I have the same issues you are having, although I don't think my nervousness has anything to do with the nature of this topic.
However, I have a very good idea of who should be part of this group.
How about Miss USA in 2004?
If none of you know who she is, I'd be happy to tell you who.
Her name is Shandi Finnessey. She is a very strong disability advocate. How you can tell is by the fact is that she has written a children's book called "The Furrtails." In this book, the main character learns to deal with his peers who have disabilities. Another thing Shandi wants to do is work with children with Down's Syndrome and put mentally *** people in mainstreamed school classes.
She also hosts "Playmania" on GSN on an alternate basis with Mel Peachey who if you remember, I told you I was nervous about e-mailing. Unfortunately, the same thing applies to Shandi, I'm afraid, because they have an e-mail theme every night and I don't think she would respond to off-topic e-mails.
I guess we'll just have to see what happens!
What do you all think of this idea?
If any of you search for, "The Furrtails" on Amazon.com, it's there. However, now that I think about it, Shandi would not be a good person to help us take action against pro-cure autism groups. As nice as she is, and as priceless as the look on her face was when she was crowned Miss USA, which it was, I don't think it will work!
For those of you who have forgotten, she will still work with children with disabilities and if she ever gets out of show business, she wants to be a counselor.
I have the same concern!
Could someone please help me with this?
I don't know about Clay, but you would think Shandi would be involved if I hadn't backed out of letting her know about it myself.
I have a habit of not writing very well myself. I think that's why I'm so nervous!
I've been trying to find a thread I read weeks ago, where people were talking about a former curbie spokesman who now says he was wrong and explained (i think it was in a link that was posted) how as parents, he and his wife had been bedazzled into the curbie camp. Can anyone direct me to the thread? I wish to pass along his quote.
I want to write a letter to the Dixie Chicks, but I don't know where to send it. They are my favorite band and I admire them so much, but apparently they are huge curebies, especially Natalie Maines, who has made it her "pet cause" to cure autism. They've done a lot of fundraisers for this group called "Thoughtful House", which describes itself as "Thoughtful House is fighting to recover children with autism, PDD, Asperger's syndrome, ADD, ADHD and NLD with a combination of medical care, education, and research." Terrible. It really surprises me that they would do that, since if you know anything about their pasts it's pretty obvious that Natalie had ADHD as a child (watch their episode of VH1's "driven" and you'll know what I mean). It really friggin' hurts that they would do stuff like that, since one of the reasons I liked them in the first place was because I thought they spoke for the outsiders, misfits, outlaws and freaks. All of which I am, and which they were at one point or another as well.
Isn't Weird Al Yankovic Aspergian?
We could single-handedly take down can and autism speaks if he was...
This is acutally a good idea. People always seem to listen to celebrities.
I just noticed something very interesting about the Dixie Chicks. Emily Robison, their banjo player, (who is actually on the Thoughtful House board of directors) seems very aspie-like to me. She's clearly obsessed with music and has almost a savant-like musical abillity (She plays somewhere between 8 and 10 different interests). She's also very quiet, and apparently she was very shy and kind of an outcast when she was younger. She just seems to have this aspie-ish unusualness about her that's hard to pinpoint.
Maybe she's aware that she's probably an aspie, and feels bad about herself?
I call Wierd Al!!
(Maybe Fall Out Boy, too)
It is my hope that my book, Look Me in the Eye, will draw a lot of attention to our cause. My book contains a strong message of hope and inspiration for young Aspergians (as I once was) and also the need for tolerance in society. Check my schedule - it's on my blog
http://jerobison.blogspot.com - and stop by if I have an appearance near you. I will be updating the schedule weekly as we add events so check back from time to time.
Tried to contact Wierd Al..... It wouldn't let me on his site, so I'll have to look up his mailing adress