To the Editor:
Re “Autistic Folks Level to Full Lives as Rebuttal to Kennedy’s Dire Declare” (information article, April 19):
I’m a part of the autistic inhabitants that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the well being secretary, claims “destroys” kids and households.
Once I was rising up, my mother and father have been terrified that I might critically damage them or myself. I slammed my head into partitions, spit and ran away. My dysregulation, medical wants and incapacity to successfully talk led to many interactions with regulation enforcement and hospital staff. My household was informed they wanted to ship me away.
Somebody from the skin would possibly say I used to be “destroying” our household. This discuss isn’t new; autistic individuals like me are continuously made to suppose we’re burdens.
However Mr. Kennedy has a platform and energy. His phrases matter. These of us who’ve been recognized as “extreme” or “profound” can in reality stay and thrive. We should deal with sustaining and constructing the assets, companies and instruments that allow us to stay full lives. When leaders disparage us and put money into doubtful analysis, it diverts consideration away from our humanity and the issues we want.
Mr. Kennedy has a possibility and the duty to make a optimistic influence moderately than stirring a bleak narrative about our lives.
Jordyn Zimmerman
Hudson, Ohio
The author is nonspeaking autistic and is the chair of the board of administrators of CommunicationFIRST, a civil rights group that serves individuals who want assist to speak.
To the Editor:
I used to be oddly shocked, although not shocked, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s feedback on autism. What a approach to mark Autism Acceptance Month!
As a psychologist skilled in autism evaluation and analysis, I anticipate extra from a U.S. well being secretary. In my function, I’ve spoken with many mother and father of autistic kids about how you can assist and nurture hope for his or her baby’s future. Feedback like Mr. Kennedy’s promote concern and additional stigmatize autism.
Ongoing respectable scientific efforts will assist us higher perceive autism and the elements concerned. This information is important for households — to allow them to actually perceive their baby and entry the assist wanted to assist them thrive.
Erlanger Turner
Los Angeles
The author is a medical psychologist and a former president of the Society for Little one and Household Coverage and Observe.
To the Editor:
Roughly one-quarter of all autism diagnoses are “profound” — that means that it’s doubtless that the kid will want lifelong care or assist. The opposite three-quarters embody all types of ready human beings.
I’ve an excellent stepson and organic daughter, each of whom are “on the spectrum.” The boy is presently making ready for school and is happy about his first summer time job. My daughter, a school graduate, has labored for Microsoft and Google.
Our household and the world have been enriched by the lives of our kids, not destroyed.
James R. Brown
St. Simons Island, Ga.
To the Editor:
I used to be recognized with autism in 2022, once I was 33, and phrases like “all brains are totally different” gained hopeful acceptance. However rising up, I used to be continuously terrified, determined to cover what I apprehended was unsuitable with me. My first reminiscence at age 4 is of hiding my conduct: rocking and self-biting.
I used to be capable of “masks,” getting by as a very delicate child, a “little professor” who wrote her first philosophy at age 10. In my teenagers, the immense effort of masking destroyed my well being, leading to violent meltdowns and persistent ache and sickness, which plagued me into maturity.
My grownup analysis enabled me to lastly perceive my challenges. I’ve grow to be probably the most “purposeful” (to make use of the ableist time period favored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) I’ve ever been. I’m a broadcast author and educator. My therapist lately noticed how a lot more healthy and extra assured I’ve grow to be since. Sure, I nonetheless battle. However embracing my wants is what saved me.
Mr. Kennedy is unsuitable. Autism doesn’t want a treatment. Society does. As a substitute of seeing us as issues, society should embrace and assist autistic individuals.
Sarah Jane Cody
Westhampton, Mass.
The author is the creator of “Bathrobe Gal,” a webcomic about her life as an autistic lady.
To the Editor:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the top of the Division of Well being and Human Providers, an company whose acknowledged obligation is to “improve the well being and well-being of all People,” is now utilizing his energy to demean and dehumanize autistic individuals. Take into consideration that.
Autism isn’t a illness. My baby isn’t a tragedy. My household has not been destroyed by autism. Utilizing the language of eradication to explain a inhabitants of individuals isn’t solely hurtful; it’s also harmful. We now have been right here earlier than in our historical past.
Mr. Kennedy isn’t match for the job he was handed. He doesn’t care about individuals with autism. He doesn’t care about my baby or our household.
Jenny Value Smith
Verona, Wis.
To the Editor:
As a neuroscientist and father to a exceptional autistic daughter, I strongly reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s declare that rising autism charges signify a preventable epidemic.
The rise in autism diagnoses displays higher consciousness, broader standards and better fairness for marginalized teams — not a disaster. Mr. Kennedy’s language revives dangerous myths about vaccines and “toxins,” stigmatizing households and distracting from what actually issues: assist and inclusion.
Autism doesn’t have to be “cured” or “prevented” — autistic individuals want lodging, entry to well being care and alternatives to thrive. My daughter, like thousands and thousands of others, advantages from assistive applied sciences and acceptance, not fearmongering. Mr. Kennedy’s strategy, together with hiring discredited researchers, dangers losing assets and fueling discrimination.
As a substitute of chasing imaginary causes, we should put money into therapies, schooling and neighborhood helps, guided by autistic voices.
Distinction isn’t a defect — it’s a supply of energy, innovation and empathy. That’s the long run my daughter and all autistic individuals deserve.
David Ruttenberg
Boca Raton, Fla.
Trump vs. Universities
To the Editor:
Re “In Boston, Land of Schools, a Funding Assault Strikes at Its Core” (entrance web page, April 7):
President Trump’s wrecking ball administration threatens all elements of our democratic authorities. With the ability of the purse, he extends his dictatorial calls for over schooling, and significantly establishments of upper studying.
Nonetheless troublesome it will likely be to face agency in opposition to Mr. Trump’s calls for, school and college directors shouldn’t succumb. These with enough endowments ought to use these funds to avoid wasting applications Mr. Trump would decimate. And Harvard has set a brave instance.
No matter endowments, all directors ought to start huge fund-raising efforts from each pupil, previous and even current, and the mother and father/guardians of these college students.
Many donations will likely be giant, however even those who will likely be small will add as much as important alternative funding.
As a guardian of 4 school graduates, I trusted their faculties to impart a high quality schooling to them — not an schooling dictated by the likes of Mr. Trump. I’m prepared to jot down 4 checks proper now, and I’m positive they’re as properly.
Carol Harrington
Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “Some Donors Need Harvard to Again Down” (entrance web page, April 23):
I contemplate any college, regulation agency, information media firm, public faculty system or different group that has resisted the Trump administration’s threats to impose its values on them to be heroes defending not simply their very own establishments but additionally democracy for all of us. And people organizations which have caved to inappropriate calls for should not.
To the Editor:
Re “Rubio Eyes Massive Cuts at State Dept., Affecting Employees in U.S. and Overseas” (information article, April 23):
I’m an immigrant whose mother and father have been fortunate sufficient to come back from Jap Europe to america six a long time in the past. To them and to so lots of their compatriots, the U.S. was the promised land.
I’m an outdated citizen now — I’ve had the privilege of being an American for a few years — however I’m deeply depressed and anxious in regards to the course that our current authorities is bent on.
For thus lengthy, we’ve been a beacon of cause, generosity and hope. The hallmarks of our democracy are being undermined each day by this administration. I can solely hope that sufficient lawmakers will come to their senses and return us to the nation that we was once.
Emanuel Ax
New York
The author is the classical pianist.
