Friday, November 19, 2004

Cure Autism Now - Walk Now - Tomorrow in Houston

This Saturday, November 20, my family and I will be participating in a veryspecial event, WALK NOW benefiting the Cure Autism Now Foundation. It is a 5K walk and community resource fair with the proceeds going to further the search for causes and cures for autism. Autism is a devastating disease affected over 1.5 American children and their families. 1 in every 250 children is newly diagnosed with autism.

You may be wondering why Cure Autism Now and WALK NOW are so important to me and my family. My involvement stems from a very personal and deep emotional contact with this complicated disease.

My 5-year-old son, Sean, was diagnosed with a form of Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, two years ago. I am very proud of Sean and impressed with his progress so far thanks to hard work on his part, our part and an excellent program within the Cy-Fair School District.

I strongly feel that I can have a direct impact on finding causes and cures for autism.
I also feel strongly that Cure Autism Now is a wonderful organization which has been instrumental in furthering autism research. In 1995, when Cure Autism Now was founded there were only 12 researches focused solely on autism. Today there are over 300. That is progress. WALK NOW gives us a tangible way to help the nearly 1.5 million other Americans affected by autism and related disorders.

I am asking for your support in helping us raise money for this worthy cause. Any contribution you are able to make would be greatly appreciated, but I ask you to give big as there is a big need for further research. My personal goal is to raise $500.00 for Cure Autism Now and I hope to far exceed that goal.

It is easiest to donate online by going to our personal webpage at Sean's CAN page.

If you are unable to donate online, you can print out a donation form from that page. All checks should be made payable to Cure Autism Now.

I look forward to hearing from you. I thank you very much!

Always,
Marc

Visit my Autism/Asperger's Syndrome blog - http://badanimal6.blogspot.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with the desire to cure autism, especially AS. I have Asperger's Syndrome, and I know many people who have been diagnosed, and none of them, including myself, wants to be cured. Of course, I do not know if your son is high-functioning; I am simply assuming so because he has been diagnosed as AS instead of HFA or autistic. How does your son feel about being cured? Have you ever asked him? Maybe he has special gifts or aptitudes that stem from AS: I myself am very skilled at learning foreign languages and manipulating the English language in a logical way. This may or may not be because of Asperger Syndrome, but I don't want to take my chances and be cured of something that isn't really a problem for me, and have that taken away from me.

Think about this--if someone wanted to change your personality, would you go along with it? Your son is not Asperger Syndrome, but it his a large part of his personality. AS isn't a disease--it is a biological syndrome. I really don't think it can be cured at all, and most people who have Asperger's don't think it should be. They liken curing AS and autism to what Hitler did during WWII, and I tend to agree. Also, AS and autism really isn't devastating. It might seem that way to someone who doesn't have it, but people who have these disorders can still learn things and function in society--it just takes a little more work.

I'm not telling you this because I think you're dumb or anything. I don't think you are at all. AS is a very new disorder, so there isn't much known about it. The reason why I'm posting a comment on this blog at all is because you have a very pessimistic view of Asperger Syndrome, and, because you hold this view, there is a very likely chance that your child could pick up on your pessimism, and it could make him feel insecure about himself and feel like his behaviour is something that needs to be cured. I know that if someone felt that way about me, I would feel like there was a problem with me. So try to think of this from his perspective. Ask him how he feels about certain things once in awhile. You might find out that people with an ASD aren't as different from NTs as you think they are. In fact, it's people with ASDs that make the world colourful and a more interesting place, in my honest opinion. What would music sound like if Mozart was never a composer? What would computers be like without Bill Gates? Would quantum physics be the same without the theory of relativity? Just something to think about. I hope you don't pass this off as a critism or think that I don't know what I'm talking about. I really hope you take what I say to heart and make a conscious effort to change your views on Asperger's Syndrome. I can speak for the AS community and say that if you recognize AS for what it is -- a biological disorder, and what it is not -- a disease that needs to be cured, we would all thank you very sincerely.

hkghkghk said...

Anonymous, I will try to reply to your comment tomorrow when I'm not so tired. I wish you wouldn't have posted anonymously though or I wish you would have e-mailed me. I don't know that you'll ever be back to see if I do respond. Hmmm, I could make a post out of it. Excellent comment by the way.

Anonymous said...

Hey. I'm anonymous. My email's justadreamer111@gmail.com. I wasn't sure if you were going to actually read the post or not, so I decided not to use my name.