So, GM and CAN are all allied and all...
Sep. 8th, 2005 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Linkie!
And I was thinking about the whole Jerry Lewis telethon. I barely knew it existed until I read stuff from people who hated it. Since then, I don't think I've found somebody disabled who really likes it and what it stands for.
And people have written a lot of good stuff on the subject, too, very well-written, and you can isolate your reading and really believe that this is the majority view.
But then you realize there's a whole world out there who can only see it all as a good thing, everything about it, all the stuff people have complained about too.
And those people are the majority. They're winning by being louder, but mostly they're winning by the people who are against the telethon being fewer in numbers, while the majority doesn't know enough to have a real opinion, so they just sheep after the majority opinion.
If you ever say you're not for a cure to become similar and regular and like everybody else, people don't listen. Or they listen, but what they hear isn't what you say. And then the majority goes and makes itself even clearer, and the rest of the majority hears that, because that's what's obvious to them.
And that's why we're losing. Or, at least, barely holding steady. Don't have to lose, don't even have to have a conflict - but I'm beginning to think that the balance of the loudness is unfair. And the weight of the majority is going "cure! cure the children! sick little children! cure!" because... *shrugs*
That said, I'm gladdened to know that autism affects 1/166 children in the US, and that children with autism exhibit a wide variety of symptoms (and does anybody not know that by now?), but I'd like some information about the fact that I've got some friends who are kinda adults, all grown-up....
And I was thinking about the whole Jerry Lewis telethon. I barely knew it existed until I read stuff from people who hated it. Since then, I don't think I've found somebody disabled who really likes it and what it stands for.
And people have written a lot of good stuff on the subject, too, very well-written, and you can isolate your reading and really believe that this is the majority view.
But then you realize there's a whole world out there who can only see it all as a good thing, everything about it, all the stuff people have complained about too.
And those people are the majority. They're winning by being louder, but mostly they're winning by the people who are against the telethon being fewer in numbers, while the majority doesn't know enough to have a real opinion, so they just sheep after the majority opinion.
If you ever say you're not for a cure to become similar and regular and like everybody else, people don't listen. Or they listen, but what they hear isn't what you say. And then the majority goes and makes itself even clearer, and the rest of the majority hears that, because that's what's obvious to them.
And that's why we're losing. Or, at least, barely holding steady. Don't have to lose, don't even have to have a conflict - but I'm beginning to think that the balance of the loudness is unfair. And the weight of the majority is going "cure! cure the children! sick little children! cure!" because... *shrugs*
That said, I'm gladdened to know that autism affects 1/166 children in the US, and that children with autism exhibit a wide variety of symptoms (and does anybody not know that by now?), but I'd like some information about the fact that I've got some friends who are kinda adults, all grown-up....
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:47 pm (UTC)Hear, hear! That's one of my biggest annoyances with media coverage of autism, for obvious reasons... well, that and the curebie emphasis; I'm not sure which one I dislike more, honestly.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:48 pm (UTC)That was fast! *gives thee a cookie*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-09 12:47 am (UTC)http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/
no subject
Date: 2005-09-09 01:03 am (UTC)Why can't we be louder (without shouting) and... well, organized? CAN? That's big business there. Lots of money in CAN - and they show it. We could learn a *lot* from that sort of thing.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-09 04:37 am (UTC)A few things I will say, though. I CAN'T go into my son's world to communicate with him. I physically and mentally cannot do it. I have tried, and will continue to try, knowing that I will usually fail. It is (perhaps selfishly) important to me that I communicate with him.
I want him to have the option of being able to interface with me and with other "normal humans." I am willing to try and interface with him. We do not live in a society where very many people are willing to make the effort to try and interface with him.
I want better for him than the average person gets. I want him to know, all his life, that he is loved and valued. I sometimes panic, or mourn, that I cannot guarantee that and will not live forever to try and help.
I do not blame him, or myself, for his differences. I don't believe in a cure anymore...a preventative in the womb maybe.
I want him to have choices.
And sometimes, I want him to have camoflage.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:47 pm (UTC)Hear, hear! That's one of my biggest annoyances with media coverage of autism, for obvious reasons... well, that and the curebie emphasis; I'm not sure which one I dislike more, honestly.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:48 pm (UTC)That was fast! *gives thee a cookie*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-09 12:47 am (UTC)http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/
no subject
Date: 2005-09-09 01:03 am (UTC)Why can't we be louder (without shouting) and... well, organized? CAN? That's big business there. Lots of money in CAN - and they show it. We could learn a *lot* from that sort of thing.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-09 04:37 am (UTC)A few things I will say, though. I CAN'T go into my son's world to communicate with him. I physically and mentally cannot do it. I have tried, and will continue to try, knowing that I will usually fail. It is (perhaps selfishly) important to me that I communicate with him.
I want him to have the option of being able to interface with me and with other "normal humans." I am willing to try and interface with him. We do not live in a society where very many people are willing to make the effort to try and interface with him.
I want better for him than the average person gets. I want him to know, all his life, that he is loved and valued. I sometimes panic, or mourn, that I cannot guarantee that and will not live forever to try and help.
I do not blame him, or myself, for his differences. I don't believe in a cure anymore...a preventative in the womb maybe.
I want him to have choices.
And sometimes, I want him to have camoflage.