Aspiehelp has now held two social meetings for Aspies and whanau. So far no whanau have actually come, but the invitation is there. The folk who have come have been getting to know each other and enjoying each others' company. An event like this is great because there is no pressure to be anything other than your own unique self. No-one is going to judge you or criticise you, and you get a better class of wit to laugh at as well!
Big in our minds lately has been the perplexing and (for us) quite scary tale of Arie Smith-Voorkamp and the two light bulbs. We Aspies know where he was coming from. The amount of abuse and vituperation that has been poured on him by uninformed people, coupled with persistent misreporting in the media, requires a lot of correction. TV1's "Sunday" programme did a brilliant job with "A Tale of Two Light Bulbs", aired last night. The Police were so cross they have threatened TV1 with a criminal investigation!
Aspies have a quality of innocence or naivete (call it either of these) which, as we age, is increasingly disbelieved by most people except those close to that person. We tend to be overly trusting and amazingly honest about things. (On the other hand. some people have an overly rosy view of the Police and can't believe what they are hearing in connection with Arie's treatment). Any Aspie will recognise that Arie went into classic "meltdown" when the Police grabbed him. Anyone who knows Arie will also know that he would have had no show at physically standing up to some pretty fit Police people (one was female), and they should have recognised that pretty quickly, so that force was not required in dealing with him. He was also mocked and elbowed in the head, so hard that the damage was still on his face over a week later when he was released on bail at last, thanks to the efforts of Aspie lawyer, Simon Buckingham, who was given money by an anonymous donor, to fly down from Auckland, like a knight on a white charger (alias my little blue, dusty car!) to free Arie from prison where he was on suicide watch.
The Facebook page "Justice for Arie Smith-Voorkamp" has been taking on members at the speed of a very fast train and we have reached almost 200 members over the weekend. Russell Brown has done a super blog and many of those 200 members will be writing letters to the PM, the Minister of Police, their local MP, their local newspaper etc.
Please give this some thought and by please support this campaign. We want the Police to update their staff training so that we don't need to fear for our nearest and dearest- or ourselves- and so that we CAN, once again, trust our Police to act honourably and truthfully.
Big in our minds lately has been the perplexing and (for us) quite scary tale of Arie Smith-Voorkamp and the two light bulbs. We Aspies know where he was coming from. The amount of abuse and vituperation that has been poured on him by uninformed people, coupled with persistent misreporting in the media, requires a lot of correction. TV1's "Sunday" programme did a brilliant job with "A Tale of Two Light Bulbs", aired last night. The Police were so cross they have threatened TV1 with a criminal investigation!
Aspies have a quality of innocence or naivete (call it either of these) which, as we age, is increasingly disbelieved by most people except those close to that person. We tend to be overly trusting and amazingly honest about things. (On the other hand. some people have an overly rosy view of the Police and can't believe what they are hearing in connection with Arie's treatment). Any Aspie will recognise that Arie went into classic "meltdown" when the Police grabbed him. Anyone who knows Arie will also know that he would have had no show at physically standing up to some pretty fit Police people (one was female), and they should have recognised that pretty quickly, so that force was not required in dealing with him. He was also mocked and elbowed in the head, so hard that the damage was still on his face over a week later when he was released on bail at last, thanks to the efforts of Aspie lawyer, Simon Buckingham, who was given money by an anonymous donor, to fly down from Auckland, like a knight on a white charger (alias my little blue, dusty car!) to free Arie from prison where he was on suicide watch.
The Facebook page "Justice for Arie Smith-Voorkamp" has been taking on members at the speed of a very fast train and we have reached almost 200 members over the weekend. Russell Brown has done a super blog and many of those 200 members will be writing letters to the PM, the Minister of Police, their local MP, their local newspaper etc.
Please give this some thought and by please support this campaign. We want the Police to update their staff training so that we don't need to fear for our nearest and dearest- or ourselves- and so that we CAN, once again, trust our Police to act honourably and truthfully.