If you are not one of the people who was deeply offended by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent statements about the deficiencies of people with autism, I will assume that you do not know anyone with autism. Or at least, you think you don’t.
That is not terribly surprising, as even people with autism can be unaware of it. Women, in particular, can be identified later, just as they can be with other conditions like ADHD or bipolar disorder.
But Kennedy calls autism an epidemic. He sees the numbers growing and believes it must be stopped. There is a cure, he believes, and he wants to see it this year. He points to a time in the past when autism didn’t exist and extrapolates that something happened to cause it.
This is terrifying in someone running our national health responses because it speaks to an absolutely infantile lack of understanding of timelines. Autism as a diagnosis is less than 100 years old. That doesn’t mean that before Leo Kanner identified it in 1943, autism didn’t exist. It simply means we called it something else —or we didn’t call it anything at all.
“… These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,” Kennedy said at a news conference April 16.
Looking at biographical information and bodies of work, experts have theorized a number of famous or historical figures had autism.
Albert Einstein, who didn’t speak until he was almost school age and struggled with hyperfixations, was born in 1879. The word “autism” didn’t exist until 1911. I don’t know how much he paid in taxes. I do know he was famously quoted as saying “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax,” so I am guessing he paid something.
Carl Sagan seemed like he had a pretty good job as an astronomer. So did Nikola Tesla as a scientist and inventor and Thomas Jefferson as president. All have been suggested to have traits that point to autism.
I don’t know about baseball, but I do know that former NFL player Joe Barksdale was diagnosed with autism as an adult. For “writing a poem,” I would counter with Emily Dickinson.
Several of the above were married at least once, but for dating, let’s go to Elon Musk, who has self-identified as being autistic. As of last month, he had 14 children, so I’m assuming some dating happened.
As to the toilet thing, well, yeah. Autism is a spectrum. For every Dan Aykroyd or Anthony Hopkins, you will have someone with more profound challenges — people whose names you might never know.
That is the worst part of Kennedy’s statements. They make autism an all-or-nothing and demand everyone be judged by only one end of the spectrum. The national opinion of the Kennedy family might be very different if people focused on dead bears and brain worms instead of Camelot and “ask not what your country can do for you.”
It is particularly tragic given the Kennedy family history, and an attempt to “cure” his aunt Rosemary of her developmental disability with a lobotomy in 1941, two years before Kanner’s first diagnosis of childhood autism. Rosemary Kennedy was left unable to speak and use the bathroom, ironically among the worst symptoms her nephew outlines.
But Kennedy does not have the excuse of lack of information or exposure, except by choice. Every year, the Special Olympics offers those with intellectual disabilities a chance to celebrate what they can do. The games were founded by another aunt — Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Rosemary’s sister.
We do not ask anyone else to pass a test to be considered worthy of their space in the world. If throwing a baseball is on the list, I am in trouble.