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Oh my God, this is adorable and powerful at the same time.
While RFK Jr. continues to defile the Department of Health and Human Services with conspiracy theories and deliberate scapegoat tactics against the autistic spectrum community (and also subjecting kids to die from measles since he can't figure out whether or not vaccines give people diseases [here's a hint: they don't]), bright spots of nascent innocence are pushing back. And since I assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at my awesome job -- working with people with cerebral palsy and autism, for example -- I'm always up for more proof that this is not a community to be scapegoated simply because it's not politically advantageous or because politicians of late have a stubborn refusal to do their jobs because it would looking away from their power-driven agendas.
So I came across this inspiring YouTube through a link from a corresponding article from Daily Kos which shows a New Jersey 4th grader who goes by "Teddy" delivering a masterfully written statement of rebuttal to RFK Jr's agenda of ignorance and stigmatization by calling for more education about autism and acceptance of people with disabilities rather than ostracization. Teddy poignantly ends his speech with the mission statement of his district, Princeton Public Schools.
And here's a good point: no child is born hating another person because they're different. And children in their early years don't harbor the animosity and violent urges that today's adults tend to. Don't ask me -- just look up some of the greatest Nelson Mandela quotes, and you'll see what I'm talking about. They are taught to conform and embrace toxic ideologies because of the culture and political climate of their own country. Kids often question their parents about why they support the idea of killing people in another country over an attack on this soil, and it burns their parents to have to explain, especially if they are politically attached. Kids also ask the same on the "other", and why they're supposed to loathe and wish death on them, and again, parents feel a small pang of guilt as they try to justify it because of politics and culture dynamics. Well, I can see it doesn't work, because one cannot make children into killing machines just to serve political affiliations. Maybe society needs to take a hint from today's children, revisit that point of innocence for themselves so we can all remember that hatred isn't ingrained in our genes -- it never was. Hatred is TAUGHT and LEARNED, as hateful people have hypocritically and futilely attempted to "prove" over and over about people who teach empathy.
YouTube video shows an autistic Jersey 4th grader strike down RFK's harmful autism stigma -- with class and pragmatism.
While RFK Jr. continues to defile the Department of Health and Human Services with conspiracy theories and deliberate scapegoat tactics against the autistic spectrum community (and also subjecting kids to die from measles since he can't figure out whether or not vaccines give people diseases [here's a hint: they don't]), bright spots of nascent innocence are pushing back. And since I assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at my awesome job -- working with people with cerebral palsy and autism, for example -- I'm always up for more proof that this is not a community to be scapegoated simply because it's not politically advantageous or because politicians of late have a stubborn refusal to do their jobs because it would looking away from their power-driven agendas.
So I came across this inspiring YouTube through a link from a corresponding article from Daily Kos which shows a New Jersey 4th grader who goes by "Teddy" delivering a masterfully written statement of rebuttal to RFK Jr's agenda of ignorance and stigmatization by calling for more education about autism and acceptance of people with disabilities rather than ostracization. Teddy poignantly ends his speech with the mission statement of his district, Princeton Public Schools.
And here's a good point: no child is born hating another person because they're different. And children in their early years don't harbor the animosity and violent urges that today's adults tend to. Don't ask me -- just look up some of the greatest Nelson Mandela quotes, and you'll see what I'm talking about. They are taught to conform and embrace toxic ideologies because of the culture and political climate of their own country. Kids often question their parents about why they support the idea of killing people in another country over an attack on this soil, and it burns their parents to have to explain, especially if they are politically attached. Kids also ask the same on the "other", and why they're supposed to loathe and wish death on them, and again, parents feel a small pang of guilt as they try to justify it because of politics and culture dynamics. Well, I can see it doesn't work, because one cannot make children into killing machines just to serve political affiliations. Maybe society needs to take a hint from today's children, revisit that point of innocence for themselves so we can all remember that hatred isn't ingrained in our genes -- it never was. Hatred is TAUGHT and LEARNED, as hateful people have hypocritically and futilely attempted to "prove" over and over about people who teach empathy.
YouTube video shows an autistic Jersey 4th grader strike down RFK's harmful autism stigma -- with class and pragmatism.
