Monday Morning Ponderism, Autism edition

From people with autism

"I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin." Jerry Newport, AS

" You don't have to be handicapped to be different - everybody's different. " Kim Peek, autistic savant whom rainman is modeled on

" Autism itself is not the enemy...(the deficits) are barriers to who the child is meant to be, according to the developmental blueprint." Frank Klein, HFA

"when parents say, 'I wish my child did not have autism,' what they're really saying is, 'I wish the autistic child I have did not exist, and I had a different (non-autistic) child instead.' Read that again. This is what we hear when you mourn over our existence. This is what we hear when you pray for a cure. This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces." Jim Sinclair, AS

"This is a world where autism is considered a disorder, and autistics are expected to submit to being "repaired". This is a world where autistics are subjected to abuse, ridicule, and punishment for being who we are. This is a world where autistics are given dangerous psychiatric drugs, and treatments which attempt to force neurotypical behavior on autistics. This is a world where autistics who manage to mimic neurotypical behavior enough to "get by in the world" are often plagued by deep emotional and self-image problems because of the discrepancy between who they are and what they appear to be. This is a world where autistics are considered, and treated, as something less than human, and are denied our basic human rights. This is a world where autistics are punished every day for being real, and rewarded for being false. This is not the world I want to live in." Amanda Baggs, LFA