My autistic child doesn’t need to be “cured.”
As an attorney and lobbyist, I’ve developed thick skin. But Health Secretary Kennedy’s cruel, uninformed, and dangerous words have hung with me since they dribbled out of his mouth.
I am the proud — profoundly proud — parent of an autistic child. Secretary Kennedy has no idea what he’s talking about. My exceptional daughter’s different mind presents unmistakable challenges, but those same differences gleam like a diamond when the right light hits them. Even at 12, she is a gifted artist, brilliant satirist and insightful thinker.
Autistic people do pay taxes. They do write poems. They play baseball (although my daughter prefers ballet) and hold jobs — and even if they do not, they deserve to exist exactly as they are, whether Secretary Kennedy values them or not.
There is nothing to cure. The autistic mind’s fundamental differences arise as the very first neurons flicker to life, a network of synapses more interconnected, more complex, and more completely perceiving the sensory world around them.
Autism is not something we should seek to eradicate but embrace. I say embrace. Not “tolerate” or “include,” or “accept.” Those words whisper what Secretary Kennedy howled at the moon. These extraordinary minds are becoming more prevalent in our world because we need them.
The world needs minds that are more sensitive, more perceptive, more holistic and complex. Neurodiversity fires the forges of creativity and insight that move our society forward. Once you look for it you see it everywhere, throughout human history — in brilliant artists, genius scientists, in prophets and rebels and saints.
Do not cure my daughter. Instead shine a light on her diamond of a mind, that we may all see the world, hard and bright and clear as she does — full of iridescent complexity and scintillating beauty.
Joe Silverzweig, Murray
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