Thursday 18 December 2008

The most offensive thing you'll read this decade...

Don't look at this article if you're having lunch. You'll lose your appetite pretty quickly.

A synopsis: Kid with Asperger's has been shot dead by his father. Lots of other autistic kids are killed by their parents. It's such a shame that these children have autism, which makes their parents kill them.

I was going to write something blackly comic about it, but I just can't.

Parts of it, yes - "Jacob Grabe, 13, could sense a storm coming several days out. He would get agitated and make strange noises. Silverware bothered him. He could eat only from plastic forks and spoons. He breezed through complicated algebra but struggled with basic division." Oh no!! He must die!!!!1

Nope, I can't even laugh here. Because Oh no, he must die is what his own father thought, and this journalist totally empathises with that thought process, like it's a logical one that people often go through.

I want to rewrite part of the article, in fact, to make it more respectful (well, it could hardly be less respectful). However, this piece about a murdered child doesn't really bother talking about the child. So, I've nothing to go on - I can't put "Jacob Grabe, 13, loved computer games and detective novels" because I've no idea what his interests were.

Jacob Grabe: RIP.

The other children mentioned, whose names the author doesn't bother with (I'm aware that the little girl was called Katie McCarron): RIP.

And here's an idea that should be common sense:

Say you're planning to have children. If you think you'll "snap" if they are neurologically atypical - DON'T BOTHER. Introduce yourself to the humble condom or contraceptive pill.

If you're ever likely to shoot a child, suffocate them or burn them to death because they are disabled, please shoot yourself instead, before you have time to breed. It is YOU "society" should reject, it is YOU who shouldn't be "mainstreamed".

Signed: Oliver, an autistic guy who will also, actually, never be able to live a "normal life" but has NOT been shot by either of his parents. Crazy world, eh?

1 comment:

Daphne said...

I never even WANTED to shoot you: your father and I think you're fantastic. So there. Actually, I think it's impossible to know, before you have a child, how you'll be when a parent. So I think their should be a lot more help available for parents so that they can appreciate the best of their children, whatever their children are like.