Aspies For Freedom

quickduck,

Just as I thought. I'm not the only one who knows our government can't do it!

I find this a bit insulting.

To think that NTs could go so far as to call Autim an "Epidemic" / a "Public Health Crisis", and to now say they are "Declaring war on Autism" is Discrimination to the point of extreme. Something HAS to be done about this! We need to write up some sort of leaflet about Autism which can be printed and handed out to people. We could do it on this site, then we could all spread the word that Autism isn't some life-threatening disease but a state of mind to everyone!

Any ideas on how to write such a leaflet?

I don't understand...what is so bad about this? What is this "cure" going to do? I'm confuzzled...

Several people have mentioned something similar to this, but I'll just state my view:

I think they see Autism as no different to an illness to cancer. Sure, if you can cure cancer I know a large number of people will be eternally grateful. But Autism? It isn't some 'modification' to the brain, it's not a strange 'part' of autistics... it IS Autisitics. It is who we are, it is our individuality, everything that makes us.. us.

In fact, I have even compared it to racism. Not saying that racism is good... but racism certainly has died down since it first started. Now.. what is so different between being autistic, and being in a minority population of race? We're different, and it defines us. If the US Government (And most others, I should hope) is willing to stop racism, why won't it stop prejudice and even discrimination against autism?

Of course, as was mentioned (I believe in this thread), even peaceful protests can backfire on us. It can be viewed as anti-social activity, which is strongly associated with autism (Although.. I am aware that this is more fact than opinion), which really is not what we want.

My dislike for Bush has always been stereotypical, as I find a lot of people don't like him. Now? It's official.

This scares me. I am all for awareness and research, but not like this. My brother is hardly someone that needs to be 'cured.'  If you cure him, you may as well cure me, because I'm hardly normal by everyone's silly standards either!

The first thing that disturbed me about all this was seeing the names Patricia Heaton and Don Imus attached to it. Both are political extremists who try to force their agenda on people they see as not conforming to their rigid socio-political views. First shoot the gays, now go out and win the war on  Aspies. These are scary people.

......*just stares*

...All i can think of right now is a sound I can't find the right letters to put it in text form.

I'm not autistic, and I'm not this pathetic!! Something really needs to be done about this bill, something that isn't violent, something that is convincing to all parties and legitimate from all perspectives, and something that more than the people reading this thread can see.
To me I think the best option would be to spread autism awareness in such a way that the US governent officials can't say it's biased by their skewed image of disease, since it's already clear that they're too intolerant to listen to the autistic points of view, like getting neurotypicals like me to spread the word (not primarily focusing on sentimental aspects eg. "my child is autistic and I don't want him cured," rather, logically like you've all been doing eg. "this bill is an example of genocidal action. . .")
Another way to go about things (less prevalent but just plain ANNOYING in the long run) is to get more autistic scientists onto the scene, and get them to find a cure for autism before the US government can!! So that the auties themselves get a choice as to whether to use that knowledge or not. Knowledge IS powerful. And to top it all of NOT let the US government take a peek! Imagine Bush's face

That would be good for April Fool's Day. . .or with all the stupid things the US government has been doing, ANY day of the year. . .

I'd like to help

That cure being forced upon people remindes me of X-men 3...

Maybe the holocaust should have been curing non-aryans

I will definitely defend myself against this "cure" though I doubt it applies to me since I'm self-diagnosed...

Wha'? This is despicable.

In history, there has always been a collection of elite intelectuals who knew how the world worked better than anyone else. Now they believe they don't need us anymore. Welcome to the second dark ages.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Stop thinking 1776 Start thinking 1984...

I think everyone should call there congressman in their area....seriously write letters make appointments. I also think someone should put together a pamphlet "Through Autism's Eyes" were the autism community and the public can be heard by people who actually are autistic.

What really pisses me off is if you were a parent that had a child get diagnosed with autism and you were like ok now what.... so you do research on it.......the first things to pop up are telling what a tragedy it is. How devastating and how everyones is searching for a cure.

Actually a study done by University of Michigan showed that "Just 14% of autistic children are unable to talk by aga 9 and 40% can speak fluently".

So whats up with the misinformation?

If you go to http://www.webster.com and put a search for the def. of DISORDER!!!! surprisingly autism comes up as a related topic. The def. of autism is a disorder not a disease. The problem is people being misinformed ecspecially parents whose children are getting diagnosed with it.

I am doing an annotated bibliography for college on this whole topic. Once thats finished I plan on doing a full blown research paper on the subj. Focusing on ecspecially what kind of prejudice we are instilling into society. Some or most of you remember what school was like for you and thats when you were just different not diseased. Imagine how it will be for kids now getting diagnosed with it.

I personally am not autistic but my brother is an aspie and the most dearest thing to me in the universe. I decided to go into education just for the purpose of changing school systems b/c of what he went through. It breaks my heart how the "sheep" of people can be so cruel and so blind.

I really do think you guys should come up with a collabration of your personal experiences and what was the actual hardest part in dealing with autism. It seems to me that autism isnt the issue it's people being ignorant and not understanding.

I am currently working on a powerpoint presentation that could be put into a pamphlet form people, PLEASE Help!!!
Ah-Hem... anyway, if enough people start creating enough pamphlets about Autism/Asperger's, and why "we" (collective term) don't need a cure, I'm sure we can all come together ( but not too close ) and figure something out, start printing out pamphlets, and maybe save a few thousand skulls-full of imagination, creativity, and uniqueness.

Three Days Grace
      Riot
If you feel so empty
So used, so let down
If you feel so angry
So ripped off, so stepped on
You're not the only one
Refusing to back down
You're not the only one
So get up

Let's start a riot, a riot
Let's start a riot;
Let's start a riot, a riot
Let's start a riot.

    Mr. Monk, Respectfully Quoted

I just did a google image search on Michael Jackson and I found this pic of him... black Michael on the left and white Michael on the right: