Family In Shock After Hate Letter Targets Teen With Autism

[Butterbean]

Source: City News Toronto

A family is in shock and a community has united after an anonymous hate letter was written about a young boy living with severe autism.

Karla Begley told CityNews her son Max, 13, stays with his grandmother in the morning during the summer time. It was at that home in Newcastle where letter was delivered on Friday.

“I was shaking when I was reading it,” Brenda Millson, Max’s grandmother, told CityNews. “It’s awful words. You don’t know why somebody would ever do such a thing.”

The typed, one-page letter refers to the young boy as a “nuisance” and a “wild animal” before suggesting the family move or “euthanize” the child.

Read more: http://www.citynews.ca/2013/08/18/family-in-shock-after-hate-letter-targets-teen-with-autism/

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I hope it's a hoax. I just can't even go there with this. If it's real, people this mean don't deserve to exist.

[BainsBane]

1. I'm not sure what you mean by a hoax

They clear planned to cause distress to the family, and they accomplished that goal.
Are you suggesting the mother wrote it herself?

[quakerboy]

33. That was my first thought

It is so hyperbolic and ugly, its hard to believe that even a hateful moron could put it to paper.


Then again, there are some terrible people out there. Any how you slice it, whoever wrote that letter deserves a big ol helping of STFU and with a side of public exposure. In my opinion.

[BainsBane]

36. That a mother could fabricate such a letter is difficult for me to imagine

particularly after watching the video of her. Of course anything is possible, but I think it far more likely some horrible neighbor wrote the letter.

[KamaAina]

2. Hate crimes against people with disabilities are real

and all too common.

[Butterbean]

5. I know. This kind of thing is just so........graphic.

I mean good freaking lord, suggesting she euthanize the kid and donate his "non-retarded" body parts to science? REALLY??!?!!!?? Who the hell has thoughts like that go through their freaking HEAD?

[Demeter]

27. Some of my neighbors

They objected to my daughter's adverse reaction to medication and got her into foster care. It took 5 months, $11,000 in legal expenses, interrogation by the police detective, a near death experience for the daughter and I just missed being accused of felony assault.

[KamaAina]

7. Here's an example from Portland

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/08/flier_targets_portlands_disabl.html

A flier targeting Portland’s disabled residents is being posted across the city, Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights confirmed today. The office has found fliers in the Laurelhurst, Irvington and Southeast Belmont areas, and The Oregonian has confirmed postings in Eliot, as well.

The most recent flier -- signed by the anonymous “Artemis of the Wild” -- promises to reveal the names of 16 people in the Laurelhurst neighborhood who vote and receive disability payments. "The names of these people are being posted where they can be seen by taxpayers and the neighborhood can decide who is truly disabled," it reads.

“The tone of the note has underlying notes of violence,” said Jeff Selby, a spokesman for the office of equity and human rights. “If someone threatens to post your name, that just seems to us like vigilantism. It’s very threatening and that’s what bothers us....

“There are a lot of indignities you have to face being disabled already,” said Noah Dundas, a St. Johns native who suffers with the degenerative muscular disease inclusion body myositis. “Every day of my life, even if you don’t have this flier up, I have people staring at me, treating me differently. We’re targeted already, even if people aren’t verbalizing it and putting it into threats. I feel sad for humanity that we have sunk so low that we are targeting people who are indefensible.”

[Butterbean]

10. Saw that one too. Okay, you're right, I shouldn't be surprised, should I? SMDH.

I always tell my friends and family that one thing that is so frustrating about autism is that it's "invisible." People give you the hairy eyeball so much because they can't see anything "wrong" with your kid, therefore it must be bad parenting/laziness/bratty child/etc.. Same for disability payments with that person. S/he can't "see" the disability, therefore it doesn't exist. Tell that to someone with Lupus, MS, etc..

[Stargazer09]

15. What the hell?

The whole premise seems to be that disabled people can vote for more money whenever they want to do so.

And the idea that "the neighborhood can decide who is truly disabled" and who is not is ludicrous. It sounds like they are trying to get the neighbors to ensure the disabled people are truly disabled, as in "go hurt them to make them earn their benefits."

Sometimes, I just don't understand how people can be so evil.

[Bandit]

16. The letter expresses such ignorance it has to be from a Republican

Apparently if you are disabled you should not be allowed to vote.

[Skittles]

22. CORRECT

the idea that disabilities must be visible enough to be diagnosed by non-doctors is very disturbing but common among conservatives

[Butterbean]

3. No. I'm suggesting that it could have been written by a bored teenager or something.

I dunno. To think that another mother could write something with such hate and vitriol about someone's special needs child is just something I can't wrap my head around. Here's a link that shows the entire text of the letter:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/the-incredibly-offensive-letter-sent-to-a-mother-with-an-aut

[alp227]

4. Well, something very similar happened near Colorado Springs recently

see this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023451270

Shouldnt be too surprising that this incident in Canada is real.

[Butterbean]

6. Yeah, I saw that, that was pretty awful. n/t

[Deep13]

8. I'm thinking the autistic kid knows more about human decency...

...than the author of the letter.

[RavensChick]

24. Exactly!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Any similarities (modus operandi, paper, printer) to the hate letters sent to Kingston lesbians? nt

[Butterbean]

12. No, about the only thing they have in common is they're both typed and

full of grammatical and spelling errors. The flavor and tone of the Kingston lesbian letter is much more sinister and quiet, the tone of this one is loud and just flat out mean. Does that make sense?

[Posteritatis]

21. Probably not. "Asshole" isn't a rare affliction. (nt)

[Blue_Tires]

11. Probably sent by some bratty 14-year-old who thinks he's a comedian...

[Butterbean]

13. I really really hope so, at least there's hope for teaching a 14 year old (maybe).

An adult with children is already a lost cause, and is most likely poisoning their children with their same hateful attitudes.

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. It happened to a person with whom I work.

The story was on local TV news about the "out of control" young adult with autism at the playground beating up a small child and the local police "who refuse to press charges".

The story was also almost entirely a fabrication told by the childs parent (which explains why police didn't file charges) but unfortunately the caregivers who were there were ordered to not comment about it to the press.

The story does sell soap though, because there's nothing so contemptible as a young adult with a developmental disability.

[freshwest]

17. No surprise to me. And I don't think a kid wrote it, either. I've met people like this IRL.

[Butterbean]

19. I shudder at the thought of anyone with that much venom and hatred actually

walking around in free society.

[freshwest]

20. Try a school meeting or in a legislature. Or where I first found the euthanize them meme, a

message board for the Libertarian Party ten years ago agreeing with what the letter says. Not getting a job and others footing the bill as part of the social contract, were laid out clearly.

We've seen this promoted by the Tea Party, their spiritual kin if not their full-blood allies. In other words, disabled people are 'worthless mouths.'

The disabled such as this boy actually were the first on the list in the Third Reich and that was the term used. It was for that reason that some were removed to protect them from those who said, just as we have been hearing, that the taxpayers should not pay for services.

I was in meetings with veterans supporting care for the disabled, who went through Germany and saw what happens when you think that way. They said they had not gone to war to see that happen here.

And the attitude does not stop with certain groups on the right. It's part of this world view that says when it's most extreme:

'Look, climate change! Ecological disaster from XYZ! Gotta get real, do it the way mother nature would! Get rid of these guys, we're gonna need the food.'

Yes, it comes from both sides. The UBUNTU story here on DU is not on the minds of many people. They are not looking at a vibrant world of people and how to survive being cooperative.

They are panicked and looking to survive their version of the zombie apocalpyse. Believe me, there are people who hate these guys and want them dead. Period.

Scary stuff, and I know many parents of disabled people who are terrified of what will happen when they pass on.

[sheshe2]

35. I saw the letter posted on another OP.

It is ugly, and evil, freshwest. Max is such a beautiful child, that someone feels the need to destroy.

I would love to say that this is unbelievable, but I know that it is not. Pro-lifers are the death panels for the born child.

To the parents of these children, I salute them for their strength and love.

[otohara]

18. wingnuts trashing the disabled

the newest group to be trashed by the right-wing.

I will gladly give my lifelong disability, the accessories and the expense that comes with being disabled to anyone
who thinks I'm scamming the system.

[RavensChick]

23. I don't believe it's a hoax.

I saw the same article on FB a few minutes ago and I was just as shocked as anyone else who read it.

It's so horrible I can't believe anyone who's that fuckin' twisted can put shit like this to paper. I'm sure the family is beyond horrified, and I hope the author is revealed and exposed for who they really are--a crock of shit!!!

This world has gone mad! Mad, I tell ya!!!

[Demoiselle]

25. I don't care if it's a "hoax" or not.

A hoax would mean the writer knew better but sent it anyway. The cruelty is in the communication, regardless of its sincerity.

[missingthebigdog]

26. As the mother of a severely autistic child

I get it. I know how this family must feel. The sad thing is that it is unlikely to be their first or last encounter with such ugliness.
I can't even bear to describe some of the cruelty we have experienced from people who should know better. It is part of raising a special needs child.
I think people here would be surprised at how many people would agree with the sentiments in that letter if allowed to do so anonymously.
If you know a family with special needs kids, go out of your way to say something kind. They need all of the positive energy they can get to transcend the negativity they face each day.

[washnwmn]

28. Let he who is most perfect cast the 1st stone.

People seem to think that a disabled person or anyone different in any way must act more perfect than any one else, holding a standard for others that they themselves can't even live up to.

People who spew this sort of hatred generally project how they really feel about themselves. To pick on a disabled person with such venom really shows how little regard the writer has for him/herself, that somehow it will make them seem somehow better, bigger, higher up, more perfect than the rest of humanity, when we can obviously see it does not.

[marble falls]

29. I expect this kind of stuff from people here in Texas, but Canada? Shocking and shocked.

[davidpdx]

30. The police are taking it seriously

thankfully, so I would think the chances it is a hoax are very low. While I understand about noise, writing a letter like that is just (I can't come up with the words for it).

Way off-topic: I live in South Korea and people tend to be overtly loud, especially kids. In many places the population density is high. The apartment buildings we live in are essentially surrounded by other buildings so it creates an echo effect amplifying the noise. My building with the other three around it probably has upward of 400-500 apartments (the entire complex is like 20 buildings so the block probably has a few thousand residents). It's people living on top of other people. I've become very noise sensitive as I've gotten older and I can't figure out why.

[Butterbean]

31. My autistic kid can get loud in the back yard, too. Thankfully, we have great neighbors.

It's hard, walking that line between wanting to let him get it all out in a safe environment and the part of me that says it's our yard, damn it, he can do what he wants, and then worrying about him being too loud for the neighbors.

He frequently goes to the back fence and yells the name of the child who lives behind us over and over again, bangs sticks on the fence to get his attention, because he really likes that child. I always redirect him and tell him it's inappropriate to yell repeatedly at someone, etc., and try to coach him in "this is how you ask someone to play with you" techniques, but damn. Sometimes he's just going to hang out in the back yard and be loud, and I'm not going to give a shit, because it's better that he's running around in our 3/4 acre fenced in, wooded yard being noisy and active than destroying stuff in the house or harming his little brother. God bless our neighbors, they have been so understanding. Our next door neighbor always does an extra lap with his lawnmower for my son if he's outside when he's mowing, because my son LOVES lawnmowers and gets a huge kick out of running alongside the fence while the neighbor rides by. We have been blessed, I know.

All my girlfriends with moderate to severe autistic kids have this same issue, though. Our kids are just loud sometimes, and there isn't shit you can do about it. You just have to deal. Thankfully I live in a very very VERY autism-friendly community that embraces our special needs population instead of shunning them. I can't imagine the heartbreak of living in a place where people do the horrible things in the OP.

[davidpdx]

32. You are also lucky to have a backyard where he can run around

I'm sure that helps a bit as well.

[Butterbean]

34. It does, and it's one of the reasons when my husband got house envy

that I flat out refused to move. All his friends at work who are younger and have no children were buying big mcmansions with big shiny movie rooms, and he went through a phase where he wanted to move into a bigger house. In order to get the amenities he wanted, though, we'd have to sacrifice lot size. I told him no way in hell, I don't want a big shiny house on a 10th of an acre lot, thankyouverymuch. Some people are fine with no yard, and that's cool for them, but not for us. We NEED the space, as in it is honest to goodness a medical need for our kid. Yard work be damned, give me my wide open spaces for my kid to roam.