Thursday, January 3, 2013

Regarding the Newtown, CT shooting:

This blog tries to set the record straight and clear up misunderstandings and fear regarding Autism:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/12/age-of-autism-fox-news-siegel-implicates-aspergers.html


       Here's something I posted on Facebook after the shooting though I think what I posted may have been taken the wrong way (which I'm sort of used to). It wasn't to belittle the recent school shootings but to give perspective for people who are now afraid to send their kids to school. I can't even talk since after 9-11 I was one of those who was afraid to get on a plane, cross a high profile bridge or tunnel or do other things despite the statistical odds still being in favor of my safety...

       "While this may not be much help for someone who just lost a child, but to those who worry about their own and sending them to school in Americ, it still seems safer than ever. 100+ years ago it seems almost every household of size lost at least one child. Both my grandmothers lost 3. There was TB, Polio, Lockjaw, Smallpox, and other things that are rare today. There was also threats of war, ...air raids, and natural disasters which were harder to predict. Here in Northeast PA alone the reported death toll from coal mine accidents was 30,000-40,000 (I'm not exaggerating-look it up.) my great-grandfather, being part of that statistic. Many were just dumped on their front porch and left for their wide and kids to find. Almost as many people as Wilkes-Barre's present day population. Some of those were breaker boys and most of the rest were breadwinners for their families. While America may still be rather violent for a first world country, in the third world there is still constant war, starvation, genocides and disease putting school kids in danger. In countries with poor construction, its not unheard of for earthquakes, storms, or warfare to take thousands of lives at a time. Girls in some countries, and in this country kids used to get pulled out of school to work dangerous jobs of all types. Today the thing is the communications and media are getting better and quicker and when things happen in the first world we notice more. True there were no school shootings in medieval times or in Ancient Rome, but there were even worse things that would put the most jaded modern people in shock. I mean violence should never be tolerated in any form or level but we can rest assured we are better off in most ways than in so called "simpler times". I'd rather be a kid or be raising kids now and in the first world then 300 years ago."

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