I see that ASAN member and neurodiversity activist Sarah Pripas, author of the Cat's in a dog's world blog, is at it again, accusing those of us with an interest in autism who are either parents of autistic children or those of us on the spectrum ourselves who wish a cure or help for this condition of being responsible for murder. It is very sad when an autistic child is killed by their parents. No rational person would justify this. Certainly this woman in Texas was insane as are all others who murder their autistic children. To claim that the desire for a cure leads to this is nothing but hateful fear mongering. However, it seems to be the contention of the ND movement and the autistic self advocacy network that the desire to cure autism is what leads these people to murder their kids. Ari Ne'eman has stated that in a testimony before the IACC that there were some people who believe that autism speaks is morally complicit with murder. Even if he did not come right out and say it, he was giving this idea credibility which should have no more credibility than the flat earth society. The admittedly stupid remarks that Allison Tepper Singer made in a video sponsored by autism speaks about sometimes feeling like driving her car off a bridge with her daughter in it was somehow responsible for the murder of Katie McCarron and other autistic children, according to ND and ASAN. How absurd is this. How many people who desire a cure really consider murdering their autistic children? This sort of propaganda only leads to hate and fear. I take great offense to being blamed for the murder of autistic children just because I wish a better life for myself.
It is interesting that the media on a not infrequent basis reports on autistic children who are killed in drownings, being hit by cars, trains, being lost in a snowstorm and freezing to death. Somehow neurodiversity and ASAN members never bat an eye when this happens (though the one exception was when Ari Ne'eman expressed his condolences over Ashley Brock's death by drowning on Ginger Taylor's Adventures in autism blog).
Give it a rest Sarah and the rest of ASAN and ND! No one is going to take you seriously. You conned the Obama administration into getting Ari Ne'eman appointed to the NDC and IACC. You are only hurting your own cause with such hateful propaganda. Your post only leads to hatred and bitterness and divisiveness.
This is one of the many reasons (perhaps the most important one) that neurodiversity and ASAN need to be opposed.
I apologize to gadfly readers if this post, written on the fly, is rambling and incoherent and not as well written as it should be, but this sort of crap from ND and ASAN ticks me off to no end!
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11 comments:
The 'Abelism' post made me yuk-up too. More for the trendy language as anything else.
However the apocolyptic ranting from AutSqks PR people does little except scare the wits out of parents and, I'm sure makes them expect the worst.
If you have a child with Asperger's and nuture them in an appropriate environment, teach them resiliance and love them unconditionally, many of the problems people like you, me and Stephanie suffer from will never arise.
Even with severely Autistic children the out comes aren't always as bleak as AutSqks claim. They are still usually significant, though.
There is dangerous rhetoric on all sides. And it needs to stop.
If you are concerned that this post is rambling or incoherent, then I wonder if you realize what a good natural writer you are. I thought the points you made were good and well spoken. I too notice that the drowning and hit while wondering into traffic deaths are ignored by certain elements. I've also seen a lot of "for the grace of thee goes I" comments when someone with Autism snaps and kills somebody but when parents do it there is less concern offered. An autistic aquaintance of mine has been invited to meet the president. This person struggles with her condition yet remains hopeful. I'm glad to see the WH has moved beyond hearing only one type of autistic voice. I want ND to have a voice, but not the ONLY voice on this issue.
"The admittedly stupid remarks that Allison Tepper Singer made in a video sponsored by autism speaks about sometimes feeling like driving her car off a bridge with her daughter in it was somehow responsible for the murder of Katie McCarron and other autistic children, according to ND and ASAN."
-In 2008, that is. In 2009 Ari Ne'eman ate sandwiches with Allison Singer, whose tobacco science foundation heavily supported his NCD nomination this year.
-In 2008, that is. In 2009 Ari Ne'eman ate sandwiches with Allison Singer, whose tobacco science foundation heavily supported his NCD nomination this year.
That's pretty funny. By the way, there are some Dan docs prescribing nicotine patches for autistic children. When Alison singer split with AS over vaccines, that suddenly made her acceptable to Ari. It has never been about autistic people, it's about the vaccines man!
Jake,
You're just sore 'cause Ari's got bigger backers than you.
Ari was heading straight for Obama's manhood, Autism or no Autism. It, like ASAN, was/is a convenient vehicle for his life plan.
Cat in a Dog's World does make some good points about the AutSqueeks Autism Apocolypse.
Mitch has confabulated several issues. ASAN is effectively dead as a credible political movement. See my hatchet job/ essay as former president of ASAN England.
Kim Megalomanical wanted it for AoA, but I went one better and posted it on AutSqueek's board.
An act of tretchery second only to that that abfh/Meg Evans /Ari played on me and everyone else.
That was not supposed to be anonymous. I don't do anonymous. It was Socrates. I did it.
Jonathan, Sarah is insane. Don't listen to what she says.
Wait, didn't you tell me that autistic kids are never hit by cars... weird.
No, ender, you are confused as usual. I just told you that traumatic brain injury (which you admitted to having on wrong planet) is not autism or asperger's (which you admitted to never having a diagnosis of on wrong planet in the same post). We have been over this a zillion times. Why don't you just give it a rest.
I'm not in the habit anymore of reading Sarah Pribas' blog but decided to check it out on this one. I followed the link to the NBC video and read the news story about the mother. It is noted in the story that a relative told the news reporter the following:
"Saiqa Akhter's uncle, Wasimul Haque, told The Dallas Morning News that his niece had been depressed since moving into a new apartment in Irving. Haque said Zain had autism and a severe speech impediment but had been improving and was in speech therapy."
Depression is very serious and many if not most diagnosed autistic people probably have it. Depression is not feeling sad for a day, its a feeling of being lost, as if nothing else matters. It is extremely crippling and causes one to lose all hope and all proportionality.
What would have been more appropriate would have been if Sarah had discussed the effects of depression on people and how it makes them irrational in their view of life. If she had ever suffered from depression, she may have known this. It doesn't excuse at all what the mother did, however, we need to understand this is an issue that affects many people, including autistic people. I'm sure Sarah, if she had a real diagnosis of AS would be familiar with depression as they almost go hand in hand. Autism wasn't the cause of these children's death, it was depression. I suspect the woman would have killed her children in any event. In addition, I'd be interested in the cultural significance of disability in her native culture. I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not, but this would be helpful to understand how disability is thought of in Arab/Persian cultures. I don't think the mother's culture really had anything to do with her act, but it might be another piece of the puzzle in explaining what depression wrought upon her thinking and her children. It is quite common for depression to run in families with autistic individuals. Its one of the first questions I was asked during the diagnosis process for my son and myself. Again, anyone that has gone through formal diagnosis would know this. Depression is linked to developmental disabilities in the family line.
"How many people who desire a cure really consider murdering their autistic children?"
LOL!!! I know, right!?!
"Give it a rest Sarah and the rest of ASAN and ND! No one is going to take you seriously. You conned the Obama administration into getting Ari Ne'eman appointed to the NDC and IACC. You are only hurting your own cause with such hateful propaganda."
Perhaps the Obama administration's gathering research on this "semi-autistic" subject? No wait, how could you be ONLY HALF-AUTISTIC?
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