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5 Responses to “Michael Savage Autism Apology!”

1. Eric and Myriam LeVan, on July 28th, 2008 at 12:21 am Said:

   Why are you so obsessed with having this talk-show host apologize? Do you not believe in freedom of speech? Why do you want to silence him? If the reasons for autism are still unknown, then why do you want to have somebody’s alternate or different opinion silenced? He was mainly referring to the over-medicalization of those children who are not autistic,but who have been misdiagnosed. In all our experience in speaking with parents who tell me their child is autistic, we have asked pointed questions about the way they have raised that child, as well as discerned certain personality traits in the parents themselves. It is astonishing that the things they do or do not do seem to correspond amongst these families. Is this just a coincidence? Children have to be taught to communicate from the very earliest age. They must have a mother who spends an enormous amount of time in interacting with the baby from day one. We’ve seen many of these parents we have interviewed simply put their child in front of the TV from an early age for hours at a time. Or when I speak to them, they seem to be so self-absorbed. (The fact that so many of these parents are spending time protesting and being activists instead of actually spending this precious time with their child, tells a great deal.) Why is it that the notion that the way a child is raised could have an impact in developing autistic behavior, is completely censored and not even considered? The answer is evident: it would be a very inconvenient truth indeed to face and deal with. Further, why is it that we have an epidemic in THIS country. Oh yes, we’ve heard all kinds of reasons. Well, in a country such a France which is more heavily vaccinized than this one, there is no such epidemic. If the reasons were genetic, then we wouldn’t have these 100% point increases in such a relatively short time.

2. The Weiner Nation (Great Michael Savage Pic!) | AutismParents.NET!, on July 29th, 2008 at 10:00 am Said:

   […] Michael Savage Autism Apology! […]

3. admin, on July 30th, 2008 at 7:08 am Said:

   I am all for free speech and am exercising some of it on this site.

   Straw Man Argument (not remotely what we are saying)- “Why is it that the notion that the way a child is raised could have an impact in developing autistic behavior, is completely censored and not even considered?”

   Mr. Savage says he was taken out of context, but I have read and re-read and I cannot grasp that argument. He said autism was a fraud and went way beyond your point with the 99% stuff.

   My daughter started having seizures at 4 month like about 1/4 of kids with autism, I guess she really didn’t have those 300+ seizures and just needed some more discipline.

4. Eric and Myriam LeVan, on August 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm Said:

   I think all of you people are disgusting. You are completely for freedom of speech when it concerns pornography or the trash and pop junk on radio and TV relentlessly spewed to your children, and yet you don’t want somebody to express his opinion about how parenting can have influence on a child’s behavior. You cannot compare autism with such diseases as epilepsy because there has been no medical diagnosis for autism. Interestingly, the professionals who actually work with autistic children have admitted that much of the problem in these children is behavioral - that they are spoiled by bad parenting. So you are all getting syrupy and sentimental about a radio talk show host “hurting” the children with his comments but we don’t hear any rage against those Homer Simpson-style parents - weak, self-absorbed and incompetent - who are creating a host of epidemics such as ADD, etc. In our country. Ask yourself the simple, logical question: why isn’t there an epidemic of autism, ADD and other behavior and learning disorders in other countries? I do not advocate for being idiotically or arbitrarily harsh with children. I’m speaking about really caring, spending real time and effort, correcting through love and care any behavior that needs to be corrected.

   You people, by not allowing any other opinion and responsible for censoring Michael Savage are the true fascists and Nazis. Will you also encourage burning his books?

   Why are you so obsessed with having this talk-show host apologize? Do you not believe in freedom of speech? Why do you want to silence him? If the reasons for autism are still unknown, then why do you want to have somebody’s alternate opinion silenced? He was mainly referring to the over-medicalisation of those children who are not autistic, but who have been misdiagnosed. In all our experience in speaking with parents who tell me their child is autistic, we have asked pointed questions about the way they have raised that child, as well as observed how they are raising them. In addition, we have discerned certain personality traits in the parents themselves. It is astonishing that the things they do or do not do seem to correlate between these families. Is this just a coincidence?

   Children have to be taught to communicate from the very earliest age. They must have a mother who spends an enormous amount of time in interacting with the baby from day one. We’ve seen many of these parents we have interviewed simply put their child in front of the TV from an early age for hours at a time. Or when I speak to them, they seem to be so self-absorbed, and as anybody should know, one cannot be self-absorbed when interacting with a child and teaching him to communicate. (The fact that so many of these parents are spending time protesting and being activists instead of actually spending this precious time with their child, says a great deal.) Many of these parents also work full time from the time the child is a baby. I don’t see how they could possibly claim that they’ve done all they could for their child. The idea of “quality time” is also a hoax. There is no such a thing as “quality time” but simply time spent with your child and quality interaction with him.

   So why is it that the notion that the way a child is raised could have an impact in developing autistic behavior, is completely censored and not even considered as a valid opinion? The answer is pathetically evident: it would be a very inconvenient truth indeed to face and deal with. Further, why is it that we have an epidemic in THIS country. Oh yes, we’ve heard all kinds of reasons. Well, in a country such a France which is more heavily vaccinized than this one, there is no such epidemic. (We lived there for 18 years.) If the reasons were genetic, then we wouldn’t have these 100% increases in such a relatively short time.

   Sincerely,
   Eric & Myriam LeVan

5. Eric and Myriam LeVan, on August 1st, 2008 at 11:52 pm Said:

   ANSWER TO ADMIN:

   We shouldn’t quibble over which percentage of children are truly autistic. Michael Savage may have a rough and sometimes unsophisticated way of expressing himself but why so much outrage at an opinion which could in fact be valid? We may be experiencing a severe overmedicalisation of the children in this country with Ritalin etc. To us, this is no more than child abuse - and shame on these parents that allow this to happen.

   The other point is that we should not be so quick to dismiss the possibility that parenting has something to do with behavioral and attention deficit disorders, including certain forms of autism. Here we are not talking about a medical problem that can be clearly diagnosed.

   Personally we know somebody who admitted to us that when her child was a baby, she was working all the time along with her husband, and rarely saw the child. She also told me that later on, the child was left in front of TV quite a bit because she was too busy to pay attention or interact with him. Some years later, she mentioned quite casually and matter-of-factly that her son has “high-functioning autism” and is on medication for this. It is the smugness of the whole scenario that outrages us because we knew that there would be a problem before any of this had happened. And sure enough, it did. Is this just a coincidence? How can somebody in such a situation claim with total confidence that they’ve done everything they could for their child, and that the condition of their child has nothing to do with their parenting, or the environment they have created for their child?

   This conspiracy of silence and censoring of any alternate opinion are very ugly, and ultimately damaging toward children.

   Sincerely,
   Eric & Myriam LeVan

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