Parade Magazine on Autism and Autism Speaks - What's Your Opinion?
Featured, front and center, is Suzanna Wright and her grandson, Christian. Suzanna Wright is the co-founder of Autism Speaks - and, because of her impressive wealth, connections and energy, has become, in many venues, "the voice of autism." Wright, in a mini-article entitled "Autism Changes Everything," has this to say:
Some may view autism as the disease du jour, the cause of the moment. That trivializes what many are enduring. Families are literally going broke trying to provide their children with the services they deserve. Adults with autism are failing to meet their potential.To many (including me), the presentation of Suzanna Wright as the voice of authority relative to autism is ... to say the least, disconcerting. While she's certainly impassioned, her desire to eradicate autism is just a wee bit terrifying. I can't imagine that she means to imply that people WITH autism should be eradicated, but the choice of words, combined with the power Wright now has to manage and distribute funds, is troubling. Though Wright describes herself as concerned about funding for treatment and opportunities for adults on the autism spectrum, this really is not a focus of Autism Speaks - which at this point manages a tremendous proportion of funds available for autism research, education, treatment, and lifelong care.Our grief evolved into feelings of anger and, eventually, determination. We started a foundation called Autism Speaks and, working with thousands of remarkable parents, have brought this issue front and center. With the help of the United Nations, we are taking this effort global. This year, April 2 will be World Autism Awareness Day.
We’re now playing catch-up as we try to stem the tide and ultimately eradicate autism for the sake of future generations. If we continue our current trajectory, we’ll get there in my lifetime.
Meanwhile, though, articles like this one certainly raise awareness of autism, its challenges, and the history of the "autism spectrum." And, while the article misses the boat in a number of areas, it's also fairly calm in its tone - and positive in its outlook.
So... what's your thinking about this high-profile piece? Share your thoughts!
Comments
For parents of young children like me, Grandma Suzanne shines a light of hope. I would like to see the type of severe autism that my son struggles with (as well as her grandson Christian) cured. Although we are a happy family and love Jack immensely, the autism that he is affected by is not warm and fuzzy in any way. I am thankful that she and her husband are putting their resources and passion into trying to find some answers.
I honestly don’t believe it is their intention to eradicate any particular individuals. And although the number one priority of AS is to find a cure for those who need it, they also are doing fantastic things with regard to insurance reform, EPIAA support, medicaid provision, family services and early diagnosis. I am confident that they will continue to do even more to provide hope not just for the future, but also for those dealing with the realities of autism today.
Every day I “Google” news on autism, and judging from the decreasing number of hits, it is no longer the “disease du jour” (thank heavens!). Much of the decrease in news items parallels the drop in proponents of mercury as a cause (thank heavens!). I do not believe there will ever be a “cure” for autism, any more than I believe that someday you could give a “cure” to a pit bull and turn it into a shepherding breed; if an MRI shows the brain is differently structured, expecting it to somehow change is as unrealistic as expecting some therapy to alter facial features.
We know the brain is physically altered, we know the “mirror neurons” do not work, we know from genetic patterns that some of the milder forms such as Asperger’s syndrome (which I have) are related to the more profound autisms, and we see a pattern of immune system disorders, both physically and examining DNA, so autism is a dynamic, changing disorder.
One expert has likened it to hyper-male traits; perhaps he is correct. Judging traits is very difficult; there are still people out there who have never grasped that the innate natural instincts of a woman, conducive to child rearing (and a tendency to seek the proximity to males which guarantees offspring) and the natural instincts of men conducive to seeking quick relationships with women, are profoundly different social relationships, but guaranteed the success of the species. We take for granted a ratio in autism of 4 to 1 male to females, but if this assumption is wrong, it will confound genetic testing (and it may very well be wrong!)
The best cure for autism will be to fix some of the parents. Asperger and Kanner independently coined the politically correct term “autism” from the Greek for “self”, because autism is a syndrome of selfishness; you do not identify or care about other people. When my wife nursed my one son, she felt like a “milk machine”, wanted only for the milk, and not for the human contact. Everyone focuses on the lack of human contact, the inability of the autistic child to “connect” in an empathetic way. Obviously, if there is no function of the mirror neurons, no innate insight into human emotions, why would an autistic child bother to watch another human, other than in the casual sense that you watch large livestock nearby to make certain they don’t step on you? The parents are actually in a sense more autistic than the autistic child, for while the autistic child eventually learns by trial and error how the human mind generally works, many of these parents of autistic children fail miserably at figuring out how the autistic mind works, even when the studies on mirror neurons and behavior patterns have been available for years. Why would a parent of an autistic child ever expect discipline based on invoking emotional feelings to work when to that child you are essentially livestock? Why does an entire community watch autistic children drown and wander into traffic and throw their hands in the air in frustration, when a simple spanking might actually be the best thing? Why do so autistic children anecdotally improve after painful invasive therapies like chelation, or therapies that inhumanely force them to pay attention to interactive therapies for many hours every day? Could it be with no empathy, only something which painfully intrudes into their world works? We talk of steady increases in autism, based on schools reporting new cases. If children are in the school system for 13 years, it will take 13 years for the reporting to tail off, as “autistic” children graduate. This is a simplistic understatement, for the rise in reporting took many years, and we also added Asperger’s to the mix, but we should start seeing this leveling effect soon, (and it will not have had anything to do with mercury in vaccines!) My own children were never in that tabulation because they were seen by psychiatrists before Asperger’s was even in the DSM IV.
If autism does turn out to be caused by repeated sequences of genes, it would be nearly impossible to predict, therefore no advance cure would be possible. It would be impossible to assess the degree of autism from a fetal genetic test, so if you aborted us all, there go your world-class engineers and software geeks. We have been accused of little empathy, but I would rather see money spent on providing clean water in third world countries than “curing” autism.
If you are going to give an interview for any media publication it is always a good idea to choose your words wisely. Don’t AS have PR people or is Ms Wright outside of their remit because she is one of the founders of AS and can be trusted to say the right thing?
‘We’re now playing catch-up as we try to stem the tide and ultimately eradicate autism for the sake of future generations. If we continue our current trajectory, we’ll get there in my lifetime.’
Reading this gave me the chills and gave me a picture in my head of concentration camps and a race of people that were being systematically eradicated. Fortunately for the Jewish race that trajectory was brought to a halt. Now Ms Wright may not be talking about using concentration camps but the intention of what she feels is possible within her lifetime is quite clear.
VERY bad choice of words or were they?
Although Autism does make one feel at times like they “have a cross to bear”…please read on…what I am about to write below is way stronger than the challenges we face everyday.
Wow! I used to be on the list for the autism speaks email newsletter, but unsubscribed last week because I found rather very little information and more selling of products.
A double Wow!! I wonder what my son with autism would say if I asked him how he would feel if we eradicated a part of who he is.
A triple Wow!!! I wonder what my other two boys would say if I asked them how they would feel if we eradicated a part of who they were.
A quadruple Wow!!! My daughter is so proud of the stories we tell when we rushed her to the hospital in the dead of night while she had an asthma attack, because she always made the doctors smile…who always thought we were over-exaggerating her severity of attack because she was always smiling and never cried. It wasn’t until they measured her oxygen intake that they were amazed she could still be such a happy baby.
According to doctors, I have 4 special needs kids…LD, Autism, LD, Asthma. Because of the challenges they face every day and still embrace life, they are considered some of the motivational kids that a lot of community members know. It’s because of their “Special Needs” that so many community members think so, and I am proud to have a family that adds so much positive energy to our community. Why eradicate that?
Caroline
While i am greatful for the publicity autism has gotten, I am saddend by the only things that are shown are thier difficulties.Depressing commercials that leave you wondering what even money COULD DO to help a situation.
The public is flashed with very little of their triumphs. Progress usualy is gained with much faith,money, work, money and persistance, money, miracles seem to happen.
While the wrights continue thier PR compaign,I have yet to see the last words written,education,treatment and lifelong care from Autism speaks.
I am greatful someone is speaking,I just wish the whole story was told.
Sometimes I wonder though if it is all words… our kids need education,treatment,and lifelong care NOW.Not only more research, thier are alot of nonprofits doing that.
As the parent of a child with Autism Disorder and profound developmental delays I appreciate the hard work and effort made by Bob and Suzanne Wright to raise awareness of the realities of autism disorders and to raise funds for research.
I do not worry about the metaphors and nuances of the words they choose. I do not believe for a second that they are trying to eliminate autistic persons and I do not think that such a fear is rational. I worry about whether my son will bite himself today or put his hand through a glass window. I worry that he might walk into automobile traffic and I worry about his life after I am gone.
I believe that the Wrights and Autism Speaks have a common sense grounded approach to autism which is often lacking in internet discussions of the subject.
Keep up the good work Autism Speaks.
If people don’t think that the Wrights really want to get rid of people with Autism, why do the Wrights keep saying that they want it erradicated?
With the strong genetic component of autistic spectrum disorders (in my husband’s family it goes back 150 years) and also in my family, to erradicate autism would mean the erradication of entire families!
Yes, we need research, but research into how to best care for these children and more importantly, adults, and research into some of the reasons why autism is more profound in some children than others.
But what we don’t need is to erradicate autism itself. The world would be a sadder place without the inovations and inventions that so mnay autistic spectrum people have brought us.
Like those before me who have commented i am shocked by the choice of words in the quote. autism is not a disease it is a way of being. how would you eradicate it without wiping out the very essence of a human being? any human being. arent we all on the spectrum somewhere? i found the apparent [lack of] thinking very simplistic and wholly offensive. my son is autistic and a smarter, more loving person you could not wish to meet. lets talk about supporting diffences in people, supporting difficulties faced by individuals. are there more autistic ppl in the world or are ‘they’ struggling more and become more profoundly different to ‘the norm’ as we try to compartmentalise ppl into smaller, ever narrower ideals?
It was nice to see autism continuing to receive national attention. However, it’s impossible to convey just how difficult it is to live in a family with an autistic child. Most articles portray the cute but troubled kids — and the Parade article added no new information to the discussion. It simple restated the party lines. Parade failed to recognize that these cute but troubled kids become 6-feet tall and teenagers, and that most parents can not afford or provide the intensive therapy that their story talks about. All the tainted studies in the world will not hide the fact that many cases of autism resulted from vaccines.
‘Sometimes I wonder though if it is all words… our kids need education,treatment,and lifelong care NOW.Not only more research, thier are alot of nonprofits doing that.’
Of course this is what ‘our’ kids (both children and adult) need. And of course it has to be life long. However if it is possible to ‘eradicate autism for the sake of future generations’ and it is doable within Ms Wright’s lifetime – who is going to care too much about ‘our’ kids and their lifelong needs? Our kids will probably become expendable (if they aren’t already) and no one will care too much about us as autism slowly dies out. Will it be a case of problem solved so who cares? Do we honestly believe that AS will still command the same amount of publicity that they do now or will they even want to? Some parents are fortunate enough to know for sure that no matter what their children will be taken care of because they will leave the financial means for that to happen. But can the same be said for the rest of us and our children?
Of course Suzanne Wright did not say eradicate those with Autism! Don’t be ridiculous. And those concentration camp references are just inflammatory and are insulting to those who truly lost loved ones to the Holocaust.
Mrs. Wright saw her Grandchild’s language evaporate. What is wrong with fighting to overcome whatever it is that caused that?
Those of us with children with high functioning autism have no right to judge.
Autism Speaks is so helpful to parents of young children. Why are so many in the Autism community piling on? Let’s channel our anger into advocacy and stop sniping at each other.
Why would you even think of implying that Suzanne Wright wants to eradicate people who have autism? Autism Speaks has done a world of good in promoting research, education, and efforts to get private insurance companies to cover treatments for the disorder. I don’t think you can give the organization enough credit for the good they have done!
It sounds like we all are coming from different perspectives. Autism truly is a spectrum disorder. I have an eight year old son with autism and agree with everything Suzanna Wright said. I hate autism and what it has done to my son, my wife and our family. Anyone who romanticizes about autism and thinks we as parents should just be more open-minded and tolerant has never watched as their son jumps into the deep end of an empty swimming pool. They have no idea what it is like to have to watch someone 24 hours a day out of fear of what might happen if one’s attention is diverted for more than five seconds. And I suspect they have never been awakened at 3:00 AM to find their child eating their own feces.
Autism is devastating because it strikes at the very core of what it means to be human. And no, I’m not suggesting that people with autism are not human or should rounded up and put in concentration camps. I’m merely trying to communicate the idea that from a parent’s perspective, it is obvious that something is critically wrong, you can’t fix it, and it never ends . . . day after day, night after night.
So we fight on for better days for our children, and hopefully, better treatment options in the future.
I like this article because it brought it home to me that my son DOES have autism, although perhaps on a high functioning level. He is 13 and we have searched for years trying to find a definate answer as to what he has. His symptoms are what was described in the article. He does have other problems, but htis could be the core of it. I think it is difficult for parents to accept that their child has a problem, and I myslef may have been in some denial. But there is help out there and and there are people that care and want to help special children who can’t do it on their own. I am grateful for the support that has been given to me in the area where we live for kids with ’special needs’.
I have to say I am increasingly astonished by the ignorange of the high profile, so called “People in the know”.
When did the social and communication disorder known as Autism become a disease? It’s not something you can catch, it’s not something you can be vaccinated against, it’s something you are born with that can be triggered by many things.
So while we all smile and slap ourselves on the back whilst our loved ones are Eradicated, how is this massive autism charity helping us and our kids?
What is Grandma Suzanne and her merry band planning to do? Are they intending to Eradicate the gene in unborn babies and provide abortion on demand? And what do they plan to do with the people living with autism once they have Eradicated it?
I think it’s time these people came clean and told everyone exactly what they intend, and maybe, just maybe, use some of their accumulated pot of donations to help people with Autism, rather than trying to Eradicate them.
“Cure” is insufficient to describe what we want for our kids. People with physical disabilities have worked long and hard to get community changes made to accommodate wheelchairs, for example. It is just this kind of effort that we face with our kids — working to find ways for our kids to be able to adapt, which includes shaping the changes to the community at large so that our kids are better able to navigate within it. It is not so much a cure as a bridge.
Getting the general public to stop shunning methods that really work is the kind of awareness education I would like to see more of. My 3 sons have autism and it is so true that they are drastically different than other children emotionally an in the way they see the world and process it in their minds. Money for Research, Education ,Treatment, and lifelong care always sounds nice but far too often the people in these areas are too afraid to tell the truth of what works if it sounds like the general public will be uncomfortable with it. This is truely fustrating when children with autism and parents like me can use all the REAL help we can get.
People will read into more than what was intended. “Future generations”- their attempt in my reading into it means prevention, and who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t want to avoid the thing(s) that cause autism? Wouldn’t you avoid things that could cause other medical issues? Obviously until science learns to tweak a gene once the child is born could they eradicate those already with autism disorder’s. But what if it was found to be a disorder linked to a missing protein that could be supplemented? Would those with spectrum disorder’s choose not to supplement this and instead endure the many complications of autism? Would such a thing totally transform a person to be a different thinking person aside from autism?
The real question is: is autism who the person is, or a medical disorder that they have?
There’s hope of eradicating many medical issues, it’s a long away hope, nothing more. Autism Speaks really has more than one place including the Autism Society of America, has put the word autism on the map and minds of America. If one day their large efforts contribute to finding prevention and eradicating, then add that to your choices of intervention. The key word would be choices.
My husband and I had twins when we were 40 years of age. One of these fraternal twins is profoundly autistic and non-verbal. Way down there.
Autism Speaks is a leadership I am not comfortable with at present. Perhaps I can look into it further.
I think the entire momentum and spirit of the Autism cause died with Dr. Benard Rimland. We were all diminished by his passing.
I’m sorry Sandy but I just cannot go with what you are saying. Putting all of your eggs into one basket, hoping that they might stumble on a prevention to people becoming Autistic is not sound practice.
Millions of family’s are affected by Autism and the biggest voice in the area is raking in millions of dollars that could really make a difference to these people here and now.
I am not saying that research is a bad thing, but to pump millions into it whilst ignoring the people you are supposed to represent, and even threatening to take an Autistic kid to court over a tongue and cheek website is just plain wrong.
This money could fund training for professionals to provide all manner of sevices to these poor people, It could fund a respite care service for families. Help build centres where activities could be structured to help our kids. Provide some form of Web Based Learning allowing Autistic adults to get a better education. There are countless other things that should be done with this money to help the people who need it now.
This research is not going to come up with a magic wand that will take autism away and cure your kids!
Rob
There isn’t many organizations that actually do contribute to therapies for kids with autism that are run or provided by public donations. AS could make a difference to those here and now, but who does? Why single them out of all the orgs out there? That’s not what they’re about. And quite frankly, there is no way they could help all directly and some one would still complain about them and attempt to dictate what they should be doing. You’d then get the dictation of just what they should be providing of all zillion interventions available. It is actually more a Government issue to provide for all, not Autism Speaks. And with any non Government org, those funds aren’t always going to be as forth coming.
I said “If one day their large efforts contribute to finding prevention” I really think we are years away from that point however, I would bet most parents who find out their child has autism would jump for a cure and prevention if they were considering more children. That’s what claims are today- recovery, that’s what parents hope for their children. I would hope one day there is prevention, and I don’t really care who discovers it. And I keep saying here and there, I will not stomp on the hopes that parents want. Some want a cure, some want prevention. They don’t dream of a magic wand and none of us can know the future to know if this is even possible. But maybe it should be.
As for Autism Speaks and threatening a kid with Asperger’s, that’s a different topic however really all laws should be abided by everyone unless they can claim by reason of what? Disability? It was well more than a tongue and cheek and if I was in the same position, I might do the same. My son has autism, he’s still accountable for most of his actions. Society isn’t going to care when he breaks the law just because he has autism.
Sandy
I single them out because they have managed to become the biggest, most funded organisation. They now get the funds that other organisations, trying to do the work I mentioned, may have got. If you look at the Huge ammount of funding thay get, surely a lot of it could be put to better use.
As for your comment about society, you have just summed up my whole argument for me. Yes society will not hold back because your son is autistic, they know no better. However a massive charity, that are supposed to represent autistic people should surely know better. I would expect better from an organisation that should know autism inside out.
I am not damning everything AS do. I agree whole heartedly that if and it’s a big if, they discovered what triggers autism in kids and could prevent other families the heartache and stress that comes with living with autism then they have pulled a rabbit out of the hat. However there are still millions of people coping, or trying to cope with autism out there that need help now. Not the figurehead of a massive organisation telling them that there kids could be eradicated in their lifetime.
The granny said ‘eradicate autism’, she didn’t say eradicate kids. I don’t really much care for autism speaks and have said so quite often. However I am more talking about principles than actually jumping over to their side of the fence.
Once AS new it was a child, and then one with Asperger’s, the attorneys dropped it more than likely at the request of the Wrights than the attorney’s advice. They did not know the teen has Asperger’s and even still, it seems to me that teen should had surely known better as well, (more so since the teen stated they’re planning to do it again) or at least the parents should had and monitored on-line use. People with disabilities and society not knowing any better is an excuse, and one I personally wont give my child. People who break laws get in trouble, regardless. If my child grows up and can not follow the rules of the world, then he needs assisted living. Copyright infringements is hardly a major crime, but again it’s the principle. However attorneys are paid to protect and that’s what these attorneys attempted to do. They didn’t have to back away, either but they did.
As to AS soaking up all the funds- waaaaay back every one loved AS while I sat here with my opinion I didn’t like them or their video and I really had issues with that video. Thankfully, the general population didn’t see it in my neck of the woods. I can just about to the day tell you when that changed and then all these people started complaining they were hoarding all the donations. It was right about the time Katie dear had a interview and spoke out of turn, forcing her parents to speak up (you might say) everyone was fine when they thought they knew where those funds were going and to fund what. Once Katie was done, every one’s opinion changed. I don’t so much buy that AS is hogging the funds that the Little Guy Org was getting because those Little Guy’s never could approach the Society that AS can. The difference all of a sudden from that Little Guy backing up AS until now is that one little interview and where AS decides to use their funds. The Little Guy Org also did not provide individual aide to children with autism.
There are a ton of kids who could use help now- not only in the USA but every other country as well. That in my opinion is not any Orgs responsibility unless that is what they’re out to do as an Org. AS would and could also be that place outside the CDC and Government to provide a study more acceptable to many. I’m not so sure it’ll be AS who finds the rabbit in a hat, but someone one day will. That is what the Autism Society directly told me some years way back as well.
For the record, since there is no cure or cause(s) I as a parent really am forced to like the idea of autism. As doesn’t speak for my child, I do as I a sure everyone else does. No one person can speak for all with autism since it affects each differently. I See no one but me and county workers sitting at my IEP’s, or arranging private therapies which our insurance covered and MA. I am lucky in the sense of the age my child was born as apposed to the 70’s and 80’s or farther back. My child had autism long before AS was around to cause everyone so much grief. I myself have the opinion that if I want to make change, I need to get up and get to it than merely complaining about it. In reality, there is nothing I can do to change what AS is all about or any other org. But if I want to make change, I’d be at the Government lobbying for all private insurance coverage than pinning hopes on AS providing anything directly to my child.
My point isn’t that folks with ASD’s should get special dispensation to break the law! And of course, if Kelly really DID break the law (not sure that that happened, because I’m not that familiar with the laws around parody and fair use) then the site should be removed.
BUT – and this is a big BUT – Autism Speaks had a real opportunity here, and they blew it. Here’s a kid who has AS and is really paying attention to the site and caring about what they do. Instead of reaching out and connecting with him (I think Kelly is a him?), they chose to treat him as if he were a rival institution.
Had many of us been in Autism Speaks’ seat, we would have offered Kelly a voice, a place, or an opportunity to use his considerable energy and passion in a positive way. Perhaps he would have been interested in offering tips on being a teen with AS; or in taking part in a teen advisory panel; or in helping to design a logo; or…? There are just so many ways in which this potential negative could have been turned around!
Lisa (autism guide)
Actually, the big if of turning it around to a positive outcome works on both ends and I’m not sure that could had happened at all. You’d have 2 sides trying to convince each other what one is doing is right or wrong and I don’t think either would be willing to see another side. I also don’t believe Kelly would had been positive towards AS if given that voice- we have to remember autism speaks is about prevention and awareness- if one looked at my son today it would take away from that idea of prevention. Sure, the early years were extremely hard, but why have prevention if all kids progress as he did with a severe autism diagnosis? My child, and maybe Kelly as well, is an example of early intervention can work- for some. Not all children have Asperger’s or are as well as articulating or creating. AS is not about to give a voice to someone advocating to let Asperger’s stay Asperger’s and it’s really not about a child with Asperger’s who created that site anyway. What should AS have done if it was just some Joe Blow? Sock it to him in court? What AS did was treat this person as they would had if it was anybody, but took the extra step to back off.
I just don’t get it. Some people advocate for same treatment as typical kids get. Autism Speaks should probably I suppose learn from this and send a private investigator to determine who has Asperger’s before they decide legal matters. I think no matter how this was handled, there’s be a great big riff and to-do about it.
I dunno, Sandy. I DO think Autism Speaks should have looked into the creator of the parody before sending a letter – just a good idea in general. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to threaten to sue a child – just bad PR in general.
As to the idea of engaging Kelly – I suppose I would hope that Autism Speaks could learn from the criticism it’s receiving, and bend a little to engage a larger proportion of the autism community. It’s too bad that they’re not able to expand the tent, and welcome in more people WITH ASD’s to help set at least some portion of the agenda.
I’m not saying change everything they’re up to! That would be silly. But why be so absolute about who they engage with and what they do? I mean, life is all about change, isn’t it?
Lisa (autism guide)
I don’t think they knew it was a child and the better thing is they did back off when they found out. They didn’t have to back off and that would be more of a news-worth story. It’s also bad PR for the one who created the site. I think both sides can learn from this w/o continuing to blame. I still have yet to see a comment about the whole thing from AS.
Life is all about change, and what I learned from my own child, change is hard. What I learned from the autism community- don’t try to force one to change their minds
And really, any one of us can create an organization and make it’s agenda what we want it to be. Efforts against AS in my opinion is wasted time really. There are so many better fights to do than them.
Offensive, offensive, offensive.
Harking back to the days of my childhood, my mother taught me that offensive people say offensive things. (Forrest Gump’s mother said “Stupid is as Stupid does.)
Comes to the same thing doesn’t it?
There is so much contraversy revolving around Autism Speaks, but I dare not list it out here. I am much older than 14, but I am still afraid of getting sued by them.
No organisation is genuine in speaking for us (I have AS) if they deny us our own voice in the process. This means the teenager speaking for herself. Any teenager who is spoken for by adults pursuing a cause, instead of speaking for ehrself with provenly no fear of punishemtn if she speasks differently to the adults, is exploited + manipulated + is a slave, which is against international law of course. This also applies to teenagers painted as academically “gifted” by authoritarian school, a crime that happened to some aspies by greedy adults’ misniterpretation of their abuilities to focus attention on topics of personal interest.
Other than the incredibly offensive manner in which Autism Squeaks promotes autism and those that are autistic as part of an epidemic and a disease process and parade around their whipping boys/girls as examples of how horrible it is for everyone around them, and that AS has the express purpose (if you carefully investigate what they raise funding for) of eradicating autistic people from ever existing in the future and to coerce autistics to appear “cured” by forcing them to act “normal” because they don’t conform, what really takes a lot of nerve is for them to say they speak for autistics, when in reality, not only do they not speak for autistics, they absolutely refuse to allow autistic individuals into any position of leadership to possibly affect their organizational message and what they intend and are accomplishing via their incredibly chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling PR that paints themselves as though if you don’t support them, life as we know it is going to end in the most horrible way possible because there will be too many autistic people and the world will go to Hell in a sea of nonconformity to their expectations, and if autistics aren’t tortured according to their desires to make them conform because their behavior is a horrible sign of their disease process, the world will be a place that is much harder for everyone else, where the autistic individuals they seek to subjugate are forced to make all the adjustments in favor of the so-called “normal” people that seek to make them over in their image, counter to the reality that their neurology and physiology is much the same for the differences in comparing dogs and cats, with dogs being “normal” and cats being autistics, where they see the cat as being a defective dog instead of just a cat being a cat, forcing the cat at all costs to the cat, even unto death of body, mind and soul, to parrot the dog, which is an unsustainable goal.
Yes, I’m an adult diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome 5 years ago; I got through college and well into a significant career in the computer field long before diagnosis, and was working in the field before the DSM ever listed it in the US. That does NOT mean, though, that I didn’t have the natural challenges that come with it, and I had to deal with it in the school setting in the special education section for my entire public education. What’s far worse than the challenges that come from my neurological nature of being a cat, is the actions and words of what people that would join Autism Squeaks and support their cause, because they’re also the perfect description of what bullies are: afraid to stand up alone and befriend someone, but quite willing and adept to subjugate and torment those that are different from them, largely out of fear and ignorance and just general pissedness and bad nature, where, oddly enough, they proclaim their the socially-correct and nice people because they associate with others freely in the human race, and pick on those of us that (for whatever reason) can’t seem to pick up on what they demand out of us: to conform to their expectations, with no reasonable thought on their end to even bother to meet us halfway.
Is it any wonder, then, that some teen on the spectrum should put up a website that’s a parody of their autism-eugenics organization, and take a well-deserved jab at them? To be perfectly honest, I’m tempted to put up a website that pokes them at least as hard, but because I won’t reuse their graphics, and it can readily fall under the parody/satire claims (I write software for a living, and other types of writing otherwise, so I’ve done a lot of research into copyright, trademark and patent laws) they can go to Hell if they try to take me down. Should I do this (and sooner or later I will, to prevent them from inflicting harm on me, and my immediate and extended family, of which an older sister of mine is also autistic, as is a nephew, and I have no logical reason to believe the family will not have more autistic members arrive, as autism clearly existed in my family (my Dad) long before vaccines and the term existed) they’ll have a heck of a time battling me, because not only do I have the legal knowledge required, as well as the technical knowledge, along with the ability to write very well, but I also have at least as strong of a passion towards providing balance of good information to their evil counterinfluence, as they’re hardly the first bullies I’ve had to battle in various ways, physically, mentally and spiritually. If you carefully evaluate what Autism Squeaks funds and speaks of as their goals and plans, it’s very clear they play into the fear and induced guilt felt by parents and those around those that are autistic in order to make their profits, which are in the currency of getting out their message and getting people to side with them, with no real concern for the rights and freedoms of those that are autistic, and to become the de facto authority for all things autism, including the institutional control of autistics and their parents, lest they bring out the big guns and start pointing fingers and saying “You’re not following our dogma, your cat must be changed and/or be taken away from you, and surgically altered or demolished!” with the threat that they ARE the law for all practical intents and purposes. This is the sort of thing that happened to my older sister: the system that existed in Michigan when she was a kid held the stick over my parents’ head and made them submit my sister to their institutional “treatment” at a county facility used for housing criminal juvenile delinquents and psych cases, where she was scarred for life from the mistreatment she received there, because “we are the system, the system is right, you do as we say, or we take away your freedoms and rights.” To this day, she is violently (and she’s not the violent type) opposed to the thought of ever living in a group home or any institutional setting, and I can’t blame her, and don’t want to see her lose whatever level of independence she has achieved and can hold onto.
Autism Squeaks is (at best) a horribly misguided organization, and (more accurately when you think of their actions and missions) more like that of the line of Hitler youth Corp (or whatever the exact name is) with a combination of eugenics, all neatly wrapped up in the politically-correct dogma of the time, much in the way Hitler accomplished so much with his evilly-used charisma-from-Hell. After all, wasn’t that what Hitler promoted: the perfect Aryan race, where everyone is according to some standard, and all defectives were eradicated (generally killed), and autistics certainly were part of that group (called “feeble-minded” commonly) which is (ironically) how Asperger’s Syndrome came about to being named, because Hans noted that this group of kids had some interesting characteristics, and had the combination of compassion and wisdom to figure out a manner to label them in such a way as to be seen as useful to have around in such an environment as Nazi Germany.
Hilter murdered millions of people and was mentally ill himself. Autism Speaks in comparison is ridiculous. There also is tons of organizations promoting recovery and cures, let’s not only limit this to Autism Speaks. Dr. Bernard Rimland and DAN! for one whose ben around much longer and really promoting recovery.
They are targeting a ‘disorder’, not murdering people which would then also include their own grandchild. Many view autism in many different ways but most would consider it more than just a way of life. They call it ‘Autism’ Speaks, not Asperger’s and that’s because autism is much more difficult for that person or child.
And no one as of yet has found and such prevention or cure for autism and if and when they do, I’d bet all would have a choice as what to do with that. Nobody will force someone not to have Asperger’s, but for hose who want the choice, they wouldn’t be murdered.
Sandy said:
“They are targeting a ‘disorder’, not murdering people which would then also include their own grandchild. Many view autism in many different ways but most would consider it more than just a way of life. They call it ‘Autism’ Speaks, not Asperger’s and that’s because autism is much more difficult for that person or child.”
Then why is it Allison Tepper Singer, Vice President of Communications for Autism Speaks has been quoted as saying:
“I remember that was a scary moment for me when I realized I had sat in the car for about 15 minutes and actually contemplated putting Jody in the car and driving off the George Washington Bridge.”
Anyone wanting to sign the “Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak For Me” petition can go here:
http://tinyurl.com/q4jpr
One parents coping skills does not depict the whole Org and besides that, the video itself was a shock video of which Katie Wright was in charge of, and we all know her parents gave her a boot. Allison Tepper Singer didn’t drive off a bridge however parents do murder their children and had nothing to do with Autism Speaks.
I don’t know one parent that doesn’t here and there feel like it’s just too hard, Allison Tepper Singer happened to have the nerve to say so on a video. if any of us said so we’d have Child Protection at our doors. I did not like that video, at all however I cant argue that those children were not just as the shock video portrayed them to be. Can you? Having Asperger’s although similar, makes no one an expert on autism, or how autism affects each individual. I am no expert either, I can only tell you about my child and how autism affects him.
I can understand not wanting yourselves to be changed but that’s your choice. Those with autism may choose differently. Comparing Autism Speaks to murder is ridiculous and a attack unjustified. It makes those who say it look and sound ridiculous and hateful. Neurological disorder’s include autism and spectrum disorder’s, along with many more and there really is no good reason not to find prevention for any those disorder’s.
Sandy,
Who give this people the right to speak for us. Not one of them has autism. Even the grand parents who stared Autism speaks have alienated their daughter and grandchild that they are claiming to help.
Secondly ( please excuse me for yelling but it seems to be the only way to get through to her) AUTISM IS A DISORDER NOT A DISEASE. DISEASES CAN BE CURED DISORDERS CAN NOT. THE ONLY WAY TO CURE AUTISM IS TO KILL US AUTISICS. IT IS A GENETIC DISORDER, MEDICALLY PROVEN. SO THE ONLY WAY TO CURE US IS TO DESTROY AN ENTIRE RACE OF PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE THAT CARRY THE GENOME. So Sandy if you do have an autistic child that means either you or your husband, in addition to us. Doesn’t this sound familiar. Sounds to me just like the Nazi’s so personally I find the comparison apt.
I have an aspergers child, I have never thought it too hard to raise him. Before I had him and before I knew I was autistic, I taught autistic children in an inclusion setting. I never thought teaching this children was just to hard, I found great joy in it.
Maybe these people that think its too hard need to get some professional help, just maybe its them and not their children, or maybe they are on the spectrum too and have never learned to deal with it, and seeing it in their children is driving them over the edge.
I don’t know I don’t have these problems, my problems are with people like you who would rather see a big business earn money than people get help.
And I have proof Autism Speaks doesn’t care about us Autistics, I sent them an email, asking why their organization does certain things and what they could do to help my family. They blocked my IP address. Just goes to show how much they truly care about Autistics.
If yelling helps you out, have at it. Disorder’s can be prevented, and since we do not know the cause of autism no one can really say if it is a disease or disorder. I believe it’s a disorder. The wright’s alienated their daughter Katie from Autism Speaks, and why? Katie said publicly that Autism Speak was only going to research causes of autism due to vaccines, which is what we all thought they were doing anyway. But that comment angered parents like me whose child’s autism isn’t due to vaccines, probably angered many more as well so Autism Speaks decided to state they were not only concerned with vaccines, and Katie was not a spokes person for them. That statement then angered all those who believe vaccines is the cause of autism (and if it is, then it’s not just a disorder and prevention could happen). There is also links to genetics, but there’s also links to TV, cell phones, vaccines, age of parents and so on and so on. As of today, there is still NO known cause(s) for autism, like it or not.
The Autism Society Of America is more for what you’re looking for- I can no more change their venue nor could Autism Speaks change it. Autism Society Of America, me nor you will change Autism Speaks venue. They are also already rich, those people don’t need any money to live off of donations for autism research. I already know Autism Speaks doesn’t care about adults with autism or asperger’s, but because that’s not their venue. I will have to say however, Autism Society of my state during a course for parents told everyone 8 years ago that they thought there’s be a cure within the next 10 years. It seemed to be their hope as well.
At the time of Autism Speaks Video- I was right there arguing it’s shock value, and the fact that in the UK there after a mother took her autistic son and jumped off a bridge and they both died, and a woman in IL I think, killed her daughter. However, because parents are looking for a cure, recovery, a child in WI long before Autism Speaks, was suffocated during a religious exorcism to rid the child of that evil autism. A child in PA died due to chelating gone bad (actually it was a bad doctor who probably needed glasses).
All of these things are individual cases of murder, not one person murdering millions with some sick idea. DAN!, Generation Rescue and many more all have popped up due to parents, and they all promote the same things: recovery.
Autism Speaks is there because parents want recovery, they want a cure. Your enemy is parents.
I have never liked Autism Speaks that much, but then nothing they have ever done yet really affects us. They do not speak up at our IEP meetings however the 2005 NBC coverage was a direct result of the Wright’s, and that did help quite a bit of the public for awareness. That said, it is still unfair to attack only that organization when there is so many of them out there and to compare what their doing to what Hilter did. You’d be better off at getting people to listen without that far-fetched comparison.
Sandy said…
“…and since we do not know the cause of autism no one can really say if it is a disease or disorder.”
if you want to live in a world of disbelief, that is your affair, but you are misleading many people who need to know the facts. The result of years of mapping the autistic genome by 137 scientists in one study and by many more in subsequent studies have confirmed that autism is genetic in origin, and in a percentage of the cases, naturally occuring without environmental “triggers.”
Sandy said:
“There is also links to genetics, but there’s also links to TV, cell phones, vaccines, age of parents and so on and so on.”
These links have been disproven, except in the case of vaccines where it is now hypothesized that the effects of thimersol produce autism-like symptoms, but does NOT change the genome. Even that theory has been recently disproved by tracking how long thimersol stays in the bloodstream in babies. Studies show that thimersol decreases from the bloodstream daily after vaccinations until it disappears completely in one month’s time. (Although admittedly, this study does not say WHERE the thimersol goes.)
“As of today, there is still NO known cause(s) for autism, like it or not.”
What YOU don’t like is that there IS a cause for autism: Genetics.
“The Autism Society Of America is more for what you’re looking for- I can no more change their venue nor could Autism Speaks change it. Autism Society Of America, me nor you will change Autism Speaks venue. They are also already rich, those people don’t need any money to live off of donations for autism research.”
Having personally worked along side of Autism Society of America I beg to differ. They are NOT rich, and Autism Speaks is preventing donations from reaching them. These were funds earmarked for educational and vocational services. So while Autism Speaks is still trying to ascertain what autism is even though it has already been determined, they are depriving autistics from getting the edicational and vocational training they need.
“Autism Society of my state during a course for parents told everyone 8 years ago that they thought there’s be a cure within the next 10 years. It seemed to be their hope as well.”
Each state runs separately from the umbrella organization. In light of the new research, I think you will discover that Autism Society of America will be changing their position on a “cure.”
“All of these things are individual cases of murder, not one person murdering millions with some sick idea. DAN!, Generation Rescue and many more all have popped up due to parents, and they all promote the same things: recovery.”
Having worked in the non-for-profit sector I know how it is these organizations target their clientelle. What they are doing is preying on those that believe they simply cannot handle their children. They are looking to anyone that prmoises them a solution. In essence, the clientelle are like hurt people who go to faith healers, and these faith healers are only too happy to take their money.
The reason CAN, DAM, and Autism Speaks can get away with doing this is because up until recently, there was no hard science about autism, and so they could take money and do anything they wanted with it without looking like frauds. Once it is determined that there is no cure for autism short of genetic manipulation, these organizations are going to look like Jimmy Swaggart and Tammy Fe Baker.
I have a considerable amount of knowledge about the no-for-profit industry, having worked along side of it and having worked in it. I know what I am talking about, and I know how carefully these organizations create themselves and market themselves to maximize donations but operate just barely within the confines of the law.
“Autism Speaks is there because parents want recovery, they want a cure. Your enemy is parents.”
Autism Speaks is there because parents want to foist their kids on someone else and make it THEIR problem so they don’t have to deal with it anymore.
“I have never liked Autism Speaks that much, but then nothing they have ever done yet really affects us.”
EVERYTHING they do affects us.
“That said, it is still unfair to attack only that organization when there is so many of them out there and to compare what their doing to what Hilter did. You’d be better off at getting people to listen without that far-fetched comparison.”
At last count, 1044 people signed the Autism Speaks Does Not Speak For Me petition. That would be 1044 people who disagree with you.
From about.com Is Autism Genetic?
http://autism.about.com/od/causesofautism/a/genetics.htm
“There have been a zillion genetic studies, but no single gene has been identified as an “autism” gene. There are lots of “hotspots,” but the studies are not consistent.”
I am not misleading, you are and also dictating untruths.
“Autism Speaks is there because parents want to foist their kids on someone else and make it THEIR problem so they don’t have to deal with it anymore.”
Also very untrue and very biased and statements like that will never get you parent backing, which is what you need.
I don’t really care who agree’s with me or not, or if you change your opinions. I’m already used to people not agreeing with me. I am not here for or against Autism Speaks, but the outrageous statements made against them with undo cause and I’d say the same for Generation rescue if it was them being attacked. However if you think 1044 signatures on a web site is going to shut Autism Speaks down or change their venue, it’ll be you looking like Jimmy Swaggart and Tammy Fe Baker.
Again, thanks for the input.
I expect I will have to leave this discussion because it is getting rather heated. But anyway, since I am an advocate in the field, I have recourse to loads of information about autism. Here is SOME of the info I have on autism being genetic in origin…
From the Canadian Broadcasting System:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/02/18/autism.html
“2 new genetic links predispose people to autism, study shows”
“A linkage analysis that searched for regions of the genome that might be shared by individuals with autism spectrum disorder turned up a region on chromosome 11 that was not previously been linked to risk of developing autism.”
“The study also underlines that if one child is born with autism, there is a greater likelihood their siblings will be as well.”
http://www.newkerala.com/july.php?action=fullnews&id=55056
“Anorexia may be genetic disorder linked to autism”
http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=713402005
“Anorexia nervosa in women may be caused by autism”
“SEVERE cases of anorexia may be the result of undetected autism in women, a leading expert said yesterday.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/01/naut01.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/01/ixportal.html
“Autism linked to parents with high level of education”
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1123/autism.html
“Autism research suggests genetic link”
“A team of researchers at Trinity College Dublin has identified several genes which may be linked to autism.”
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070216 2fautism_genome_070216&showbyline=True
“CANADIAN TEAM FINDS GENETIC MARKERS FOR AUTISM”
“Canadian researchers have led an international team in the discovery of a chromosomal region containing the genes that cause autism, a finding considered a breakthrough in the effort to better understand the condition.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2954418
“DNA “glitches” tied to autism, researchers say”
“Little glitches in the DNA of people with autism suggest that the disease might be caused by as many as 100 different genes, researchers reported on Thursday.’
http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINN0959974420080109
“DNA defect linked to 1 percent of autism cases”
“It is interesting that most of the duplicated sequences on chromosome 16 also carry copies of one of the most rapidly evolving gene families in the human species,” Eichler and Zimmerman wrote. That means that “from an evolutionary standpoint, autism may be a relatively ‘young’ disease.”
http://mednews.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/9458.html
“Study finds regions of DNA that appear linked to autistic spectrum disorders
“Powerful, quantitative tool allows researchers to zero in on genes”
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/17200
“Researchers identify gene expression profile distinctions in children with autism”
“Genomic analysis could add biological certainty to behavioral diagnosis”
http://www.wftv.com/health/15051675/detail.html?rss=orlc&psp=health
“Lead Poisoning Can Mimic Autism”
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=31&art_id=qw1161074881951B243&set_id=
“Mutated gene raises autism risk”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/01/28/scimice128.xml
“Scientist genetically engineer socially-awkward mice”
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=863716
“Scientists find link to autism”
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=15691
“Scientists more likely to have autistic children”
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/medizin_gesundheit/bericht-56921.html
“The role of evolutionary genomics in the development of autism”
Read the study results issued in February 2007 by the Autism Genome Project wherein they prove that autism is genetic.
Also, Asperger Syndrome IS autism and can be quite severe and debilitating in some individuals. Just because an individual with Asperger Syndrome is verbal does not mean that they are not autistic.
Additionally, I am a parent who has NEVER considered or felt like murdering my autistic child.
Furthermore, recently a court in Illinois had psychiatrists as witnesses who testified that Karen McCarron who murdered her autistic daughter shares the same characteristics with other parents who kill their own children and it has nothing whatsoever to do with mental illness, stress, depression or being overwhelmed; parents who kill their children do so because they can.
Sandy wrote: “Hilter murdered millions of people and was mentally ill himself. Autism Speaks in comparison is ridiculous.”
While it may be ridiculous it is a correct and very apt comparison. That you are offended by it based solely on the fact that you are German is your choice. I know a number of people who are German (still in Germany) and who are German immigrants (living in North America) and who are first generation German-American or German-Canadian, and they agree that when Autism Speaks promotes that they “want a world where autism is a word in the history books” they are, indeed, promoting the same sort of thing as was promoted by Nazis in the years leading up to WWII as well as all of WWII.
sorry Raven, I said it was not solely due to my ethnic back ground however when Autism Speaks starts mass murdering in concentraton camps, you let me know.
Thanks for your input, it’s interesting.
The Autism Genome Project, a collaboration of 120 scientists representing 19 countries and 50 institutions, compared the genomes of 1,168 families that each had at least two autism sufferers in them to try to track down the regions. The consortium reports its findings in this week’s issue of Nature Genetics.
“These findings are a piece of the puzzle,” says Geraldine Dawson, director of the University of Washington’s Autism Center. “As we identify these genes we will be able to screen young children for autism at an early age and begin interventions earlier, which can have a dramatic effect for some children.”
Did you know Autism Speaks helped fund this????????? How could murderers do such a thing!! Shame on them!!
If the article you are quoting about the Autism Genome Project states that it is “120 scientists representing 19 countries and 50 institutions, compared the genomes of 1,168 families that each had at least two autism sufferers in them to try to track down the regions” then you really need to check your source.
It’s 137 medical research scientists in 50 medical centers in 9 countries with 1,600 families where at least one child was diagnosed with autism.
And the individual or individuals you should be looking to quote are the two pre-eminent researchers, Dr. Stephen Scherer of Sick Kids’ Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Dr. Peter Szatmari, Head of Child Psychiatry at McMaster Chodoake in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
And Autism Speaks only got on board AFTER the results were released in February 2007 because they are hoping to get a test that will identify autistic fetuses for the purpose of government approval of abortion for any fetus suspected to be autistic.
That’s not what Scherer and Szatmari had planned for their study results to be all about.
But you go ahead, Sandy, and believe what ever misinformation and disinformation Autism Speaks feeds you. You seem to like it well enough.
By the way, aborting babies-in-waiting because they might be autistic is murdering the next generation in order to guarantee that Autism Speaks gets that “world where autism is a word in the history books.”
You might want to think seriously about that a little bit.
[quote] James Kennedy, head of neuroscience research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, called it “a landmark study” that will have long-ranging implications for autism research.
“We expect many genes cause autism, maybe dozens,” said Kennedy, who was not part of the study. “To even find one of them is a great step forward.”
Szatmari said researchers have LONG KNOWN THAT AUTISM IS AN INHERITED GENETIC DISORDER, but no one knew how it was passed on. [end quote]
Source: http://www.ntskeptics.org/news/news2007-02-26.htm
[quote] Working with 137 RESEARCHERS FRO EIGHT OTHER COUNTRIES, THE SCIENTISTS ANALYZED DNA FROM ABOUT 1,600 FAMILIES WORLDWIDE to zero in on a special group of neurons and the genes affecting their development and function [end quote]
Source: http://www.sickkids.ca/mediaroom/custom/internatautismdis07.asp
In case misread this, eight other countries means eight countries besides Canda for the factual comment: 137 resears in 9 countries and 1,600 families. The published results confirms the parameters demanded of the 1,600 participating families as well as the number of centers involved (50).
Did you participate in this study? I know my family did and I know a number of other families who also participated in this particular study.
Autistics stim on a personal basis, and neurotypicals perseverates on a scale writ large: that’s called “fashion” and “fads” in neurotypical words.
Autistics get into an inertial state on a personal basis, and neurotypicals get into an inertial state on the scale of whole societies: this is exemplified by periods of history where the technology doesn’t change in a significant way for years to millennia.
Autistics may seem to demand that things be “just so” and assert their desires on a personal basis in a manner often described as a “tantrum”: neurotypicals do this on a societal scale, and try to force whole societies and groups of people with one or more common characteristics to do their bidding. This is often accomplished at the wielding of threats of violence, taking away some sort of freedom and/or property, and violent actions as well as enslavement of whole populations. The ultimate neurotypical “tantrum” is genocide and ethnocide, which happens in many blatant and more subtle ways, and is happening the world over as we speak in blatantly violent methods right now in many countries, and less physically violent manners elsewhere, often wrapped in a shroud of what passes for “politically correct” for the day.
Autistics often engage in echolalia on a personal level, where they may repeat something verbatim with little conscious reasoning behind what is said, and it may be part of a nervous response: neurotypicals do this with their constant assertions on a societal level that this group is wrong and this group is right, with no evidence to back it up, beyond what was said in the past: facts pertaining to the assertions aren’t researched.
Autistics tend to have sensory issues where they have a hard time making sense of sensory oversensitivities (everything comes through as though the stereo is turned all the way up to 11) or sensory insensitivities (can’t interpret anything coming in): neurotypicals do this on a societal scale for sensory insensitivities, and don’t notice when things are way too loud (real problems such as major crime and degrading morals and lack of common decency) and are overly sensitive to such things as some people acting in a manner that doesn’t rub their fur the right way, even though it causes no harm to anyone.
Autistics resist changing of environments on a personal, individual level, and tend to work towards keeping things the same: neurotypical society tends to resist disturbing the status quo, even when it’s something as evil as caste systems and slavery, and disenfranchising of various groups of people, and other things committed on a massive group scale.
Autistics are labeled in a manner that indicates that their behavior is all about the singular “me” of themselves: neurotypical behavior is that it’s all about them (a particular society or large group) and that’s called ethnocentricity.
All of these can be seen in American history by itself, but American history is not alone in containing these patterns: this is a commonality in the histories of most peoples throughout earth’s time and in their local places. The color of the skin and the languages and the names change, as do the times marked by the stars in nature and calendars of man, as do minor differences, but so, too, it all repeats itself over and over again, all over the place, much as individual autistics tend to repeat themselves over and over again, whenever and wherever they exist. This happened in Nazi Germany, with those that were labeled “feeble-minded” of which autistics certainly were categorized as such. This happened with the Jews, in one form or another: the details change, but the pattern (that neurotypicals have in the large scale, autistics in the individual scale) doesn’t seem to really change.
Those that fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Here are the steps for the sort of pattern that happens between the oppressor and the oppressed:
First, one group decides that there’s something about another group that distinguishes them.
Second, the first group determines that what distinguishes them displeases them, and they do more than merely think about things.
Third, the first group finds various ways first to try to persuade the second group to change and live according to their desires, which may not involve physical violence, and often starts with words.
Fourth, the first group rationalizes that those of the second group are defective because of their differences, and they must be “fixed” in some manner or other, typically via reprogramming.
Fifth, the first group starts doing their persuasion in a much more forceful manner, which may include imprisonment and brainwashing via whatever forms chosen. In essence, this is the start of rape of an entire group of people by another group of people, emotionally and otherwise. Rape is not something limited to or just about sex: it is about control.
Sixth, the first group sets to pigeonhole the second group by labeling them as less than human in some manner, such as not being fully human (remember the mention of US history? Slaves were considered only to be 3/5 people, in the words of the founding fathers!) and likely that they can’t be fully human due to such claims as they don’t have the same emotions, or no emotions at all.
Seventh, the first group puts the second group in some sort of cages, physically imprisoning them in a given area specified for all of them, or restricting what they can do and where they can go, and various forms of segregation.
Eighth, the first group decides to cook the pigeons (four and twenty blackbirds in a pie) and eat them alive (generally figuratively) and pronounce they’ve been their just desserts.
Ninth, it seems like poetic justice, but this tends to repeat sooner or later, with the first group now becoming the second group, usually after the original first group has fallen into the lowest part of the societal pride cycle and has reached their lowest point of being degenerate. If they’re lucky, they just might have enough of them left to rise again and restart the cycle as group one.
That leaves another interesting appropriate compare and contrast point:
Most autistics tend to remember many things from a far younger age, in far greater detail, and they’re likely to sooner or later act on them, more than most neurotypicals do, but… they do it on an individual level. Neurotypical societies tend to remember past wrongs or rights (perceived or otherwise) by another group over the span of many generations, and act on them as a society, and perseverate on them endlessly.
Autistics tend to focus on fine details, and not go for the big picture, or so they’re labeled as such: this is, of course, done on an individual level, whereas neurotypicals tend to look at the fine details to break things down, focusing only on their desired sensory data: they see that (as a prime example) that how they’ve labeled the various parts of the autistic spectrum are all about finding a way to pigeonhole autistics and segregate them in a way so that they can divide and conquer, and deliberately ignore the reality that we’re not nearly that different as a whole as we are individually from one to the next: if you’re autistic, whatever the label, neurotypical society will state “That’s just not the same, it’s completely different!” when there are in fact, more common realities than differences in the overall pattern. Kanner’s autism and Asperger’s autism are no more different than the range of neurotypical personality descriptions and how reality and information is processed amongst the neurotypical group; there’s a great variation of “normal” (aka “neurotypicals”) that’s still considered “normal” because they process information (body language, social rules, sensory processing, overall thought patterns) in the same manner as each other, and the reality is that Asperger’s and Kanner’s autistics are merely more distinctly labeled variations on the same overall theme: they’re no different for their “normals” in the overall pattern of the group as a whole (the autistic spectrum) as the “normal” group is different from itself.
For those that are more observant than the typical reader, and have something of a mathematical background, it should be clear as to why autistics seem to be such a threat to neurotypicals, and why neurotypicals shouldn’t be afraid of autistics: autistics and neurotypicals are exact reciprocals of each other, where the numerator and denominators are mirror images of each other: you multiply them together, and you get 1. If you remove one of the factors, the result is undefined or zero. Autistics and neurotypicals are the Yin and Yang, the black and white, the light and dark, and (it would seem to some) the good and evil, where which one is good and which one is evil is in the perception of the beholders.
Sandy, I see you feel very strongly, based on your posts, that you believe these things:
Asperger’s autistics aren’t the same as Kanner’s autistics
Kanner’s autistics are incapable of making their own choices
If Kanner’s autistics could make a choice about their nature, you insist they’d want to be neurotypical
You don’t see it being wrong to make that choice for them, and to force it on them when they have no way to communicate that that’s not the case, and even if they do try to communicate that, you will either not recognize it, or will do everything because “It’s for your own good!”
Based on at least one of your statements, you’ve clearly indicated that not all autistics are capable of feeling emotions, based on your observations. And yet, I’m willing to bet you ascribe emotions to most animals you commune with, such as all other mammals, in particular your pets or the pets of others that you know. Congratulations: you’ve clearly started down that slippery slope I’ve described, and you’re well on your Teflon-coated slide into creating Hell for others, or you’re in the process of it as you read this.
It’s claimed autistics aren’t able to empathize, but that’s not really true: they just have a harder time empathizing in a foreign language. Have you never noted the great affinity a lot of autistics have with other creatures that aren’t human? I’ve got some tales you wouldn’t believe, from both my first-hand experience, as well as that of others I’ve witnessed. The fact of the matter is that while neurotypicals label it as an inability to empathize, what’s really being said is “autistics aren’t able to communicate on an instinctual tuning the same as neurotypicals” and that’s considered to be disordered, because from the ethnocentric point of view that the neurotypical way of functioning is correct, we must be defective. I submit that from the other direction, you, as well as most neurotypicals, are simply incapable of empathy with autistics, and the evidence is how you describe our emotional states, or often describe us as not having any emotional states, because you’re simply incapable of understanding how to interpret our patterns of input and output.
You haven’t learned enough of history, haven’t focused on the larger picture, and are focusing on silly little details of no importance whatsoever, therefore being the equivalent of being face-blind over the notion that what’s happened before isn’t happening again: genocide in the making, in the earlier stages, where autistics are the focus. It has happened before (you really need to learn history better) and it’s happening again, so please open your eyes and perceive the reality without allowing all the other stuff going on around the world to push you into sensory overload when it comes to comprehension of the concepts being played out.
Like all oppressed societies before them that wanted to be left alone, and didn’t want to lose their identity and self and be murdered in that way before being murdered in other ways, autistics don’t want to be changed: they merely want to be left alone. If we were allowed to live in an environment that was harmonious with how we function, there simply wouldn’t be a problem in practice, because there’d be a better match. I advise you to visit http://autistics.org and read everything there, especially the writings of “low-functioning” autistic adults that, if you used an IQ test adapted to the reality that they’re non-verbal and treated them as though they had defective hearing and vocal chords, you’d realize that the term “low-functioning” and how “low-functioning” autistics are described is a fallacious way to group us: we are, after all, like neurotypicals, not simply all along a single spectrum, but rather we’re all on a multi-spatial spectrum of spectrums, where there’s an unspecified number of dimensions describing the location on the autistic/neurotypical spectrum, but there’s an overall pattern as to whether we’re autistic or neurotypical. Again, I remind of the fact that neurotypical people tend to hyperfocus on insignificant details of a given group, and simply not comprehend the larger picture, the societal/group gestalt.
I don’t believe that you realize that your tactics are that of a bully, and that of the neurotypical society at large is also that of a bully: bullies act out of fear and self-loathing and use all kinds of rationalizations for why they do what they do to other people. Bullies have this self-righteous nature that leads them to think that they can control and oppress others because they’re superior, and what they say should go, should go. I, as well as all others on the autistic spectrum, are painfully experienced with dealing with bullies, and we can’t seem to win – often. A large part of that is that bullies rarely have the fortitude to operate on their own wherewithal, and tend to draw in the pack and work in a herd mentality, dog-eat-dog to prove who’s top dog. To that, I say, who let the dogs out? (Woof Woof Woof Woof!)
StrictNon-Conformist said: ” you’ve clearly indicated that not all autistics are capable of feeling emotions, based on your observations.”
That’s not what I said, nor did I make any such comment in this topic. what i DID I said some cant show emotions, but didn’t mean they don’t have any emotions. You read only what you want and then change it around to fit what you want to say.
My child is expressionless but still has feelings and emotions, he simply cant outwardly express them or show them, and he’s not the only one.
I am not the bully. You actually are for calling me one and also the name calling you continue to do through out this topic. I asked my child if there as a choice, would he not want to have autism? Of course he is still too young to ever make such a choice however you have no right to dictate parental choice for every one in the entire world. Not every one can write or comprehend a 25 paragraph sentence. And autism is a spectrum, containing 5 disorder’s. Each person’s disorder affects them differently but we all know autism and asperger’s are not the same or they would had combined the two diagnosis into one.
It’s sad. Autism is not a choice, it’s not a race. It’s a medical disorder. As stated before, I don’t think a cure will ever be in my life time, or my child’s however if there are environmental’s to avoid so autism doesn’t have to happen, I AM all for it. No body likes to see a child suffer, and you’re no judge of all with autism. Because there’s no cure (only intervention which should also bother you since it’s helping to make that child functional) my child is taught everyone is different and his different does not mean bad. He’s going to get older and ask me why. He already asked why his mouth is broken. It’s only going to be with my help that he finds his own self- confidence and how to accept himself when other’s will not.
What you’d have me teach him is that autism is his ‘right’ to have and I am sorry, that is something I will not teach him. It is a medical disorder that I cant fix for him, and one day he’d maybe have to decide for himself if a cure was for him. I know if there was a cure, his father would be first in line.
I have also said before, a cure for autism would be like a cure for a blind man. The man relies on different senses to function. So does my child. A cure would require that blind man and the child with autism to relearn to use sense they never relied on before and could actually throw a child or adult into shock. When parents think of cures, they think a child would just wake up being typical and that’s not how it would be at all. They’d still require years of therapy in order to help them learn to use typical senses. You think??
When Autism Speaks starts mass murdering in concentration camps, you let me know. Until then thanks for the ‘book’ reading.
Good Luck
Raven~ When Autism Speaks starts mass murdering in concentration camps, you let me know. Until them good luck to you as well. You can also let me know when that genetic test is available for all of our kids so we can confirm the geneics of autism for each.
Sandy wrote: “Raven~ When Autism Speaks starts mass murdering in concentration camps, you let me know. Until them good luck to you as well. You can also let me know when that genetic test is available for all of our kids so we can confirm the geneics of autism for each.”
Yes, that’s the attitude that was pervasive in Nazi Germany in the years leading up to WWII and into the early years of WWII when those deemed by the Nazis as being lesser persons were being identified for later ‘relocation’ to ghettos and those concentration camps.
Had someone spoken up BEFORE the concentration camps took hold, millions would have been saved from Jews to homosexuals to disabled persons.
As for the genetic test you are hankering for … unfortunately, it is coming and it will fall into the wrong hands as supposedly caring individuals do not see the similarities between what happend over 70 years ago and today.
History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.
Clarence Darrow
US defense lawyer (1857 – 1938)
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist (1856 – 1950)
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
George Santayana
Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist (1863 – 1952)
History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.
Kurt Vonnegut
American novelist (1922 – 2007)
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Maya Angelou
African-American poet, memoirist, actress, director, and civil rights activist (born 1922)
Better get on ToysRus’s case. Just released, they also back up Autism Speaks, again. Calling it ‘Its Commitment to Fighting Autism’.
Just a suggestion, don’t bother with me when there’s so many more important Orgs out there to attack.
The difference between Hilter is he was the Leader of Germany with much power to countrol a country. Autism Speaks is Leader of no one.
If you think for a minute anyone is going to extinguish those with spectrum disorder’s, you’re sadly going way over board and letting you’re imagination get the better of you. I’d be more worried about Government forced chips than anything else. Yea, prevention may result in abortions, but I am not that person to judge who decides that for themselves. But I will say you don’t see too many people jumping up and down when parent’s choose to abort for other reasons. Abortion should not be a frivolous rash decision no matter what, and most parent’s struggle with that decision.
Sandy wrote: “Just a suggestion, don’t bother with me when there’s so many more important Orgs out there to attack.”
I didn’t realize you are an “Org” Sandy. Which “Org” do you claim to represent — Autism Speaks?
History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.
Clarence Darrow
US defense lawyer (1857 – 1938)
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist (1856 – 1950)
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
George Santayana
Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist (1863 – 1952)
History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.
Kurt Vonnegut
American novelist (1922 – 2007)
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Maya Angelou
African-American poet, memoirist, actress, director, and civil rights activist (born 1922)
well, as said I’m not an Org or with any (hard to believe, I bet but if it makes you feel justified to believe so, so be it) so you’re wasting your time. my comment meants Orgs like ToysRus (which really isn’t an Org but a Corp.)
have a great day!
Sandy wrote:
“The difference between Hilter is he was the Leader of Germany with much power to countrol a country. Autism Speaks is Leader of no one.”
You’re right: 1,062 people are firmly telling Autism Speaks: “Don’t Speak for Me.” http://www.autism-hub.co.uk/autism-speaks-dont-speak-for-me/index.php
Autistics and parents firmly feel that Autism Speaks does not lead them, and they are taking steps now to make sure that Autism Speaks knows that.
“No body likes to see a child suffer, and you’re no judge of all with autism.”
From an autistic standpoint, we do not see ourselves as suffering though. We see YOU as suffering. Yet we would not think of treating you or curing you because that would be a violation of your personal and civil rights.
For those of us autistics with high -and- I would wager, low and middling IQs- who are able to assemble seemingly bits and pieces of information into a unified, cohesive, and coherent whole, what we see in NTs are a bunch of reactive, over-emotional, and fear-driven people who retreat to the comfort of the herd, who will positive reinforce each other with the idea that normality lies in numbers, and this is what allowed the Nazis to persecute the Jews and the Rawandan genocide to happen, because when the pack is threatened by anything that threatens the emotional sensitivities of the herd, the herd devours the perceived attacker.
Let’s assume that it was true that the Jews in Europe were money grubbing people who swindled German people out of their money. Which was the better of the two herds? The money grubbers or the Nazis who burned them up in furnaces?
In reality, the Nazis were the lower of the two, and any objective observer could see why. SOME Jews in that day were financially savvy, knowing how to make significant profits while operating well within the law. The less financially savvy Germans were jealous of the success of these few Jews and so persecuted everybody who was Jewish and took by force what the Jews had earned through hard work.
In this day and age, we have a NEW herd mentality going on. Neurotypicals are all too prepared to count Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Dan Aykroyd, and Stephen Speilberg as one of their own, but they forget that these fellows are autistic, just like those autistics which Autism Speaks seems to want to develop the in-utero genetic test for autism for. You know the one I mean? The one that would allow parents the option of aborting their kid because the kid presents with an autistic gene?
It should be stated here that just because a child presents with an autistic gene does not mean that the child will present with any form of autism. But thanks to the campaigns put forward by “curebie” organizations, people are coming to view a fetus that even has the autistic gene as garbage, and the sooner a test can be develop to throw out the trash before it proliferates is good news.
Basically, Sandy, the reason I am responding to this thread, and the reason I am responding to you specifically, is because you, with everything you have said here, and Autism Speaks, with everything they do, make me feel ashamed of myself for being autistic. You make me feel ashamed to be alive, and you make me feel ashamed of the human race. But then again, this is the effect curebies have on me.
You have told me this we these words:
“What you’d have me teach him is that autism is his ‘right’ to have and I am sorry, that is something I will not teach him.”
What would you do then with me? Have me cured? Kill me? So many autistics kill themselves because of attitudes like yours. This is why we feel organizations like Autism Speaks are like Nazis with the propaganda they espouse.
Michael N~ thanks for commenting.
autism is a medical disorder, and for why it ever happens, I do not know. I’m dyslexic and I wish I wasn’t and I wish there was prevention or that someone noticed before I was in high school. Dyslexia is not my rightful choice.
How many are in a assisted living? How many are in group homes? Obviously many can read and write, but how many cannot? How many can dress yourselves? How many can have a conversation and not withdraw? How many of you broke bones or got seriously hurt because you just don’t feel pain? How many memorize whole movies but cant remember what just happened today, or yesterday? How many can walk into Target with out a sensory over load? How many understand stranger danger? Or understand bad touching when touch is ignored? How many have to take psych meds? Or meds just to sleep because you can ignore that too as well as pain and hunger? How many can answer questions , or just ignore some one is talking at all? How many can hold a pencil or tie your shows? How many pick deep holes in your skin? how many wear diapers?? How many deal with IEP’s that are faulty and needs are not met? How many will walk away and not understand they’ll drown if they go into that lake? Or get frost bite because again, they feel no pain?
What would you have me do? Tell this child it’s his right? You may not see yourself as suffering, but you’re not seeing beyond to everyone else, either that’s not as fortunate to have your same abilities. Autism is not a real civil right. Autism is a disability that falls under the disability act, maybe. Autism is not who my child is, it’s what he has. That is the difference.
I do not expect nor really want a cure for my child, but at this time there really isn’t a choice, is there??? But I will never tell anyone or to my child this is his right. If I did tell my child such a thing, he’d loose the ambition to do better.
Now you’re trying to blame suicide on me, and assume I expect you to be cured. You obviously need no assisted anything. How lucky for you but not all are like you. My future and plans have nothing at all to do with you anyway. And by the way, many people are great people, autistic disorder’s or not. Many of those people still living that you noted also do not publicly acknowledge that have a spectrum disorder, either. No one knows for sure Albert Einstein did. Autism didn’t necessarily makes these people great; the person themselves did that.
Sandy my son is diagnosed with autism – he’s told me he doesn’t want to be ‘normal’ he’s seen what ‘normal’ is and how ‘normal’ behaves and doesn’t like it – can’t say I blame him.
He is not blind – in fact he sees very well, he sees much more than ‘normal people’ so to say curing my son’s autism would be like curing blindness makes no sense. I really wish that some people in this world could see as well as my son and I not talking just eyesight here – but to really ’see’.
Julie
The work “eradicate” was an unfortunate choice. However, I don’t doubt her dedication. When you see someone you love but can’t get through to them, it is heartbreaking.
I don’t think research on a microscopic level is the most expeditious way to determine what causes autism. Perhaps that is a way to find a way to TREAT autism, but I think it would be wiser to determine what causes it and then act to prevent it in the first place. I am adament that autism is caused by something in the environment, and that demographic studies will show us what it is.
comparing to a blind person is almost the best comparison. They rely on senses differently since they have no sight and are hyper sensitive to sounds and vibrations. This could mostly be compared to sensory issues. My son also is not blind, but he doesn’t use his sense as I do, either. He uses smell and taste to recognize objects and many with autism use their senses differently as well. If a blind person is cured, nothing they see makes sense to their eyes, and nothing would make sense to the child with autism, either. The blind person would rather be blind, since that’s what the know and they cant turn off their senses they used once when blind.
That’s the point every one is missing that I’m trying to make. A cure would not just make a child wake up typical. My son, maybe like yours, has spent years living this way and a cure would throw him into ‘typical’ regression, sort to speak. He wouldn’t know how to function with these newly found abilities and need much more intensive therapy to help deal with it. Many people who want a cure have no understanding what that would entail.
I am not for a cure however I can stop the hopes of others. I am all for prevention and avoiding known things to cause autism, that’s if they ever figure that out. I do greatly disagree that anyone plans to destroy those with spectrum disorder’s and I disagree with the comparison to Hilter.
typo I canT stop the hopes of others
” do greatly disagree that anyone plans to destroy those with spectrum disorder’s and I disagree with the comparison to Hilter.”
Then explain to everyone here how else one can create a world “where autism is a word found only in history books.”
Since autism is genetic, it is part of the human DNA.
How do you see Autism Speaks achieving their goal of ridding the world of autism entirely so that it is only a word found in history books?
As for disagreeing with the comparison with Hitler, I remember hearing stories told by German immigrants recounting how they heard stories about what was going on in their own beloved country and they knew of incidences where these stories were true, but they, too, did not want to think it could be an accurate depiction of what was really being cultivated. How sad to see that this sort of ‘blinders on’ belief system still exists in this day and age.
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
George Santayana
Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist (1863 – 1952)
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Maya Angelou
African-American poet, memoirist, actress, director, and civil rights activist (born 1922)
Sandy wrote:
“How many are in group homes? Obviously many can read and write, but how many cannot? How many can dress yourselves? How many can have a conversation and not withdraw? How many of you broke bones or got seriously hurt because you just don’t feel pain? How many memorize whole movies but cant remember what just happened today, or yesterday? How many can walk into Target with out a sensory over load? How many understand stranger danger? Or understand bad touching when touch is ignored? How many have to take psych meds? Or meds just to sleep because you can ignore that too as well as pain and hunger? How many can answer questions , or just ignore some one is talking at all? How many can hold a pencil or tie your shows? How many pick deep holes in your skin? how many wear diapers?? How many deal with IEP’s that are faulty and needs are not met? How many will walk away and not understand they’ll drown if they go into that lake? Or get frost bite because again, they feel no pain?”
You might want to watch this video by Silent Miaow. Silent Miaow was thought to be just like you describe until she was given a voice-translating computer to type on, and VOILA, ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS SHE DID WAS WRITE THIS VIDEO AGAINST AUTISM SPEAKS.
Interestingly, no one knew she could read, let alone type. Most people assumed that because she stimmed and rocked and drooled and wore diapers and was autistic that she was stupid and not able to think for herself.
Obviously, they were wrong. Just because someone looks or acts in an appalling way does not mean that they have no intelligence.
My understanding was that she was so infuriated with Autism Speaks and GRASP that she felt it necessary to get the word out as soon as she could and in a big way, so as to educate those people who feel the need to assert that autistics who cannot speak for themselves obviously want to be cured.
This video just goes to show that personal prejudices don’t prove out Sandy. Autistics who can’t speak for themselves CAN speak for themselves when given the right tools.
This is how organizations with Autism Speaks’ mentality affect autistics.
Watch this video and the rest of the ones she has produced please. You might learn something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhnsEJRJgeA
And just think, Autism Speaks wants to cure this woman. How offensive.
Michael N~ maybe you’d like to see a video of my child or meet him. My son was severely speech delayed however he now is verbal, can speak. Interestingly, my child can retell accurate odd memories as early as when he was one years old. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I described wasn’t meant to be appalling behaviors, nor depict intelligence. Most who have autism never do well on an IQ test either, they just don’t have a standard test to test each individually so no one would know just how intelligent each person may be. Many put a lot of emphasis on lack of verbalizing, I never had but anyone who has a non verbal child knows there are other alternatives for communication like Pecs and sign language. That’s not what I was talking about. For those who need assisted living where do you think that comes from? Most kids out live their parents, what happens to those kids far less functional than you are?
Autism Speaks is not going to force cure on anyone. Your assumptions are premature. One day they may find prevention, which would not affect the girl in the video or you. But even if they find prevention, it doesn’t mean each person would follow that. If you consume alcohol while pregnant, your child will be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, yet people still drink while pregnant and babies are still born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome which will affect them all their lives.
Autism Speaks hope of removing the word autism from the history books is just that, a hope. If you believe they have that power or that it’ll ever happen, come on. There are many things in this world we all wish would be wiped away, cancer, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease for starters. Wouldn’t it be nice to wipe those off the history book? Autism alone is more complicated, and for many is genetic and many parents even if given the choice will not abort.
We’re talking about a disorder here. There is nothing wrong with wanting prevention for any disorder.
Cancer is a disease, is degenerative in nature and will kill the individual in time if not treated.
Multiple Sclerosis is a disease, degenerative in nature and will eventually kill the individual.
Parkinson’s Disease is a disease, degenerative in nature and will eventually kill the individual.
Autism is NOT a disease. Autism is not degenerative. Autism will not eventually kill the individual.
Poor comparisons, Sandy.
While there may be nothing ‘wrong’ per se with wanting to find preventative measures for diseases, there is something very wrong with wanting to eradicate a DNA encoding in the genome.
Back to Story – Help
NEW STUDY CLEARS TRIPLE MMR VACCINE OF ANY LINK TO AUTISM
Tue Feb 5, 9:21 AM
PARIS (AFP) – A new study published on Tuesday dealt a fresh blow to accusations that a triple vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) is linked to autism.
The investigation by British doctors comes nearly 10 years to the day since a paper, appearing in The Lancet, unleashed a health scare that prompted many parents to refuse the MMR jab for their children.
That paper has since been debunked by several other studies and was finally retracted by 10 of its 13 authors in 2004.
The new study is based on antibody tests on blood samples taken from 240 children aged between 10 and 12 in southern England.
It looked at 98 children with autism, and two comparison groups — 52 children with special educational needs but no autism, and 90 children who were developing normally.
All of the children had been given the MMR vaccination, but not all had been given the two scheduled doses.
The researchers looked at three paths that have been suggested as the various links between MMR vaccine and autism — evidence of persistent measles infection; an abnormal immune response; and an inflammatory bowel disorder called enterocolitis.
THEY FOUND NO ASSOCIATION AT ALL (Note: bolding is mine)
Other investigations into the MMR scare have similarly found no evidence to support a link.
Two of them have been large-scale population studies — one among 31,000 children in Japan, and 28,000 children in Canada — while one probe was conducted into a mercury-based chemical, thimerosal, used as a preservative in MMR vaccines but dropped in 1999.
Autism is a neuropsychiatric disorder that impairs a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
The disorder appears to have been rising massively in developed countries for the past two decades, but experts are divided as to why this should be so.
Some say there may be an environmental cause. Others say that cases of autism are more likely to be detected and reported because the taboo surrounding this condition is receding, and in addition, the term may be used for more minor developmental problems.
The MMR scare was overwhelmingly centered on Britain, but also affected other countries to a lesser degree.
In some parts of Britain, the proportion of children getting the vaccination slumped to 60 percent, triggering outbreaks of measles that placed infants’ lives at risk.
The original study was published in The Lancet on February 28 1998. In 2004, the British health journal distanced itself from the research and issued an apology about the scare.
The new paper appears in Archives of Disease in Childhood, published by the British Medical Association (BMA).
It was not a comparison Raven, it was things that still lack prevention or cure. The actual comparison was none of those disorder’s/ diseases along with autism isn’t going to easily be wiped off the books and the point was prematurely getting your undies all in a bundle over something that’s not easily going to happen any time soon.
On a side note this article is faulty. The MMR vaccine never ever contained Thimersoal.
You have a great day.
Here are some definitions for you to try to help you understand
1dis·or·der
Pronunciation: \(ˌ)dis-ˈȯr-dər, (ˌ)diz-\
Function: transitive verb
Date: 15th century
1 : to disturb the order of
2 : to disturb the regular or normal functions of
Main Entry: dis·ease
Pronunciation: \di-ˈzēz\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English disese, from Anglo-French desease, desaise, from des- dis- + eise ease
Date: 14th century
1obsolete : trouble
2: a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms : sickness malady
3: a harmful development (as in a social institution)
— dis·eased \-ˈzēzd\ adjective
2cure
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): cured; cur·ing
Date: 14th century
transitive verb
1 a: to restore to health, soundness, or normality b: to bring about recovery from
2 a: to deal with in a way that eliminates or rectifies b: to free from something objectionable or harmful
3: to prepare or alter especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use
intransitive verb
1 a: to undergo a curing process b: set 11
2: to effect a cure
eradicate
Main Entry: erad·i·cate
Pronunciation: \i-ˈra-də-ˌkāt\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): erad·i·cat·ed; erad·i·cat·ing
Etymology: Latin eradicatus, past participle of eradicare, from e- + radic-, radix root — more at root
Date: 1532
1 : to pull up by the roots
2 : to do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the roots
synonyms see exterminate
— erad·i·ca·ble \-ˈra-di-kə-bəl\ adjective
— erad·i·ca·tion \-ˌra-də-ˈkā-shən\ noun
— erad·i·ca·tor \-ˌkā-tər\ noun
Please note erraticate also means to exterminate and what does Autism Speaks say they want to do?
Maybe our focus should be on helping children now rather than erradicating them.
Diseases can be cured disorders can only be delt with and helped, why do you thing Addiction is a disorder, Bipolar is a disorder, Eating disorders speak for them selves, Most things that have to do with brain functioning differently are considered disorders, They can be helped to some extent and delt with to some extent, but not cured.
Where as diseases, Ie heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc, can be cured, they have a known cause and effect.
Just some things to think on.
Well there you go. Autism Speaks doesn’t have a hope in the world to cure (erraticate) a disorder.
Point very well taken.
So what’s the problem? Why attack them when (like I said it wont happen anyway) if it cant be done??
There’s only one flaw. For some autism may be a disease, depending on cause.
Hon, that’s where the prevention is coming from.
Mercury poisoning mimics autism, remove the heavy metals it’s said to be recovery
Sandy wrote: “On a side note this article is faulty. The MMR vaccine never ever contained Thimersoal [sic].”
Sandy, Sandy, Sandy … LOL. The reason for posting the information on the MMR study was to help you understand a few basic things about Autism that seem to escape you. Since you are so intent on comparing apples with oranges by claiming that the MMR vaccine never contained thimerosal and since so many parents and a few pediatricians in America claim that the MMR vaccine is responsible for a surge in autism, perhaps THIS recent news article will sit better with you.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080130/health/health_children_autism_vaccine_1
US STUDY DEBUNKS MYTH OF LINK BETWEEN INFANT VACCINES, AUTISM
Wed Jan 30, 6:16 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Infants expel the mercury contained in a common vaccine preservative too quickly for toxicity to build up, US researchers said Wednesday, saying their findings should allay fears that child vaccines can cause autism.
A study conducted at the University of Rochester in New York and due to be published on Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics showed that infants “expel thimerosal mercury much faster than originally thought, thereby leaving little chance for a progressive building up of the toxic metal.”
“This debunks the great myth, believed by both parents and some pediatricians, that the gauntlet of thimerosal -containing shots many infants received in the 1990s, when the average number of vaccines kids received increased sharply, had put them at risk for developmental disorders,” including autism, a statement issued by the university said.
Some 5,000 US families last year brought a case before a special US court, which is still ongoing, seeking to prove that vaccines administered to children are linked to a rise in the incidence of autism, which now affects as many as one child in every 150 in the United States.
But the California Department of Health last month reported that autism rates continue to mushroom in the United States, even though thimerosal was removed from most child vaccines in 2001 at the urging of health officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), concerned over its mercury content.
The fears surrounding thimerosal arose in the late 1990s when it was found that children who received “a complete series of vaccines that contained thimerosal potentially received up to 187.5 grams of ethyl mercury during the first six months of life,” the Rochester study said.
That vastly exceeded “the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended safe intake level, estimated in 1997 to be no more than 0.1 grams of mercury per kilogram of body weight per day,” it said.
But the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines were based on oral methyl mercury, the type associated with eating fish, not the intramuscular ethyl mercury found in thimerosal.
“Scientists are learning that the two mercury species actually behave quite differently … the body rids the kind found in thimerosal more that 10 times faster than it removes the kind one might encounter in a Friday night fish fry,” the Rochester researchers said in a statement.
For the Rochester study, the blood mercury levels of 216 infants at a hospital in Argentina were tested before and after shots were administered at either their newborn, two- or six-month checkup.
Thimerosal is still widely used in childhood vaccines outside the United States.
The study found the half-life of ethyl mercury in the blood — or the time it takes for the body to dispose of half the mercury, then another half, and so on until it is gone — to be 3.7 days.
“That’s a far cry from the blood half-life of methyl mercury, which is 44 days,” the researchers said.
“Until recently, the longer half-life was assumed to be the rule for both types of mercury. Now it’s obvious that ethyl mercury’s short half-life prevents toxic build-up from occurring. It’s just gone too fast,” said the lead author of the study, Dr Michael Pichichero.
End of news article.
I await for your next apples-and-oranges argument. Later days!
Raven hon, the MMR is only one theory of the vaccines, more so the 3 in 1 jab. It’s also based on the gut theory and measles in the gut and spine that somehow then results in autism. That theory as well was more a scare due to Wakefield anyway which never had scientific backing to begin with.
This is old news.
The more prevalent theory is the vaccines prior to the MMR and there after, containing Thimerosal.
The surge in autism rates hon, is based on the two vaccines added in the 1990s containing Thimerosal.
This study is interesting, but hon, there’s way more to it than this one study.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey hon,This study, Pichichero’s team tracked 216 infants from R. Gutierrez Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina- small study. And it only included the age groups of newborns, and at their two- and six-month checkups. I also see no follow up after these children turned a year old to 18 months. Did you?? The ethyl mercury’s short half-life doesn’t demonstrate that damage is not done anyway upon injection. Also interestingly, none of these 216 children were said to then be born genetically with autism. The team Pichechero is also quoted stating: “”Replacing the thimerosal in vaccines globally would put these vaccines beyond what the world community could afford for its children.” That Hon, says it all.
With the exception of Dr. Wakefield’s research that covered all of 12 children and that later was proven to be falsified by Wakefield and his associates, every study done concerning mercury/thimerosal and vaccines causing autism has proven the same thing over and over again … vaccines do not cause autism.
But there are countless numbers of parents who are so desperate to blame something for the genetic difference in their autistic child/ren that they will grasp at anything. In fact, they argue the same way you do … disregarding fact for emotional punch instead.
So, hon, if you have problems with FACTS don’t model yourself after an ostrich. Embrace the FACTS and work towards making this world a much more inclusive world for all individuals rather than the skewed one certain groups of individuals relentlessly promote through their celebrity connections and nouveau riche bank accounts.
That, hon, really says it all.
Since you seem intent on thinking that somehow vaccines and autism rates are inseparable, let’s take a look at reality and facts.
Sandy wrote: “The surge in autism rates hon, is based on the two vaccines added in the 1990s containing Thimerosal.”
The ’surge’ as you call it is actually due to more refined tools with which to identify and diagnose autism. There isn’t MORE autism in the world in terms of an epidemic but rather better diagnostic tools with which to better identify autism rather than misidentify it as other disorders, disabilities or diseases.
The propaganda spread by CAN and DAN and Autism Speaks and their compatriotes that there’s an ‘epidemic’ of autism is misleading and not based in fact.
But, once again, you will undoubtedly prove that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t teach it to drink. LOL.
Hey hon, why you have to be so rude is beyond me. Didn’t I say Wakefield’s study had no scientific backing? If I didn’t say it before although I am sure I did, I believe my son’s autism is of a genetic cause. Vaccines played no part into it for him. It would be most helpful if you remembered that fact for the future. However, studies are not always what they appear to be, and articles can get the information incorrect, for example MMR never had Thimerosal. All studies are, are a step towards answer’s. But why bother saying anything, you’ll continue to twist every thing I attempt to say.
I for one personally think Thimerosal, lead and mercury exposure plays a part, but it’s not autism. It’s mercury and lead poisoning and it’s a misdiagnosis. They both mimic autism and that’s why those children seem to recover whereas my child will not. And still with that infant study, there is no explaining the mercury content in these children. But why bother saying anything, you’ll continue to twist every thing I attempt to say.
You nor I can know for sure the causes of every single person’s autism and if you state you know this, you are a liar. Besides CAN, DAN and Autism Speaks, every where else states as of today there IS NO KNOWN CAUSE. If there was a known for sure cause, it would be on every web site of even the most agreeable sites you go to. But why bother saying anything, you’ll continue to twist every thing I attempt to say.
You have a great week.
Sandy said:
“However, studies are not always what they appear to be, and articles can get the information incorrect…”
You make a good point.
I am going to make another one: I don’t think the average person would know where to look for a study and know how to read the study results.
I posted a lot of links earlier on, and some of these are internet sources and whatnot. I would not feel comfortable quoting to someone “Newsweek says…”. But if you go and read the original studies where they are originally published, and you understand test item construction, test methodology, measurement, validity, sample size, control groups, placebos, the scientific method, peer review, prior medical studies initiated and their validated and disputed results, hypothoses versus theories, theories vs. facts, facts versus conclusions, suppositions vs. conclusions, the history of autism, the history and reputations of those doing the studies, knowledge of who funds the studies, knowing the implications of whether or not test subjects are paid or unpaid, knowing the pyshological influences which can skew study results at various stages of the study process, (etc.) you actually begin to know which studies are “good” and which studies are not “good.”
There is a lot of “junk” science out there. In fact, there is more “junk” science in existence than there is reputable science. Just look at what the media tells us is good or bad for us. “A new study says X is good for you.” “Remember that study that says X is good for you? Think again! A new study says…”
But it absolutely cannot be disputed that autism is absolutely and completely genetic in origin, and all the quack treatments that parents are so keen to try on their children simply will not work. In fact, the majority of them worsen the situation.
My point? We no longer need to be looking for causes and cures for autism. We need to be looking for vocational, educational, and medical assistance for those who need it.
Meanwhile, Autism Speaks is looking to “erradicate” autism. You cannot “erradicate” a gene differentiation without destroying the orhganism that has it. The only way to legally destroy such an organism is to abort it. The only other way to do it is through what the Vice President of Autism Speaks contemplated doing: Murder.
A third alternative is to live in denial and just pretend that all the hard and excruciating science done toward finding out what causes autism was just a bunch of scientists worldwide making best guesses and stirring together genetic materials like they would make martinis. I mean really, who are we kidding here?
The majority of our popuilation does not have the persistence or intelligence to read and comprehend all there is to read about autism, and so organizations like Autism Speaks come along and tell people ONE SIDE OF THE STORY while preventing anyone reputable from telling theirs and people go for it. It is an extrememly dangerous game they are playing and sooner or later the public will catch them on it, just like autistics already have.
as a hfa adult myself i understand what your saying
but i can also agree with the lady who said her son wouldnt want to be normal
yes autistics have issues with some situations and yes we can in somecase ignore bodily needs
but we are also gifted with things we wouldnt let you take if we could be normal
i have an ability to ‘hyper focus’ on something to the extent that thats all isee this has enabled me to do projects which would take far longer by eleminating extranous details to life
yes osme are incontenet and wear diapers,
however some are forced into such a situation by the outside world
were differnt not crippled just differnt
Autism is directly CAUSED by Biological Parents procreating at certain, PREDICTABLE, AVOIDABLE specific, WRONG Biological TIMES on PREDICTABLY-WRONG Biological DAYS. I discovered this back in 1977 and still today, NO ONE in Birth Defects Research will give me the time of day. Once News of the Biological CAUSE having been found gets out, the MONEY stops coming in for Research and all those cushy Research Jobs go away, overnight. Researchers waste their time looking in laboratory test tubes; the ANSWER is in my Theory, “The Julian Coincidence.”