Do you care? Or not?

June2 2009

Today Michael Buckholtz is on hunger strike to raise funds for autism families for 29 days!

All this time I've tried to make people take notice and react.
Apart from a small group of people who cared for the subject anyway, no one really bothered.

Until someone told me yesterday that a hunger strike was a bad example for her children.
What if they would go on hunger strike to get what they want?

Her tweets were:
"I never understood hunger strikes. I always thought it was silly & a threat a child would make. It doesn't relate to the issue." "maybe we don't have any other news to cover other than hunger strikes :) I think there are better ways." "do we teach our children 2 go on a hunger strike when they need 2 solve tough issues or get attention? just makes one look nuts"

I asked her twice to offer better ideas.
No answer though.

No answer.......

Do you know how often autistic children are told they are ill-behaving and are raised badly?
Do you know how often parents of autistic children are told they're bad parents, they should discipline their children more?

With 4 autistic children I lost track of how many times people told me that.
Some went silent when they met my girls and saw what a wonderful young women they are.

I'm quite willing to tell people autism is a neuro-biological disorder.
I'm even quite willing to tell people that even though my boys look normal they're dealing with autism spectrum syndrome and they suffer from it when people don't accept their special needs.

But I'm not willing to accept that there are parents and teachers in this world who are not able to see autism in their children, because society expects their children to show problems because they're living in lower socio-economic conditions.
All children with special needs in this world should get equal care and support.
And countries realize this. They send money to the poor countries.

But why don't they take the effort to hear the calls for help in their own country?

Well, Canada does.
The media broadcasted the story about their hunger striker for autism. A father desperate to get ABA therapy for his autistic child. I saw a tired man sitting in the pouring rain. 3 days on hunger strike and getting attention.

But the USA media just don't care.
Only Blogtalkradio devoted time and attention to the subject.
But none of the main shows, which I mailed personally.

I bet they're not aware how many parents of autistic children are potential listeners and viewers.
And I bet they don't realize how many children need an open path to happiness.

I'm angry because people don't want to accept responsibility for what goes on in their world.

Autistic children can feel happy when they're properly diagnosed and receive proper support.
Mobile teams would be able to reach every child in need of diagnosis, would be able to reach every parent, family member and teacher and give them the information and teach them the skills to support the children in their development.

No need to pay enormous amounts of money for all sorts of socalled therapies, because knowledge enables parents and teachers to guide the development of these children as far as possible for considerable less costs for society.

And as equally important: these young people will acquire the skills they need to be happy and contributing members of society.

Michael Buckholtz is on hunger strike to raise funds for people who can't afford to get their children diagnosed and who can't afford the adjustments in education and support.

I'm sure we, bloggers, could make a huge difference.
A few dollars as a donation, or even just one, would add up to an enormous sum.

There are so many etsy artists online, so many people who can miss 1 or 5 dollars.

Why not ask me a special button/square, like shown at the autism site, and donate a bit.
Or write to your local paper, TV station or your favorite show.

We really need to spread the word and we really need to get the media to listen.

You do have 5 minutes for a child, do you?

5 minutes....just 5 minutes to make someone happy...a lifetime long.