What about The People Who Aren't Lauren?

 I don't think David Axelrod(or Kurt Warner, (who is what this recent op-ed discussion made me think of, because local press would make you think that Mr Warner invented housing segregated by ability level and it's a great new idea that being a quarterback gave him vision for.) are wrong for wanting "pleasant tree-lined streets" and friends their adult children relate to. Those are nice things that maybe everyone should have a shot at having.

Residential placement was different for me than it is for Lauren, because my parents aren't bold-type names who know donors who they can tell to take their toys and go home when they feel that she or they have been disrespected. (thankfully, all I was was disrespected, which takes a toll, but not like the ones taken by abuse or more serious neglect. I avoided most of the real "snakepit" scenarios, but I bet Lauren's place isn't understaffed, with a great many of the people being glad to  work there cause they don't have to wear the dumb hat, like at Del Taco.(A lot of us were nineteen) At the time, both sets of parents(again, different for Lauren...the odds of both sets of 'rents and me agreeing on what should happen next? Close enough to nil that maybe the mathematician from "Numbers" could have found the actual number.) They were both running businesses and didn't really have the inclination or connections to build me my own planet.(Do I want one? Sometimes. More than I want to talk about my goals with another near-stranger who's trying to seem friendly while keeping an ear out to make sure my story doesn't change too much....I'm not here to make the argument that the institutional alternatives as they currently stand are anything like what most people need.  Just feeling that the Axelrod/Warner vision is a bit less than small-d democratic.)

How much does Axelrod know about what his daughter wants?(All right, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe you don't write op-eds about people you're not close to, right?) But even now, I live with my mother and she's not above nudging a little about something that "we talked about" or "we agreed" so I could imagine that maybe "Axe's" own fear about the homestyle placement instead of the dorm one dominates the conversation enough that she doesn't share anymore if she thought about something else.