Community

I heard this fascinating story about a couple of reporters who tracked down the very first person ever diagnosed as autistic. His name is Donald Triplett, he is 77 years old and lives in Mississippi. The radio story led me to the article in the Atlantic Monthly.

What struck me about the story (perhaps fleshed out in the radio interview more than the article) is how the small community in which he has spent his life not only accepted him but protected him and allowed him to thrive.

Teaser:

Still, it’s clear that Donald reached his potential thanks, in large part, to the world he occupied—the world of Forest, Mississippi—and how it decided to respond to the odd child in its midst. Peter Gerhardt speaks of the importance of any community’s “acceptance” of those who have autism. In Forest, it appears, Donald was showered with acceptance, starting with the mother who defied experts to bring him back home, and continuing on to classmates from his childhood and golfing partners today. Donald’s neighbors not only shrug off his oddities, but openly admire his strengths—while taking a protective stance with any outsider whose intentions toward Donald may not have been sufficiently spelled out. On three occasions, while talking with townspeople who know Donald, we were advised, in strikingly similar language each time: “If what you’re doing hurts Don, I know where to find you.” We took the point: in Forest, Donald is “one of us.”

Imagine what the world would be like if society felt a responsibility to take all differently abled people into their person protection.

“If what you’re doing hurts Don, I know where to find you.”