Autism Speaks Speech at My University

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Autism Speaks better steer clear of the University of Wyoming for at least 4 years, otherwise I'll be right up in the front row raising all kinds of hell. And WTF is up with having Imperial Stormtroopers watch over the autistic kids? Anyone with half a brain and the original Trilogy can tell you that there is a reason is is always referred to as the EVIL EMPIRE. I mean for Force sakes, you want to put your children in the hands of the people that destroyed Alderaan just because it was there? Makes NO SENSE.

I know it's been a while since I last gave an update, but here is one:

1.) I sent an article to the student newspaper about autism and especially the quackery surrounding vaccines a couple weeks ago (I was still compiling information at the time), and the editorial editor said that they would run it. Then they said they cut out all the science behind the article, which I stated was my argument, so they said they wouldn't run it this week and I should come in and sit down with them. So I sent my schedule (no reply) and went 4 times to the office to no avail, passing another publication time. So I email them with my schedule again, and then I get a message with an attached article saying I should put a "hook" and "personal" matter in it, which apparently was not a problem when they first accepted it. I cut about 400 words and left a majority of the science in (since that was my argument), and have received no reply. The kicker was some of the people who read it themselves thought there was too much of the science side as well (most loved it), but if that was a problem why would you say you would run it before saying that?

In other news, the paper recently defended a decision they made about running a blatantly sexist article in a regular sex column (yes, the campus newspaper has one here), said that the writer will have to do more scientific research, and still ran the column this week, thus proving once again that the media would run a bad controversial article than a good article with science behind it if all things were equal. I have another article coming up that I'll try though...

2.) I gave a presentation to a small group of NTs about Autism Speaks and showed the I am Autism and Autism Every Day videos. They were horribly disgusted, to the point at which one person said in response to the Alison Tepper Singer comment, "Thank you for proving to us why some people should not be parents." I told them to spread the news about how autistics are constantly denigrated to raise money, but it has been slow going. I am going to see the president whose sorority I recently found out involves autism on campus and make the same pitch.

That's about it. I had a bad illness for the past couple of weeks and it slowed the advocacy down a lot, but there has been steady progress I think.

In practise, student politics, especially the newspapers are often like that. Universitities like to keep student's union's downtrodden, all the better when they manage to do them more or less by themselves.

Thats a good start - how about seeing if you can set up a talk by someone on the spectrum who is a name. Your disability officers would be able to advise on the details, though most of the energy (but not direction) put in will probably have to be your own. Its a fight worth fighting, but make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, before trying to take a step forward.

The main fight is to get ourselves included, try not to get too distracted by Autism Speaks. Instead, take advantage of the situation.

Update: I spoke to the executive director at my regional chapter in Wisconsin tonight, and she told me,that the national organization(Autism Society of America?) is trying to make it so that every state has only one chapter. All the smaller regional chapters would then become support groups. But for the time being, I believe Ohio has two state organizations. I must re-check my information but I thought you'd like to know.