Aspies For Freedom

This is a bear to raise money for what is being increasingly termed "autism research" not finding a cure for autism.
Anyway its a bear, so what have they called it? Hugs. Quite ironic considering many autistic kids prefer not to hug a lot.

http://www.headcovers.com/moreinfo.php?id=10256

:grin: "FOOLS!"

uh oh

I feel a letter coming on!!! lOL

Why?  It seems innocent enough to me and I have relatives that like collecting or by that kind of stuff.

for one thing


it has that puzzle ribbon

So.  What's wrong with that?

Forgive me if I seem naive, I have Aspergers.

my concern is that it will not nessecarily go towards autism reasearch but to line the pockets of all the chair people who run these things, forgive me if i seem a little harsh but i do not agree with lining these peoples pockets with money made from our children  :-(

But thats what beurocratic systems were designed for

Excuse me???  The only research that is pre occupying todays NT autism organizations is that of cure. There are no projects out there to develop better therapies for helping autistics.  Autism research today is cure focused

So this bear is anathema

puzzel? as if you are broken? pieces are missing? or dont fit?

I don't mind the "puzzle" part. We *are* puzzling to other people and even to our selves a lot of times. There's no way to represent "mystery" well with an object. So.

Maybe it means we are a few pieces short of a puzzle  :twisted:

"Maybe if you get enough names on a petition or make enough noise with well written letters to influential magazines, papers, sites, or broadcaster, that would change."

That is the kind of thing we want to do, raise people's awareness of these issues.

As far as the puzzle symbol, I think its personal choice if people like it or not.
If a symbol is chosen for a group of people by someone else, then there will always be people who dont like it.
It would be better for the symbol for autism to be something that represents how we feel, not how society feels.
The logo that has a puzzle with pieces missing and a child crying in the middle is very negative to me.

Just supposing someone DID find a 'cure' for autism, I wonder if that would even be applicable to Aspergers?

It would be.
For the simple reason that many kids are dx with autism, then it is revised up to high functioning or AS as they develop language skills.
Those children would be "cured" at the parents request upon getting an autism diagnosis. Also even a kid who was initially dx'd with aspergers would have parents offered the same cure by doctors, as they do now with the many treatments around, like MB12 shots, and chelation, ABA etc.

In fact I wouldnt be surprised to see diagnosing patterns change with the emergence of a cure.
Wouldnt borderline cases become autism so as to make sure that a cure was available to them, at parents request. If a child was dx'd PDD-NOS instead and missed out on a cure, they would complain.