The above link is a story about the tragic end of a 14 year
old boy’s life, Alex, and a lot of you have seen this story in the past 48
hours. Some of the responses to this horrible story have been a bit disturbing
to me as I have read through them.
I
understand completely that people are not getting the help they need in many
cases, or not even close to it. On the other hand there are also people getting
an amazing amount of help so it could be a matter of where you live and what is
available through a medical and insurance provider. I also understand parents are
desperately trying to keep up and stay balanced at the same time. They are
fighting to understand, fighting to get others to understand, loosing friendships,
loosing family, suffering from lack of sleep, and I could go on and on but I
won’t because it’s my point today.
The
women in this case where for one high on narcotics when they were found. Doesn’t
mean they are drug addicts but it doesn’t mean they are not. Maybe an attempt
to commit suicide but we really don’t know yet. The mother was moving around
from hotel to hotel with a special needs child who she clearly could not handle.
He was big and he was hard to control and they wanted him to get help that wasn’t
there. Alex was very close to being
taken from his mother and even though the circumstances where not what they
wanted, we now see what circumstances they preferred. I don’t know about anyone else, but I tend to
think he wasn’t taken soon enough.
I have
read comments that say autism needs to be cured, parents can’t find help,
autism this and autism that. No matter what autism does not make a person stab
a 14 year old to death. Lack of help does not make a mother kill her child. Difficult
circumstances do not provoke murder. Anyone who is capable of killing and I don’t
care if a 100 page letter was left about the hardships, has a serious issue
inside themselves that has nothing to do with autism. The circumstances of the
situation have nothing to do with the ability to end a life.
We consistently see stories of people and children with autism abused, treated badly by caregivers, and sometimes even killed. Every time we are horrified about the treatment of a person with autism and every time we hope for understanding and we hurt for what the child or adult faced. This story is no different. This was a child who struggled with the world around him and the people around him ended his life. The people he loved and relied on to somehow help him face the world stabbed him to death. His last memory was two of the people he probably loved the most in this overwhelming world ending his life because the options they did have where not what they wanted.
Do not
ever forget with this case Alex’s mother could have gone somewhere and said “I
cannot do this one more day; I am going to end my son’s life.” If she would
have been healthy enough in her own mind to do this he would still be alive but
she didn’t because she preferred to kill him. That is not related to autism at
all. This was a sick person and by sick I am not talking about Alex at all
because she had options other than murder. Maybe she felt there was no help and
it doesn’t seem there was much help and maybe she reached the end of her rope
trying to care for him, clearly she did, but killing him is disgusting. I can
only hope when she faces a trial, Alex is not to blame for what she was capable
of doing to him. Unfortunately I think we all know there will be a lot of blame
in this case and not enough of it will be on his murderers but we will see and
I hope I am wrong. If no autism was involved in this case would people see it
differently? I know how I would answer that question.
You do not have the least clue of how you would answer your last question. Before you and others like you find this mother guilty, stop and realize that you do not know all that she has gone through.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot more to the story of what went on with Alex, his mother, his Godmother and why his father was NOT involved in trying to get help for his son. There is a lot more involved in why they were not living with the boy's father and sister. What kind of father would let his son live in hotels instead of allowing him to live in the family home? But, no one seems to see that as an problem.
Instead of finding this woman guilty of murder, I suggest we let the jury decide. There is absolutely no proof that this woman, or the Godmother were into drugs. In fact, with all they did in trying to get Alex help they had to be absolutely free of drugs, to accomplish all the requests for help and their follow-up and contacting the news media for help.
Instead of you trying to rile people up for a lynching of this woman you should pray for all of them. Dorothy did what she could to get her son help for years and she and the Godmother were sleep deprived for years, as Alex was more difficult to deal with on a daily basis than you could ever imagine.
Being sleep deprived does a lot of bad things to a person, including their inability to cope and think correctly.
While you are praying for them, stop and thank God that you apparently have had a good enough life that you never had to deal with something like this in your life. "Let he who has no sin cast the first stone."
Your comment is exactly what is disturbing to me with this. In response, there are families all over the world struggling everyday. They are coping as well as they can without stabbing their child to death. I will not minimize a brutal killing for any reason whatsoever.
DeleteWell stated. Murder is never the answer. NEVER.
ReplyDelete