But, Hey, What do I Know? (response to hate letter given to autistic child's grandmother)
I thought of a million ways of how to start writing this, but none of them seemed completely on point, none of them seemed accurate. I’m sure by now most, if not all of us, have heard about the hate letter delivered to an autistic boy’s grandmother by a neighbour. Being an individual with special needs myself, I have Spinal Muscular Atrophy, I felt like I needed to get some things off of my chest. In a world where tolerance of "abnormalcy" is growing, most people were probably surprised that the thoughts in a letter like this would even be brought to mind, let alone be typed out on a computer. Well, I’m here to tell you that discrimination against individuals with special needs still exists, and hurts more than ever. The reason it hurts more than ever? Because we have come so far, and yet eternity is still yet to go. If this were forty, thirty, or possibly even twenty years ago, this individual with Autism wouldn’t have even been able to see the light of d