Skip to main content

Why it is important to keep fighting for Autism Rights

This has been a very busy week in terms of autism rights and there have been a number of incidents which demonstrate very clearly that people with autism are not being treated with the respect that they deserve. 

History is full of stories of groups of individuals who were victimized for physical, economic, social or theological characteristics and while we still have a long way to go, constantly pointing out these issues has proven to be the best way to make progress towards an all-inclusive society. 

Autism is yet another of these groups but it's still in infancy. At this point, we're still fighting for acceptance and the concept of true equality hasn't really been considered.

It's important for us to continue to point out oversights and to correct thinking patterns which can whenever they arise.

The Murder of London McCabe
Last week, London McCabe, a six year old with autism who "loved hats, loved his parents, and was ‘all smiles'." was thrown from the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport by his mother. It's not the first time that a parent has murdered their child and it won't be the last however our reactions to this event may well help to encourage or discourage copycats.


On the one hand, there are many people calling for more support for parents (a good thing) and making excuses for his mother Jillian (a bad thing).

On the other hand, there are people referring to this as a murder and campaigning for justice (a good thing) and rights for people with autism (also a good thing).

Sure, we'd all like to be empathetic and see the world for the shades of grey that it is but unfortunately to do so is to miscarry justice and to encourage more parents to harm their children. Sometimes you just have to carry justice swiftly and harshly for the greater good.

London McCabe joins a long list of children with autism who were murdered by parents or caregivers; Rylan Rochester (6 months), Alex Spourdalakis (14), Robert Robinson (16), Kenneth Holmes (12), Jude Mirra (8), Daniel Corby (4), Benjamin Barnhard (13), George Hodgins (22), Randle Barrow (8) and Katherine McCarron (4). May they rest in peace. 


The Event on Sunrise News 7 Australia
Like many news services around the world today, Australia has a morning television news in Sydney which interacts quite a bit with the general public. There was a report from a mother this week who took her teenage son with autism to see the news being filmed.

Her son stood next to a reporter (and didn't behave out of the ordinary apart from being obviously thrilled to be on the news).  Back in the studio, newsreader David Koch (Kochie) made a derogatory remark about the person standing next to the reporter and told him live on air, to get rid of him;

"I think we've got one shonk on your left shoulder. Give him a quick whack and tell him to nick off you idiot".

The video of the event appeared in the sunrise news feed but was quickly removed. Thanks to the anonymous reader who found it again.  It can be seen here, with the first appearance of the boy with autism at 1.40 and David's comment coming in at about 1.57.



To my knowledge, no apologies were offered.


and finally, and example of someone doing it right...
This was too good not to share (I love Doctor Who after all).  Current Doctor Peter Capaldi took time out from his busy schedule to record a special message for Thomas, a nine year old boy with autism who had just lost his grandmother. It's a very good message, pitched at exactly the right level and with a lot of care and concern.


Thomas's father commented that “This arrived just before Thomas’ nanny’s funeral and helped him to deal with his grief in a profound way. Thank you Peter so much.”

Comments

Anonymous said…

Here's an embedded video feed from Sunrise News 7:

https://www.facebook.com/Sunrise/posts/10204036987339188

The young man's presence was a bit distracting, but why on Earth these two knuckleheads had to call further attention to him, I've no idea.
Angel The Alien said…
I was so sad when I heard about London McCabe. I do feel like sometimes parents (whether their kids have autism or not) can become mentally unbalanced and do something they wouldn't otherwise... such as a woman in my state many years ago who had horrid postpartum depression but wasn't allowed by her husband to get help, and she ended up killing all 5 of her children. With London's story, though, I almost felt like there was something else going on... there was something more sinister about his mother. I feel like it didn't necessarily have to do with his autism, as much as it had to do with her mental health in general. Either way, it is awful. Children should be able to trust their parents.
Anonymous said…
prisoner with autism, serving life w/o parole, writes a blog: paulmodrowski.blogspot.com
Unknown said…
Thank you for writing this on point post. It's terribly saddening that an autistic person doesn't even have to speak a word before being single out as different, and oftentimes ridiculed. I have read up on successful inclusive schools, so I don't think it's naive to hope for autism acceptance. Like all social movements, it will require lots of work and persistence (and a little humour to get by). I will advocate for this cause until my very last breath.
Further,law enforcement professionals are on the front lines of protect and serving the entire community..including our ever growing neurodiverse community. We are cheating them and our community by not seeing to it they are fully trained. Dennis Debbaut is a great voice in Autism Risk & Safety Management.

Popular posts from this blog

Aspie Myths - "He Won't Miss Me"

I apologise for the excessive "male-orientated" viewpoint in this post. I tried to keep it neutral but somehow, it just works better when explained from a male viewpoint. Here's a phrase that I've seen repeated throughout the comments on this blog on several occasions; "I know that he won't miss me when I'm gone because he's aspie" Today, we're going to (try to) bust that myth; Individuals I'll start off with a reminder that everyone is an individual. If all aspies were completely alike and predictible, they'd be a stereotype but they're not. Each is shaped by their background, their upbringing, their beliefs and their local customs. An aspie who grew up with loud abusive parents has a reasonable chance of becoming loud and abusive themselves because in some cases, that's all they know. That's how they think adults are supposed to behave. In other cases, aspies who grew up in those circumstances do a complete about-fa

Why Do Aspies Suddenly Back-Off in Relationships? (Part 1)

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is why an aspie (or suspected aspie) suddenly goes "cold" and backs off on an otherwise good relationship. It's a difficult question and the answers would vary considerably from one person to another and would depend greatly on the circumstances. Nevertheless, I'll try to point out some possibilities. Negative Reasons I generally like to stay positive on this blog and assume that people are not necessarily "evil" but simply misguided. Unfortunately, I do have to acknowledge that there are some people out there who take advantage of others. I read a book a few years ago on "sociopaths in the workplace" and I was stunned by the figures. They suggested that sociopaths were so common that most workplaces (small business) had at least one or two. The fact is that there are lots of people out there who really feel very little for others and who are very manipulative. I'd like to say that aspies aren

Why do Aspies Suddenly Back Off in Relationships (Part 2)

In part one, we looked at the role that Change Resistance plays in causing aspies to suddenly go "cold" in otherwise good relationships. This time, I want to look at self esteem and depression; Self Esteem The aspie relationship with themselves is tedious at best. People with Asperger's commonly suffer from low self esteem. As discussed in earlier posts, this low self esteem often results from years of emotional turmoil resulting from their poor social skills. Aspies are often their own worst enemy. They can over analyze situations and responses in an effort to capture lost nonverbal communication. This often causes them to invent problems and to imagine replies. Everything made up by aspies will tend to be tainted with their own self image. This is one of reasons that people with Asperger's will sometimes decide that they are not good enough for their partner and that they must let them go. Sometimes, the aspie will develop a notion of chivalry or self-sacrific