Advocacy Project

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Coping can be a form of therapy yes like behavioral and psychological based intervention or said treatments. Pills can be yes but I don't like those. I think further understanding of the brain will assist in future advancements and hopefully without intrusive procedure and some have been tried such as neuro-therapy I think with magnets. I wish the person luck in their project.

Ci, you are aggressively discouraging someone who is trying to help. Cure politics is your issue - not hers. She has been very clear here. You are polarizing an issue this poor girl has clearly stated she chooses to remain neutral on. She is in an organiziation that helps those on the spectrum with socialization - it is not an organiziation that has or takes a position on 'cure'. Forcing 'cure' politics into her polite request is not only inapropriate, it's coming across as an attack. You misunderstood her original comment. Asking for clarification might be a good idea before getting defensive - especially considering she clearly stated she was a girl scout - a kid - a well intentioned, articulate, concerned kid.

Gammageek - thank you for your support! I can certainly understand your reluctance under that kind of peer criticism for your activism. You're brother is very lucky. It's entirely too easy for the ignorant to band together around their insecurities and prejudices than to buck the status quo. It takes alot of courage, especially from someone who has no personal stake in the issue. You have a choice and you made that choice to be supportive and proactive in helping to change the negativity you have witnessed first hand.

That alone deserves a reward. I can only say thank you.

I'm sure you are aware but the Girl Scouts also has troops specifically for girls with disabilities - those troops might be a wonderful focus for your website - give them a louder voice. In my experience, girls with disabilities are incorporated into the regular troops, at least, they are in our area which I think is a wonderful story in and of itself. If you request permission from the council and include the wonderful work girl scouts does for those on the spectrum, they may be more likely to use your website officially. I personally think that the more visible autism is, the more acceptance it will gain in the general population. Every step counts. I hope your local council can see the value in your work.

Might I suggest that a website is a wonderful idea but that it might also be useful to offer the information in a powerpoint presentation - something that schools and organizations can use to raise awareness. April is Autism Awareness month - if you can offer your information for free via press release in your local paper you may be able to bring some understanding to those who would never go looking for the information on the web. Just an idea!

Names are always tough:

Embracing Our Differences
Autism; It's Not What You Think!

Sorry, no catchy acronyms in there... Best of luck, Gammageek! Let us know how it goes.

The violation of rights in potential and the persuasions thereof socially require absolute clarifications. That being said unless someone is really clear in order to protect human rights you got to entice a rejecting to any suggestion within hyper-relevant politics especially here on this forum. I think I ended the conversation properly, constructively and with positivity. You are welcome to further it and place attacks on me but I am not really persuaded by your arguments and the usage of a young individual that openly asks to be treated as an adult. Opposition to a cure has used all sorts of tactics and any implied manifestation must be ethically confronted, educated and should be ended with constructive outcome. This has been achieved.

Someone that would like to advocate for autism was warned about the can of warms. Many have wanted to advocate about autism and have been attacked for doing so. I was outlining and providing examples about the related barriers in awareness. The idea is to show the problems, resolve the problems and avoid the problems. Did you not see my constructive input from the get go. A person that is young may tend to become overwhelmed by the issues surrounding the problem. Still input regarding the matter was made and it seems not to be able to be handled in context.

At that age I would have asked the following.

1. How might the awareness be done in the most neutral of ways to benefit individuals with autism?

2. How can conflict be avoided?

These are the lines of logic I used throughout the responses. As I clearly spoke about adversity in autism awareness from the get go. Coping with instead of curing autism is definitely a political understanding and can be objected to. My recomendation was not to mention the word cure.

Remember it is not me that created the can of warms but the can of warms that exists as what is. Due to autism politics I was advising.

The kid can politely looking for help in naming her website and you reply with;

You just opened a can of worms and will never be able to make everyone happy with what you say on your website. My suggestion is to do a website about those with severe autism and the day to day needs of specifically children with severe autism. If you are going to use the word cure try and be specific such as for certain symptoms like sensory overload and the inability to speak.

She isn't trying to make anyone happy, she is simply providing information.
She wasn't looking for suggestions in changing her approach or to rewrite the work she has already done. She asked for help with a name for her website. Period.
You suggest she focus on kids with severe autism specifically when she stated she was trying to provide basic information (as is within her ability and knowledge, I suspect...)
You introduce the word 'cure' into the mix and then jumped on her for a misconstrued response, on a subject she had no interest, need or desire to even approach. It looks like you lured her into a debate which, again, she clearly stated she did not want.

She is not you. She will not ask the same questions as you. Her experiences are different and her approach is her own. Without even seeing her website - you are somehow trying to solve problems that you don't even know exist. Support might have been a better approach than lecturing. The only thing she learned from this was to NOT advocate for autism.

Again a play on words. The idea of coping and not curing autism was not my interjection but is an item of concern given her goal. I commented with regards so she may avoid adversity yet I am accused of the adversity because it is an unpopular pride based idea to avoid adversity. I provided examples to remedy an outcome most beneficial to an award given the known adversity of the concepts introduced. I am not at fault for adversity that pre-existed nor the concepts introduced ever so diligently framing the introduction. I went as far as providing how the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts can benefit autism along with the name suggestion. If you want to blame me for the adversity that exists, the words used and warning the person about issues she may face then you should blame everyone of conflict not just the messenger presenting the problems in context to the presentation for input. The goal was to assure she wins the award.

There is no play on words here.

She needed to choose a project - she chose one close to her personally - she is advocating for autism because she has a brother with autism.

Lecturing a 16year old girl scout on the adversity she will face because of her heartfelt project simply makes no sense since you are the only one presenting her with adversity. She is not being 'graded' by the autism advocacy police - she is being granted a girl scout badge for her efforts in taking a stand on SOMETHING.

You hurt a kids feelings needlessly. She came to a support board to ask for help in her project and you handed her a big 'reality-based' life lesson instead of supporting her and encouraging her efforts. *sigh* - you know what, ci. Nevermind. You will not understand.

You win.

Already to fit an agenda of yours your making me out to be a monster. The issue was posted in the Autism Politcs, Activism and Media Representation forum. Pointing out the obvious to help the person is not wrong. These are common issues commonly covered in this forum and of which there is nothing wrong to mention. Explaining to a person how and why adversity might manifest may be to mature for the age yet the person asked to be treated like an adult. Autism awareness is commonly of controversy and I was trying to show her how to avoid it. If you want to use this against me your going to have to prove my intentions were as sick as you make them out to be and in spite of the individual askign to be treated as an adult that I actually wanted to socially beat up a little girl.

Please move on and be a little bit more subjective. You and I have had disagreements in other posts. Don't try to take it out on me in this post. Move on..

Thought police.

This seems to be known as politics in general.

I have no agenda, especially not one to 'make you out to be a monster'.

Most 16 year olds want to be treated as adults... but they are not. They do not have the experience and foresight to actually know what they are asking for. I sure didn't at that age. You yourself recognized this. But you needed to drive your point home anyway.

I'm not using anything against you. It wasn't 'sick' - that is your word, not mine.

Did you read the girls last two posts, ci? Do you have any reaction to them at all? She was the audience you were trying to help. Do you think your approach accomplished that goal?

No thought police here - in fact, I'm a diehard defender of the first amendment. No one is telling you to NOT voice yourself. I can read the frustraton in gammageeks posts. I have a strong suspicion that you cannot. Like her, I have been chased off by overzealous advocates on an issue I was trying to advocate for. We need kids like her. We want them on our side. Flies and honey, again... flies like the honey...

She said she was a cadette girl scout doing a project for a badge... adult volunteers and leaders do not acquire badges. If you were never exposed to scouts as a kid I can understand but her date of birth is listed in her profile.

And I was wrong earlier - I said she was an NT kid. She identifies herself as an aspie in her profile. She identified her brother as autistic - she didn't specify but it sounds as if he may have classic autism. I wouldn't call her unskilled. And advocating does not necessarily have anything to do with intimate knowledge of 'advanced issues'. I seriously doubt she is aware of the critically advanced global economic politics of world hunger either. I wouldn't discourage her from finding out though. I wouldn't warn her away because people have strong opinions on it.

I do not think you have any ill will towards this girl. NOT AT ALL. I am simply trying to point out that this girl is now discouraged and the possible reasons why. Unfortunately, you cannot just remove emotions from people opinions. Gammageek expressed some very strong emotion and it went unheard. I'm advocating for her BECAUSE she went unheard.

I'm actually trying to be supportive of you both.