A plea for civility

Liane Kupferberg Carter, a writer who has a child with autism, writes in the Huffington Post that she’d like to see an end to the “war raging within the autism community.”

Angry arguments over such topics as vaccines, purported autism cures and neurodiversity are preventing the community from finding common ground, she says. An excerpt:

…whether you are trying to heal autism through genetic research, environmental studies, or are urging acceptance of neurodiversity, there is one thing on which everyone can surely agree: we love our children. They deserve greater awareness, acceptance and opportunity. We desperately need more research on promising treatments, and programs to meet the housing and employment needs of a population that is rapidly aging up.

On the eve of World Autism Awareness Day, I’m pleading for more civility in our community. Open debate that is not personal, petty or mean. There’s just too much at stake. How can we expect Congress to listen to us, when we are so divided among ourselves?

Our children deserve our respect. Our commitment. Our hope.

We aren’t the enemies.

Autism is.

Related post here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 3:17 pm and is filed under adult living, autism, employment/jobs, housing, intellectual/developmental disabilities, NOT2BEMISSED, research funding, vaccine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.