Nevertheless...Chicago

 "Chicago is a city where the practical and the inspirational exist in harmony; where visionaries who made no small plans rebuilt after a great fire and taught the world to reach new heights. It's a bustling metropolis with the warmth of a small town; where the world already comes together every day to live and work and reach for a dream—a dream that no matter who we are, where we come from, no matter what we look like or what hand life has dealt us, with hard work, and discipline, and dedication, we can make it if we try." —Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States and longtime Chicago resident

"Chicago is a town, a city that doesn't ever have to measure itself against any other city. Other places have to measure themselves against it. It’s big, it’s outgoing, it’s tough, it’s opinionated, and everybody’s got a story." —Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef and author 

Anthony Bourdain was human. He was also from New York. And New Yorkers love New York. It’s a city that prides itself on…well, itself. And it should. It’s been around, it’s grown, changed, and made history, good and bad. But it’s not Chicago. Bourdain, as all humans do, had a flaw. One of his, in his writing at least, was that he told it like it was, and he nailed his description of Chicago. It was a settlement that should have failed, built along the smelliest river in the state (its name comes from the Native American word meaning ‘stinky water’). It was the city that burned down and against all odds sprang back up…more than once, but we only remember the worst time. It was the city that should have been finished by the flow of the Chicago River…but then they reversed it. 

It has a loud history of corruption and dishonesty in politics and law enforcement, but it’s honest about it. It doesn’t sweep it under the rug. It happened. Sure, it tried for a while to hide it's violent history. But it’s really hard when people associate you with one of the most violent members of organized crime. 

They have one baseball team that could have shut down after the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and another that could have moved when it couldn’t win a World Series for over a hundred years. And yet, it doesn’t care. It does not care what you think. It doesn’t care what you say. It’s come this far and like hell is it going to let you make it something it’s not: the actual melting pot. The beating heart, right in the middle of the United States. A growing moving thing that protects it’s own, even if it doesn’t necessarily like them. It’ll say “yeah, I have crime. I’m a giant metropolis with a hundred different cultures, thousands of streets and alleys and sidewalks. But I’m safer than some of the rest of you. And yes, my politicians can be corrupt, but so are yours. At least I accepted that. I also gave you Barack Obama. You’re Welcome.” 

Chicago is the city that every other city wishes it could be, and the city that doesn’t want to be anything else.

"I am an organic Chicagoan. Living there has given me a multiplicity of characters to aspire for. I hope to live there the rest of my days." —Gwendolyn Brooks, lifelong Chicagoan and first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize

Though I go to the city a lot, I don’t live there and I’m obviously not a native born Chicagoan but I’m not shunned. I’m not one of the true Chicagoans, but then it’s hard for anyone to be because Chicagoans will help you up and then move on with their day. You matter to them because they are good people, but then they have stuff to do. They are hardworking, usually with a dark sense of humor, a creative drive, and like Obama says, everyone here comes together. As we have seen, for the most part in regard to Trump’s threats to Chicago, it’s a united front of ‘this city will not bow to you. It’s ours and we like it.' Protests, peaceful but loud and boisterous, haven’t stopped, but neither has day to day life. Something that Trump doesn’t want you to know is that 99% of the population of any city, including Chicago, doesn’t want to kill anyone. It’d be nice for that number to be a hundred, but unfortunately, we’re humans and we have mostly good humans with a few bad humans in every civilization. 

Fun fact: I had a confrontation with someone in Chicago about a month ago. It’s not important why it happens. What matters is that even after it happened, I didn’t feel scared. I’m a 5’6’’ woman who normally doesn’t do arguments with anyone except people I trust. I’m also not from Chicago, but you know what? That guy (yes, I got in an argument with a guy who was most likely taller than me, and in case you are wondering, it was not politically caused) could have been intimidating. Anyone could have considered me a shrill Karen, or he could have gotten in my face or something. In the town I live in, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen. But in Chicago, even as I walked away, still angry, I wasn’t scared. Maybe that was naive, but I wasn’t looking over my shoulder because it was a person to person interaction that ended as soon as it began (in theory, I still was railing against the guy in my head days later, but that’s a me problem). So, to recap, just really quick: the majority of the people in Chicago? Not dangerous.

"Chicago's neighborhoods have always been the city’s greatest strength." —Jane Byrne, Chicago's first female mayor

Now, to elaborate on that point: sending federal agents into a city like Chicago is a horrible, not to mention stupid thing to do. It’s another step towards fascism, for one thing. Unless called in by a mayor or governor, the National Guard and agencies like ICE have no place in a city. In 1919, during the race riots, the National Guard was called in as a last resort. Let that sink in: during an actual riot, it took days for anyone to call in help. Should they have called it in earlier? Absolutely. However, they did eventually call for help. Only when help is needed should it be asked for. Oh, and also no one asked for this. Chicago was not experiencing a riot or dangerous period. In fact, crime is down in Chicago. And it has been for a long time. It has dangerous neighborhoods, sure. So does my town of less than 100,000 people. I was raised in a town with around 2,000 people, and even there, there are less than safe neighborhoods. And let’s not miss that the government is currently in The Loop. In front of Tribune Tower, for crying out loud. I’m sure all the business people there, in their suits and everything, are enjoying laughing at the ridiculousness of that. 

But Chicago’s diversity, one of the things that makes it so great, is under attack. Because they’re arresting people based purely on the color of their skin and the language they speak. It is 2025. We should have risen above this, but we haven’t. The federal government is allowing people to be arrested because they look different. If I need to point out the parallels to you regarding Nazi Germany or even the racist past of the United States and segregation, Jim Crow laws, and Japanese detainment camps, you either aren’t paying attention or have drunk too much of the kool-aid. This is how it started in Germany. It’s a step…no, it’s a drop off the cliff backwards in human rights. The people they are arresting, even if they are here illegally, aren’t criminals. They are people looking for a better life, people just like your grandparents or great-grandparents, some of whom would have snuck over through Ellis Island. If they had no immigration papers, they were often just sent in. All for the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families. Besides, let’s not act like all of those who are born here, myself included, could pass the citizenship test. Some of us have clearly forgotten the reason for the founding of our country (not wanting to be ruled by a king, for one) and the rights outlined in the Constitution and every amendment since. 

"Let me tell you something. I'm from Chicago. I don't break." —Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States and longtime Chicago resident

I love this quote by Barack Obama, because it perfectly encompasses what Chicago is. It’s a city that should have crumbled over and over and never did. It came back from the ashes, both literally and figuratively, like a phoenix. Chicago’s not perfect. It doesn’t try to be. But it’s strong, it’s fierce, it’s independent and it absolutely will not fall to tyranny or anyone who thinks that fascism and dictators have any place in this country. It will not allow a “wannabe dictator,” in the words of Governor Pritzker, to take away the foundation of this country and arrest people without cause with no consequences. Chicago will stand tall and proud against Trump and the MAGA cult, because Chicago protects it’s own and Chicagoans—both those born there and those who carry Chicago in their hearts and souls—don’t break.

Sources:

“21 Amazing Quotes about Chicago You Should Know.” Time out Chicago, 22 Oct. 2024, www.timeout.com/chicago/things-to-do/quotes-about-chicago.

Kotlowitz, Alex. Never a City so Real a Walk in Chicago. University Of Chicago Press, 2019.

Krist, Gary. City of Scoundrels : The Twelve Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago. New York, Broadway Books, 2013.

Reuters Staff. “Illinois Governor Says Trump Administration Seeking to Deploy 100 Troops to Illinois amid Immigration Blitz.” Reuters, 29 Sept. 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/illinois-governor-says-trump-administration-seeking-deploy-100-troops-illinois-2025-09-29/.

Nevertheless...Ub Iwerks

 So, we all know Walt Disney. We all know that the Walt Disney Company owns ABC, which recently made the correct decision to put Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. What most people don’t know, and what the Walt Disney Company has a tendency to forget until he can come in handy (much like Walt himself had a tendency to do, actually), is that Ub Iwerks is really who we have to thank for what we think of as animated movies and cartoons. And if there were ever a time to use that Will Smith meme, where he is showing off Jada, that would be now, because when Ub Iwerks was born, there was no such thing as Tylenol, and if there is a person who exemplifies autistic traits in the Walt Disney Company’s long history, it’s Ub Iwerks. (Seriously, picture me gesturing like Will next to a picture of Ub while reminding everyone that vaccines and Tylenol don’t cause autism).

Ub was born Ubbe Ert Iwwerks on March 24, 1901, in Kansas City, Missouri. His father abandoned the family, which he had a history of doing, and left Ubbe to drop out of school and care for his mother (a woman who I could rant about for hours, but let me just say this woman was a piece of work). When he met Walt Disney, the latter came to work at the same advertising company as him in Kansas City. 

I would love to be able to write this without talking about Walt. But even if I were to write an article about Walt himself, I wouldn’t be able to do it without talking about Ub. You could not have had one without the other. As the two moved forward with their forays into animation and movies, there would have been no success without what they both brought to the table. Walt brought the imagination, the showmanship, and the charisma needed for a business setting. He really did come up with Mickey Mouse, even if he did want to give him the horrible name of Mortimer. But Ub was the more mechanically minded; he was the dry humor, the quiet driving force, and in a lot of ways, he was the better artist.

Iwerks’ son, Don, recalled that his father would develop a singular passion for things, mastering them and then losing interest. According to him, Ub at some point developed a love of bowling. He would constantly be at the lanes until the day he rolled a perfect game. After that, the challenge was gone and he moved on to the next thing. Pictures show that he developed a love of archery at some point as well. Ub’s devotion to his craft (or any craft) is what led him to develop his art style. When we see old cartoons with their “rubber hose” limbs, their stretchy bodies, and those big eyes with the pupils that usually have a divot? That’s all Ub. 

His greatest interest was technology, and while he would leave Disney for almost a decade, he was not nearly as successful on his own. His cartoons are good, but they aren’t as lighthearted as those done by Disney. In fact, if you watch the old Oswald cartoons, done before Mickey was created, you get a better sense of Ub’s humor. Quiet and unassuming with a dry sense of humor, he was well liked but lacked the charisma and the lightheartedness that Walt lent to the group. He eventually returned to the studio, but his time as an animator was mostly at an end.

Throughout his time working with Walt, it had become apparent that if there was something that needed to be built, you went to Ub. When the pair were working on a series called “The Alice Comedies," it was Ub who hooked a camera to a truck to make filming easier. Don Iwerks recalls when his father heard that Roy Disney, the older brother of Walt and the man in charge of the finances (more or less), was considering shutting down the animation studio at the company because production costs were too high. He went home and developed what became ‘cels’ for animation on a Xerox machine, saving the studio.

After leaving the studio in 1933, Ub developed something called the Multiplane Camera, using parts of an old Chevrolet. His design started as a horizontal camera, and Disney would later turn it vertically. This was used to film animation sequences, giving them the layers and dynamics we recognize today. 

When he returned to Disney, he worked in special effects, designing the famous "feed the birds" scene in Mary Poppins, as well as (outside the company) the infamous scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” He was integral in developing the theme park attractions and audio-animatronics, especially Madame Leota’s scenes in The Haunted Mansion. His final project was the Hall of Presidents.

Ub Iwerks exemplifies the single mindedness, the quiet perseverance, and the misunderstood aspects of autism. He was described by those who loved him as smart and humorous, although he was seen as aloof and dull by others who didn’t know him. He was his own man who was easily overshadowed by the bright, loud star of Walt Disney, and for the most part, he was okay with that. Keep the attention away from him. He shows us that there is nothing wrong with autism, because of course there isn’t. There is nothing wrong with being different or focused. Autism is not something to be cured, but accepted and understood. It’s only when we realize that, that we can all flourish. 

Works Cited

Iwerks, Don. Walt Disney’s Ultimate Inventor : The Genius of Ub Iwerks. Los Angeles, Disney Editions, 2019, www.goodreads.com/book/show/34523679-walt-disney-s-ultimate-inventor. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

Iwerks, Leslie, and John Kenworthy. The Hand behind the Mouse. Disney Editions, 23 Apr. 2001.

Martin, Mackenzie. “Remembering Ub Iwerks, the Father of Mickey Mouse.” NPR.org, 7 July 2021, www.npr.org/2021/07/07/1013645653/remembering-ub-iwerks-the-father-of-mickey-mouse.

Mullen, Chris. “Ub Iwerks: Master of Animation and Technology | the Walt Disney Family Museum.” Waltdisney.org, 24 Mar. 2017, www.waltdisney.org/blog/ub-iwerks-master-animation-and-technology.

Ryan, Jeff. A Mouse Divided. Post Hill Press, 3 July 2018.

Nevertheless...Stop Censorship.

"The media is under attack. That sounds melodramatic to type. It feels melodramatic to think. It sets off the melodrama censor I have developed to avoid sounding so. But here’s the unfortunate thing: we live in melodramatic times, and the first sentence of this paragraph is true. 

Let’s be clear before we get started: I’m not saying we should censor anyone. I loathe Fox News with a passion that burns at the fiery gates of hell in August. The sight of their anchors makes me want to throw things and, for the love of all that is good, no matter what any right wing news commentator thinks, they are not, nor have they ever been, in danger of being censored. We can go all the way back to the fifties if you want, where Joseph McCarthy, a man with a brain the size of a walnut, decided to hunt people down for suspected communism. He had public hearings; he ruined people's lives, but no one thought to censor him. 

Former President Barack Obama was threatened, mocked, roasted, and questioned at every turn by the right. And not once did he threaten to shut them down. At most, in 2009, his administration tried to keep them from a press conference. Protests ensued; the news network was allowed back in. And this was after they had questioned his birth certificate, his citizenship, mocked him, and dismissed everything he did and said. They made up stories to tell about him that had no basis in fact and still, that one event notwithstanding, he did not censor them. Also, just to add, complaining is not censoring. If you need to look it up in the dictionary, you can do that now. I’ll wait. 

Yesterday, ABC made the decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel “indefinitely” for remarks made about (and I really need you to pay attention here) the political response to Charlie Kirk’s death. Not his death, not Kirk himself, but the response of the followers of Trump and Trump himself. And he didn’t even say anything untrue. 

“We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger pointing there was grieving.” 

Now, I can’t say that I have followed what the shooters' ideologies were, but what I can say is that I know that he had pictures with guns and Trump on social media. We can’t just pretend that doesn’t exist. We can’t say, because he had a transgender roommate, that it was the left’s fault. It wasn’t. The poor roommate has cooperated with the full extent of the law. They were horrified. We don’t even know if transgender and gay rights were why the shooter did what he did. No one knows anything, but it’s easier to say ‘it wasn’t our fault.'

No, it was, it was the fault of people who have yelled about their Second Amendment rights being violated if you so much as look in the direction of gun control laws. It is the fault of a government that spews hateful rhetoric left, right, and sideways if you disagree with them. It’s the fault of a government that has a leader who said, "I would have put the flags at half mast for the Minnesota politicians who were shot if the governor asked.” He shouldn’t have to ask! We aren’t in kindergarten. You aren’t on a reality show. The things he is saying, the way he acts, it’s all affecting the world because he’s showing that he can get away with being a bigoted, misogynistic dictator and no one will stop him. And God forbid you try to point out that he’s like this, because that’s what actually got Kimmel pulled.

Kimmel has said that he doesn’t believe Kirk should have been shot. Kimmel has not said anything to make you believe he thinks that the shooting was anything less than awful since it happened. You know what he did do, though? He pointed out that Trump is acting like a child about the whole thing. Which he is. When asked how he was doing, Trump said he was fine and then went on to brag about a new ballroom he is building, as Kimmel illustrated in his monologue. Those were the comments that got him in trouble. Not anything derogatory about the man who has become the right’s new way to make themselves feel victimized. 

Trump stated more than once that he would shut down news networks, reporters, and anyone who disagreed with him. But he is now doing it and make no mistake, he has been since he started his second term in office. He cut funding to PBS, which runs NPR, because he and his administration don’t want people to actually learn anything or read news that he doesn’t sanction. That’s also why they cut the Department of Education. He insults, belittles, and demands the removal of any and all news that doesn’t agree with him. He has placed in charge of the FCC one of his mindless drones who will do his bidding and now he can control the media and the narrative. 

We can’t let him do this. Do your own research, ask questions, and fight back. Freedom of speech and the freedom of the press are the cornerstones of our democracy and our country. Do not let him erode that foundation. I'm going to leave this video of a wonderful man that Don Lemon stopped on the street here for you to watch, just to drive home my point and because this man needs a book written about his life.

Sources:

Deng, Rae, and Taija PerryCook. “Investigating Claims Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect’s Roommate Is Trans.” Snopes, Snopes.com, 17 Sept. 2025, www.snopes.com/news/2025/09/17/tyler-robinson-roommate-trans/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2025.

Epstein, Kayla. “Charlie Kirk Suspect Confessed in Note to Roommate, Prosecutors Allege.” BBC, 16 Sept. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg2r8lvjn2o.

“How Do You Feel about Jimmy Kimmel Getting Preempted? #Jimmykimmel.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/shorts/lSQMj0Nh2-8. Accessed 18 Sept. 2025.

Taormino, Ellessandra. “Trump’s Attacks on Press Freedom Escalate: NPR, PBS Funding Cuts Explained | ACLU.” American Civil Liberties Union, 5 Aug. 2025, www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/trumps-attacks-on-press-freedom-escalate-npr-pbs-funding-cuts-explained.

Toher, John. “What Did Jimmy Kimmel Say about Charlie Kirk? TV Monologue in Full.” Newsweek, 18 Sept. 2025, www.newsweek.com/what-did-jimmy-kimmel-say-about-charlie-kirk-tv-monologue-full-2131760. Accessed 18 Sept. 2025.

Nevertheless...Robert Todd Lincoln

 "Nobody wanted me […]. They wanted Abraham Lincoln’s son.”

Robert Todd Lincoln is a controversial figure in United States history. His father is considered by many, myself included, to be the greatest president we have had. His mother was…well, Mary Todd Lincoln, a woman who is often just as controversial a topic to bring up as her firstborn child. The Lincolns were, by many standards at the time, an odd couple. She was someone who valued power, often saying she was going to marry the President and then, by rights, actually doing that. She was loud, extroverted, and bright. He was dark, gangly, introverted, and melancholy. In fact, he had such bad depression that multiple times throughout his life his friends worried he would harm himself. He represents, to many, the self made politician who came from nothing, while Mary came from wealth and aristocrats. But to look at them now, knowing what we know about mental health, it’s easier to see that, in some ways, Robert Todd Lincoln was more like his parents than anyone, including him, probably though. 

We can, today, look at Abraham Lincoln and say he most likely suffered from clinical depression and social anxiety. Mary’s a little more difficult. Many think she suffered from bipolar disorder, but it’s also easy to see ADHD with her impulsive spending and her intense emotions. Mary’s issues were likely exacerbated by the carriage accident she was in during the presidency, where she injured her skull on a rock. The wound became infected, and after this, Robert says she wasn’t the same. In fact, it seems to have triggered more symptoms. Not to mention, the woman buried three of her children and her husband. That’s enough to make anyone lose sanity. 

Robert was described once as being nothing like his father, the historian, who was angry at the time because Robert didn’t agree with his biography of the president, saying he was a Todd and not a Lincoln. That he had no humor or wit, that he was dull and uncharismatic. But contemporaries and friends have described him as likable, funny, kind, and intelligent. You just had to get to know him first.

Born in 1843, in Springfield, Illinois, Robert Todd Lincoln’s early childhood was mostly just him and his mother. His father, Abraham Lincoln, was traveling on the judicial circuit. He was close with Mary, helping with chores and entertaining her, while also, according to multiple sources, running amok in the way all children do. He was smarter than most of his playmates, his father said, adding that he spoke almost like an adult. When the family moved to the White House, Robert attempted to get into Harvard but failed the entrance exam for 15 out of 16 subjects. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that one subject was something that Robert had an intense interest in. His whole life, whatever he set his mind to became his sole focus. He wanted to go to Harvard and so, after studying up on the other subjects, he retook the exam and passed, graduating and heading to Harvard Law. But in that time, he had set his mind on something else: joining the Union Army in the civil war. 

His mother refused. She would not let him join, and until January of 1865, her husband let her have her way. Then, finally relenting to pressure from his son, he had Robert assigned to General Grant’s division. After the war and after his father’s assassination, Robert turned his one track mind back to law and enrolled at the University of Chicago. He received his degree, married, and started a family. 

In 1875, after the death of her other remaining child, Tad, Mary Todd Lincoln began experiencing more severe symptoms from the mental illness she had been hiding since the carriage accident, including hallucinations and delusions. Robert, with what we now know was a good deal of anguish, had his mother committed to a psychiatric sanitarium, though she escaped and blasted her son in the papers and in court where, after a complete reversal by the doctor who had just a few short months earlier said she needed help, she was allowed to live in Springfield with her sister. While the two were estranged for most of the remainder of her life, Mary and Robert were speaking again by the time of her death. 

Robert also has the unfortunate distinction of being present at three presidential assassinations and even being the target of an assassination attempt himself. An article I found while researching this called him the "Harbinger of Doom,” which seems a bit excessive. When Robert Todd Lincoln died in 1926, he had built a family life that he adored. He had been a successful lawyer, worked for the Pullman Railroad Company, and served in presidential cabinets, as well as working overseas in a political appointment. What does all this have to do with history and vaccines?

Well, if we look at Robert Todd Lincoln now, we can see that he would most likely fall on the high functioning end of the spectrum (listen, at the very least this poor guy was going to have depression and anxiety but that’s a topic for another day). He was strong willed, almost to a fault; he had intense interests and when angered or hurt could nurse a grudge for a lifetime. He was considered too serious, dry, dull, lacking in humor, odd, rude, and sullen. But people who knew him well recalled his sense of humor, his intelligence, his stubbornness, and his sense of himself. 

People with autism are often considered rude, sullen, unemotional, lacking a sense of humor, stubborn, etc. But it’s my experience that most of the time, it’s just a matter of getting to know them on a more intimate level. As was the case with Robert. And his father, before he became the President. And his mother… her entire life. To read Robert’s letters is to see the humor for what it is: dry, witty, and unassuming. He pushed himself to get into Harvard and the army, and come hell or high water, he was going to have his way. It could also be said that he was simply stubborn and introverted, which sure... But I learned something else while researching this article that I had no idea previously. RTL had a love of astronomy, and so he built himself an astronomy tower with a telescope. Because when you are going to hyper fixate on something, as he learned with his first Harvard attempt, do it right.

Sources:

Works Cited

“Astronomy Club Uses Lincoln’s Telescope.” Newspapers.com, 19 June 2004, www.newspapers.com/article/bennington-banner-astronomy-club-uses-li/115341283/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.

Emerson, Jason. Giant in the Shadows : The Life of Robert T. Lincoln. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.

“Robert Lincoln Writes about the End of His Mother’s Estrangement.” Friends of the Lincoln Collection, www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org/lincoln-lore/robert-lincoln-writes-about-the-end-of-his-mothers-estrangement/.

“Robert Todd Lincoln on the Memory of His Father Abraham Lincoln | Shapell Manuscript Foundation.” Shapell, 21 Apr. 2023, www.shapell.org/manuscript/robert-todd-lincoln-on-father-abraham-lincolns-memory/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.

“The Madness of Mary Lincoln.” AMERICAN HERITAGE, 2025, www.americanheritage.com/madness-mary-lincoln-0. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.

We Interrupt This Broadcast

 Originally, I was going to post about Robert Todd Lincoln today, but he's getting pushed back, again (Sorry, Bob), because I need to get something off my chest. Quick disclaimer: Celebrating the death of someone who is not a sex offender or murderer is wrong. I will never celebrate the death of someone, even someone whose views were, in my opinion, reprehensible, like Charlie Kirk. 

That being said, I burst into tears last night, not because of his death, but once again, because of the death of the school children two weeks ago in Minnesota. This time, the outburst was even angrier because people are more upset about the death of Charlie Kirk than they are about someone going to a church and shooting school children on their first day. I have barely seen any mention of the Denver school shooting and even less about the other, according to CNN, 45 school shootings this year as of September 10th. Are we that desensitized to violence in this country that it took the very public, very widely watched death of someone who liked to argue with people and supported the president, for anyone to talk about this? Shooting of any kind is not okay. The number of people I have heard of who watched this video and were completely calm about it is amazing. I can't imagine watching it and not feeling nauseous (I haven't watched it and I won't). 

The US has a violence problem. The US has always had a violence problem, but that doesn't mean it's okay to just act like the violence isn't happening. Kids should be able to go to school or a freaking church without having to worry about dying. People should be able to debate an opinion without fearing for their lives. Just like everyone should have the right to love, worship, and be who they want. 

We have to do better. For everyone. Because the federal government is a mess, because the world is off balance and we need to help each other since no one else will. Be kind. Don't celebrate people's deaths and for the love of all that is good, don't become so desensitized that you don't even react to a school shooting in a church.

Nevertheless...Autism Existed Before Vaccines.

 In the words of one of my favorite professors, Dr. Joan Wertz, “correlation does not equal causation.” In regard to this series, that means—and I will scream this from the rooftops if you want me to—vaccines do not cause autism. I get it, really. As someone who is constantly looking for answers to…well, anything, really, I understand. I want to know why people do the things they do, I want to know why we act the way we do, and what causes everything. I’m never going to be able to know all those things, though. But, looking at the timeline, I can tell you that autism was around long before vaccines. We just didn’t feel the need to label it as such.

Autism and it’s sister disorder, ADHD, have been around since as long as there have been people. The thing is, the world didn’t used to be as inaccessible for people with levels 1 or 2 autism (verbal or nonverbal but able to perform basic functions, they might struggle with expression, emotional regulation, and recognizing feelings and social cues in others) or ADHD. In some ways, the world before technology and offices and grocery stores could have been built for people who were able to hyperfocus or not focus at all. People who were more inclined to move and build, hunt and gather, than people who are wired to sit and listen or paper punch all day. Imagine the most obedient person from your office waiting for someone to tell him what to do in a mammoth attack. He would have an issue… a lot of them. 

I’m not going to tell you the theories that abound of what causes autism, because, well, we don’t have time. What I will tell you is that prior to the 1800’s people who have autism were called changelings. You know, the children that were carried off by fairies and switched so their parents went from having very well behaved, typical child to one who was just a little bit different. In the 1800’s there was still no official diagnosis of autism, the word wasn’t even used yet, but we went from calling people changelings and thinking they had been carried off by fairies, to acknowledging that these were the same people, they just were different, with ‘awkward social abilities.’ In the 1940’s two scientists (and I use that word loosely, at least in one case) documented children with what they referred to as autistic traits. Leo Kanner included boys and girls in his studies, while the other, Hans Asperger, only included boys. He specifically pointed to unusual interests and high intelligence in his studies, while Kanner pointed out emotional dysregulation and extreme social awkwardness, both using the word autistic. An official diagnosis of autism was not recognized until the 1980’s in the DSM III, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 

The first real vaccine was created in 1885 and vaccines were required for smallpox shortly thereafter. However, the Measles, Mumps, Rubella vaccine, the one people blame for autism, a mental “disorder” (I hate that term for kids with level 1 or high functioning autism, but that’s for a different entry)—that has been around for literal centuries, was not licensed or required until 1973. It’s interesting to note that in 1980 the world was declared free of naturally occurring smallpox due to vaccines. Thanks to vaccines, we stopped having to worry about deadly viruses. And then people, as is our nature, started wondering what caused the things that made people different. And they blamed vaccines. MMR vaccines do not cause autism, by the way. This has been debunked several times over. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that it is received when the first signs of autism tend to appear in children. 

All that to say two things:

1. Vaccines do not cause autism. The genes for autism are already there and have been since before your grandfather was born. 
2. Who cares if they do cause autism? I would rather have autism, but more importantly, I would rather have my happy, healthy child who has autism than a dead kid. 

Because there is no official diagnosis before 1980 of autism, that means we don’t know for sure if someone from history could have had it. We can only look at the records left behind and go from there, and a lot of very famous, influential people have probably had autism. Except this blog is already far too long to include a biography like it was originally supposed to. So, later this week I’ll be back because one of the sons of our most famous president would like to have a chat. 

Sources: 

Works Cited

Hviid, Anders, et al. “Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccination and Autism.” Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 170, no. 8, 5 Mar. 2019, pp. 513–520, www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-2101, https://doi.org/10.7326/m18-2101.

Immunize.org. “Vaccine History Timeline.” Immunize.org, 17 Jan. 2024, www.immunize.org/vaccines/vaccine-timeline/.

Najera, Rene. “Timeline of Vaccination Mandates.” Cpp-Hov.netlify.app, 9 Aug. 2021, historyofvaccines.org/blog/timeline-of-vaccination-mandates.

Rosen, Nicole E., et al. “The Diagnosis of Autism: From Kanner to DSM-III to DSM-5 and Beyond.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 51, no. 12, 24 Feb. 2021, pp. 4253–4270, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04904-1.

Nevertheless...Ida B. Wells

There must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice if we only know how to find it." Ida B. Wells

Okay, so, since this whole series started because of the Trump Administration deciding that the Smithsonian was “too woke,” and that it needed to focus on “brightness,” instead of…you know…telling the whole truth, our first person we’re going to meet is Dr. Ida B. Wells (she did not receive the honors doctorate until well after her death, from her former school, Rust College, but anyone who had heard of anything she’s done would be hard pressed to take that title away from her and so for this article I will be referring to her with that title)—I can almost hear the White House screaming in frustration at the thought of not only a person of color but a woman at that. Which is fitting, since sadly, that was an issue Dr. Wells faced her entire life. 

Born in Mississippi, into slavery, although she was ‘freed’ when she was still a toddler, as many Blacks experienced after the Civil War, freedom wasn’t always honored, especially in the South. Dr. Wells, after becoming a teacher at the age of 16, moved herself and her siblings, to whom she had become the surrogate parent after the death of her mother and father, to Memphis, Tennessee. Her journey into civil rights work unofficially began six years later when she was dragged from a train for not sitting where the conductor deemed she should based on her skin color. Dr. Wells, having purchased a ticket for the ladies' car, refused and later remembered white people looking on as if entertained as she was forcibly removed from the train. 

Shortly after this, she entered the field of journalism, writing editorials under a pen name that brought to the forefront problems that were faced every day by Black people. During this time, she was still teaching, however after she exposed the Memphis school system’s poor conditions, she was fired and became a full time writer. Then, in 1892, the owners of a grocery store in Memphis were lynched for providing competition for a local white owned grocery store. One of the men was a good friend of Dr. Wells, Thomas Moss.  Now, as she was always trying to do, she went looking for the truth, and when she uncovered it, published her findings in the newspaper, Free Speech. She also shed light on the racial prejudices in the city. A mob set fire to the office in response, and Dr. Wells was forced to leave the city. 

Wells became an outspoken investigator and reporter on lynchings and even published her findings in a pamphlet, Southern Horrors: Lynching Law in All Its Phases. Then, in 1893, she was hired to go undercover and report on her findings for The Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

After publishing her findings, she traveled to Europe, delivering lectures, and then went to Chicago, Illinois, which was at that time playing host to the World’s Columbian Exposition. Chicago, while it was considered a less racist and more progressive city by most standards, was not allowing the Black community to be involved. Dr. Wells raised the money to publish a pamphlet that was eventually published in three languages, titled The Reason Why the Colored American is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition. It was a record of the discrimination and oppression that Blacks still faced after Emancipation. Frederick Douglass, a contributor to the pamphlet and who was representing the Haitian government’s booth at the fair, invited Dr. Wells to distribute the publication out there. Shortly after this, she returned to the lecture circuit on the other side of the Atlantic. 

Back in the US, Dr. Wells remained a leader in the anti-lynching and equal rights movements. She was at the founding of the NAACP, though she was largely suspicious of and pushed aside by the white leaders and even some of the Black leaders for being a woman. She founded the Negro Fellowship League in Chicago in 1910, providing help to Black people who were arriving in Chicago after having fled worse conditions in the Southern states. She marched for women's suffrage and became the first Black female probation officer in the city.

Throughout her life, Dr. Wells faced condescension from men for being an outspoken woman. But it wasn’t just men who tried to belittle her. According to an article published in the Chicago Defender in 1913 after the Women’s Suffrage Parade in D.C., southern women attempted to send Wells to the “Jim Crow” section of the parade, but she would not go. She had friends around her to support her protest, and the march carried on with her in place. 

She continued her activism and writing throughout her life. She ran as an independent candidate for the Illinois Senate seat in 1930 at the age of 67. She passed away from kidney disease in March 1931 at the age of 68. 

Dr. Wells' accomplishments were not recognized by her contemporaries, at least not publicly. Posthumously, she has been awarded doctorate degrees and the Pulitzer Prize. She has been featured on stamps and has schools, foundations, and streets named after her. 

History has remembered this strong, powerful, brilliant woman, even though her own time tried to diminish her. We would be remiss if we let anything happen to her legacy now. She deserves to be remembered and celebrated for all her work. The cause of it deserves to be remembered, too. We can’t erase the dark parts of the past. We can’t make them brighter. We can only let them lead us to a brighter future, which I feel is what Dr. Ida B. Wells would have wanted. 

Sources:

“BrainyQuote.” BrainyQuote, 2025, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ida_b_wells_295240.

Duster, Michelle. “New Coin Celebrates the Living Legacy of Ida B. Wells.” Smithsonian American

Women’s History Museum, 30 Dec. 2024, womenshistory.si.edu/blog/new-coin-celebrates-living-

legacy-ida-b-wells.

Norwood, Arlisha. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett.” National Women’s History Museum, 2017,

www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett .

“Our Namesake – Ida B. Wells Society.” Ida B. Wells Society, idabwellssociety.org/about/our-namesake/.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Ida Bell Wells-Barnett | Biography & Facts | Britannica.”

Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Ida-B-Wells-Barnett.