Support and Responsibilities

I was compelled to write this article, and try to reach out to others, so abuse or even murder of an autistic child will not be on the news ever again. In case you’re wondering, I am referring to the story of the Texas mother of two from the last post.

Before anyone starts making any accusations, I want to make it clear that I am not criticizing  or   judging anyone. Clearly what happened in Texas is  heartbreaking, and I believe it was preventable to some degree.  Raising an autistic child is not always easy. Having a strong support system within, and outside of the family can lessen family fatigue, stress, isolation and depression for all the members of the family – but of course not everyone is lucky enough to have that support.

I can’t imagine what was going through her mind when she committed this horrific crime. What chain of events had to take  place in her life that triggered this  mother’s mind to kill her kids. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to find excuses for her either. There can be no excuse in my book for someone who performed such cruelty toward innocent and dependent children. I just wonder about her mental status. Did anyone ever notice that she might need mental health counseling? Did anyone reached out to her within family or in the community she lived in? Did anyone ever notice that she was frustrated and desperate, and might not understand what autism really is all about?

Some people are so quick to see the speck in others eyes, and they go as far as to blame an entire religion – in this case Islam – for what happens. For those who are not Muslim, I just want to say that Islam doesn’t support any kind of oppression or violence toward innocents at any time. This is not a Muslim issue as some might like to think, this problem is one that crosses all religious, ethnic and national lines. This epidemic is effecting us all, and it should make everyone think … are we doing anything to prevent such a tragedy to happen again?

We have a serious problem in our society, and people of all religions and ideologies must work together to stop the violence against children with autism or other disabilities. We need to educate our communities about this issue, and make them understand that such crimes cannot be justified by any religious teachings.

Also, we must create a support system for our communities, so if they do not receive any support from their families (which is the case a lot of times too for different reasons), then they have an outlet to which to go and acquire the much needed help from others. Our religious facilities must have an adequate and functional social service program to help the needy. The finger-pointing must stop, and we need to admit this problem is OUR problem, not just isolated, random incidents. Once we reach this understanding, we have a good chance to work together as a society and get to the root of the problem so as to prevent a tragedy like this to happen again.