The I may write more on this at a later date, but for now, I’m republishing something I wrote elsewhere on the Internet back in 2013.
These words and thoughts have consequences, especially considering the confirmation of Betsy DeVos and Rubio’s hand in that.
Again, more on that at a later date.
I saw that a few other people had included their form responses, so I thought I’d include mine.
Dear <my name>,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about autism awareness, research, and education. I understand this is an important issue impacting many people in our country, and I appreciate hearing your thoughts about ways to help those with disorders along the autism spectrum.
This completely ignored the fact that I actually explained that I AM AUTISTIC AND SO ARE MY KIDS, you know, so I’m not just this bystander concerned about “ways to help those with disorders along the autism spectrum”. Also, how clunky is that phrase in quotes? Good Lord.
As you know, researchers and medical professionals across our nation are committed to finding a cure for autism, and creating ways to help those with autism spectrum disorders control and manage symptoms through medications as well as changes in their lifestyles. The federal government has historically funded opportunities for biomedical research on autism through the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as numerous other institutes and health centers, and through grant opportunities aimed at autism research, education, awareness, and support services.
What the everloving fuck. So I write to you explaining that I don’t want to be cured, that I don’t want to be some horrific entity that you should want to eradicate or cure, and the first thing you talk about is how committed you are to finding a cure? Well alrighty then.
I mean, many of us have conditions RELATED to our autism that can be helped by medication, so that’s valid. I want all of us to have access to medication and to health care. But it sounds like “medication fixes autism” to me and I don’t think that’s even close to the case. I know that there are parents who put their kids on so much medication that the kid has no choice but to suppress the urge to stim and to sit quietly, but that’s not natural. Not when you’re autistic.And it’s very often harmful not only now, but later in life.
“Lifestyle changes” sounds a lot like “therapy to make you normal”. Because in most cases, that’s what is happening.
On May 26, 2011, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act (S. 1094) in the U.S. Senate. This legislation would amend the Public Health Service Act to combat autism through research, screening, intervention, and education.
Interesting that three out of four of those really sounds like it’s try to fix or eliminate people like me, isn’t it? Research into what? Ways to target autism before birth? Through genetic screenings? That’s what the screening part talks about, I believe, unless we’re talking about the M-CHAT, which is a test given to diagnose an autistic person (most often a child). Intervention, ah, again, so we can pretend to be normal, and be bad version of ourselves, instead of you know, just being the best autistic people we could be. Now education? That’s something I could get behind. Educating professionals, including doctors, teachers, mental health professionals, etc etc etc, about what it’s like to be autisitc, and educating the community so there’s no longer a fear of autism? That I’d get behind 100%. But since this is part of the COMBATING AUTISM ACT as if we’re in some fucking war against people like me, well, I’m going to guess that it doesn’t have anything to do with anything but fearmongering, yet again.
Identical legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 2005) by Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ). Since this legislation will ensure the continued success of autism research and targeted programs, I officially cosponsored the Senate version of the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act. The House-introduced version of the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2005) was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on September 20 and in the U.S. Senate on September 26, and the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act was signed into law by President Obama on September 30, 2011.
Federal funding for the NIH is currently appropriated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (H.R. 3547), which funds the federal government until September 30, 2014, and was passed by Congress on January 16. I could not support this trillion-dollar spending bill because it again postponed any significant action on pro-growth spending reforms to address our nation’s debt crisis.
I will continue to keep your thoughts regarding autism awareness, research, federal funding and education in mind during the 113th Congress. Again, thank you for contacting me about this matter, and I welcome any thoughts or input you wish to share in the future.
Sincerely,
Marco Rubio
United States Senator
You didn’t listen, sir. You didn’t listen at all.
The Caffeinated Autistic 
Howdy Caffeinated!
My autistic daughter was reading about gene research and the CRISPR. She’s eleven and wants to be a genetic engineer. In one of the things she read, it suggested that the gene editing that CRISPR made possible might could eliminate autism. She was immediately into, but it isn’t something that should be eliminated. We’re different, but we make important contributions.
We’ve talked a lot about the evolutionary advantages that autism might have bestowed on individuals in the hunter-gatherer days: focus on making tools and improving tools was one of the biggest ones. And the role of meltdowns in surviving a catastrophe like predatory attack or other natural disaster.
Marco is useless. If you’re not even going to read your mail, why bother?
Huzzah!
Jack
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