06-14-2005, 06:39 PM
By the way I really wish we could all sit down somewhere and go over all your concerns. Doing this on a message board is not the best place to have this discussion, but I will keep justifing everything I have to say and continue to understand your needs.
Addressing the Cruise for Autism. One of the biggest problems for my publisher was traveling with her child. Her son would always have problems with breaking routine and being confined to an airplane seat was something she never wanted to put him through. After the magazine was started we received a lot of feedback from parents about how difficult it was to travel. Evelyn went ahead and met with some Cruise lines about putting something together. The other concern was parents need to enjoy themselves as well. They should be able to go on a vacation and call it a vacation. So there needed to be a structure for a five day program for children while they are on this Cruise. Activities that will both stimulate and educate and parents would have the choice of either joining or going off and doing their own thing. That said we needed qualified therapist and assistants to help us with this task. But as we all know there is a fee when it comes to hiring help. The AIN Foundation picks up this fee. The Ain Foundation has will be putting together several vacation getaways and also will be organizing art shows and poetry sessions that the voice of someone with autism can be heard through their art. As I write this I am looking at a painting sent to me by a 15 year old non-verbal autistic boy who wanted me to have one of his paintings. I hope we can finally move on from the Cruise and what the Ain Foundation will be doing with the funds we do receive.
Me commenting about someone from this board writing for me was basically a response to your attacks. I never attacked any one from AFF nor will I. But some of you not knowing who I am didn't have many nice things to say about myself, my magazine or my publisher. I'm not making any threats, but you know if someone deliberately attacks me or insults me I don't respond well to that. You can criticize me all you want, but be fair and understand what I'm trying to do before doing so. I also didn't appreciate your comments about Stephen Shore. He is a good person and for someone to attack him for no particular reason other than you just disagree with his opinions is wrong. I have nothing against anyone being brutally honest. What I am against is someone personally attacking me. The reality is I do know why you are bitter. I understand that you do not want to be changed nor do you want to see the Asperger's population end.
Comparing Autism to cancer, AIDS, etc... What I am trying to understand from all of you is why wouldn't you want the world to understand both your complexities and your gifts. Again assumptions were made about the content of the magazine. We don't focus on miserable stories, in fact there are plenty of success stories in our magazine. We write about the strides and have profiled people like Dawn Prince Hughes and Stephen Shore for their ability to deal with Autism and move on. We've never taken a stance on finding a "cure" but what we have endorsed is continued awareness and better education. But what I do hope is for one day autism being common. My goal is that it is so common and understood that there won't be a need for a magazine. Awareness brings to light both the good and the bad. It also exposes those members of society that are doing wrong, the school districts who refuse to provide services, the doctors who misdiagnos and a government which chooses to cut back on special education.
On research. Research is also done to find better ways of treatment and education. For as many times as you say you do not want to be cured I can say that there are those low functioning individuals who would be better off if they could recover. I can't tell you how extremely happy I am to know that there are individuals like yourselves that can discuss autism and the issues surrounding it. At the same time I see the other side of Autism. The side that I struggle with. Why should an individual struggle with being non-verbal, have no cognitive skills and a lack of motor skills. There will be a majority of children who will never be able to do what the members of AFF have accomplished. Those are the children I am concerned for.
Bonnie: My intention was never to patronize you or anyone else. When the word epidemic is used it is because the world is not prepared for it. Just like it is here in the United States, and as I stated earlier. No one was ready for the rise of Autism over the last decade. And even now years later there is still some areas of this world that are in the dark ages when it comes to educating individuals with autism. It is an epidemic becasue the world is behind in how to both embrace and educate it. I think there needs to be urgency about it. I feel everyone should understand what autism is and know how to deal with it.
But I think the biggest misunderstanding is that most if not all the members of this site have Asperger's Syndrome. There are those children that are severely autistic and will never lead the lives you do. What happens to them?
Addressing the Cruise for Autism. One of the biggest problems for my publisher was traveling with her child. Her son would always have problems with breaking routine and being confined to an airplane seat was something she never wanted to put him through. After the magazine was started we received a lot of feedback from parents about how difficult it was to travel. Evelyn went ahead and met with some Cruise lines about putting something together. The other concern was parents need to enjoy themselves as well. They should be able to go on a vacation and call it a vacation. So there needed to be a structure for a five day program for children while they are on this Cruise. Activities that will both stimulate and educate and parents would have the choice of either joining or going off and doing their own thing. That said we needed qualified therapist and assistants to help us with this task. But as we all know there is a fee when it comes to hiring help. The AIN Foundation picks up this fee. The Ain Foundation has will be putting together several vacation getaways and also will be organizing art shows and poetry sessions that the voice of someone with autism can be heard through their art. As I write this I am looking at a painting sent to me by a 15 year old non-verbal autistic boy who wanted me to have one of his paintings. I hope we can finally move on from the Cruise and what the Ain Foundation will be doing with the funds we do receive.
Me commenting about someone from this board writing for me was basically a response to your attacks. I never attacked any one from AFF nor will I. But some of you not knowing who I am didn't have many nice things to say about myself, my magazine or my publisher. I'm not making any threats, but you know if someone deliberately attacks me or insults me I don't respond well to that. You can criticize me all you want, but be fair and understand what I'm trying to do before doing so. I also didn't appreciate your comments about Stephen Shore. He is a good person and for someone to attack him for no particular reason other than you just disagree with his opinions is wrong. I have nothing against anyone being brutally honest. What I am against is someone personally attacking me. The reality is I do know why you are bitter. I understand that you do not want to be changed nor do you want to see the Asperger's population end.
Comparing Autism to cancer, AIDS, etc... What I am trying to understand from all of you is why wouldn't you want the world to understand both your complexities and your gifts. Again assumptions were made about the content of the magazine. We don't focus on miserable stories, in fact there are plenty of success stories in our magazine. We write about the strides and have profiled people like Dawn Prince Hughes and Stephen Shore for their ability to deal with Autism and move on. We've never taken a stance on finding a "cure" but what we have endorsed is continued awareness and better education. But what I do hope is for one day autism being common. My goal is that it is so common and understood that there won't be a need for a magazine. Awareness brings to light both the good and the bad. It also exposes those members of society that are doing wrong, the school districts who refuse to provide services, the doctors who misdiagnos and a government which chooses to cut back on special education.
On research. Research is also done to find better ways of treatment and education. For as many times as you say you do not want to be cured I can say that there are those low functioning individuals who would be better off if they could recover. I can't tell you how extremely happy I am to know that there are individuals like yourselves that can discuss autism and the issues surrounding it. At the same time I see the other side of Autism. The side that I struggle with. Why should an individual struggle with being non-verbal, have no cognitive skills and a lack of motor skills. There will be a majority of children who will never be able to do what the members of AFF have accomplished. Those are the children I am concerned for.
Bonnie: My intention was never to patronize you or anyone else. When the word epidemic is used it is because the world is not prepared for it. Just like it is here in the United States, and as I stated earlier. No one was ready for the rise of Autism over the last decade. And even now years later there is still some areas of this world that are in the dark ages when it comes to educating individuals with autism. It is an epidemic becasue the world is behind in how to both embrace and educate it. I think there needs to be urgency about it. I feel everyone should understand what autism is and know how to deal with it.
But I think the biggest misunderstanding is that most if not all the members of this site have Asperger's Syndrome. There are those children that are severely autistic and will never lead the lives you do. What happens to them?