Tonight I had the misfortune of watching episode 1 of Autism x 6. On Discovery Health. (That is right. No links.  They don’t deserve them.)

I expected to see some stuff I wouldn’t like.  What hit me was who said the things that rubbed me wrong. The parents on the show did not get my dander up.  The Educators did.

The so called Educators seem to think that Sarah, a little girl no more severely disabled than my own son, lacks humanity and must be taught to be human.

Funny, I thought our DNA dictated whether or not we are human.  I thought God Almighty determined who is human. What was I thinking?

Apparently, humanity is a skill to be learned from Utah Educators.

If any one thing makes me angry enough to misbehave it is some idiot telling me my son is soulless or  inhuman.   These Educators, actually prove their own inhumanity by their own words.

I guess the fact that I look forward to coming home to Tiger’s smiling face has nothing to do with his humanity.  Apparently, I should not want this.  I’m supposed to dread my life.

I love my son.  I love doing things with my son.

My son is “Severely” Autistic.  He is also fearfully and wonderfully made.  He is a great blessing to my family.  I am honored to be his father.

I’m not special and picked by God to raise a problem child.  I am not subject to special responsibilities because of some special talent.  I am special and picked by God to enjoy a beautiful blessing because He loves me a little more than all the other parents in the world.  I have the world’s best children, all of them.  For that, I am truly thankful.

As many of you know, I am an autism dad.   You have probably also noticed that I am politically and philosophically conservative.  This situation is the stuff that makes a really good post.

See, I am from the school of thought folks call, “the neurodiversity movement.”  Most folks in that movement lean left in their politics.  Some see my conservatism as a conflict of mind.  So I would like to explain.   Throughout the history of this blog, you have seen me come to grips with my own convictions.  I have some convictions that are very general and some that are specific to autism.  These convictions join together very well.  I hope this post makes that very clear.

Neurodiversity is a movement to protect the rights and dignity of people who think very differently.  It centers around Austism acceptance.  It resounds with Austistic people achieving personal excellence.  It reminds us of Autistics that have blessed our lives by bringing attention to the fact that great figures of history were autistic.
My son Tiger is autistic.  I no longer say, “He has Autism.”  He isn’t diseased, he is merely different.  He is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Tiger is no victim.  And, he should not grow up thinking that he is victim.  Autistic or not, I expect him to grow up to be a moral and accomplished man.  I see no reason to expect any less from Tiger than the rest of my children.  Appreciating him has also changed my personal definitions of success and greatness.  Enjoying his differences has blessed me richly.  I thank God for Tiger.  What a wonderful child!

I attempt to teach my children to be self sufficient, exceptional and outstanding.  This is the very core of the conservative philosophy.  Mankind is endowed life, liberty and property.  All of those come at some expense.   Life must be defended.  Liberty must be won.  Property must be earned.  These things are the divinely appointed rewards that should be available to ALL people.  Autistic people should not be excluded.   They have the right to live, exact their own destiny and claim all that they have earned.  This is the impetus behind my support of neurodiversity.

I made a simple choice not to pity my son or myself.  The natural progression of that choice was a greater appreciation for human beings both autistic and neurotypical.

I can certainly see how someone can be liberal and support nureodiversity.  What I can’t understand is how someone can be conservative, consider neurological differences in people and not support nuerodiversity.

PORT ST. LUCIE — Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son’s kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.

Read the whole article here.

This is just all sorts of wrong. Not only did this Wendy Portillo abuse Alex Barton, she abused the rest of the class.

If the principal is worth his salt, he will get the whole staff to tell Wendy Portillo what they don’t like about her just prior to voting her out and firing her.

Wendy Portillo, I hope you come here and read this. Let me warn you. When you get run out of Florida, don’t come to Texas. That kind of crap will get you physically harmed here. You are a despicable person. Your sort is not welcome here. But, I do know where you can go.

Well today I have another sermon reaction post. I’m hoping that my preacher will take a look at this and see how he can incite some thought with a few words.

The whole house was down for a nap. The wife and I both awoke to the terrible sound of breaking glass.

I raced into his empty bedroom to find the window broken.

I ran up and down the block looking for him. He was nowhere to be found. I was walking around outside as I called the police. While I was still on the phone, a squad car pulled over and relieved me with some good news. My boy was safe.

The officer told me that they had picked up my boy after he made his way to a bounce house at a near by apartment complex. He had made it across a major thoroughfare to get to it. They took him to the hospital because he was very red, hot and sweaty. They feared he might be dehydrated.

We entered the hospital and quickly found him. He was strapped down to a plastic restraining device. I told the doctor that was enough and unstrapped him.

A bloody nosed police officer approached me and started preaching. The officer went on and on. I could hardly explain how it happened. Then he was audacious enough to start giving bad advice. I finally told him, “Please! Stop talking and let me thank you.”

Eventually we left with a chorus of medical and law enforcement professionals telling us how we could never let this happen again. It was all I could do, not to turn around and say, “Duh!”

I have never been more frightened. My boy went to extreme measures to leave the safety of our home for an enticement he spotted out of the car window. I was helpless. That is one sick feeling.

I have also learned a lot from the well intentioned and imperfect heroes that helped us that day. First, that police officer bled for us. Second, it is human nature to assume parents are negligent. Third, the thank you moments of our lives are awkward. Most folks don’t know how to act. I think the lone ranger and Tonto had the right idea by avoiding the whole situation. I owe those folks a debt of gratitude. But they will never celebrate the fact that my family was reunited.

Lord, I know you must feel sick about the 6 billion children that left your presence to chase after enticements. Bless all of Your rescue workers. Comfort us when we bleed. May we keep our joy fresh and celebrate with You when Your children are reconciled.

When James was two years old he was an active boy but he still wasn’t speaking. John was defiant. He was bound and determined to figure out what was wrong and fix it. He had big plans for James.

Testing James’ hearing was unfruitful. He would ignore tones he had just acknowledged. But James knew that wasn’t the cause anyway. After all, the boy would respond to too much for the problem to be his hearing.

John was not prepared when he got the news. All he knew about autism, he learned from Psychology 101 and the movie Rainman. He really did not even know what Autism Spectrum Disorders were, never the less how to deal with them. All of the sudden John’s end zone dreams for James were dashed.

John was not one to give up. He was going to battle autism to the bitter end. One night he found himself at a meeting and met Abel. Abel was successful, happy and very autistic.

John did not know how to handle this. Abel changed John’s whole perspective. Abel had a family. Abel had a career. Abel played college football at John’s alma mater. This man who did not speak until age 12, accomplished things that John had not but wanted to.

John became a better father. He started to shape his dreams for James around James’ dreams. John started to look at James as a wonderful blessing in and of himself. Success was not about what James could or could not do. Success was about James becoming a good man. James learned to communicate but he seldom spoke. He did accomplish some great things by any standard. He became an architect that designs prisons of all things. He married well. John appreciated those things and was happy for his son, but his pride came from James’ good heart and character.

John became a fantastic grandfather. He learned to appreciate people for who they are not what they do. That was a greater blessing than any accomplishment.

Well, my mysterious speaking opportunity was completely different than I anticipated.  That is a good thing.  It was far better than I had imagined.

Instead of delivering the speech I prepared in haste, I only gave certain parts of that speech.  I was not happy with that speech anyway.  Now I get to exploit the wonderful creativity of the folks who attended.   We talked about improvements I could make in my speech.  That was good.  But, I came away with far more than that.  We talked about the concepts in my content and the concepts that should be in my content.    I now have a treasure trove of good ideas.

This speech will be different.  This speech won’t be something for an occasion or event.  This speech will be “My Speech.”    At first, I thought I would speak about autism acceptance.   That has changed.  Now I will speak about people (disabled or not) interacting with each other.

The speech will be titled, “Enjoying the Uniqueness.”  The high powered speech coach used my own words to help me come up with a better title and tagline than I had.  When I talked about enjoying the company disabled people, she said, “Enjoy.  That is your word.  Enjoy.”

The other great blessing was getting to know some new people.  They are the kind of people that I feel blessed to know.  It turns out that I have a great deal in common with the dad I was worried about.  Imagine that.