Carter talks sense

Published on 6 April 2010 in Autism, Families, Musings, News and Policy. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I rarely point to posts on the Huffington Posts, but an entry by Liane Kupferberg Carter entitled “Autism: A time for civility” deserves recognition. Ms. Carter, the mother of a child with Autism, notes how factionation (if I may create than word) among people with interests in Autism has created divides not needed. The basic notion is that in contemporary diagnoses, Autism reflects a diverse spectrum of disorders. Educators, parents, policy-makers, and others need to accept the diversity and not fight among ourselves. Ms. Carter makes this point well. I encourage readers to read her post.

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6 Responses to “Carter talks sense”

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  • Liz Ditz
    7 April 2010 at 12:53 pm

    She does talk sense.

    Open debate that is not personal, petty or mean. There’s just too much at stake. How can we expect Congress to listen to us, when we are so divided among ourselves?

    However, there is still, erm, a glaring lack here…

    Age of Autism regularly lies about those it sees as opponents. It famously exaggerated Paul Offit’s earnings from the vaccine, Rotateq, stated that he voted for its inclusion in the vaccine schedule and was reprimanded by a congressional committee. All false. None withdrawn.

    Another bete noir for AoA is Richard Roy Grinker, whom they regard as an “epidemic denialist.” GRINKER’S STINKER: HIS WIFE RUNS THE IACC was their response to the news that Joyce Chung was the new executive secretary of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. Apparently being married to someone AoA disagrees with makes you open to corruption.

    They accused Simon Baron-Cohen of lacking humanity because he wrote about the positive aspects of autism. Eric Fombonne, Catherine Lord and Bennet Leventhal were called parasites because they gave evidence against the vaccine autism connection. They have campaigned against Julie Geberding when she was director of the CDC because, like Simon Baron-Cohen she “lacked humanity” for failing to agree that there was a vaccine induced autism epidemic.

    None of these posts have been taken down. No corrections have been published. No apologies have been made….

  • JohnL
    7 April 2010 at 7:01 pm

    Liz, thanks for the comment and the analysis. I’m wondering if Ms. Carter should be charged with duplicity because others didn’t remove posts?

    I’m probably not as well-informed about the battles between groups as I should be (sorry). Is AoA a bad batch? A good bunch? Who are they who accuse so-and-so of embracing the wrong view?

    I hope we can stick to the arguments. Which argument (not which position by someone whom we see as villain or savior) accords with evidence and reason.

  • Marc
    9 April 2010 at 11:43 am

    JohnL. Liane did not write the quotes provided by Liz Ditz. They came from http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2010/04/a-clarification/ a British organization.

    What posts was she supposed to remove?

  • JohnL
    10 April 2010 at 5:20 am

    Marc, you’re right about the source for the extract that Liz posted. The group-authored post from LBRB was commenting on the criticisms leveled by AoA at others, and the LBRB post noted that none of the posts presenting those arguments have be removed from the AoA site.

    I think that Ms. Carter’s call for civility has merit, even if it includes behaving civilly toward people who have said things the someone else considers foolish, inaccurate, or even hurtful. Sorry if my earlier comment did not communicate this clearly.

  • Marc
    10 April 2010 at 11:08 am

    JohnL, Thanks for the response. I agree with you about the need for civility even if you disagree with the other person. Something our public officials need to learn and practice as well (a bi-partisan statement).

  • JohnL
    12 April 2010 at 7:43 pm

    Marc, you nailed it when you mentioned public officials. I don’t know whether the ‘dialog’ (yes, I’m hedging with those quotes) is as disrespectful in other countries or news areas as it is in the US, but I hope it’s not. Can’t we just listen and talk?

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