On Memory and Forgetting

Hillel of Greater Toronto brought Elie Wiesel two days ago. I had the privilege of meeting him personally, and listening to him talk at University of Toronto's Convocation Hall, a day before Oprah aired her visit with him to the Auschwitz death and labour camps.

The confluence of my recent meetings, travel to Jerusalem to witness many beliefs divided by walls, how co-existence is possible if tended and policed, and how violent fanaticism is the one of the most inhuman of human traits -- merging with the incorporation of The Autism Acceptance Project and its event this October called The Joy of Autism: Redefining Ability and Quality of Life, against this background of recent events: the abhorrent Autism Speaks video, and the murder of three year-old autistic girl Katie McCarron. All of this resounds deeply within me and should within us all.

Dr. Wiesel questioned this complicated time. "How is it that Auschwitz didn't rid our society anti-Semitism for good" he asked rhetorically. We all say, "never again." Most of us vow to stand up for the impoverished, the oppressed. Yet today, like then, when injustice rises up, people can't seem to bring themselves out of their silence. Lessons of propaganda - what it is and what it means - goes unnoticed and sadly endorsed by others. There is still a population that continues to support fanatical messages without understanding what marketing, positioning means. "Good" propaganda must always contain elements of truth -- it sways you emotionally and in a one-sided way. I do not share the opinions of these mothers (who were edited, by the way -- we did not get to hear their complete sentences), and many of you do not share the same views as myself. Yet, the cause, the purpose of the video is to raise money for a cure. The motive is clear. I wish everything was at least as transparent, even if in this incredibly naive way.

Autism Speaks did wrong. NAAR and Autism Speaks continue to do wrong because they continue to exclude the autistic population from its mandate and research. This is why, as former corporate chair of NAAR Toronto, I withdrew my support and sponsorship. Any organization that uses language against the desires of a culture, race, or type of people who have identified themselves as a culture, is immoral. We have learned to be careful about semantics where race and religion are concerned. Why is there so much problem in understanding the inhumanitarian treatment against the autistic? At the utter agony of this population who struggle to be accepted, and to avoid negative labeling, these organizations continue to do so anyway. Many Europeans deemed the Jews subhuman, undeserving of fair treatment. Many people today do not feel that autistic people understand themselves and purposefully exclude them from autism "dialogue," decisions about research, and continue to take away their right to choose and decide for themselves. Some mothers will claim they would rather be dead than living with autism, while their autistic child plays in the background, alive, but otherwise treated like furniture. Their words about their children are selfish -- how it affects them -- and they describe and talk about their children as objects rather than humans. Other parents abuse, neglect and even murder their autistic children because they believe their lives are too difficult living with it. The lists are long in Ontario of autistic children who are abused to get into Mukibaum. "Autism Every Day" is rampant with parents pulling and tugging on their children (a set of behaviours rather than people) amidst quickly edited excerpts. It is a dark video inciting little hope. It disempowers parents so maybe, just maybe, they feel life is no longer worth living with autism. Afterall, the premise of the video is that life is too hard with autism. It has actually enabled others to excuse the murder of Katie because of this premise. I call on Autism Speaks to retract the video and apologize for its offensive marketing of pity. It has done not only a disservice to the autism community, but ironically, to its very own cause. I'm sure many are suspect of this undignified attempt to market autism.

While neighbours stood silently during the Jewish genocide, there are parallels to many injustices today. How is it we can remain asleep? How is it that one of you may be thinking that the comparison between the Holocaust and Autism Marketing is extreme? Germany was financially suffering. Hitler found a whole race to blame for it. Then, that race ceased to be viewed as human. Then, that race was murdered because Germany thought they would be better off without not only the Jews, but Gypsies, the disabled, the "feeble-minded."

We must stay awake to past lessons in every community of race, ability or religion. We must continue to open ourselves to discussion and debate and accept many views. We must learn to respect a type of people, an autistic people, and listen and acknowledge the messages they give to the rest of us, even if we don't always agree or fail to understand completely. The Autism Acceptance Project hopes to empower both parents and those who are autistic through balanced views, with the over-arching belief that all humans have value, deserving respect, support and dignity. You don't have to agree with every one, but you have to accept those who have the same respect and tolerance for you and for others. Any marketing, message, or research that is underway or disseminated must be done with this value in mind. With all of life's lessons in current and past human atrocities, this is our moral obligation.

But the problems of humanity and its inhumanity continue. Dr. Wiesel said this, and he wondered if we were, as humans, all of God's great mistake. And yet, he believes in humanity. In my byline for The Joy of Autism above, I borrowed one of Wiesel's lines: "Despite inhumane acts, I believe in humanity." This value must be our guide.

"We Jews," he said in his quiet voice, "sing. We sing when we're happy, we sing when we're sad." Life if filled with injustice from which we have an opportunity to grow and learn. There is joy and value in all human life. May all parents find this joy, no matter how hard the struggle; may we continue to raise our voices and words against the wrongdoings of NAAR and Autism Speaks and of those whose special interests are doing harm to those who are autistic.

We have the tendency to rest on our laurels and forget. May we be nudged to remember. May a life never live, or end, in vain.