The Importance of Being Charlie
I have been following Charlie’s actions, adventures, trials, and victories for a long time. I found Charlie on the Internet through his mother, Kristina Chew’s blog, which became We Go With Him . I try to see what Charlie is up to as much as possible. Because Charlie, though he has no idea, is one of the leaders of my son’s generation of intersected, nonspeaking autistic young men growing up while changing public attitudes, policies, and actions about people on their ray of the spectrum. The importance of Charlie being Charlie is lost on everyone. It is not lost on my son Mustafa and me. Before I “met” Charlie online, my goal was to get myself a bike with a trailer for my giant son. I dreamed we could go out and ride the trails together in peace, and the constant harassment he sustained from others because of his differences would be lessened for a bit each day. I later thought he could master an adult tricycle and the challenge would then be to keep him going in the right direction. I...