Continuing Controversies over "I want to Say" and "Autism Speaks"

More about the Autism Speaks "I want to Say" Video linked below and the ongoing "Autism Speaks Controversies" in the Autism Community:

[name redacted], I visited your "ASD page" two times to post, since the last time you deleted my comment. One visit was in support of your opinion on the Basketball Game issue and the other was to support your opinion on Marriage Equality.

I posted on your page this time to offer support to another human being that I thought had a reasonable point of view. I also was defending the young man's love and mother's love for the young man in the video, by clarifying a statement that was taken out of context.

Several people have taken what the mother said about she and her husband "TELLING THEIR SON TOGETHER that he is sweet for an autistic child" out of context.

In effect, what that has done has made a message of acceptance into a message of hatred for her son. It could have reasonably been offensive if the message had been addressed at someone other than her son, but it wasn't.

The reason some people took it out of context is because they were not fully listening or could not understand what the mother said in the video.

It is unlikely you took the time or effort to read my reasonable comment below. It was likely more efficient for you to silence an autistic person over unwarranted offense against the organization, this go around.

That is a problem with anger and hatred towards others; it often ends up hurting others, unintentionally. No one sharing this empathy of anger appears to be thinking about the young man's love for his mother and how he would feel if he read about people treating his mother this way.
 
Nor do they seem to be considering the way the two actual autistic people speaking with the AAC technology might feel if they heard the comments on the Autism Speaks website blog minimizing their efforts in the video, as part of an overall harmful effort.

Autistic people were talking in the video but some were not taking the time to listen...

It is the reason I commented in the first place on your page, months ago, defending Erin Clemens as an autistic individual where I took the time and effort to listen to what she was saying...

Not many others were listening.
 
The reason for that seems clear: Anger and Hatred...
 
You do not silence me; you make my voice louder. However, you are silencing other Autistic people with this unwarranted hatred and anger, whether it is intentional or not.

Here is my comment again, below, if you care to read it. Many others will have that opportunity on the Autism Speaks Blog addressing the issue. You helped to make that possible by motivating my comment.

I can only thank you for that. :)

You can still do that for me in the future, whether or not you allow me to comment on your page or not. I suspect that you will. :)

"It was encouraging to see at least one person in the flash blog, linked below, that assessed the video, the voices of the children who spoke through AAC technology, and autism speaks effort as an overall positive one.

http://thautcast.com/drupal5/content/autism-speaks-progress-report

At least one other person had the civility to state that the film was not all bad. I think that is what the representative of Autism Speaks was valuing in the statement of appreciation, linked below along with the topic video, that people did take the time and effort to offer a variety of perspectives, instead of a common message of contempt.
 
http://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2013/03/28/about-i-want-say



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu3c8fqBQcA

 
I do not think a statement like that would have been made by the organization if that civil effort had not been made in any of the blog posts. It would be like throwing salt in a wound and may still feel like that for those that only expressed contempt.

Perhaps the voices of one young man in grade school and one young adult woman in college, providing personal insight through the AAC technology, was not impressive enough for some, but it was impressive to me.

I am usually impressed by the insights provided by Temple Grandin and always welcome them. Her voice is not getting old to me.

These voices likely would not have been heard as an inspirational one to thousands of others, without this effort of the organization, those individuals on the spectrum who provided their voices through the technology, and those who worked to accomplish that goal together. It is a team effort, not a solitary one.

Those voices can become even louder in the future, if they are not silenced by others over differences in opinion over organizational missions, and instead amplifying the positive voices and sentiments on and off the spectrum that are being expressed in efforts like this.

I give the blogger linked above credit for providing a fair and balanced approach to this overall division in the autism community that remains for some.

The amount of criticism over the mother of the child on the spectrum stating: "we tell our son together he is really sweet for being an autistic child", was over a statement that was not likely a literal statement of a full quote delivered to her son.

Not all children with Autism are overly affectionate. I don't think it was a requirement to amplify that reality in the video, in setting the son apart from others on the spectrum, but the mother and the father are obviously proud of their son and only encouraging the positive qualities of their son by complimenting him as being a sweet boy, regardless if he is autistic or not.

That was not a personal message worth censoring to me, in my opinion.
 
There was love, compassion, challenge, sobriety of difficulties that not all share on the spectrum, along with passion expressed to help the children and young adults in the video.

There were also many different perspectives offered. There was little to no emotion of pity expressed in this film, instead, almost entirely a positive message for the future of all of these children.

Perhaps I can see that better than some because I have not watched the previous two videos that some took offense to years ago that portrayed heart-breaking sentiment, ten or fifteen times in contempt for the organization.

That can bring preconceived emotional perceptions to an analysis of this much more positive effort of message to society about the future of people on the spectrum, with or without what is often described by some as a 'cure'."

Autism, the Internet and "Ideological First Identity", a Collection of Thoughts:

http://katiemiaaghogday.blogspot.com/2013/05/autism-internet-and-ideological-first.html

"AutisticS Peeks!"


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AS
P:
Autistic Spectrum
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