Kerry Cohen

Recent Activity

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  Kerry signed the petition | 7 months ago

  Stand With Me, Jose Antonio Vargas, for a New Conversation about Immigration
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  Kerry signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  End the Perpetuation of Pity
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  Kerry signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Oppose the use of alarmist rhetoric about autism
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  Kerry signed the petition | about 3 years ago

  Understand Autism-First Language
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  Kerry commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Once Upon a Time, I Tried to Recover My Son From Autism

  Elesia, thank you. John Max's hurtful, harmful message has been sitting in my craw since I saw it this morning. I've been afraid to write anything, for fear of my own anger making my sentiment ineffectual. I am writing this simply to second what Elesia wrote, and to add that one of the more dangerous issues autistic people, and the people who love them, face is most of our culture's inability to think outside the lines. There is no such thing as something different for these people, only something bad because it looks unfamiliar. When you see it this way, as stuck inside these tight, neurocentric lines, it makes sense to only be able to think of our behavior and beliefs as "giving up."
  

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  Kerry commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

  Thanks for this post, Kristina. I agree with so much already said. One of the things that frightens and angers me so much with attitudes such as that of the person who wrote this article is the left-off assumption that somehow, if a child has some sort of disability, his/her parents don't love him with the same fierce love all parents have for their children. I hate that we're never able to talk about the challenges without needing to quickly qualify them with the good, because of this assumption.

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  Kerry commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Once Upon a Time, I Tried to Recover My Son From Autism

  EXACTLY my sentiments, Alyson. Thank you.

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  Kerry commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Once Upon a Time, I Tried to Recover My Son From Autism

  I'm with Beth. I too always listen most to autistic adults and seek out their ideas and advice. I also know my son was born as he is. He is a 5 year old version today of who he was as a newborn. He isn't a person with a disease or disability. He communicates differently than I do, that's true. And sometimes that takes some hard work on my part. But autism is a part of his core personality. And I think he's great! Something I love is that when he reads the word "autism" he always reads it as "awesome." That's my boy!

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  Kerry commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Once Upon a Time, I Tried to Recover My Son From Autism

  Without doing much of the biomedical stuff (because we too tried during the initial days I was full of fear, because of the bogus stigma), my son might be considered "recovering" by son too, because he's growing and developing and learning, like all people do as they get older. But he's still autistic in that he is in the world in a different way from most people.
  
  I'm beyond offended that anyone would "pity" me or my son because of this. He's fine. Great. Better than lots of people who aren't autistic. I take no issue with treating the medical issues that might come along with a different neurology. I do take issue with the notion that so often lies behind it: that autism is a terrible, disabling disease. It certainly isn't in our case, and I'm so concerned that my son will grow up and learn that this is how he's perceived in our culture.
  

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  Kerry commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Connecting to the World through Art

  Dora, "Connection" is beautiful. The emotion in it is palpable. Thaks for sharing it, along with the info about Bula.