Journal

Ok, i think i have stalled out on my objective for the apartment (it's all down to not being able to "keep a lot of balls in the air" at the same time  ;~>  ), but i'm really pleased about having finished my my guest blog entry, last week, getting it edited, and then sending it in to be published on "rethinkingautism.com". I think it's important for Aspies and Auties of all different flavors to get our stories out there. This is something Ari Ne'emen has talked about a lot recently, in response to that awful "Autism Speaks" video. For anyone who may have liked the video, i will say that i'm referring particularly to the first half, where the narrative is speaking as though Autism were some awful demonic force which is consciously willing to destroy the lives of the families it affects, bankrupt them, and wreck their marriages. I'm not for a moment suggesting that parents of children with extreme forms of Autism aren't suffering horribly because their children are, it seems at least, closed off from them. Their children may or may not really be closed off from them, but i think we can be pretty sure that it's not by demonic forces (if you think otherwise, i'm not the person you want to be talking to about that!) It's just that that kind of extreme imagery is another example of the use of fear-mongering to try to get into people's wallets or pocketbooks, get their votes, etc. Then there's one other issue, one which i have with Autism Speaks as an organization, which is that they funnel almost all of the money they raise (besides what goes into six figure salaries for their executives, who all end up fighting with each other in public anyway) into research to find genetic markers for Autism Spectrum conditions. I'm not for a moment suggesting that we wouldn't all want to stop that kind of extreme inability to communicate from happening to children, but i think that it would be foolhardy at best, and likely quite tragic for our species, for people to start mucking around with our genes, or aborting fetuses that have the wrong kind of genes, trying to make sure that Everyone's Got the Same Kind of Mind! Fortunately, a lot of us are born to parents who are pretty much like us, to some degree, and would not be likely to go for the idea of US not being born. Even many parents who AREN'T pretty much like us feel the same way! That's why and how i got published on this website, because Dana Commandatore, the woman who set it up, is a NT who feels exactly that way about her son! People like her, and me, want for more money from a huge organization like Autism Speaks to go to research into better methods for teaching and facillitating communication, research that could hopefully get a better window into the minds of the severely Autistic, and get help for parents to try and understand their kids. It really seems like for some (probably few but rich, like the Wrights) parents the objective is to make sure that "people like us won't have to raise defective children who will not grow up to realize OUR dreams!", not to facillitate understanding of Autistic children. And of course, you know that genetic markers being identified will only benefit more wealthy parents anyway. Public Health Care is not going to pay for people to get genetic testing (unless some crazy genetic-nazi gets elected in the future and wants to legislate a eugenics campaign!)

So, anyway, if you're reading this and you'd like to read my guest blog entry at Rethinking Autism, it's here:
http://www.rethinkingautism.com/RethinkingAutism/Blog/Entries/2009/10/15_Better_Late_Than_Never.html

The blog entry is about some of how i ended up where i am today, and how things could have been different - with better understanding.