views

for openers

Milestones And
Street Signs

W

hen a baby takes his first
steps, we’re clapping and
cheering and videoing away,
forwarding it to everyone we know.
We’re filled with pride and excitement
— I mean, he can walk! How amazing!
There’s really no tell-
ing what he’ll do next!
Could be anything!
And it all happens
so quickly — soon the
kid is running, jump-
ing, climbing the roof,
riding a bike — and
then, it’s enough to
send you screaming
Rochel Burstyn
toward the hills when
the kid says he wants
to drive your car!
I’m all for inde-
pendence, and I love the idea that my
child could transport himself home at
2 a.m. instead of having to wait up for
his “please pick me up” call, but I found,
when I finally reached this stage of
Mother of a New Driver, that I wasn’t as
excited about this new milestone as I’d
anticipated.
I was fine with Drivers Ed. Drivers Ed
is great. You drop off the kid at class and
don’t see him for two hours. Nothing
difficult about that!
And then they need practice hours
with an instructor, which is also fun at
first. Snapping pictures of your kid in
the “Student Driver” car driver’s seat
(not too different from the pictures
you took when he was a gap-toothed

Walk4Friendship
Set For Sept. 3

7-year-old) while he faithfully listens
to the instructor and pretends not to
know the weird lady with a camera on
the sidewalk.
But then, Driver’s Ed is over and the
kid needs something like 60 hours of
driving with an experienced driver —
and suddenly his favorite experienced
drivers are none other than dear-old,
embarrassing Mom and Dad.
As of this writing, I’ve only done it
once — last week — for a three-minute
journey, the longest three minutes of
my parenting career so far, I might add.
I kept slamming my foot down, want-
ing to brake and reliving the terrifying
realization that I’d literally handed all
control of my vehicle, and essentially
my life, over to my offspring. I couldn’t
decide what the better choice was, to
keep my eyes open and see all the near-
misses up close, or close my eyes and
potentially miss the last few seconds of
my life.
I’ve always been up front about my
roller-coaster aversion and this wasn’t
really too different — my stomach was
lurching, my eyeballs were popping and

I strongly felt like I was going to throw
up.
Once he pulled safely into our drive-
way, and I managed to get my trembling
knees out of the car, it took me a good
while to recover. (I’d say I’m about half-
way there now.)
I keep telling myself that it’s hard to
imagine but it’s true — these are just my
child’s first baby steps, not too unlike
those he took so many years ago with
his chubby legs on the carpet … and
that just like all the other good drivers
on the road, he’ll get there, becoming a
confident (but hopefully not too confi-
dent) and safe driver. I mean, the roads
today are filled with billions of drivers
who all took their wobbly first drive
around deserted parking lots years ago
and look at them go now!
There’s no doubt he’ll get there — and
then, what’s next? Will he fly a plane?
Pilot a rocket ship? The world is his
oyster!
I’m just dear old Mom in the back-
seat, cheering him on, feeling proud and
a little nostalgic — and hopefully not
embarrassing him too much. •

could not go back to school. We were
divided from our neighbors. So many
people perished because a lot of good
people did nothing.
I knew that neo-Nazis were here in
America, but I was not aware after all
these years, of just how many people
are affiliated with them. I saw David
Duke who so many years ago ran for
public office. We must prevent people
like him from ever representing us in
government. We cannot allow this to
happen.
Indeed, I am standing firm against
the violence in Charlottesville and
those who spoke out in support of
the perpetrators of that violence.
We must place the blame where it
belongs. If the neo-Nazis would not

have walked, this violence would
never have happened.
We have a problem here.
I have no respect for neo-Nazis.
I don’t hate them, but I don’t love
them. Truly, I would like to change
them. I would like to talk to them. I
would ask them, “How do you justify
the Holocaust? How do you justify
children being torn away from their
mothers, thrown into open trucks and
watching as their mothers were shot
as they were being taken away? How
do you justify that I was torn from my
school and thrown into a room with
other teenagers, never to see my par-
ents again? How do you justify that?”
I would ask them, “What are you
fighting for?”

community view

Never Again

C

hills went through my body
when I saw the pictures com-
ing out of Charlottesville, Va. I
saw the marchers with their torches.
The Nazis. Here they
are again.
I was reminded
of how the Nazis
came into my Polish
city and burned our
books, how they
came in and torched
Jewish homes and
Paula Marks-
businesses.
I was
Bolton
13. Children like me

Friendship Circle’s 2107
Walk4Friendship, set for Sunday,
Sept. 3, will feature radio per-
sonality Mike Stone of 97.1 The
Ticket and legendary news
anchor Diana Lewis as emcees
for this year’s annual event.
The Walk will begin at the West
Bloomfield Town Hall and will
end at Friendship Circle’s Farber
Center.
The walk draws thousands
every year, and this year’s goal
is to raise more than $600,000.
Attendees will be able to enjoy
delicious food, a zip-line,
micro-reality racing, a sports
arena, Michigan Science Center
experiments, kids’ workshop
with Home Depot and additional
entertainment. Admission is free,
but donations are welcome at the
event.
Registration begins at 10:30
a.m. at the West Bloomfield Town
Hall, 3550 Walnut Lake Road.
The opening ceremony starts at
11:30 a.m. and the walk begins 15
minutes later.
Skydivers, a group of high-
flying acrobats performing death-
defying stunts, will perform at
12:45 p.m. An hour later, the Real
McCoy Show will entertain the
crowd with his stunt comedy,
such as juggling a giant wrench,
safety cone and plunger — there’s
never a dull moment.
Thousands of area families
and hundreds of southeastern
Michigan schools utilize the
services of Friendship Circle and
come to count on this organiza-
tion that helps individuals with
special needs lead better and
more fulfilling lives.
“Walk4Friendship is an amaz-
ing time of year for Friendship
Circle,” said Bassie Shemtov,
executive director of Friendship
Circle. “We witness thousands
of community members gather
together with one common bond;
they each love someone with spe-
cial needs. Together we can make
Walk4Friendship 2017 our most
successful walk yet.” •

continued on page 9

jn

August 31 • 2017

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