Should I stay or should I go?
With apologies to Joe Strummer (1952-2002)
Ever since the second reign of Tangerine Palpatine (shout out Nick Verro)1 began and all the attendant fear and uncertainty therein, there was talk on social media amongst those in marginalized communities about possibly having to flee this once-great country2 for greener (and maybe overseas) pastures. No word of a lie, I entertained similar thoughts during that same time.
Earlier in the week, I read a Substack from the user Canada Resists with helpful hints and timely tips about whether you should GTFO out of an authoritarian state. No shade to our neighbors — perhaps stick a “u” in there? — to the North, but Canada has been seemingly the default option for those of us Americans for those who have thought their country was just no longer that into them. To my way of thinking, this goes back to the Vietnam War, as that was a popular spot for draft dodgers during the late 1960s — that and Sweden.
As I stated at the top of this dispatch, the thoughts of “self-deportation” virtually came to the forefront with all I consumed by way of doom-scrolling, especially as someone who is on the autism spectrum and a closeted member of the LGBT community. All that said, having to suddenly escape a dictatorship that is anything but benevolent with only the clothes on your back and what little money you have on your person is a Herculean task in itself. Here follows a brief list of “speed governors” that is keeping me in this country to take art in the Resistance:
Going on two years ago, my father went into the hospital for cardiac problems which ultimately led to him suffering a stroke. While he's been able to do most tasks on this own (thanks in no small part to tons of rehab), my suddenly splitting the scene would cause some undue hardship on the woman to whom he’s related by engagement and she would be forced to call for backup, as it were.
Having a current passport is key to getting out if your hand has been forced; unfortunately, my most recent one has long expired and if that wasn't enough, I can’'t easily get to as it’s in a lockbox own in our basement (one can only assume the key is within reach). I do, however, have my first passport from my high school days, replete with picture taken at age 16. Better than nothing, I suppose…
Sure, we’d like to get to another country if and when the shit goes down. But, the near-poverty wages getting paid out these oligarchic days sure doesn’t make it cost-effective in any way, shape or form. Creativity would likely have to come into play; stowing away on a freighter, mayhaps?
Aversion to major changes is one of the hallmarks of the autistic experience, and having to adapt to a new culture, let alone a new country. The moving experience is stressful enough in the best of times; now factor in the foregoing and it becomes nerve-wracking, to say the least.
To a person with autism, any mention of the word “refugee” doesn’t connote having to flee a despot’s rule, rather how we consider society to judge us as a community. However, asylum seeking is blind to neurotype. A study conducted by both the University of Alberta and Lethbridge University last year interviewed Syrian immigrant mothers of autistic children to the Canadian province of Albert; while there indeed were barriers to express how their children felt about integrating into a new country and a new culture therein, the study also concluded that relational ties are also important in securing essential services, diagnoses, and what-have-you for their children with autism.3 On a similar note, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights published a story several years back about an Iraqi refugee boy whose parents faced struggles with seeking psychological care after feeling to Lebanon, only obtaining needed services through a non-governmental agency (NGO) called Caritas.
In conclusion, the term “refugee” in the context of the autistic experience refers to both current events and history in the broader sense, but also the experience itself with feelings of isolation, rejection, and the like; especially in these fraught and unprecedented times.
Jams of the Week
For those of us who are considered “elder millenials” or “Xennials” (those born between the years 1977 and 1983ish), this week has been filled with nothing but sad news what with the passings of Hulk Hogan — the less said about the man born Terrence Gene Bollea, the better — and sitcom star Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Theo Huxtable on the sitcom starring He Who Shall Not Be Named). However, for a subsection of us, the news of Ozzy Osbourne’s death at age 76 hit particularly hard. The “Prince of Darkness” (with no apologies to Mephistopheles) was an icon of heavy metal in the 1970s and well into the 1990s; I came of age with him as a reality TV star, though. I first became aware of Ozzy the metal singer as a child, as the video of his 1991 song “Mama, Im Coming Home” hit quite hard in my then stage of life, brought on in part by the stresses of public education in an Upstate New York school system — I did read somewhere the song was about his now widow, Sharon; it seems lighter fare than that for which he is the most famous.
There are a number of us on the autism spectrum who, unfortunately, also suffer from some sort of mental illness. “Paranoid”, Ozzy’s breakout hit with the metal group Black Sabbath, hits the nail squarely on the head with its lyrics about the individual experience of mental illness.
I sometimes played that song on college radio during student days, more specifically the final track from his Live from Budokan album. I added this last song after getting news of Osbourne’s departure from this life from his final album, Patient Number 9; again, pay attention to the lyrics.
Ozzy’s song about the Cold War world lent itself to several mashups; my favorites are “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire and “Take on Me” by Norwegian group a-ha. Both videos are presented herewith:
Ozzy, thanks for all you contributed to society, music, and (despite my better judgement) television.
KEEP SMILING and ALL POWER TO ALL THE PEOPLE
JB
A friend and classmate of mine from high school days
Was it, really?
Bernier, Abdullah, Adam McCrimmon, Sumaya Nsair, and Henna Hans. “Autism in the Context of Humanitarian Emergency: The Lived Experiences of Syrian Refugee Mothers of Children on the Autism Spectrum.” Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees 39, no. 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.41109.