This is what I think autism societies should be about: not mourning for what never was, but exploration of what is. We need you We need your help and your understanding. Your world is not very open to us and we wonβt make it without your strong support. Yes, there is tragedy that comes with autism: not because of what we are, but because of the things that happen to us. Be sad about that, if you want to be sad about something. Better than being sad about it, though, get mad about itβ and then do something about it. The tragedy is not that weβre here, but that your world has no place for us to be. How can it be otherwise, as long as our own parents are still grieving over having brought us into the world?
Jim Sinclair, Loud Hands
[This article was published in the Autism Network International newsletter, Our Voice, Volume 1, Number 3, 1993. It is an outline of the presentation Jim gave at the 1993 International Conference on Autism in Toronto, and is addressed primarily to parents.]
