My 2017 in Review

The highlights of my year: finishing my schooling (graduate certificate in Disability Studies at University of Missouri-Kansas City, co-teaching Disability History and Culture to UMKC's Propel students for post-secondary students with disabilities, spending nearly every day of the last six months illustrating my graphic novel, and starting to illustrate to others, finishing one of my short stories that I plan to find a literary magazine for, making my new key bowls from old receipts, and going to the Autism Society-The Heartland's AWARE Game Nights 18+ for Adults with Autism. Also continuing my long, cherished friendships, and meeting new friends, working at my second job and making money, making more progress on my novels and stories, progressing through in and finishing reading many of my books, and finishing new watercolor drawings in my art class. Also I might be finding new work next year that I am still looking into. My New Year's Resolution: I just cannot think of any at the moment. Staying strong, thinking of the people who mean most to me, and living my life every minute, pleasant and unpleasant.

Autism Acceptance Month 2017

Ben Edwards updated his cover photo.

· 42 mins ·

Tomorrow is the first day of April, which, for some out there, is Autism Awareness Month with blue lights, clothes, and other decor, but for me, and others out in the autistic world, it is Autism Acceptance Month, as of the past six years, which is associated with gold, red, taupe, orange, and green. For us, blue and awareness tend to be associated with medically-modeled groups on autism, such as Autism Speaks, which unfortunately, has raised money (of which only 3 to 4% tends to go to autism services every year-the bulk in advertising, genetic research, and corporate salaries) by comparing autistic people to car wrecks and being struck by lightning, and of their twelve year existence, only in the last two were there autistics on their board, and only two-Stephen Shore and Valerie Paradiz. I have nothing wrong with these two individuals, certainly. I saw Stephen Shore speak at Johnson County Community College and thought he was wonderful, and I have heard well of Paradiz and am sure her work is top notch. I am sure neither of these people accepted their positions lightly, but that is not enough to turn around an organization, which, only months after finally appointing two autistics, endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 election-the man who mocked a disabled reporter on live television and believes vaccinations cause autism despite twenty years of overwhelming evidence. Blue, moreover, signifies AS's puzzle piece logo, already a red flag for representing autism and autistics as something to be put together rather than fitting together naturally, but is blue due to the notion that autism is more prevalent in boys than in girls, despite diagnostic criteria having a heavy male bias where autistic females are diagnosed much later than their male counterparts, particularly in low-income areas and rural communities, that they have been called "research orphans." Gold, on the other hand, is there because its chemical symbol Au is the first two letters of the word 'autistic,' and red, orange, taupe, and green symbolize other autistic symbols, such as a heart and spark of the Celebrate Autism Foundation, and promoted by groups with heavy board and membership autistic representation, large portions of income to autistic services, and positive representation of our abilities, such as the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education, the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, the Autistic Union, the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, and the Autism Women's Network. And for everyday of April, I will wear NO BLUE WHATSOEVER (except in my rainbow color Autism Acceptance Month shirt), but plenty of gold, red, taupe, orange, and green. I started doing this two years ago six days into April while still an undergraduate student at the University of Central Missouri, and did it all month long last year, and this year I will do it again. And let me tell, I do it to the letter.  The photo on this post is my new Facebook album cover.

Now, I have heard, on awareness versus acceptance, that awareness is necessary for acceptance. I am indeed for awareness (as in understanding autistic behaviors roles in processing and resulting from environmental factors), but let me put it this way. Imagine you are buying a bookshelve to assemble from IKEA (I know, I'm sorry) and awareness is the screws, while acceptance is the wood. You would not keep ordering tons and tons of screws and no wood hoping it could create a full shelf. Acceptance implies awareness. We have enough awareness, but awareness is not enough.
You can celebrate Autism Acceptance Month in many ways: art, poetry, donating to financially accountable charities, telling stories of yourself or others in your life who are autistic (as long as you do things like not telling private information against their wishes), and other things. There are limitless ways you can celebrate Autism Acceptance Month. April 2nd is Autism Acceptance Day, as opposed to Autism Awareness Day.

One last note: I know that many of you out there wear blue and celebrate Autism Acceptance Month because you care about a loved one or people out there, and I care that you care. If I did not, I would not be writing or doing this all. All I am asking is for all to consider that activism can go in wrong directions, and we as people can correct it. If you do not end up agreeing with me, I know at least that I can teach you something, and you all in return, many be able to teach me.

 

World Down Syndrome Day 2017

Today is World Down Syndrome Day, and at this point, I have to say I cannot help but remember my good friend, year-long roommate, and friend and "disability brother" Tyler Weekly. I would have a photo collage of all our selfies and pictures from our trip to Florida together if not for technological issues, but I will have it, and I will say that I (and all our number of great mutual friends) remember all that he is-the guy who I go to see movies where works at AMC in Olathe ...and can get me in-and then teases me when I cry during Passengers, how we spend nights watching plays at Starlight Theater where he is an usher captain, how he will spend the night while we watch The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and I will read him some of the books of Buddhist legends and folk tales I have and share with him stories from the autistic people, get to see him at the Spring Down Syndrome prom every year, who I saw Dr. Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Moana, The Accountant, Sing, The Great Will, The Lego Batman Movie, and Hidden Figures-for which I still have all the ticket stubs, and how he will always dream big, challenge me to go on with whatever I am doing, and, above all, remind me of why I love life so much. Seeing him will make me so glad that all the progress for people with Down syndrome that has happened and all that is in the process of happening, as well as that with autistic people and those with other disabilities.

The Past 2016 For Me

My year in brief, not withstanding the 2016 presidential election: starting to write for the first time in years and create dozens ideas my own for new novels, graphic novels, short stories, and fairy tales, most of them involving autistic and disabled characters, and, unlike with most stories portraying characters with said abilities, have well-rounded characters, distinct motivations and personas, and so on, who are not the only one if their kind in a world where autistics flat-out look like oddities, and even have their distinct cultural identity of their own autistic brethren, even to the point where neurotypicals actually begin to look like oddities. Like Shakespeare, Homer, and the Brothers Grimm, my stories do tend to be somewhat retellings of disability stories-from video games, artwork, internet memes, history, mythology, adaptations of classic stories, and even bits and pieces of old novels here and there from Neuroatypical authors-but with imagination, descriptive powers, imagery, and drawing from experiences that I happy to possess. This is the year also where I received A's in two of my graduate Disability Studies classes at UMKC, the other class from 2015 being one where I got a B, which brings my UMKC GPA to roughly 3.7. I have also started the process creating a distinct on-line video game involving people with disabilities that should appeal to a wide range of on-line gamers, and gotten some career breaks in UMKC's new Disability Propel program, the Missouri Developmental Disability Council, UMKC's Facing Project, writing disability-related articles, and so on. In addition, I have become more positive about finding romantic relationships, and made incredible headway in doing so (young disabled activist/scholar's lives can be incredibly lonely sometimes), gotten together more often with some of my close friends from over the years, seen former teachers and influences; finished over ten books I had gotten it was reading and over seventy graphic novels from other authors; worked thirty-two to forty hour work weeks most weeks depending on my course load; made over two hundred discarded produce bags worth of plarn with my own two hands and scissors; made several new environmentally repurposed crafts, drawings, and over a dozen new watercolors with my art teacher, Donna; and meet others with genuine interest and support of autistic and Neuroatypical people from around the country and around the world through close friends of mine. I was also wise enough to gently leave a former friend who I learned was talking about me behind my back and even went on long, unending rants at me on my own personal posts, that are no longer on those threads; and I happened to lose my cat Peter, who was nineteen, had arthritis, mostly blind and deaf, losing control of his bodily functions, and gave me so much love and support over the past years. Through all these things that I have said, I continue to be inspired by the stories others have told me, including fictional ones, and tell mine in the hopes you all will realize the power your own have. I have also happened to uncover more plots and devices affecting autistic people from self-aggrandizing groups and people who I have dealt with before as far back as Warrensburg and JCCC as recently as my lunch break yesterday afternoon.

My New Year's Resolution: hold close to the people who best understand me and support me, judging for myself who those people are, and learn to quit going out of my way to accomodate those who cannot understand me or accommodate me as well, kindly yet firmly if I can, whether they be family, friends, or caring individuals, I will know when the time comes; not bother when one cannot understand why I am the way I am or do things my way, not to keep being the one to pay each and every time they make the same mistake. History has taught me how a smaller, not larger number of people have changed the course of the world for the better, and when it comes to friends and allies, it IS QUALITY, not quantity that matters, never mind money, influence, or political backing. I know there are others who do not want to see me suffer, but they can stubborn and obtuse also, and I refuse to be weighed down by them any longer.