Comments on: Obama Uses Autistics For PR Stunt

By: AspieWeb Admin

AspieWeb Admin — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:03:34 +0000

@The Daily Gonzo:

Google selects the advertisements based on the content of the pages – it does not always reflect my personal beliefs

By: The Daily Gonzo

The Daily Gonzo — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:45:32 +0000

I’d take your opinion more seriously, if your blog wasn’t plastered with Ads for Sarah Palin, of all people.
You know her: “I have a child with Down Syndrome, I am so heroic and it’s the will of god and women who were raped should not be able to have an abortion.”
*vomits*

By: LBC

LBC — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:55:41 +0000

I have to disagree with you. If the stimulus package has already passed, why would the Obama administration be “using” anybody? To what end?

It sounds to me that the administration would like to present proof that the stimulus package made a difference, and I assume it’s not just success stories from the disability community they’ll be looking for. They intend to show that the money actually went somewhere, which is something mysteriously missing from Bush’s stimulus/bailout deals.

Obama is not going to “sway” Americans who were against the stimulus package. They’re mainly Republicans who are going to hate everything he does anyway.

If the disability community was ignored in this stimulus, I assume you’d be complaining about that. You can’t have it both ways. You either want disabled Americans to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” or you want the government to provide assistance. If it’s the former, I dare say you’re misguided. If it’s the latter, I don’t know why you think it should all be done in secret.

By: Evonne

Evonne — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:37:17 +0000

Huh. To be honest, it hadn’t occurred to me that the request was for a PR boost for the stimulus package. Now that I’ve considered it, though, I believe you may be quite right.

And unfortunately, yes, the public’s reaction will be something akin to “Aww, look how Obama helped that poor person.” But pity is a by-product, so assuming that pity is the natural reaction to people with disabilities may be counterproductive. I hope that if disabled people are responding to that solicitation, they take into account the fact that their stories may be used in that sort of feel-good-charity way. If fully-informed adults decide to share their stories anyway, though, that’s a decision they have the right to make. Some may be so enamored with Obama that they won’t mind.

By: Bryan Collier

Bryan Collier — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:47:26 +0000

No, I think you are getting this wrong. Disabled people aren’t being used (because both parties stand to benefit from the stimulus), they are more so being represented in an attempt to show the country what the stimulus will do to help. It’s much different than the lip-service, fake empathy, line of bull, with no intentions to help in any way shape or form that has been given to this group time and time again by those opposed to our new administration and the stimulus.

By: patrick

patrick — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:10:25 +0000

I agree it looks Highly dubious.

By: Josephine DeJesse

Josephine DeJesse — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:22:22 +0000

Please make sure the stimulus package contains the right amount of monies allocation for the prevention and cure of Autisim and other Special needs. If at all
I’m not clear what is going on with this evey time I search the web there is a different answer. Families for Autistic childred are so fed up with promises that never come to fruitation.

Please what help can you provide for an answer about the stimulus bill, very unclear.

Josephine Grandmother of an autistic child

By: SA

SA — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:09:08 +0000

“the way the two-party works” should read “the way the two-party system works.” Apologies.

By: SA

SA — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:08:03 +0000

“Am I the only one who finds the idea of using people with disabilities to get the “Aww your helping that poor person” idea from the public utterly wrong?”

I don’t think that’s what he’s doing. I think the message he’s getting accross is “The stimulus package isn’t about handouts, it’s about giving people (especially people usually condemmed as incapable) the right to support themselves.”

I don’t think he’s “using” disabled folks. I think, as a disabled person, it’s important to the get the message out that lots of us CAN and DO work (and more of us could and would work if the world were a little less bigoted.)

That’s not to say I have no reservations about the sheer size of the stimulus package, or Obama’s “Messiah of the Economy” image (although, in fairness to Obama, the way the two-party works makes it necessary for politicians of all stripes to make a load of crazy promises they know probably won’t work out. I mean, even the New Deal only MITIGATED the great depression. It didn’t make it disappear.)