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In the Name of “Protection”
I encountered the meme you see here on a Facebook group that I belong to. This post is my response. I’m going to assume intellectual honesty here and commend the poster for actually caring about children’s health. If that’s true, and this person posted this because he cares -- not because he’s making pots of money on his investments in pharmaceutical companies, or he’s getting paid to tout their safety in public forums, or he’s a physician who simply cannot accept the truth of the harm that he’s done in the name of the “greater good” -- then that’s a huge positive.
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Love Thy Neighbor?
“What the World Needs Now Is Love,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and sung by Jackie DeShannon back in the idealistic ’60s, has been running through my head lately. As a member of TMR, I’m something of a Facebook power user. I’m there a lot. And I can’t help but notice a tremendous amount of vitriol lately targeting specific people – often people who are doing the best they can to accomplish worthy goals, like reducing the rate of autism, improving the lives of those who have autism, making sure no one dies or goes bankrupt due to lack of health insurance, or reducing the incidence of gun…
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The Bejeweled Blitz Meditation
I got a new smartphone last fall, and slowly I’ve managed to accumulate all the apps required to navigate life in the 21st century: Google Maps, The Weather Channel, the New York Times, Pandora, Scrabble, etc. One of the best things about my new phone is that it has enabled me to take up a spiritual practice I had largely abandoned: playing Bejeweled Blitz.
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Divorce and the Special-Needs Parent
Divorce can be visceral and terrifying for most “regular” humans, but for parents with fragile children, the stakes go WAY up, and, as I’ve been separated from my husband of 10 years for the past three years (most people assume I’m divorced since I legally changed my name back) those fears simmer just below the surface for me all the time. It’s hard to talk about them, but I’ll try.
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No One Knows. Or Do They?
Yesterday I read yet another article on how parents who put off having children are to blame for the neurological problems that children are facing in ever-increasing numbers, How Older Parenthood Will Upend American Society. Granted, the author never said it flat out, but it was the strong subtext. So what was the response in the autism community to this “insightful” article? I think disgust might be a reasonably accurate description. Mama Mac’s comment was “Bullshit! Older parents don’t make autism. Autism makes parents old!”
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Heartbroken: When Friends Don’t Hear Your Story
I live in Brooklyn, New York. You know, one of those states that got pounded by Hurricane Sandy. My favorite grocery store was flooded long before the peak of the “storm surge” that did so much damage. And I’ve been studying my little heart out for a certification exam that I did not get to take last Friday, because there was no easy way to cross the river into Manhattan. So I'm not in the best of moods at the moment, and, consequently, not feeling much like writing. I like writing when I feel “fired up.” Not only do I not feel “fired up,” one could say that I feel…
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Critical Thinking 101: The Vaccine Debate
It appears that there is a great deal of consensus today that a large segment of the population is deficient in critical thinking skills. The funny thing is that I see this opinion espoused by people on all sides of every issue. It even comes from some people I consider to be entirely devoid of critical thinking skills. Apparently, there is no consensus on what constitutes critical thinking.
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Mirror Neurons and Imitation: Another Piece of the Autism Puzzle?
We’re always hearing about how autism is a puzzle. “They” don’t know what causes it or what treatments are most effective. If you listen to what “they” say, you would believe that there is nothing that can be done to help your child. But a number of pieces of the puzzle have been worked out by parents and researchers that have received little to no publicity.
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Autism Speaks Accused of Violating the Americans with Disabilities Act
Simone Greggs is a single mother with two children: an 18-year-old girl just starting college and a 13-year-old boy with autism. Like many of us, she is a fierce advocate for her children and has done battle with the local school system to get her son placed in an appropriate educational situation. Luckily, she succeeded and her son, who might be considered “high functioning,” now attends a private school intended specifically for children with autism.
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Lost: One Identity. If Found, Please Call . . .
Today is the second anniversary of the day I met my boyfriend. At my age, the idea of a “boyfriend” is a little ridiculous, but nobody has come up with a term I like better, so . . . Next weekend is the fifteenth anniversary of the day I met my ex-husband; this juxtaposition of events has caused some rumination. So, in the spirit of Mama Mac’s post this week, I’m doing a “don’t make the same mistakes I made” post.
writer and editor
