Wednesday, June 12, 2013

My wibbly wobbly rantings about the murder, yes murder, of Alex Spourdalakis.

I have been too torn up to write coherently about this. So I ranted at a webcam instead. Many thanks to Lynn for transcribing so I didn't have to.


Ohhh wow so that's an attractive face...I was mid sneer apparently (the still of the video is a washed out person who isn't that fair in real life with pink & purple hair and blue glasses making...a face. Eyes are narrowed, lip is quirked). I was very upset when I wrote this, and it was before I knew that Dorothy Spourdalakis was charged with first degree murder, and way before I knew that she'd been offered services and declined them. The sweariness would have been much more so.

Transcript starts here!


This is my second attempt at this since my first attempt was too profane and stuttery even for me. Right now I am so angry and incoherent I cannot write. That’s a problem. Usually I can write. I can’t always talk. Right now I am so angry that ranting is pretty much what we’ve got.
Why am I angry? I am angry because a young man named Alex Spourdalakis was killed yesterday. Yesterday is when I found out about it anyway. You may know that name because Alex was autism famous because he was in Loyola Hospital and he was being restrained and his mom did not agree with the treatment plan. His mom was really big into biomed, the AOA stuff, autism as a physical illness …instead of…as a whole body illness rather than as a neurological how you are. So, we’re going into this with some problematical attitudes, right? So, his mom Dorothy apparently had a custody battle with the hospital because of the disagreements in treatment.
Yeah, ok, so the state made the wrong call here. Alex was found with multiple stab wounds to his chest…in his bed. Let me break that down for you in case you’re not getting it…multiple stab wounds [making stabbing motions] in his chest. There’s important things that live there, like your heart and lungs, you know, things that are vital to life.
His mother and caregiver were found somewhat unconscious next to his bed. I roll my eyes at this because I know where they’re going with this. They’re going all Karen McCarron on our asses. And I will explain that in a moment. But first let me tell you how this is a big fucking failure.
People knew who Alex was. People knew Alex was going through a lot of shit. People knew his mother believed in all the biomedical and [lots of eye rolling] “I can get my child back” bullshit. She had set up the narrative of him being severely autistic, unable to communicate—which is not a thing—violent, etc. And yeah, autistic people can be violent. Neurotypical people can be violent. People who are neither can be violent. However, your kid being bigger than you isn’t a reason to kill them. Just throwing that out there. If you kill your child, you’re a bad parent. Yes, I’m judging you. If you’ve even thought about killing your child, you’re a bad parent. Yeah, I’m being judgmental again. I’ll live with that. Love does not work that way.
So one of the reasons I’m really pissed off is because of the usual [eye rolling] “Oh, he’s in heaven now”. My favorite is the thing that one of the groups that was intended to work towards getting Alex out of the hospital was a letter to Alex in heaven suggesting that he thank his mother for stabbing him in the chest. [Sarcastic eye rolling] “Thank you so much for brutalizing me, it’s my favorite”. Because now, you see, he’s in heaven, which I don’t think exists. And he doesn’t have autism. Ok, so even if there is a heaven, you’re going to go there and you’re going to be the same person, otherwise you’re not the same person who did whatever it is you do to get into heaven. Autism is part of you. Ok, so that’s a whole other rant about how theology mixed with woo woo crap is really fucking dangerous. I’ll save that for another time. So, ok, we have the same old, same old. [Eye rolling] Oh, she saved him from autism. Oh, she was so stressed. If you’re so stressed out you’re going to kill somebody you need help. Now, I’m not saying that in a “oh, don’t judge me” way, I’m saying that as a matter of fact thing. If you think you’re going to kill somebody, you need to talk to somebody about that. You need to explore your options.
So, this lady, she killed her kid. People are going around the internet saying, “Oh, I hope I never get that desparate”. If you’re that desparate, go talk to somebody, leave your kid with somebody that’s not you. Being that desparate is not an option. It isn’t. I’ll take care of your kid if you’re that desparate, and I live on SSI. And that’s from a supposedly good parent that I heard that one.
Other stuff, this stuff is pissing me off so I can’t make a coherent stream of thoughts. So, let’s talk about that suicide attempt, ok? I said she was Karen McKarenning it, because I’m cynical. Karen McCarron, you may recall, killed her three year old daughter Katie killed her daughter Katie on Mother’s Day and then took an overdose of Tylenol or aspirin that you don’t die from. You get a breakfast of charcoal and three days in a psych ward, unless you kill your autistic kid, in which case you get a bunch of sympathy.
I don’t feel sorry for you, Dorothy. I don’t believe your suicide attempt was all that sincere, because you stabbed your son in his chest as he laid in his bed. If you’re going to be violent with your victim, If you want to convince me you have this murder suicide pact going on because you can’t go on anymore, be consistent. If you’re going to poison yourself, A) do some research, B) be consistent. If you’re going to poison yourself, poison your kid. If you’re going to stab your kid, grow some avocados and stab yourself too. The heart, it doesn’t move. It’s in the same place on everybody unless you have some freaky condition and it’s statistically unlikely that you do.
I don’t really believe that suicide attempts when people have just killed their kid are all that sincere. I don’t really think there’s a whole of regret going on. I don’t because I’m a judgmental bitch. I can live with that. If you stab your kid repeatedly you’re not sorry, if you go to the effort to take your kid out of places so you can continue poisoning them with altmed you’re not sorry. If you’re convincing people that you’re saving your kid from autism you have no reason to be sorry because you have an entire world view that says this is what you do. If you can’t fix them, you kill them. That’s like this whole tragedy martyr of autism thing is so common among biomed parents I can’t even….You’re not a hero if you kill your kid. You don’t deserve all that sympathy. You deserve everybody to be as pissed off as I am.
But, you know, people aren’t because all those people at Age of Autism and Autism Speaks have people convinced that Alex was, you know, a burden. And people like me, you know, maybe you should consider not existing, shit like that. And that’s not ok, that’s really not ok. Alex deserved better. His last few weeks, months even, were probably complete hell between the hospital and the…well, ok, biomed says it’s ok to give your kid a bleach enema. I don’t know if that’s what was going on. I’m pretty convinced that chelation which can destroy your kidneys was part of what’s going on. Alex’s symptoms from the hospital sound remarkably like what happens if you do dangerous altmed or if somebody is poisoning you.
I don’t have no idea what was actually going on. Loyola hasn’t given a statement and HIPAA says they can’t tell us what was going on, but I do know that all the gastrointestinal crap that was going on with Alex could have been induced intentionally or not intentionally via application of many of the therapies that DAN doctors or whatever they’re calling themselves now promote. So, this is a tragedy, and this is a tragedy that we could have seen coming. People probably did see it coming a little bit. Because she showed all the signs in terms of belief system. Most of the parents who kill their kids seem to be able to convince people that autism was a burden and it was making everybody’s lives hell and they were saving their kids from autism. Or it was a mercy, or whatever.
Again, if you kill your kid, you’re a bad parent. A bad parent. If you want to yell at me for saying that, that’s cool, just leave your knife at home. So this is something everybody should have seen coming. The hospital should have known better, assuming the hospital thinks that autistic people are people. So, yeah, I’m angry, and I’m upset, and I just stopped crying before I started filming the failed one of these. And we need to do better. Not just autistic people but everybody who purports to care about autistic people needs to do better. And that biomed shit needs to be smacked down. I really do blame that mindset for a lot of the deaths. Society needs to stop saying “Oh, the poor dear, think about her, her child was so impaired. No wonder she killed him. Think about her, take a walk in her shoes”. I acknowledge that I have shoes. These are the ones I was wearing today [holding up shoes], would you like go go for a walk? No, you just want me to walk in a whiny martyr mom’s shoes? Well, that’s not going to happen. Not until acknowledge that my shoes exist. So, yeah, my thoughts are all over the place, and I’m probably going to go cry again because this is terrible and it shouldn’t have happened. And I’m actually angry enough that if someone tells me not to judge to my face it’s going to be loud or it’s going to be tearful, or I don’t even know. Again, if you kill your child, you don’t love them, and you’re a bad parent. That means Dorothy was a bad parent, Karen McCarron was a bad parent. All these folks on this poster are bad parents. And if you think being that desperate is an option, you might be a bad parent. This has been your Tuesday afternoon of judgey bitchiness. Just don’t kill your kids.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thing is, for her to stab herself in the heart, I think she'd have to actually have one.

I wanna know where the sympathy lies for Alex? I mean, he had to put up with a mom who refused to accept him, therefore causing him more pain for him.
I have no sympathy for the devil.

obscurefox said...

It just shouldn't have to be said anyone who kills their kid is a bad parent. How obvious is it, do not kill your kids. That is the worst parenting ever. I do not understand how anyone can have any sympathy for these parents.

Lindsay said...

Somehow I hadn't heard about poor Alex. You're right --- he deserves all the sympathy, his mother deserves none.

Unknown said...

Thank you for speaking the truth Kassiane.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Angie Jackson said...

Alex deserved so much more. He deserved to be loved by his mother. He deserved to be accepted for who he was, how he was. He deserved to have his health and body respected, and not be given dangerous alt med "treatments" for the crime of being born autistic. He deserved to live.

Jupiter said...

"Think about her, take a walk in her shoes" Ugh, the people that say this! I don't want to brainstorm what it's like to be a murderer.

Also, how DO we fight this altmed BS??? I have some money (well, only a little) and a hatred of pseudoscience.

Brenda Rothman (Mama Be Good) said...

My heart breaks for Alex and for every child like him whose life is cut short needlessly. Every single life is precious, especially those who are living a vulnerable life, who need supports, who depend on people to keep them safe. My heart breaks for autistic people who will be even more vulnerable because of this tragedy and for the many parents who try every day to keep their children safe, secure, and happy.

Unknown said...

my adult autistic son attacked and assaulted in an state of ohio facility! He was mislabeled "moderately retarded" so they could commit here there. I haven't had much support from the autism community. I hope this never happens to another autistic individual and their family. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGJFHh9NcV4

Lecy said...

It's like they think autism is some disease that attacks otherwise "perfect" children and turns them into "monsters."

Autism is not a disease!! Autism is who you are.