The Limits of Diplomacy

I'm a fan of the movie Independence Day, in which Will Smith, as a hotshot military pilot, and Jeff Goldblum, as a computer geek (who's autistic, or close to it), team up to save the world from an alien invasion. I watch the DVD every year, on or around the Fourth of July; it's one of my rituals.

I was reminded of a certain scene from Independence Day when I got an e-mail last week from a person who mentioned that Ginger is collecting and forwarding letters to Autism Speaks containing constructive suggestions, and who asked if I might want to write something for Ginger to send.

Some folks who are familiar with the movie may already have guessed what scene I'm thinking about, but for those who haven't seen it, I'll briefly describe a little of the plot to put the scene in context. Alien ships descend toward Earth and start hovering over many of the major cities. The president escapes just before the aliens blow up the White House. Later, on a secret military base where a captured alien is being held, the president earnestly tries to communicate diplomatically with the alien (who can understand his thoughts via telepathy) although most of the United States already has been reduced to rubble by the alien fleet. He asks, "What do you want us to do?" The alien responds by hissing "Die," and trying to kill the president with a telepathic attack (the Secret Service agents promptly shoot the alien).

Moral of this scene: Well-intentioned attempts at dialogue can be worse than useless when they're addressed to a fanatical, genocidal enemy. The leaders of Autism Speaks are very well aware of our concerns, but they have no intention of changing their vile strategy in the slightest. Outraged parents and autistic activists have made it very clear that there is absolutely no excuse for Autism Speaks' despicable images of monstrous children, suicidal mothers, and fantasies of child murder; but Autism Speaks still routinely uses such images as a fundraising tactic for eugenics research. Last week, while I was getting my hair done, I noticed that the May 2007 issue of Redbook magazine had an article supporting Autism Speaks with yet more stories of, you guessed it, uncontrollable kids and suicidal mothers. Autism Speaks couldn't care less what we think of their organization. They just want all 50 or 60 million of us to die.

So I won't be writing a letter for Ginger to forward to Autism Speaks. The only response that's going to have any impact on our would-be murderers is the one that the aliens got at the end of the movie. Forget about nice polite letters, "articles of understanding," and other pointless attempts at diplomacy... and nuke the mother ship.

To clarify, I'm not advocating physical violence against anyone involved with Autism Speaks. In fact, I hope that the Wrights will have a long and happy retirement and that, one day, they will learn to appreciate their grandson's humanity. But the murderous organization that they founded needs to be destroyed in its entirety—ripped up by the roots, torn apart, and shattered into tiny particles of dust to blow away on the wind.