What is Autism?

What is Autism?

Click here for a short, reliable, definitive description.

Nick Walker wrote that, and I'll be glad forever.

Thanks, Nick Walker!

And thanks to all of you who click on it!

Love,
Ib

Stop Combating Me

Congress is getting ready to reauthorize the Combating Autism Act, and I hope they don't. I'd rather have them write a real thing that does what people meant for this one to do when they accidentally voted it in, back in 2005.

I'm tired of politicians and fake charities tricking everyone.

This act says it helps us and our families.

But if you ask my mother, she will not say preventing me from being born would have helped her. My father is glad I was born, too. I think my brother and sister are also pretty happy about this thing of me existing instead of being never-born. Don't get my wife started on this topic, unless you want to find out what an irate Scot looks like.

However, the vast majority of research money for "Combating Autism" under this act is ear-marked for prevention of us. Preventing families doesn't really help families, when you think about it.

If I had not been born, my children would not have been born.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network reports:

Of the $217 million NIH spends on autism research, only 1.5% goes towards the needs of adults and 2.4% towards improving services. We can do better. Will you help by signing our petition telling Congress to reform CAA and to stop combating people on the autism spectrum and families? You can find it HERE. (Please click and sign!)

Some people think "Combating Autism" is the wrong name for this act, because they say it is helping us instead of fighting us. But I think it is being pretty honest about what it is.

It is fighting against us instead of trying to help us.  I can respect the honesty. But I would prefer respect and real help for real people. I prefer being treated as a real person.

Please, readers, will you sign the petition and ask them to stop combating me and people like me?

Love,
Ib

I Am A Mother (Part 2)

Checking in... the ABA project was a giant undertaking for someone who has such a hard time writing! Thank you so much for your patience!!

Here is a thought that came to me today, this morning, as I stepped on a Cheerio, and laughed.

[Image: Cheerios strewn over a hardwood floor. Not unlike what you might find in our kitchen on any given morning! Oh who am I kidding. I don't know what time of day it is, and neither do the ever-present Cheerios.]

I laughed. And then I thought: whoa. This is me laughing about Food Being Where It Does Not Go.

Before the boys were born, I "knew for a fact" this was not going to be able to happen.

Cheerios and crumbs underfoot, under my feet, going crunch, ack? It means I have a house full of cutefellas. I shrug and laugh. This is something I could never have dreamed possible.

Also it's something I think a lot of people will understand.

I am a mother.

Love,
Ib

Accidental Bully: I don't want to be that person

There is a person out there whose experience was me bullying him, but it seems like he more feels like my non-autistic friends should have been stopping me and has never come to me about it. I wish he would, because I want to tell him I am sorry for hurting him.

Let me tell you, at the time I felt like I was passionately defending my friend. I felt like this guy was being mean to her. I felt right about my self. But read further for what I have learned about this.

And here's another thing. I am not trying to tone police other people. This is all kinds of wrong.

But right now I am talking about my own self.

Intention is not magic. It does not matter if I think I was right in my opinions. What matters to me is that I hurt somebody. I got so passionate that I forgot to be COMpassionate.

Some people might know this guy I'm talking about, but not know that the bully he talks about is Autistic. It is. It's me. Please show him this, show him I'm sorry I hurt him, and the reason I haven't told him myself is because I don't know how to contact aliases. I'm not very computer savvy.

But I totally get it now that me feeling right about what I am saying does NOT give me the right to go around hurting other people. It does not.

So some moms asked me to join this flash blog against cyber bullying. And it broke my heart, because really? People's moms cyber bullying each other? What is this world coming to?

And then I remembered I accidentally bullied someone once.

Aspie Kid, I'm sorry I hurt you. I one hundred percent did not mean to, but I get that what I meant is not the same thing as what actually happened to you. This is important.

Everyone else in the world, please join me in deciding once and for all not to be that person.

 [Image description: Logo for FlashBlog, which says Don't Ignore Cyber Bullying, Mon. March 3rd 2014. It's a claymation looking guy trying to step through one of those red negation signs as in No Smoking or so forth, and he might succeed, as the slash on it is covering his chest like a sash, and he has momentum, and one of his feet is through the red circle already along with both his hands and the top of his head.]