I remember, when I told my long-ago ex-girlfriend that I knew someone who went to school with Martin Bryant (Port Arthur, Tasmania) that her reaction was that I knew some strange people. What I explained to her is that Martin Bryant, despite his difficulties, went to a mainstream school, and Martin Bryant had to have gone to school with somebody, just like Ted Bundy had to have lived beside, gone to school with, sat in the same diner as, somebody. The person who went to school with Martin Bryant said that he used to prompt or force people to do things (he hit a boy over the head with a speargun, while spearfishing and the boy leapt out of the water and asked him why, and Bryant replied, "I just wanted to see what would happen."

But here's how double standards are applied. At the same time as Martin Bryant committed the massacre, the seeds of danger were being sown in Parliament, when a politician who had been dis-endorsed by the Liberal Party (Morrison's Party) was elected under the Liberal banner, as it was too late to change the ballot papers. That politician, elected as an Independent, then formed a far-right wing party, which later congratulated trump and a former member of that party begged for tickets to his inauguration! After the Port Arthur Massacre, which Bryant committed, then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, had a gun buy-back scheme. This despicable far-right wing party condemned it as a knee-jerk reaction and claimed that it punished law abiding gun owners. My stance on that is, unless you're a sporting shooter or a farmer, why do you need a gun? Yet, 8 years ago last Thursday, a Muslim man who arrived in Australia on a business visa and sought political asylum and was granted it, when he was wanted for murder in Iran, held the Lindt Café Siege, and the leader of this far-right political party called for the cessation of Muslim migration and even banning non-Muslim immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries from entering Australia!

This despicable right-wing politician also said that autistic kids and kids with disabilities should not be in mainstream classrooms.

I try to educate people about autism, and I was extremely hurt when my mother said that she believed it would be wonderful if there was a c-word rhyming with lure for it, to which I replied, that if anybody ever cured me of my autism, I would be the first Australian to fly to Japan first-class and the Japanese police would probably think, "A considerate foreigner, who left their wallet and passport on them," and then having to be flown home in the cargo hold of a Boeing 767 or Airbus 380.

I want to continue living positively as an autistic.