Image Description: Black Box with white surrender flag.
Text: Surrender is powerful when your war is unjust.
Peace, Love, & Support for Autistic people.
#stopcombatingme
loveexplosions.wordpress.com
Written by Beth Ryan
The Combating Atutism Act is expires this fall. As written, it is a source of national shame.. It is, therefore, imperative that this legislation be completely overhauled. Or it must not be renewed.
My Autistic child will always be my child. But someday, she will be my adult child. I regularly get grim glimpses of her future through my involvement and friendships with Autistic adults.
The vast majority of Autistic adults that I know, and I do know many, live in crushing poverty–constantly facing lack of suitable employment opportunities, deciding between heating their homes or buying food, denial of access to needed medical treatment, and so much more. They lack the supports and accommodations that they desperately need in order to survive.
Autistic people, particularly Autistic adults, have been forever under-represented and under-served. Our legislators have failed to incorporate input from those that Autism legislation is intended to serve–that is, of course, assuming that Autistic people are the intended beneficiaries. It would be unthinkable to pass legislation which dismissed the advisement of the population of any other minority group that it is intended to serve. Not the parents/caregivers of those minority groups. Not the big name “charities” claiming to represent the interests of Autistic people, all the while, completely excluding them from meaningful participation. But the stakeholders themselves.
My eight year old daughter deserves a future and Autistic adults deserve a present. They are entitled to essential supports across their lifespans. Reallocating funding so that she, and other Autistic people, have access to education, employment opportunities,medical treatment (especially preventative medicine), etc. will serve the interests of both the Autistic community and the country as a whole.
And for the love of all things holy, rename the legislation. Combating Autism Act? That’s a disgrace. It underscores the fact that the current legislation is focused on eliminating Autistic people rather than supporting them. Using violent language to describe legislation allegedly designed to enhance the lives of Autistic people and their families is reprehensible. It is, in effect, sanctioning the dehumanization and discrimination that Autistic people, including my child, face every single day.
Enough combating human beings. Not nearly enough support.
#StopCombatingMe
love explosions 
Legislation intended to enfranchise and support any other minority group wouldn’t be named, for instance, a “Combating Homosexuality Act.”
But that’s the way that society at large finds it perfectly acceptable to talk about autistic people. That we don’t need more complete inclusion as much as we need our identities to be eliminated.
You need to send a copy of this to Rep Chris Smith, prime sponsor. He’s the moron who represents the congressional district adjacent to mine and takes his cues from the equally moronic, psuedo-advocacy organization, Autism NJ. I did voice my opposition to my own representative, the illustrious rocket scientist, Rush Holt, however.
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This legislation as it stands is actually pretty combative, since most of the moneys go to preventing us from existing. So I can kind of respect the honesty-in-naming, but I’d prefer to be treated as a fellow human person, the way you treat me, lovely Beth. ❤
“combating autism act” -> “combating Autists act”.
The modern version of the Nuremberg laws? Racial hygiene, perhaps? As if all Neurotypical individuals will reacquire their innate psychic powers once society’s rubbish is expunged..?
The unconscious acts as if the concepts of magick (hermeticism, for example) are indeed true and real – as if alchemy were indeed capable of making men into gods (who can transmute base materials into gold) – as if each and every person could become god, presuming they were willing to make an effort toward initiation into the hidden mysteries of power.
Magic is all about power; its ultimate goal is self-deification; and its means ” whatsoever will make one’s will become the whole of reality.”
No autist can fit into that vision – save, perhaps, as a tool – a means to that end.