In Memory of Austin Nicholas Barthen

In Memory of Austin Nicholas Barthen This is the story of  Austin Barthen who was born in Columbus, Ohio on February 26, 1981.  He left us on September 16, 2005 in Maple Shade, New Jersey.  He was only 24 years old. As a Freight Dispatcher on the East Coast, he was rapidly advancing his career and looking forward to his future promotion as Operations Manager of his own satellite office in his beloved home state of Ohio. He wanted to get married, buy a home and have children. His future held great promise. My wonderful, smart, sweet, gentle, kind, handsome son left a huge void in this world when he took Oxyconyin, fell asleep and never woke up. In our hearts, Austin will live forever. AUSTIN NICHOLAS BARTHEN 02/26/1981 - 09/16/2005  We need your help to gain awareness for a 911 Good Samaritan Law that we are working on in Georgia. Please check out "GA 911 Good Samaritan Fatal Overdose Prevention Bill" page and "like". Thank you! https://www.facebook.com/GA911GoodSamaritan

I ask for your support and prayers. Join us for a better future for Georgia’s 1st Congressional District and this great nation.

In 2008 and 2010, American voters decided that the status quo was no longer acceptable and voted for change. Unfortunately, the do-nothing Congress (led by the Republicans) and persistent partisanship in Washington continues to hinder economic recovery, jobs and national security.

Our nation’s credit rating has been downgraded. Businesses have all but stopped hiring due to the complex tax policies and regulations the U.S. government requires. Children continue to fall behind their foreign counterparts in education, especially in math and science. China and India graduate more than 10 times the number of engineers as the U.S.

Having seen the effects, and lack of action taken by incumbent Republican District 1 Rep. Jack Kingston, I have decided to take my personal concern to the next level, and run on the Democratic ticket as your next Representative for Georgia’s 1st Congressional District.

I know together we can do better, and there is much work to be done in Washington.

We must keep America moving forward and ensure that basic rights for women, children and seniors are not stripped away.

The families of coastal Georgia deserve a U.S. Congresswoman pledged to be a partner, and to end the burden that partisanship places on progress.

We must build coalitions to create jobs and keep communities and coast lines strong by investing in transportation infrastructure, ensuring that youth have access to quality education, by supporting U.S. veterans and military families, and protecting the guarantee of Medicare for seniors.

What the 1st District needs now is a leader and not a career politician like Mr. Kingston. I will work in the people’s interest; someone who will be effective and who cares about families, the disenfranchised, working individuals, our hard working military men and woman, veterans and all the citizens of Georgia.  Matters involving social issues, the environment, and the economy can all be balanced once Congress begins to work towards America’s future as opposed to self-interests.

I ask for your support and prayers. Join us for a better future for Georgia’s 1st Congressional District and this great nation.  I look forward to meeting and listening to all of you – families, veterans and working people –  from all parts of the district.  From St. Mary’s to Savannah and from Brusnwick to Jesup and Waycross, our District reflects America’s future.

Your priorities and daily issues are mine, too.  As a mother, wife, small business owner and daughter from a small, Midwest farming community, I deeply understand what challenges that families are facing.

I want to earn every vote.

A Messinger of Hope for Our Children

 http://www.messinger4congress.com/


It is imperative I get to Congress so that I may bring the many important things that you and I and many, many other Moms need to bring attention to. We need to be heard. It is the Mothers that can make sense of all of this and try to fix it. Those 
that have been directly affected.


It is hard to explain to parents that are in that nice safe "bubble" that drugs can affect their children. It doesn't start on a dark street corner in a bad neighborhood. It starts in the family medicine cabinet. It happens in every neighborhood, every economic situation. I know. I have personally been in dialogue with Moms that lost their kids to drugs while living on Park Ave, Manhattan, as a new intern fresh out of med school in a Philadelphia Hospital, another working with children in LA, California.... and yes, these kids went thru the DARE programs at school, just as my son did.

• When I get to Congress I will do everything I can to promote and write bills for Suboxone and limit prescriptions to Opiates. Suboxone, an opiate receptor blocker...like Chantix for smokers. It wont make you high and it also will not show up in a drug test for employment.
  
  There much that needs to be done. We simply cannot afford to lose this chance to be heard in Congress.

Please promote my website and name. It must go virile. When it does, then I will get backed and endorsed by the Democratic Party in Ohio and other states. Then I will start getting money to get this campaign on the fast track. The more that Lesli Messinger running for Congress in District 1, Georgia, is out there, over and over and over, all over the US, then we have a chance to bring our
message to Congress.



Please help me spread the word to get me to Congress. We need desperately to have a voice in Congress that will work to get laws passed that can save our children. It doesn't matter that I am from Georgia, I need the support across the US. When the Dems and other organizations understand that I am noticed and wanted in Congress, they will come forward with money. It is money that will win this race. My district is from Savannah down to Florida. The incumbent has been in for 20 years and has $2.5 million from huge corporations and super pacs. Kingston isn't working for us, his voting record is pitiful, but unless I can get out my message thru TV, radio, ads, billboards, fliers, etc. in addition to knocking on doors thru 17 
counties...it will be another 2 years of nothing.

http://www.messinger4congress.com/

I have not had an easy life, like many of you. I do know that one person can make a difference. I am betting the farm on it.

I Hate September.

September, again.   The month that took my son away from me.  The month that takes the grief that I keep hidden 11 months of the year and flings it out from hiding, tossing it around until I break down and acknowledge the fact that I am not really "handling" it as well as those would like.  You know the ones that have never lost a child.   They expect you to "get over it", "move on", "he is in a better place", all the things they tell you so that they themselves can be comfortable and happy and not have to deal with others grief.


So in September, I grieve.  Openly.  Loudly.  Without apologies.  


Deal with it.

Another link to my son is lost.

I have used Austin's carabiner (spring hook) for my keys everyday for the last 5 years, 10 months, 1 week and 3 days. I touched what he touched every day. I thought I would have it the rest of my life. It broke yesterday. Something so simple is devastating to lose.

Rumi, 13th century Persian poet and theologian

Rumi, 13th century Persian poet and theologian

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be cleaning you out for
some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame,
the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

Missing you so much

Your 30th birthday is coming up and I am so sad. You lost most of your 20s. The time when you would have grown up and married and maybe started a family.

February 26 would have been your 30th birthday. An official adult!

You promised me many grandchildren. In fact, you said you wanted a dozen children! You would have been a kind and patient father. I can imagine hearing you chuckle as you play with your babies. Your huge hands cradling a babies head. Laying on the floor with children climbing all over you. You were meant to be a father.

2011

Austin died in 2005.

2005 and 2006 went by in a grief-filled fog with moments of denial. I thought that it would end with a phone call from him saying he was coming back. He would say that he was tired of being gone.

2007 I searched for him in the seashells. I walked miles of beach believing that the secret to connecting to him was finding a shell and holding it in my hand.

2008 I was on a mission to escape NJ, the state that my son lost his life.

Solace would be found in palm trees and spanish moss and maybe, in 2009.

2010 showed me that things  never change.  My losses feel like stones piled on top of me. It hurts to breathe.

Now it is 2011. It is up to me to be busy, productive and somehow help others.

My purest love is for my sons.

Austin will always be part of my heart, always with me, my heart will always ache for him, I will always cry for him.

Ryan, my oldest, means everything to me. I am so grateful to be able to call Ryan and hear his voice. Sometimes, when I talk to him, tears stream down my face with joy. He doesn't know.