ND vs NT...WTF???

As many of you are aware, my 'hangout' on the internet, if you will, has been a message board called AutismWeb. My wife and I have been registered on the board since June of 2005 shortly before we moved (someday I should document our M*A*S*H-like move in the summer of '05). Linda has been off of the board recently onto other internet quests, I spent much of the time arguing the finer points on the Media and Politics side.

I have watched a transformation of AutismWeb (and myself to a certain extent) from an almost exclusively biomedical bastion to becoming more balanced, for lack of a better word, in its collective thinking. It was a bloody bloody battle in the Politics group about six months to a year ago, and skirmishes still break out from time to time. But, science and data-backing have become the norm on the Media and Politics side.

This critical thinking comes at a price however; the price that anything that has a lack of full scientifically studied backing, will be attacked and sometimes mocked. I will grant you that some therapies are more dangerous than others; some are less 'proven'. But these biomed parents are betting a healthy amount of time money and effort on these therapies. To have them cast aside as unproven and therefore unworthy is an affront to their belief systems.

I finally got to that word 'belief'. At times, I watch the fights on the boards and liken them to almost religious fervor; or should I say, the 'faith'-based biomed vs the rationalists, doubting the existence of a supreme 'cure' being. If you've ever been in an argument with a friend about religion, it either was not a real argument or you no longer have a friend. Attacking one's religion is not something that is taken lightly, the concept of cure is somewhat at the heart of the issue.

The Neurodiverse consider the word 'cure' as an assault against who they are. Pretty reasonable request, to have the essence of who you are NOT be considered a disease to be erradicated. The perception of having a war declared almost against your very existence could be very unnerving.

Being one who has wound up somewhere on the border of this war zone, in the no-man's land, I have a somewhat unique view of both sides, their weeknesses and strengths. Why people who have so much in common yet seem to be diametrically opposed to one another is beyond me. It's like those at the former Berlin Wall or those fighting in the Middle or near Far-east. We pit brother against brother, relative against relative. The two sides are so much alike. But each pushes the others hot buttons, we have two different ideologies facing off.

I guess all I'm saying is "can't we all just get along"? We have so much to fight for: better services; discrimination; research. But, I know like Palestinians and Jews; Indians and Pakistanies; North and South; we have a long way to go toward better understanding