The Autism Bandwagon...

More and more, I've been seeing two things: people blaming Autism for the shooting in Newtown, and people angry because someone is blaming Autism for the shooting in Newtown. Personally, I believe it's like Ronald Reaggan said: " we must not make society responsible for the act of one individual.". This is a paraphrase, of course.

People are angry, and people are scrambling for answers. One of the scariest things is when we're listening to news all day and they are reporting what is coming in over the wires as it's being sent out. These are all pieces of information that the public must now sort through... and so many unconfirmed news reports are given as though they are facts.

Just because the media happens to report that this young man had Autism, does not mean that having Autism is what caused him to commit this horrible crimes. The thing is... The media itself isn't even sure of it's story yet... They're just reading from scripts and teleprompters, and cue cards, and updates that come in over wires, as the news is going on. They have earpieces in, in case someone needs to tell them how to pronounce something or whether they need to switch over to something else. The point being that everything is quite carefully put together for TV. The bits of information given out are usually worded and edited a certain way so that the news will have a certain angle (often depending on audience and ratings.). I believe that since the Connecticut shooting, the angle of Autism has been very heavily relied upon, and presented as a POSSIBLE reason why these brutal killings took place.

The problem is that this POSSIBLE factor becomes over stated so many times, that the public has it fed in to their subconscious minds as being the FACTUAL reason... Not just a possibility in a labyrinth of unanswered questions. Now truthfully, I don't even believe that Autism is a POSSIBLE reason he could've committed these murders. I believe that uncontrolled rage and anger caused this boy to commit these murders, pure and simple. But the real truth is this: The reasons that this boy committed these murders to begin with are NONE OF MY BUSINESS. I am not related to these families, nor am I connected to them in any way, therefore, in my personal opinion, I have no business even speculating on how this possibly could have happened. I am happy to be able to offer my prayers and express empathy, but beyond that, my personal opinion and speculation are inappropriate.

These are very private matters that the family needs to be able to work through on their own. I say, God be with them as the entire world guesses what could've caused this. I think we must remember that the media takes whatever is there and reports it, regardless of how connected with a story it actually is. It's like all they can really do, is duck out of the way and go..."Did you see that?". Doesn't mean it's FACT. It just means, this is all I have right at this moment, so there it is.

The fact is, we don't know why this young man did this. Another fact is, we cannot ask his mother what really happened because she's dead. But I think nothing frightens us more than the unknown... so as long as we don't know... we turn the news on to try and find out, right? It's more of the same speculation, over and over. People who desperately feel for these individuals want some kind of emotional connection with them right? I know I have. So, it begins to be suggested, why this possibly could've happened. News stories need angles, because they need audiences, right? (Otherwise, what's the point, right?).

Let's face it, the angle of Autism is a huge one because, understandably, it really affects people emotionally. In this case, this is very unfortunate, because Autism is being labeled as the culprit... The reason that this boy did this. So it outrages people, and they feel the need to defend what they believe ( whether it's true or not, and WHY it is or it isn't.). Now, this is not a bad thing. We should say how we feel about things; but in the middle of all this speculation, how many arguments start? How many toes are stepped on? How many feelings are hurt and how many people are unecessarily viianized because they happen to match what the media seems to be portraying? Autistic children, for example. Are they dangerous simply because they are Autistic? Of course not! But with Adam Lanza's Autism being labeled as a factor in these murders, we are frozen by fear again, and wondering how to prevent what's bad, rather Then embracing what's good.

I would challenge people to remember that the word Autism simply means "self". It does not mean dangerous or threatening.