I’m talking about this “spectrum” stuff. Autism is a lot clearer. I’ve seen it and it does exist. Leary was speaking of something else.

For my family (we have identical twin boys on the spectrum) just going to the grocery store proves to be an adventure. We have encountered biased anger, hateful comments and looks, ignorant and unknowledgeable advice from “concerned” people.

We have also been faced with bullies at every turn, and not just of those whom are juveniles, but those who are parents themselves. not to mention those in the public school system. We face a barrage of ignorance daily.

What saddens me the most is that while Mr. Leary tries to backtrack his statement he adds that he himself knows of a family that struggles with raising an autistic child. How is it then that he would make it harder on the ASD community by such a sweeping generalization?

Maybe he should ask them about how autism is a spectrum disorder. Not black and not white, sir, but a spectrum. In which it affects every person in a different way. Not to mention sensory and gastro-intestinal issues.

My boys are almost ten and I have yet to call myself an expert, so why is such a novice giving advice to the general public? I feel this is merely to create a media buzz around his book because he has found himself with a floundering career.

Unfortunately for Mr. Leary, he choose the wrong community as a tool. I am making it my personal agenda to boycott Mr. Leary and/or any other persons who utilize the media spotlight to add negative misinformation to an already misunderstood community. I implore you to do the same.

This book ranks right up there with memoirs produced by murderers and rapists, etc — situations where those authors are legally banned from making profits off of their illegal behavior.

The conversation with the publisher should perhaps emphasize that given the upswing in the diagnosis of Autism, i.e. one child in every one hundred and fifty or so (need a solid number here), and given even the least publicity along as little as one or two degrees of separation, the magnitude of a boycott by the population being offended may have a significant impact on the publisher’s viability.

This is NOT a “laughing matter” to the community directly experiencing this type of challenge, OR to their friends, relatives, acquaintances, teachers, students, peers, etc.

Again, the telephone number for Viking Adult, the publisher of Denis Leary’s hateful new book, is (212) 366-2000. Call them. Several times. If this is a local call for you, put the number on your speed dialer and call them whenever you happen to think about it. And pass this number along to any other distribution sources you can think of.

If there isn’t occasionally some area of significant overlap between public awareness and coordinated action, then what are blogs like this for?? This idiot should not make one cent of profit from his misguided search for “something funny to say about suffering”.

How dumb do you have to be to come off with a remark like that? I am disgusted with him. I would like to say I’ll never watch his show again but the truth is I never watched it. I hope people boycott him and the network he’s on. It’s just time to take out the trash and get back to what is important and that’s our children.

Most people will lose some respect for Leary over this. The ones that don’t are probably the same level as the person who told me that if they had a “retard for a son” like I do that they “wouldn’t let it out of the house.”