Overcome This

You may have caught the recent news article about a 17 year old senior, at Greece Athena High School, named Jason McElwain, or J-Mac as his friends call him. Jason made six 3-point (from a distance of 19 feet 6 inches or greater for high school) baskets in the last four minutes of a basketball game. This is outstanding for anyone but even more so considering J-Mac never played in a high school game oh, and J-Mac has autism. J-Mac was a student assistant / team coach. He wanted to play but at 5 foot 6 inches he was considered too short to play so he joined as manager. During games he usually wore a shirt and tie and sat on the bench. For the senior’s last night, though, coach Johnson decided to allow him to suit up and sit on the bench. He even promised the team that if a victory seemed in the bag, he’d put J-Mac in the game. With 4 minutes and 19 seconds left to play, and with Greece Athena ahead by 20 points, J-Mac was sent onto the court and the packed gymnasium erupted with joy. Jason missed the first shot by several feet. Coach Johnson hung his head and asked God to please let him make a basket. Jason made the next basket from beyond the 3 point line. Then again, and again each time farther away than the time before. In total, he made six 3 point shots and one 2 point shot in 4 minutes. That’s outstanding by anyone’s measure.

I had several questions though. First, one news by-line read ‘Boy Overcomes Autism’. How many shots did he need to make to overcome autism? What if Jason only made five or four 3-point shots? What if he didn’t make any baskets? Would he still have overcome his autism? If Jason wasn’t a basketball player, could he have overcome his autism and if so, how would we know?

What if the coach hadn’t put Jason in the game? Would that have prevented him from overcoming autism? Jason’s life is now changed in ways no one could imagine, in part because he is a great athlete, and in part because his coach gave him a chance. How many other “would be” success stories are out there that never came to fruition because they were never given the chance?

The fact is, we have to create our own chances. Whether on the basketball court or in the work world, we have to create our own opportunities especially if we have a handicap or disability. Jason was given a chance because of his persistence and tenacity; he almost forced the team to give him a chance. We can’t wait for possible ‘cures’ or some impending legislation. If we want work, we have to prove our worth.

Here is another case in point. I recently saw a video on CNN.com about a woman named Amanda Baggs. Amanda is a 26-year-old woman with autism. In the video she is non-verbal, sitting at her desk, staring out the window, rocking slightly back and forth. At times she makes indiscernible gestures and noises. Until recently, Amanda was known to relatively few people. That is until she started video taping herself, editing the video, and posting it on YouTube.com. The first few videos she posted didn’t garner much attention. Finally, one of her videos caught the attention of the press. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have viewed her video on YouTube.com.

What makes her so special? Amanda appears out of touch with the world, well initially anyway. She is non-verbal and seems to live in a life detached from reality until she starts typing. She can type 120 words a minute, faster than most people talk, and uses better grammar and spelling than I do. She can carry on a conversation using her laptop computer. She is eloquent and quite perceptive. Were it not for the computer, we might have never known Amanda is very much in-touch and aware of everything around her.

In an article entitled The World I Want To Live In, Amanda laments that

“Doctors recommend that we be medicated, confined, or subjected to behavior modification therapy, all with the goal of making us less expensive, more manageable, and less autistic-looking.” and “Parents are portrayed as some sort of heroes for dealing with us, and we are not portrayed as any sort of heroes unless we emulate normality... At that point, we are paraded around as having "recovered" from autism.”

I think a part of her message is that society is trying to fit us into their mold. If we don’t fit, society thinks we need to be fixed. When we appear to fit their mold then we have overcome our disability. My message to society is forget your molds and preconceived ideas of disability. Those deserving of hero worship are not those that fit your precious mold but rather those that grew outside the mold, that followed their own destiny and succeeded or failed on their own merits.

FYI, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, autism, a disease that affects an individual's ability to relate socially to others, is growing at a rate of 10 to 17 percent a year, making it the fastest-growing disability in the country. This disease, which affects boys four times more often than girls, cuts across all racial, ethnic, social and economic lines.

About the author

Gene Rodgers Photo Gene Rodgers has been a quadriplegic since age 17. Since then he has earned several college degrees, worked in several states, earned a Switzer Fellowship, and now works as a private contractor.