What we need to do now is think. THINK PEOPLE!! How can we get AFF's message out into the mainstream, and at the same time not look like we're insane?
To people who understand autism, particularly people who have it, our message does make sense. But to people who have been brainwashed into thinking autism is a horrible disease to be wiped out, we seem like psychos. Unless we make ourselves perfectly clear, people won't get what we're saying.
So think. Brainstorm. We need ideas.
The problem with such a protest is that it doesn't make our message clear enough and I lot of people will think we are just psychos and not come close enough to recieve a pamphlet (sp?) or whatever. It is tricky.
Posters! That's a good idea.
If we could get someone on a talk show or something, make a TV series of documentarys maybe, those would reach a wide audience.
This is HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am shocked. They just declared war on us........ horrible...... I think I'm going to puke...
is it useful to contact the White House? ie before that monstrous thing gets signed... just in case:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Do any of you have any knowledge of how American legislation works? What if the support in a year is gone, can they get rid of the bill then? Cause then we could direct attention to the supporting legislators.. Otherwise we have a serious problem......
Here's the *** site..
http://www.combatautism.org
This is it......
Summary Bill Description
This legislation will accomplish the following goals in the fight against Autism:
Double NIH spending on autism research.
Empower the Director of the NIH to act as an "autism czar" - developing an annual research budget on autism, based on the best science, and requiring that budget be reported to Congress.
Create a screening program in all 50 states for the early identification of children with autism - short of a cure, early identification leading to early intervention with behavioral services provides the best available outcomes for autistic kids.
Fund the efforts of the Autism Treatment Network to identify the best medical practices in the treatment of autistic kids.
Continue funding of the epidemiological and public education programs on autism at the CDC.
Authorize, overall, nearly 1 billion of federal spending on autism over the next 5 years - a multi-front war on autism from public awareness and early diagnosis to basic biomedical research.
OMG!! This is really horrible.
I am just speechless
~*~
We hate the cure because we know it's going to rid us of our true self, and we believe that Autism is a kind of person, and should be accommodated by the people.
~*~
Protect our brains! Show them that their research is useless!
I Second The Motion
MORE ACTION
(I fear too late, but better late action than no action...)
Combating the Combating Autism Act:
http://rettdevil.blogspot.com/2006/07/co...m-act.html
The Combating Autism Act is opposed by many in the autism rights movement, some of who view its provisions aimed at eliminating autism as one more step toward genocide or eugenics directed at autistic people. Such advocates believe that autism should be accommodated, not combated. A declaration of war upon autism is considered a declaration of war upon autistics.
source
British medical researchers recently announced plans to use cutting-edge science to eliminate a condition my family is familiar with: autism. Actually, they are not “curing” autism or even making life better for autistic people. Their plan is to eliminate autism by eliminating autistic people. (...)
Despite all the rhetoric about “alleviating suffering,” the bottom line in targeting the disabled in utero is the bottom line. As Business Week puts it, “the social cost of accommodating [their] birth is increasingly being seen as exceeding [their] worth.”
source
British medical researchers recently announced plans to use cutting-edge science to eliminate a condition my family is familiar with: autism. Actually, they are not “curing” autism or even making life better for autistic people. Their plan is to eliminate autism by eliminating autistic people. (...)
Despite all the rhetoric about “alleviating suffering,” the bottom line in targeting the disabled in utero is the bottom line. As Business Week puts it, “the social cost of accommodating [their] birth is increasingly being seen as exceeding [their] worth.”
source
[/quote]
That's Horrifying
We hate the cure because we know it's going to rid us of our true self
exactly... or rather suppress our true self, making us forget who we truly are and what we want, making us really unhappy inside, underneath a pile of antidepressants, tranquilizers, antipsychotics/neuroleptics and the like. I call that biochemical restraint. Also see this post on giving multiple mind-altering drugs (as in two antipsychotics and a sedative) to a 3-year old spectrum girl.
Neuroleptics have been used on mentally disturbed patients to suppress their emotions and render them passive and docile.
source
I do not need restraint from being me or from experiencing the world as I do. It is these which make me me and the world worthwhile.
And they say we can't feel. I'd thought I was alone with my idea that I wasn't ill until I saw this place. I didn't need anyone to tell me I was being mistreated; why can't anyone else see? Problem with protest is, aren't we supposed to be anti-social? That's autism for ya. I'm just a minor so....
I found what C.A.N. is REALLY an acronym for:
Crap
And
Nonsense
i dont think can has anyhing to do with this
because its the us goverment
Another way to go about things is to get more autistic scientists onto the scene, and get them to find a cure for autism before the US government can!
what if we dont want to be cured
(but i do say we could pretend we are coming up with a cure, then at the last econd say we have it and they will say what is it. it is "acceptance"
How about a bill going toward something that would raise awareness and improve understanding?
i second the motion
who wants to write a letter
I just started a discussion on autism in one forum which is actually not related to autism (the actual topic was IQ-tests but somehow the discussion turned into an autism discussion). I took the point most of the members of this forum have. So maybe I'm one of the few NTs to spread the AFF message (well, I myself have some autistic traits but never bothered to get an official diagnosis; I estimate the chances of myself being an Aspie at 25-30%). Until now the discussion didn't have anything really concrete in it except the fact I have one single opponent (and am alone with my own opinion) and he thinks autism to be a disability. He doesn't deny the existance of the spectrum (he seems to know about autism even more than I know though I made a big research on it when I discovered the traits in myself). But he thinks that one can't live without the "social intelligence". Up until yesterday I used only words of my own, but yesterday I mentioned AFF for the first time and quoted some people from this thread. Still no reaction from him. I'm excited how the discussion will develop hehe.