I just received a very disturbing comment from a user stating that Michael E. Robinson director of the The Office of Advocacy for Autistic Children just told an autistic person that his opinion is unwelcome in the proposal of an Autism Health Care bill he is proposing on the website change.orgAccording to the comment left by Samuel, “[Michael Robinson] doesn’t want our input” on the Autism Reform Act of 2009 and further accused Samuel of being a ‘pirate’ for posting a publicly editable copy of the bill he is proposing. So I decided to look through the conversation on the change.org website.
Samuel’s comments appear to be by far correct. When another person posted they cannot support a bill that supports chelation as an autism therapy the reply was:
You are entitled to your opinion, Thank you.
Michael E. Robinson, Sr.
Mr Robinson also seems to think that any opinion offered on the bill from the perspective of an autistic individual is a negative attack. He further goes to say:
I have received email regarding these and to assure all they have been reported and their ‘wants’ are being disregarded.
When Samuel created a google document version of the Autism Reform Act to encourage more public editing of the document he told:
Not only did you ‘Pirate’ the initial legislative request word for word, except for the words you didn’t like, you moved it from this forum’s comment board to a google site and then solicited the parents from here to go to your site – good luck with your proposal. In the future I recommend that if you want to ‘take without asking’ you don’t leave a trail of comments behind you as you did in this case.
And then he was also told…
please cease and desist in this activity – you have a home for it on Google.. go there and be there, your comments are not welcome here and neither is your input.
All of this can be found on the Autism Reform Act at Change.org. I encourage everyone who disagrees with this bill to state your opinions at change.org, I also encourage you to blog about this as it needs to be known immediately.
And I need to address Mr. Robinson,
You need to realise that when creating a bill that it is not your property. The United States is a Democratic society in which people can freely speak about and debate possible legislation. The Autism Reform Act of 2009 is not your property – it is the property of the people of the United States. Your accusations of accusing someone of being a pirate for encouraging open review of a possible bill is very un-American.
Furthermore the bill that was being reviewed deals with Autism Reform. The person who you told to ‘decist’ and told them they were ‘not welcome here’ really shows how much you care about Autism. I don’t know anything about your Office of Autism Advocacy – but I can tell you that you are no advocate, you are just a low down punk. You have just shut down and told a person with Autism that there comments are no longer welcome, accused him of pirating a bill, and basically proved that you are not an advocate.
I request you resign from your post as the Director of your office immediately. A punk like you is not someone I want advocating for me.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh him again?
He tried to legally serve a whole yahoo group, which he joined, throwing a virtual fit because no one agreed with him (it was autistic space). He was all saying that we were ingrates and such.
He’s bad news.
Yeah, we know that jackass Robinson. He’s a parent of an autistic child who has decided to capitalize on it and make it earn him a living. Just another predator on the autistic community, setting up an organization to collect donations “for a good cause”.
This joker really needs to go back to law school, and then proceed to get a life.
I left a comment there and would encourage others to do so.
Mr. Robinson erased my comment. I left another one and took a screen shot. Self advocates and allies should leave comments and take screen shots before they disappear. If you don’t have a screen shot program, email me when you leave the comment and I’ll take a shot of it. I’ll collect these and send this to the owner. A progressive would not tolerate what is going on with Mr. Robinson and will be sensitive, hopefully, to the position of self advocacy.
Looks like my threat changed Mr. Robinson’s mind on censoring. I’m still taking screen shots anyway.
Actually I doubt he is backing down , I just received the following threat from him – also note I’m not Sam.
Your request IS NOT granted. Internet Piracy is also a law that applies to all.. even you hiding behind a screen name. You haven’t voted for anything, all you have done is sign in and get reported for you attack. The ECPA is ALSO a LAW..which was on my email to you Samuel. If you do not stop then I will turn over what I have that proves you have committed this crime. STOP.
Zach, try not to internalize this. Note what he wrote when you were writing your comment:
By the way.. I do not believe in ‘cures’ at all. This is in direct conflict with a percentage of parents.. but I do believe that to be a small fraction. Most of us love our kids for who and what they are.. somewhat like we want the rest of the world to accept us..for what we are. Thank you rene for clearing up what your ‘slogan’ saying means… You are legal voters and should have a say although I believe that many times most would go on and not stop and say ” Wait, I’m moving to quickly ” such as I just did. I do not believe in a Democracy where the people can not speak. Even in the case of the individual that moved the Idea to google – I was wrong. All I can do is admit that, try not to let the change.org situation stop any advancement of all of our needs and wants..and to continue pushing forward but hopefully as a more united front.
Michael E. Robinson, Sr.
Please take this time to read and sign my proposed bill. This is a truncated version of the original. (Damn that 2000 character limit.) I need all the support I can get today to get it in the placing for the next round. http://www.change.org/ideas/view/autism_advancement_act
The text of bills of congress is public domain and has no copyright protection in the US. In the UK acts of parliament come under the crown copyright, but in the US there’s no copyright protection at all.
Admin Note: Gareth – The UK is irrelevant to this discussion, why bring it up?
I am inclined to agree with others and say “oh him again”
In my opinion he is just another of those vast number of internet “kooks” out there.
(maybe I am one too?)
There threats are as vacant as those of the impotent King Lear. Who to remind the less literary, threatened his daughters who had cast him out into the cold thus :-
“I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall — I will do such things –
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth! ”
Well we saw how far Clifford Shoemaker got with his revenges, not very.
Tsk tsk tsk. What a jackass. He should know that autistic people are the ones who know what is best for themselves and that he has no business rejecting an autistic person’s input.
I think I apologized for that about 50 times, but I will do it again. I didn’t call anyone names etc., so I’d appreciate if you didn’t do that to me. I am 100 percent behind Self Advocacy and have taken alot of input from Samuel, he listened and understood what was happening.
I did make an error and respond back to the wrong person. For that I do apologize. But to continue to talk about me like I make money for what I do is very wrong. I do not charge parents.. I have NEVER threatened to sue any yahoo groups !! There’s no need for rumors.
At this very time I’m taking over the caseload for the Advocate that cofoudned Autism News and was arrested recently after a series of wins against the state.
I also have several cases in Florida, Texas, California, and Oregon. Nobody gets charged, I use my early retirement from racing cars to pay for it. So, before you talk badly about me understand that I’m talking good about you. [email address removed - we don't publish emails on here]
Thank you,
Michael E. Robinson, Sr.
Michael told me he was on social security. He has been having paypal constantly sending reminders to pay him. He has been doing this since she quit as a moderator on his group and ignoring her.
It doesn’t surprise me that people who are running autism groups and societies don’t want to hear from higher functioning autistic people, because, you see, these folks think they speak for ALL autistics. Now I can say this because I have seen the spectrum from the worst to highest (you tube has severe autism under kgaccount) and then there’s other videos when you type in “autism savant” that are quite interesting..the point here is it is a bit disturbing that people running and controlling all the funds for autism seem obsessed with curing and recovering autistics, rather than providing the supports and services they need right NOW in their homes and communities….mmmm…interesting.
I have a 9 yr old son who has Autism. He does not speak much and is still learning speech. After he turned 7, was when he spoke his first word. When SLP’s told me he would never talk, I said “OH yes he will” . He Has taught me so much and I am so blessed I was able to adopt him. I do not worry about a cure..All I want to do is teach him to live in this world and be who he wants. He is so smart and his smile just warms my soul.
There is a great video on you tube called “severe autism when there is no answer” The video is made by a man with Aspergers (a fellow aspie) who also has an autistic son. Very enlightening. Youll be surprised.
Lol, is this going around still?
Funny that he’s telling a bunch of people with eidetic memories that he both apologized and ‘never did that’. Which is it? My irony meter, it exploded.
FYI…he’s a scam artist!
http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Michael-E-Robinson-Sr-proves-the-case-it-is-important-to-verify-credentials
Michael Robinson was supposed to have done some ‘work’ on behalf of my child. He seemed to never have anything together when I called him. I got tired of it and ended up advocating for my child on my own. I filed a Citizen’s Complaint on the school and was granted what I wanted. After that I spoke with Michael and he claimed he had a case going in a town close to where I lived. He did not even know what a Citizen’s Complaint was. After I told him , he said he was going to file the same thing for the case he was working on. I had a feeling he was not what he said. He always told me he was epileptic and he was adjusting meds. I was also on his yahoo group and was really lambasted because I spoke my oppinion taht he did not seem to help anyone he said he would. He kicked me out of the group and shortly after he was doing the same to group monitors. I was told to CEASE and DESIST in my ACTIVITY.
please feel free to comment at the site. He’s posting as supposed people he’s helped in order to contradict the story.
Thanks to those that posted my article here.
Please see You Tube video titled: “Severely Autistic Boy Beaten by Big Government”
It’s an eye opener. Mom takes you inside the crazy system serving autistic children/teen/adults/ and exposes some of the apathetic people we have working in our agencies. Amazing. Shocking. Sad. We need big change with less government right now. Screw finding cures! What’s needed is practical right now helps and supports for families who are trying to protect their autistic children from a very mixed up neurotypical run society.
Despite autism/asperger awareness we still find shocking ignorance: Please See videos: “Shocking Patient Neglect of Autistic Person”
“Mom Protects and Advocates For Autistic Son” and
“Autistic Adult in Crisis Goes Unnoticed” for inside look into what can go wrong when hosptials don’t understand severe autism.