Communities, online and otherwise, are interestin to observe no matter where ya be: on the outside, on the inside, on the fringes. No one, though, rightly sees the whole of it, all the little interconnections and interweavins. It can be fascinatin to begin to pull at them connections, see where they lead, how they get tangled. Watchin community member jockey for positions, for sides, for leadership, for head-honcho status. Now, ain't everybody who can be a thoroughbred horse, is what I'm sayin. Not all of us would want to be, especially once ya realize bein a thoroughbred don't exempt ya from bein a jackass.
Community buildin, though, done right, shouldn't be about the shouts, the praises, the lookey-what-I-dids. Oughta be about sharin, carin, and buildin each other up. Helpin those in a pinch.
The online autism community is like any other community and has its drama. Shewey, we know we all want a fair amount of drama from time to time. Problem is when that drama interferes with the work of helpin.
Little Zakh still awaits his future; will he get an appropriate education where he's safe, sound, protected and valued? Will those charges get dropped? How much will it cost for the lawyer to fight for Zakh to get what he needs? So much uncertainty; it must be hard on the child and his family. They deserve and should have our empathy, our concern.
There are bunches of Zakh's out there goin through similar uncertainties.
Gomey, released yesterday from the hospital where he was admitted against his and his family's will, still faces uncertainty.
An autistic mom has lost custody of her two youngest, both on the spectrum, and needs help.
There are hundreds of thousands of children on the spectrum in the US alone who do not get adequate therapies to assist them, whose parents have to worry when they send em off on the short bus, the long bus, or when they drop them off themselves because the bus itself is a worry, to go to school. Will the child be restrained? Will their child have a meltdown? Will their child be bullied? It's a mess.
One of the things that the parents figure out right quick like is that at some point for sure their child is gonna hit up against that wall, the wall where the educatin ain't quite right, the teachers cold or indifferent or worse the problem, the kids mean and heartless, the other parents bullies in their own right. Now imagine how much bigger a betrayal it can feel to realize that some of the worst bullies can be parents in the same situation?
Not only are there far too many children not gettin the support they need, parents not gettin the support they need so mayhaps they could avoid the woo and the bitter, there are just as many adults, it looks like, out there on the spectrum doin without all they need, facin poverty and a lack of understandin and assistance that one wonders how they manage to shoulder on at all. And some of the meanest, cruellest of folks can be folks who oughta know better: folks on the spectrum or parents of kids on the spectrum.
Ya times that misery by all the other sorts of issues that people experience, and it can be right depressin is what I'm sayin.
And yet. In the midst of the crap and misery that we wade through, there are bright, sunny spots. There is wonder workin power in community buildin. There are folks out there with hearts of gold, willin to lend a hand, a shoulder, whatever it takes in order to help another. And it crosses all sorts of lines. Why look just at Zakh's story: his facebook page is over 2500 people strong, and the second facebook page started by Zoey Roberts for him has well over a 1000 folks on it. Done near raised the 5 grand on the chipin. Ain't that somethin? Hundreds of blogs written in support. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of letters written in support of that young man to the officials in Fort Smith and the greater Arkansas. In support of one young man who has gotten the short end of the stick by the system.
Wonder workin power. It's an awesome thing to see community buildin in progress. To see folks wantin to help others. To see folks carin. And sharin. And helpin.
Wonder workin power.
