some seahorse populations in the world may be endangered as a result of overfishing, particularly in the Orient for use with Chinese medicine, where seahorse powder is ingested in pills, powders, and syrups to cure kidney disease, impotence, and induce labor. Seahorses are also a favorite delicacy, roasted and sold by street corner vendors impaled on a stick like a lollipop.

This is unfortunate for one of the oldest species on Earth, dating back in fossils 16 million years. This ancient creation came into mankind’s awareness much later, coming to life with Greek mythology and Egyptian art about the time of the Etruscan Empire. It was called hippocampus, (hippo for horse, and campus for sea monster). A favorite myth told how the seahorse steed pulled the aquatic chariot of Poseidon, god and monarch of the sea.

Since then, the seahorse was destined to emerge in the Renaissance movement of great works of art, paintings, woodcuts, carvings, sculpture, and statues. The most world famous is the fountain of Trevi in Rome featuring the winged hippocampus.

There’s one giant seahorse that calls the Town of Mattapoisett its home, known affectionately as Salty the Seahorse. This landmark greets residents every day on their way to work and school, and at night both eyes come alive to light up by solar power. Salty remains under the watchful stewardship of the Mattapoisett Land Trust, and the playground garden park is maintained to honor the generous Dunseith family donation to the town.

Let’s hope Salty continues to reign supreme and stand as a welcoming sentinel for visitors and residents, as well as a mystical silhouette of the real species for children of all ages.

By George B. Emmons

It’s April again, which means, as I flip my free Easter Seals calendar over to page April, I’m going to start talking about autism again.

April 2, World Autism Awareness Day, marks the start of Autism Awareness Month all across the globe. We included some bits on autism awareness in The Wanderer over the last three consecutive Aprils, but now as we face a fourth April – ten Aprils after the very first Autism Awareness Month – I’m wondering, are we ‘aware’ yet?

Because, really, autism ‘awareness’ hasn’t really changed very much for Autistics or their families. Services for Autistics are still underfunded, supports are still limited, and Autistics are still fighting for their rightful place in society and for their voices to be heard.

The neuro-typical (NT) world still in large part excludes Autistics, still perpetuates damaging stereotypes, still uses the r-word in mainstream culture, and is still dictating the futures of people on the autism spectrum in almost all facets of their lives, especially in schools and in the workplace with a lack of jobs and unequal and unfair wages.

Since last April I’ve learned that many Autistic people aren’t even fans of Autism Awareness Month. Autistic activists and bloggers say blue light bulbs, puzzle piece pins, autism walkathons, and more “awareness” propagated by NTs actually undermines Autistics’ efforts by perpetuating stereotypes, eliciting pity through anecdotes, and talking about autism like NTs are the experts and offering no forum for the true experts on autism – Autistics.

“We don’t care for ‘Autism Awareness Month’ because it focuses on the negativity of autism,” said Chuck McIntyre, a 26-year-old resident of Mattapoisett who is Autistic and active in the Autistic Community advocacy scene. “It follows the perspective of parents who martyr themselves as people who have to ‘deal with’ Autistics and often brings up ‘cure’ culture and increases stigma. But most importantly, it leaves us out of the conversation; it really pushes us out of the conversation.”

I’ve given all that a lot of thought, and I have no option but to agree with him.

The growing pains of personal growth have hallmarked my time between last Autism Awareness Month and this one. Accompanying that was the nausea that ensues when a new idea conflicts with one’s flawed assumption, and the jolt of self-awareness I drove into was like a massive pothole out of nowhere.

This year marked the chapter in my life when I faced the ‘ableism’ I never saw in myself because it didn’t quite look the way I pictured it.

As an advocate for my child and an ally of the disenfranchised, I never considered that perhaps inside me were some unwitting ableist tendencies. I knew they were out there, trying fad “treatments” to “cure” kids of autism and parents withholding vaccines essentially believing that a sick (or possibly dead!) child would be preferable to an Autistic child.

“There are multiple forms of ableism,” said McIntyre. “There’s the ableist that denies that these disorders or ailments exist, or those who call people like me or others ‘fakers.’ There’s the ableist who can say that you can overcome if you just ‘try harder.’”

And among a litany of other examples, McIntyre said, “There’s the ableist who is bitter about having their tax dollars go to special programs [that benefit Autistics],” and so on.

“And then there are ableists who are just bullies,” said McIntyre.

Ableism is also the crass concept that Autism is a defect of nature versus diversity in nature. Ableism is often unconscious, and so is ‘abled privilege,’ which is as simple as being able to look at the floor while talking to someone without being “redirected” to “make eye contact.”

We see ableism on social media videos of people acting kindly towards an Autistic person and being hailed a saint for attending an Autistic’s girl’s birthday party.

“The media in general will form a stereotype of the ‘helpless’ handicapped person,” McIntyre said. “A lot of their stories will be about these people who can’t take care of themselves or some unfortunate family who is living with this ‘Autistic version of the child they dreamed of.’”

This April is the perfect time for NTs to consider a new paradigm, one in which Autistics are accepted and not simply noticed as existing parallel to NTs. If you’re reading this and you are Autistic, I hope with all of my heart that some April we can achieve that. And if you’re NT and you’re reading this, autism acceptance must begin, not with awareness of autism, but with awareness of ourselves and our imbedded assumptions, discomfort with diversity, and reliance on labels that guide us towards preconceived judgments of how people are and how we should treat them.

Awareness means we know that Autistic people exist. Acceptance means Autistic people matter.

“You can be aware of women, and how their body functions,” said McIntyre as an example. “Or, you can be accepting of women and treat them respectfully. It goes the same for Autistics.… You can know everything about autism, or think you do, and still not accept Autistic people; you can still shun them. And if you shun them, Autistic people will still have trouble finding work, and in higher education … leaving room for a stigma.”

“If there isn’t acceptance, then there’s trying to control it, trying to change it,” said McIntyre. “And we’re saying it’s not okay, we’re saying that that lack of acceptance is itself unacceptable.”

Autism is a complex neurological “spectrum” disorder exhibiting disabilities in core areas such as cognitive functioning, fine and gross motor and planning skills, social development, and sensory processing. There is no one cause of autism, although researches suggest a combination of genetic and environmental factors may play a role. Despite exploitative claims, there is no “cure.” According to the Center for Disease Control & Prevention, one in 68 people is diagnosed with some form of autism spectrum disorder, ranging in number and degree of common symptoms that may affect communication, over- or under-sensitivity to light, sound, or touch, social skills, and repetitive self-soothing movements (‘stims’). Often other diagnoses correlate with autism, such as epilepsy and gastroenterological issues.

It is important that parents know the early warning signs of autism, because outcome is often more positive when intervention occurs earlier in development. Some early signs of autism, which can sometimes be observed in babies as young as six months old, are not babbling, not exhibiting gestures such as pointing, waving, or shaking head ‘no,’ repetitive movements, fixated with objects (e.g. ceiling fan spinning), little to no eye contact, paying more attention to objects than people, limited play with toys, not responding when name is called, aversive to cuddling, isn’t reaching milestones, and sometimes a sudden loss of skills such as speech and social skills.

McIntyre is recording a mini-series of hour-long episodes about autism with ORCTV, which will be aired throughout the month of April, to include topics like autism and the Autistic identity, Autistic rights and self-advocacy, autism stigma and ableism, Autistics and the economy, Autistics and politics, and Autistic allyship.

“This is my campaign to take back the narrative on autism and take back Autism Awareness Month and repurpose it for Autistic acceptance and Autistic appreciation,” said McIntyre.

By Jean Perry