Autism Lives Here

When you become a parent you know there is going to be times when you worry. You know you will worry about how children will change your marriage or relationship, you worry if you be a good parent, you worry if you can provide everything a child will need and you worry for your child’s future.

As a parent of a child with Autism, these worries are compounded to the "n"th degree, instead of just the above worries you also worry about your entire family’s future, and how a child with Autism will impact your other children’s present and future. You worry about your sanity due the constant having to fight for everything my child needs to be as independent as possible in the future, you worry that your child may never be independent in even the simplest ways like potty training, crossing the street alone, preparing their own meals, cleaning up after themselves, living independently, surviving once you are deceased and I am sure a million more I have missed or have yet to think of.

Then you read a story, like the one published Tuesday, April 27, 2010 in The Independent, about a father, age 44, and son, with Autism, age 22 being found in what appears to be another murder/suicide of a child with Autism. It makes parents like me think again that we are not worried enough, we don’t fight enough and there is no way for us to plan enough.

It is also makes parents like me wonder and worry about when the United States Government and our elected officials are going to even worry about our children with Autism. If the numbers are already 1 in 110 children have Autism, when will the number be high enough for them to worry? How many more precious lives have to be lost due to a parent not having enough support, enough help or a child not getting enough services to help them survive and live as independently as possible?

I can tell you it is not anytime soon. The government, especially our state governments, is cutting services on a daily basis from families, like ours and the one in the news story. These types of things are going to be happening more in the future, this was the 2nd such story I have read in the last 3 months. The 1st was from The NY Daily News on February 5th 2010. The child in this story was only 8 years old, the same age as my child, Austin.

I don’t want this for my future or any ones future, won’t you PITAup and ask our government to make a difference in the life of their constituents’?

You can contact your federal and state representatives and let them know you concerned about families like the ones in these stories and families you actually know. You can contact your U.S. Senators here and you can contact your House of Representatives here. In California, you can find the contact information for your State Senators here, other states will need to Google the information.

Don’t let Autism Die this way, show our families some compassion and let us and our children live to our fullest potential.