Sharing some crap from my other blog

The CEO of Autism Today posted this video on YOU TUBE......thinking somehow it would raise awareness for autism. AT best......she appears to be making light of hand flapping...a common characteristic of autistics. I see no purpose to this snippet she chose from a recent conference to use to promote autism awareness. It provides no information on autism...it shows a bunch of adults at a conference apparently with a lot of free time on their hands and not enough valuable information to share with themselves let alone others. HOW in the world did she think for one minute this would promot autism awareness? She has wasted an opportunity to use this medium in a very positive way. I am appalled. You watch it...then tell me if you were made more aware about anything to do with autism afterwards.




AND here are some comments I have received on it from another blog:

Debbie what a fucking moron!!! OMG and he works for them yeah right more like against.. Grrrrrrr

Melinda wrote today at 1:28 PM well Karen is the CEO of Autism Today. She sent me an email this morning to go watch this video. I was stunned when I watched it. I did not see HOW in the world she felt this promoted autism awareness. Maybe I am just in a pissy ass mood.....but this really sent me over the edge!

Keith wrote today at 1:30 PM some ppl are straight dumbasses so bad then

Melinda wrote today at 1:30 PM I am quickly becoming disenheartened with so many things

Melinda wrote today at 1:31 PM I sent her 2 emails back telling her how INAPPROPRIATE I felt this was. It is of no benefit. If anything it can be seen as making fun of a common characteristic of autistics. Sorry...I am in a shitty ass mood and this certainly did not help. I know I am in charge of my mood so I am going to have to go physically work this one out.

Melinda wrote today at 1:32 PM I also posted comments against the video snippet on You Tube...what a piece of shit work

Melinda wrote today at 1:32 PM I mean are you telling me out of ALL the snippets this was the best choice she could come up with???

Melinda wrote today at 1:34 PM okay......it has driven in me the need to do something I had thought about before anyway....and that is TO PROVIDE some good video feed of autism awareness. You Tube is a great medium to use....if used in the right manner. I had only posted small snippets of Noah and things he had done over time......I can do so much more. this has really really pissed me off to no end

Neal wrote today at 2:51 PM Speechless. What a jerk!

Loretta wrote today at 3:03 PM I found this appaling as well Melinda. My neighbors son has Autism as well and the medicine they perscribed caused Turrets syndrome as well. Its hard for me to understand Autism but I am trying since he plays with my son to become more informed. Any suggestions for learning about this? so I can be a better neighbor and friend.

Melinda wrote today at 3:25 PM that is great of you to "want" to find out more about autism Loretta. Here is a link that then offers a few more links...some good....some not so good....but it is a place to start: moreonautism

Melinda wrote today at 3:28 PM you can also find some information here : AutismSociety

Melinda wrote today at 3:29 PM and even here......it explains things pretty easily: CharacteristicsofAutism

Melissa wrote today at 3:37 PM I agree Melinda, out of all the snippets, this is the BEST they have? So sad and appalling.....

Melinda wrote today at 3:55 PM thanks melissa

Loretta wrote today at 3:59 PM Thank you very much Melinda. John is a good kid but he tests my patience .I know not meaning to. So it is very important for me to try to understand him rather then become frustrated . For instance he will ring my door bell 15-20 times between 3-5pm and refuses to speak to anyone else who answers the door then me. I want to be a good neighbor and friend to his mom.Her husband passed away the day before John turned nine and she is still young things are pretty tough on their family as it is but losing her mom last year only added to her heartaches. John was not diagnosed until he was seven .They knew he had some problems but they never found the answer till one of his teachers recognized signs .

Melinda wrote today at 4:02 PM yes it can be frustrating. They are very particular about things and can have a fit when things are not JUST SO. I have been working hard with Noah to get him to realize CHANGE IS OKAY and good and nothing to get upset about. It is very difficult to do but he is usually okay now with changes in routines and stuff like that....and if he gets upset it is very short-lived now.

Melinda wrote today at 4:05 PM this is a pretty good book too written by a young autistic boy....and told from his viewpoint but written by his mother: ImNotNaughtyImAutistic

Melinda wrote today at 4:07 PM and each child or person with autism can be different. While many share common characteristics......each has their own quirks

Loretta wrote today at 4:11 PM Yes Johns mom says she has never had to tell John to clean his room or pick up his toys because he does it on his own always has. But he also has become angry with her and punched her in the nose, knocked the screen door out, has broken several gameboys against his own forehead and etc. She seems to be trying to learn as much as possible to help her son right now is looking for the most qualified school in our area experienced in helping students with Autism. She said the main thing is being firm on rules and repeating them till he understands limits. I stand amazed at her courage and insight.

Melinda wrote today at 5:33 PM yes it can be exhausting sometimes. Noah has made huge progress but it was not always easy. Noah has also been very clean and never messy. He never liked to get messy. He actually had to learn to get messy hands as part of his occupational therapy believe it or not because he was so against getting his hands even in sand or shaving cream, seed, things most kids would naturally want to stick their hands in and play with. AND forget about finger paint...stuff like that. That took a long time. BUT Noah is good about putting his stuff away and keeping clean. He is super paranoid about his shoes and clothes not having any dirt or water on them

Melinda wrote today at 5:34 PM I am thankful Noah is not really angry or acting out on his anger anymore. He will occasionally have a slight frustrational fit...but it is fleeting and he rarely pushes or shoves or acts out. He did when he was in school though. That is why I homeschool him now.

Melinda wrote today at 5:34 PM just too much happened in school that would set him off. Including other kids picking up on his issues and purposefully trying to set him off.

Abi wrote today at 6:47 PM Melinda... I hate to be the dissenting voice here... but the "Badger Video" is hugely popular with teens and it has nothing to do with hand flapping or autism. It's just a video that kids find hilarious... and I gotta say that I have watched it a dozen times with various groups of kids who said "oh you gotta see this thing from blacksheep" and I laughed at the silly thing. This group thing looks like a million teacher conferences I have attended where they do the "break the tension" bit and let people relax. I'm not sure I see a hidden reference to hand flapping. I think this might just be a very poor attempt (poorly chosen attempt) to lighten up the presentation. I am sure the badger video in and of itself is not an autism reference. The badger song is one of many snips from albinoblacksheep.com and there are a zillion of them there. They are varied and ridiculous in nature, but not particularly motivated to making a statement of any particular kind. I'm not sure why Karen would choose to advertise her conference agenda on YouTube... I mean, showing people playing isn't exactly productive. Maybe she doesn't realize how prevalent this video clip "Badger" already is and maybe she thought she was being cute by tapping into the teen culture. But this is old news. Kids have been tuned in to albinoblacksheep for a long time. I am sorry that she offended you and that it seemed to make light of autism. Sometimes the moments people choose to share are so strange.

Melinda wrote today at 8:04 PM well I guess I could see the reference because THIS WAS AN AUTISM CONFERENCE......she is CEO of AUTISM TODAY. The MAN who was talking IS autistic.........HE KNEW the REFERENCE TO HAND FLAPPING.....that is WHY HE incorporated this snippet into the seminar. To be honest.....the CEO, Karen...emailed me and told me to watch this...it was to PROMOTE AUTISM AWARENESS. Did you learn anything about autism by watching it? The only thing she has done is drum up awareness about hand flapping and poked fun at it. Sorry......I don't take things like this lightly......and I do not find or see the humor in it. There are NUMEROUS other exercise activities one can choose to do at conferences and seminars. Personally when and if I fork out the kind of money they did to go to that conference I certainly would not be paying my money for a snippet of any exercise. They are all talking about it. It was indeed PURPOSEFULLY DONE...they CHOSE this BADGER crap.......because it mirrored hand flapping. Steve the guy talking at the start is autistic and he even admitted to it. I think it is in very poor taste and will do more damage and and turn more people away than anything.

Melinda wrote today at 8:05 PM AND NO where in the video is anything even mentioned about autism other than the WORDS on the screen at the start.......I myself do not see how anything on the video promoted AWARENESS of autism. It did promote awareness of the stupid BADGER video shit

Melinda wrote today at 8:07 PM this was her email to me: Hi Melinda, As you may know, "You Tube" is the most popular video sharing system online today. Since Autism can be sooooooooooo serious we thought we would add some fun to it. We also want to raise awareness of autism (as much as possible) and have put a fun clip of Stephen Shore and myself at our Vancouver conference online. Who knows, if you were at the Vancouver conference you may be in this clip! Please take a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iEfyvOhM6g Also, be sure to pass this along to your friends. If you think its kind of cute you can become a member of "You Tube" and post your response. this will help MORE people see the clip and also raise awareness. Also we hope to see you at one of our conferences in the future. Very Sincerely, Karen L Simmons Founder, CEO Autism Today Autism Today 1425 Broadway #444 Seattle, WA 98122 US

Melinda wrote today at 8:08 PM again....how the hell did that crap promote autism awareness? AND many who have autistic children or who are autistic.....highly resent the fact that she is trying to make fun of it in any degree. I totally resent her email even saying the shit about autism being soooooooooooooo serious. You are damn right it is serious. Make light of it? I don't think so.