Our member Theasman is protesting tomorrow at the NAAR walk in Long Island, New York.
If any members live in the area maybe they woud like to attend too.
He will have protest posters and will be handing out leaflets to explain our viewpoint.
Of course this is a peaceful protest designed to educate those involved with NAAR that many people with autism are not seeking cure or prevention.
Best of luck Theasman, from all of us.
Edited as it was a NAAR walk, not CAN, that was in a different location.
Photos courtesy of TheAsMan, these were taken at his protest at the NAAR walk.
You might be slightly confused Alex, the protest was AGAINST the walk. The walk was by NAAR who are searching for a cure and prevention of autism, so it was a protest to show them another viewpoint.
Yes, I realize that you were walking in protest of the NAAR walk. That is why I asked what kind of response you got from the walk. Now I realize that I might have been ambiguous. Sorry for the confusion.
Reading your post is incredibly inspiriational and your bravery is to be commended.
rest assured that in the future we will hopefully have more people protesting these kinds of organisations. safety in numbers my friend.
We have been given permission to post this email which was sent by a person concerned after finding out about the protest and the attitude of the NAAR walker's present. It was sent to NAAR.
From: "Drew Mcpherson"
To: <longisland@naar.org>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 2:32 PM
Subject: NAAR walk
I heard about the NAAR walk yesterday in Long Island, NY. I also heard
that there was a protester present, wishing to express his views on the autism situation. This person, having an autism spectrum disorder himself, is in the unique position to provide personal feedback about the condition and has an important viewpoint which should be invaluable to NAAR.
Unfortunately, many of the members of NAAR were threatening and harassing towards this individual. This is one of the very individuals that your organization aims to help, and yet the Long Island members were
disrespectful, rude, and very unfriendly to this person. It sounds like
these members perhaps are not aiming to help individuals with autism
spectrum disorders at all, but rather wish to eradicate them from the
planet so that they do not have to "deal" with them, and/or listen to their viewpoints.
As an individual with an autism spectrum disorder myself, I am very frightened by this course of events. Is this the beginning of an era of
"ethnic cleansing", not unlike the holocaust experienced during world war II?
Is your organization willing to listen to the viewpoints of the very
people that it aims to treat?
Respectfully Submitted,
Drew Mcpherson
http://www.naar.org/news/render_pr.asp?i...ItemID=221
On the NAAR site they say that the walk raised 1.2 million dollars, its obviously very big business for them.
Now wonder they dont want anything to get in the way of that, it may look like families walking along but there must be a great propaganda machine working behind the scenes to raise that kind of money for one sponsored walk!
TheASman protested on his own and it was successful, he was mentioned in the NY Times, but it would be better to have more than one person if possible. In the future we hope to be able to plan well in advance and co-ordinate efforts.
The way they treated him - an adult autistic (i.e what their own children will be one day) shows the mindset. They do not want to help autistics, they want to help themselves and don't want to have to cope with this horrible disability that has "taken their children" and is costing millions. (strangely enough, it is costing millions because they are choosing to spend millions on things such as ABA).
There are 2 forms a "cure" could come in:
1.prevention - basically negative eugenics, prenatal screening and abortion and genetic counselling. this has already started, woman who have had one autistic child already are aborting male foetuses as it is more common in males, people with autism in their family are deciding not to have children at all. "it has begun"
2.some kind of pill or other treatment that removes autistic "symptoms" - if this was ever developed it is scarily likely that it would become mandatory for anyone diagnosed. you want examples? look at schizophrenia.
I'm reminded of a post on aspergia where someone asked how enstein etc "overcame" their AS, not understanding the point that it was BECAUSE of autism that they became genius.
Genius is often associated with traits that overlap autistic traits. One does not have to be on the spectrum to be a genius, but it can help
