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Press Release:
Tackling a Tough Topic with Humor

Omaha World-Herald - June 3, 2008
Written by Michael Kelly

Humor, poignancy and sadness mixed at an Omaha gathering about autism, the heartbreaking disorder diagnosed in one of every 150 children

Autism, quipped 17-year-old comedian Elijah Wapner, has its advantages.

"I'm really good at avoiding chores," he said. "If I'm told to do the laundry, I say, ‘I can't - I'm autistic."

The audience of more than 300 laughed Sunday evening because of the way Elijah delivered the line and because - well, because humans devised laughter as one way to deal with our most daunting difficulties.

With a fedora titled back on his busy hair, the teenager poked ironic fun at himself: "I wasn't always the suave, debonair guy you see standing before you."

Elijah, who has been featured on MTV, travels the country raising awareness of autism. He calls himself "Mr. Inevitable," for the word meaning "cannot be avoided or evaded."

Indeed, the folks who put on the event Sunday - including parents of autistic children - want to make sure society doesn't avoid autism. The disorder has no cure, but early and intensive behavioral therapy has proved effective.

Autism impairs the ability to communicate and relate socially, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe - which is why it is called a "spectrum" disorder.

Elijah, who lives in New York state, was diagnosed at age 3. He travels with his mother, Valerie Paradiz, who holds a Ph.D. and wrote "Elijah's Cup," a memoir on cultural views of autism.

She told the audience at Union Pacific headquarters that this was her first visit to Omaha, but that her parent met as students at Creighton University.

Among those attending were the Rev. John Schlegel, Creighton president, and some of the city's wealthiest citizens, including Richard Holland and C.L. Werner, founder of one of the nation's largest trucking firms.

Eight years ago, his daughter and son-in-law - Gail Werner-Robertson and Scott Robertson, who have two sons with autism - started the GWR Sunshine Foundation to advocate for autism treatment. The foundation, which organized Sunday's dinner, has changed its name to the Autism Action Partnership.

Autism, the partnership says, is more prevalent than juvenile diabetes, Down syndrome, childhood cancer and cystic fibrosis combined.

It's estimated that more than 1,600 Nebraska children under age 9 are autistic. More than 70 percent of parents with an autistic child, the partnership says, will end up divorced.

In Minnesota, a church recently banned a 13-year-old autistic boy for alleged disruptive and inappropriate behavior. Sunday in Omaha, Elija Wapner startled the audience by placing underwear on his head and saying, "I want to talk about the word ‘inappropriate.'"

People laughed a nervous laugh but listened intently.

Elijah, after tossing the underwear aside, told of sometimes being made to feel, as an autistic person, that he is "inappropriate just for being alive" or that it would be appropriate if he kept quiet, "a kind of silence as if I'd never been born."

As that sank in, he broke the tension and drew a final laugh by saying, "Say, has anyone seen my underwear?"

Mr. Inevitable, appropriately enough, didn't avoid the chore at hand - speaking of autism with humor and with candor.