Dear Suzanne Wright
Your recent jeremiad at the conference convened at the Vatican has only confirmed to me that you are a sadly misguided and toxic presence in the world of autism. At best - since you like Biblical metaphor - I see you fitting so well into the role of "Job's Comforters" - those mealy mouthed "friends" of Job's who under the guise of helping him, were more concerned with their own needs and feelings and only ended up making him feel worse. This is what you achieved at the Vatican - your mealy mouthed speech intended to "help" those on the autism spectrum only made these "poor things" feel worse.
Your jeremiad against autism itself is endless. There is nothing good that you ever have to say to us or about us. No-one could ever accuse you of wearing rose tinted glasses; the lenses of yours are covered with dark, treacherous, blinding muck. It's time you learned to see things a bit more clearly.
Your endless homilies about suffering families is parent-centred, not child-centred, and demonstrates how political your organisation really is, beneath its pretence of being a service and support organisation. You lead a political and money-grubbing organisation, and you are proud of that; you promote and deepen the stigmatisation of autism and autistic people. You increase the stigma every time you reiterate that autism is "this terrible disease". (Very useful sentimental claptrap for fundraising purposes). Sorry, but your nomenclature is misinformed and misinforming: autism is not a disease, it's a syndrome.
The disease-pushing that you do so relentlessly probably increases the already horrific rate of bullying that children on the ASD spectrum experience. And perhaps adults too - but then you have a tremendous blindspot about adults on the spectrum don't you? We barely exist in your tunnel vision, most probably because you wish we did not.
Well we exist, we are here, some of us are very successful human beings, with full and meaningful lives. We are not 'lepers', and we certainly do not want your help. Your "helping" is of the worst kind - you use it to disguise your endless attempts to dehumanise and stigmatise a valid part of the human race, and it arises from your neurotic need for power and control, to see your name in lights, to raise ever more money of which a tiny proportion only goes to service and support in the ASD community. 4%! Doesn't that ever give you pause for thought? Does your soul not have any reflecting mirror?
Some people think you are just a stupid person. I think you are cunning, self-aggrandising and wilfully ignorant, and your role in Autism Speaks - the limelight at the Vatican - caters to your narcissistic needs. Your spiritual influences and predecessors are more likely to be found in the disgraceful example of Jim and Tammy Baker than anywhere in the Bible. But you cloak yourself in sanctity, rather too readily I think. Frauds so often do.
No doubt you will continue with your jeremiad stigmatising and all the other harmful things you do. I don't think you have a conscience, in the normal sense, (narcissists don't) so I anticipate that you will continue as you have done. Still, the day of reckoning may come sooner or later. It usually does, as the Bakers found out. I hope that is sooner rather than later.
Sincerely,
B19
16 Mar 2015, 2:40 am
