I did a YouTube vlog about Newtown, Asperger's and Adam Lanza shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre. I was right in that Asperger's had nothing to do with Lanza's motives. However, I had also opined that 'maybe this kid just didn't get enough ass-whippings from his daddy.' After reading this article from The New Yorker, I think I was wrong. You can see the vlog below:
Peter Lanza and his ex-wife Nancy did everything they could to figure out how to reach/help Adam. However, he wasn't responsive and often refused any kind of help. He didn't even want to accept the Asperger's diagnosis that various shrinks had given him. In hindsight, I don't believe it was wise for Nancy to essentially allow herself to be 'enslaved in her own home' by her son's special needs but, how could she have guessed what kind of evil was in his heart? He kept it well-hidden.
I don't have any children yet but, this is something I am going to research as much as possible. There is a good chance that my future children will also have Asperger's Syndrome. I don't want this to happen to them. I can keep them from being exposed to a LOT of the crap that I dealt with as a child just by NOT sending them to the same school that I attended as a youth. That so-called 'Christian School' isn't really all that Christian anyway. More like a 'football factory' that loves money and pigskin more than Jesus and their fellow man.
However, is that enough? What else is in my DNA besides Asperger's Syndrome? What else is just waiting for the right time to become a dominant gene? I might be worrying too much but, until those kids actually exist, there's no way to really know.
And to those who want to use this as an excuse to impose new/utterly useless gun control laws and/or accuse Nancy of being a bad mother, you need to remember this passage from the article...
"Everyone tried to encourage Adam and looked for ways to engage with him. Nancy would take him on trips to the shooting range. Nancy and Peter thought that their son was nonviolent; the best way to build a connection to someone with Asperger’s is often to participate in his fascinations."
I'll bet that sobering rationalization would make my parents EXCEEDINGLY glad that my childhood obsessions were in science, technology, video games, LEGO and Star Trek...
As for Mr. Lanza, who I now feel very bad about criticizing in an indirect manner, well... I'll let him speak for himself:
"I wondered how Peter would feel if he could see his son again. “Quite honestly, I think that I wouldn’t recognize the person I saw,” he said. “All I could picture is there’d be nothing there, there’d be nothing. Almost, like, ‘Who are you, stranger?’ ” Peter declared that he wished Adam had never been born, that there could be no remembering who he was outside of who he became. “That didn’t come right away. That’s not a natural thing, when you’re thinking about your kid. But, God, there’s no question. There can only be one conclusion, when you finally get there. That’s fairly recent, too, but that’s totally where I am.” "
Parents, learn from this tragedy. Don't let your kids get isolated. Spend time with them whether they like it or not. Don't cave to their every whim just because they have a neurological difference or some kind of disorder. I doubt strongly that Aspies in general are anything like Adam Lanza but, I don't ever want my unique group of people to ever again be put in such a negative spotlight, either. No one needs bad press, especially when it involves the wanton slaughter of school children.
- Lord Publius
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