Dreams of A Young Man with Autism

As in all my previous articles, I have disclosed I have a non verbal child with Autism. I have tried to keep the majority of his life off of Hubpages because I believe he is entitled to privacy but I want everyone reading this to know he has dreams, hopes and ambitions just like anyone else in the world. He is perhaps the most disenfranchised person in the world. Well all of the children with Autism are disenfranchised. You can’t get a politician to openly speak about the autism epidemic going on in this country or how to address it. Autism is shoved in the closest like it is the 1950(s) and segregation and discrimination against children with Autism is openly practiced throughout America. Even worse it reminds of the 1980(s) when my GodFather had AIDS and everyone in government ignored this national health crisis. People with Autism is being shunned just like people with AIDS were in the 1980(s).

We travel to Ohio. Obama’s Aunt stays in Ohio. We know people who know people but we have never all met. Alex watched some of the war coverage in the beginning but I soon shut it off because I thought it was racist. I thought America was going down the wrong road with racism and while America could take itself down that road, my son wasn’t along for the trip. As a matter of fact my son has been taught the opposite. He has been taught not to dislike anyone based on the color of their skin or their religious beliefs. After 9/11 we hung out with Arabs who would be considered suspicious by our government but I never let my son worry because I knew we were safe. So my son who has Autism has been hanging out with every race on the planet since 9/11 and he gets along just fine. He used to watched George Bush but he knew that George Bush had over reacted to 9/11. Bush had alienated a lot of good people in the world. And if George Bush didn’t like the Arabs, a child with autism didn’t have a chance to be embraced. I tried to tell my son George Bush was well intend but George Bush never did come through for children with autism so my son was right.

I should mention we are all Republican but Florida Republicans are different then other Republicans. We are more focused on National Security, the Economy and Foreign Relations than most Republicans and we carry the skills to be successful at it.

So when Barack Obama came on to the scene, a black man who was an outsider, my son thought it was his time to be embraced. He was certain Barack knew what it felt like to be isolated and alone and not loved by his country. He thought for certain Barack would embrace all the children with Autism.

We have a complicated communication system which I will not go into here but I will explain one of the first things my son explained to me, “Damn, I am not black.”. I told my son that was ridiculous as black men 50 years ago would have given anything to be white. But my son’s obsession with Barrack Obama took a life of its own. My son would troll the channels just waiting to hear Barrack speak. And the next thing my son said was, “A black president is not going to let segregation continue.”. My Mother had cancer and I was hiding my son’s obsession with Barrack Obama from her as she use to run the junior Republican Club. I have tried not to explain the difference in political ideology to my child as I believe politics is for those who are old enough to vote.

As a treat I take my son to the book store and I let him buy I book. It can be any book of his choosing. I pray it is an inexpensive one. During his obsession with Barrack Obama I had to buy him a book on Barrack Obama and read it to him behind my Mother’s back. I hid it from her. He would read it too but I would have to explain and screen the material as I went.

I quite literally remembering my son shoving me out the room and closing the door because I was speaking when Barrack was speaking on TV. I yelled through the door, “You know you are Republican! Everyone in your family for the last 200 years has been Republican except one and she was practically an outcast.”. She actually worked for FDR. My son’s basic response was Barrack, the new Black president, has come to liberate the oppressed and raise them up. I yelled back through the door, “No he isn’t. It is only a sales line.”. And my son answered me, “Shh!!" And he retorted angrily, ". And you said "The Price is Right" is always fixed so the Marine wins.”.

My son had such hopes of being included over the past several years. But instead he got to watch his grandmother die a slow painful agonizing death from Cancer without Hospice. We all wanted to believe things can change and we all want them to but we can’t buy every sales pitch every politician puts out there. No one has yet been able to address Autism in DC. That seems like a really simple thing to do. There is a Czar for everything. Why not one for Autism as well?

I can’t tell you how excited my son was Barrack Obama became president and how much he worshiped him. He believed in him. He hung on his every word and had so much faith in President Obama that he would help him. It was exciting for me to see my son engaged in politics but it wouldn’t have been the party I would have chosen him to associate with. But given I am trying to save all of that for when he is older and allow him free will so I can't really complain.

My son no longer hangs on Barrack Obama’s every word. He has given up hope that he will make any substantive change in his life. I don’t know if he will ever meet Barrack Obama or if he would be excited because he used to be pretty obsessed with him. I don’t think I will every have to worry about that. Perhaps now my son can switch back to being the Republican as he was always intended to be but I doubt he will believe a politician again. I think even my 11 year old son with autism is hard pressed to believe change is possible any longer.

Like many children my son has now developed the dream of becoming president. And he has the attitude that it is a mostly a front man position anyways. My son is certain he wants to be the first person with Autism to be President. I don’t shoot down his dream as I just can’t do it to him. It is a bold beautiful dream and he sincerely wants to end oppression of other human beings and included everyone in society. So when he tells me this I try to come up with ideas of how having Autism could be beneficial as President.

Here is the list:

You don’t speak so:

a) Debates are out.

b) No interruptions of prime time TV for an address.

c) No declarations of war or peace.

d) No gaffs or being caught on microphone accidentally.

e) If forced to communicate use augmentative communication and get the right answers from one of your really smart advisors.

I do think it would be a shame for my son to go another year without being embraced by his country. But I do recognize that this country has been disenfranchising more and more people every single day in the name of wealth for the few. I just hope that my son’s pure boyhood dream doesn’t die in the leadership of Barrack Obama who he believed in so much he would shut me out of the room and ignore me. Because even young man who has autism has dreams of one day being president and those dreams should be encouraged and not neglected to die.

As I write this two years later my son's obsession with his president is not completely gone. He still adores President Obama and in two weeks we will be in DC despite the fact it is shut down. We have been informed my son will not be able to meet the President. Given DC is shut down, home and collecting paychecks we are going on faith.

Too bad my son listened to the entire State of the Union speech and sat up all night listening to the political commentary.

Fortunately, where his country does not have love for the young man with autism, the young disenfranchised man still has love for his country, president and the leaders of his nation. My son has started to notice girls so I hope he switches obsessions from politics to girls. As his Mother, I think I can only handle one obsessions at a time.

Where the country fails, my son who happens to have autism will arrive in DC with all the optimism and patriotism for his country. Sad he is not embraced by his country. They could learn a lot from him.