WEBVTT - Donald on the Move 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.200 This episode contains scenes from arrests and harassment of people 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:03.920 with autism. 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.280 While factual, some listeners may find the audio disturbing. 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:09.240 Please take care when listening. 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:15.520 Donald Triplet's golf swing begins with his thumbs standing a 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:17.800 little too far away from the ball, with his legs 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.200 spread wide like the letter A. Donald licks the pad 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.840 of each thumb, first the left and then the right, 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:30.160 before he wraps his fingers in a full grip. Then 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.160 he lifts the club over his head as though he's 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.760 hanging a banner. He holds that pose for a moment, 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.360 and then he heaves the club head in an arc 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.239 back to earth until it lands between his feet and stops. 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.880 Then he haanks it back above his head again and pauses, 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.599 and with one final stroke he commits to contact. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.720 The ball is gone and Donald, bouncing at the knees, 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.280 peers down the fairway admiring his shot. 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:03.400 Don has a really unique waggle and swaying, and if 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.080 you've ever watched him go through the motions of that, 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.600 it's difficult to tuck your eyes away. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.600 That's Sid Salter. He's the former publisher of the Scott 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.680 County Times. He's known Donald for years. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.240 After all of that's over, he hits it right down 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.840 the middle of the fairway. Don is remarkably good golfer, 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.319 given the fact that he goes through all these gyrotions 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.160 before he makes contact with the ball. 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.240 For decades, it was a given that there was only 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:33.839 one place you were going to find Donald in the afternoon, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:35.720 Forrest Country Club. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:38.759 The first time we accompanied Don to the golf course 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.240 a few years back, he wore baggy khaki shorts and 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.000 a Queen Nit shirt with a bucket hat in pink 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.679 camouflage pulled down tight over his ears. 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.720 Forrest Country Club is not a pretentious place, for one thing. 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.120 Membership is actually pretty affordable, and the brick clubhouse fronts 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.720 on a well cared for but mostly flat course that's 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.960 been carved out of the Mississippi Woods. Given day, the 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.280 roster of players you meet out in the fairways includes 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:08.560 lawyers and mechanics, bankers and truckers, salesmen and farmers, and 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.600 of course Donald, here's it again. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:16.519 And you know, golf courses, particularly rural South golf courses, 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.080 a lot of the colloquialism in the South is jinking. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:26.560 You know, you're giving somebody a hard time criticizing their shot, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.920 picking at him about not making a put. Don not 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:35.720 only participates in that in his way, but he sort 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.680 of good naturedly accepts it and kind of gives as 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:40.560 good as he takes. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:42.519 So you have golfed with him? 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.919 Oh yeah, quite Frankly, I didn't play with Donald Lote 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.920 because I got tired of getting the beat. I couldn't 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:51.320 stand the heat. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:59.720 From iHeart podcasts. This is Autism's first child. I'm John 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:01.640 Don and I'm Karen Zucker. 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.760 Episode five, Donald on the Move. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:12.160 Golf plays a huge role in the story of Donald's life. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.600 Donald started playing back in nineteen fifty six, when he 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.200 was twenty three years old, just out of college. He 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.640 had steady employment at the bank at that time, and 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.400 he had a roof over his head, living with his parents, 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.160 still in his childhood bedroom. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.120 He quickly fell in love with the game. It's not 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.519 hard to see why the game plays to so much 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.040 of the things that make him comfortable, you know. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.120 Think about it. Golf has a certain kind of sameness 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.680 built right into it. Basically, as a player, you're doing 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.080 the same thing over and over and over again. 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.800 Swinging a club at the ball, and the ball just 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.960 sits there, it doesn't move until you move it. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.360 And there's no clock getting pressure to get it done. 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.040 You can play the game entirely at your own pace. 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.280 It's consistent and you are in control of every movement. 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.440 Plus there are numbers involved. Fifth green, eighteenth green, three handicap, 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.600 one under par, one over par, hole in one. 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.360 It's a game of routine and ritual. Every hole starts 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:13.320 with a t shot, Every round ends in the same place. 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.359 Sid told us that Donald could take or leave the 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.719 whole social part of the game. In fact, most of 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.719 the time Donald golfed alone. Sid thinks that for Donald 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.560 it's a sport he was most interested in playing within himself. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:31.120 Now that sounds abstract, but I know what Sid means. 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.800 When Donald plays golf, he is seeking something. It's an 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.480 activity that brings him fulfillment and meaning. 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:39.720 You know, some of the people on the autism spectrum 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.880 whom we've met in our reporting talk about finding that 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.200 one thing that pursuit that winds up being all important 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.839 because it brings comfort and meaning to life and even 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:52.760 a relationship to the world around them. 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.640 And for some people it's about finding a way to 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:57.600 connect to the people around them. 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.960 Amy Gravino, whom you met in an early episode, is 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.680 one of those people who was able to realize she 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.719 had that thing that allowed her to just be her. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:12.200 I was this misshapen ball of dough that hadn't had 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.120 yet to be baked, if you will, and so I 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.400 couldn't offer an opinion on myself that didn't come from 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.280 someone else the one outlet I had, I would say, 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.080 because I did have an outlet, I did have a 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.080 way that I was able to kind of tap into 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.080 whoever that Amy Garvino wasn't there. And that was the writing. 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.000 And I began writing when I was ten years old, 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.200 and it was poetry. Initially it was like a valve 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.800 opening up and giving me a way to kind of 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.440 just let go of all the things that I was feeling. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.880 But it was one thing that I was good at, apparently, 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:44.440 you know. My parents would send my poems into the 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.520 local paper, and it was something that finally I could 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:49.320 actually be good at. 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.560 And our brilliant friend John Robison's account of using his 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.239 intense interest to navigate the world is especially resident. 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:01.000 You really cannot pigeonhole John Robison. So he's designed electronic 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.719 games for Milton Bradley, and he's also designed guitars for 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.200 rock stars. He runs a high end car restoration business. 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.760 He's also an author and a speaker and a neurodiversity scholar, 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.200 and for a long time he was an activist who 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.360 did research and produced reports for big government agencies. 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:26.440 Well, for all of my life, before I knew about autism, 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:31.400 I was keenly aware of my social deficiencies. I knew 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.760 that I didn't have friends, and people didn't want to 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.240 invite me places or do things with me. 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.960 John was diagnosed with autism at forty years old. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.479 I just thought that I was like a second rate person, and. 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:56.400 I still I guess it still bothers me when I 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:01.600 can't get things right. But I have been really lucky 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:06.640 in my life because first, when I was in my 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:15.160 early twenties, I was able to engineer musical things that 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:20.320 would sing for the world, and people appreciated those things, 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.520 and at least the people in the music community would 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.360 talk to me about the things that I could speak 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.640 to and the things I could do. And I took 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:33.280 up from fixing cars and people would come to talk 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.560 to me about the cars. I took up photography and 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.920 people would talk about the images, and then I began 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.760 writing about autism, and people talk to me about that. 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.600 But in every case, the work. 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.320 That I created spoke for me, and for me, that's 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:55.840 how I have overcome the disability of not being able 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.040 to figure out what to say. I don't figure it 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.720 out other people things to me. 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.400 John grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Both of his parents 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.520 were college professors. The university setting was essential to John 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.600 being able to find his way. Eventually, John Skills got 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.320 him noticed by some big time musicians. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.840 Well, one of the big things in Amherst every year 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.000 was a spring concert in the stadium at the University 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:27.880 of Massachusetts, and they would bring in bands, and. 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:31.920 So I went down. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.760 There because I was by that time working with local 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:40.160 bands helping out. I saw these guys backstage that had 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:41.959 like amplifiers pulled out of the racks. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.000 They were struggling with them, and of course. 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.319 By then I started to feel like I was confident 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.840 about knowing about musicians equipment. And I walked over and 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.840 I asked what they were doing, and the guy says, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:54.720 you know, he's. 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:57.720 Try to get the amplifiers working. 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.480 And do I know anything about Fay's Linears said yeah, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.680 you know, I didn't really know much. 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.080 About them, but I was confident and. 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.680 He invited me up and I was able to do 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.800 something that he thought was clever and useful. And he says, 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.520 he says, if you can fix these things, I got 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.240 a whole room full of them down at our place 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.600 in New York. You come down there and work on him. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.720 And it turned out that he was from a sound 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:34.160 company called Britannia Rowe, who was what Pink Floyd had 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.960 set up to put their equipment out on the road 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:42.400 when Pink Floyd wasn't touring. I went down and started 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.120 fixing their gear, and then I started modifying it and 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.200 building more gear, and I became their American engineer. And 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.320 one day we had folks from Kiss come into the 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:58.040 studio wanting to rent a monitor system, and while they 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.600 were in there, I saw a he freely a guitar player, 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.440 digging at a less Paul guitar with a chisel, and 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.240 I went to see what was the matter with him, 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.800 and he told me that he wanted to make the 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:17.520 guitar blow, smoke and fire, and I wanted to just 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:19.199 get it out of his hands because I thought he's 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.359 destroying it. And I said, well, I could do that professionally. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:24.760 And he asked what I would do, and I said, well, 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.400 we could, you know, put smoke bombs in it, We 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.199 could put lights in it. We could insulate it so 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:33.080 it wouldn't burn up. And he had Gibson send me 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:37.600 a guitar. And from that beginning I designed all of 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:43.880 the instruments that Ace played that shot fire, shot, rockets, 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.559 lit up and blew up, anything like that. 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.600 I made them. And I also did work on the 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.080 amplifiers themselves. 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.560 John Robinson's own intense interest does work with amplifiers and 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.160 guitars got him hired as part of the crew for 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.840 bands like Kiss. That work got him away from Amherst, 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:05.480 and it got him out into the world. 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:10.880 I went all over him, went all over the United States. 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.560 I went to England and went to Germany, but Canada. 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.200 You know, John's story is fantastic, and so is Amy's. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.719 They are both success stories. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.280 And it's great to hear them telling their stories in 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:24.320 their own words. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:29.320 But the spectrum, it's so broad and so complex that 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.360 almost half the people diagnosed with autism can't tell their 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.520 own stories because literally they can't speak or communicate their 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.800 life experiences in ways that most of us are capable 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.000 of taking in and understanding. 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.640 It's important to remember that each person on the spectrum 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.000 also has a story and a way to connect and 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.960 something to say. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:55.600 Even if it's not completely obvious yet. Sometimes it needs 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.400 the rest of us to go more than halfway to 0:11:58.600 --> 0:11:59.760 really understand. 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.040 Of course, Donald's unique way of connecting to the world 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.600 around him, the golf and the numbers, it was always 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:08.960 pretty easy to see where he was coming from. 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:14.400 After the break, Donald learns his own lessons about freedom 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:16.800 and takes flight literally. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.120 Donald was twenty seven years old in nineteen sixty when 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.840 he first learned how to drive a car. His mother, 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.400 who had been his teacher all his life, taught him 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.920 how to operate the family's Ford Fairlane, a massive barge 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.720 of a car, and we've imagined how this might have worked. First, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.160 with the engine still off, Mary would have talked Donald 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.319 through the whole routine, checking the mirrors, where to put 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.360 his hands on the steering wheel, how to speed up, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.760 how to slow down, and then. 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.840 Because Donald is not at all tall, he would have 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.240 pulled himself forward so that his chin almost touched the 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.800 steering wheel. It's easy to Imagine him tensing up as 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.320 he put the key into the ignition and brought the 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.839 car to life. And imagine how this moment must have 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.400 fell from Mary as Donald turned out of the driveway 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:03.880 for the first time. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.840 This man sitting next to her once seemed like someone 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.560 incapable of recognizing danger. But Donald had come so far 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.560 from the boy she once worried about as being possibly 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.600 hopelessly insane, as she actually once thought. And now the 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:34.880 road was his whenever he wanted. Donald wasn't content to 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.200 stay close to Forrest. As an adult, Donald packed up 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.000 and left town on holiday at least a dozen times 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:41.560 every year. 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.520 In those days, it was pretty common for small town 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.960 newspapers to report when somebody went out of town. Donald 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.080 will go to, say, Dallas for a few days, or 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.040 New Mexico, and it would make the society page of 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:57.079 the Scott County Times. He became known for his travels. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.000 Here's his lifelong friend and neighbor, John Russia. 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:07.200 He traveled a lot ourselves. Nothing like him off us 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:07.760 to go from. 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:14.080 I'll tell you for sure, now done, he's ready to 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:15.760 go an emotional nose. 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.800 As a rule, whenever he could, Donald kept his trips 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.400 to six days exactly because he tried to be back 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.040 in forest for Sunday Bible study. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.240 He always traveled alone. 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:28.160 By the time we first met him, when he was 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.920 in his late seventies, Donald had been to at least 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.280 twenty eight American states, including Hawaii. 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.120 Many of them several times. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.560 And he'd been to more than thirty six foreign countries. 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:47.320 The list is incredible. Germany, Tunisia, Morocco, Hungary, Dubai, Spain, Portugal, France, Bulgaria, Columbia. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.560 He's taken snapshots of the Pyramids in Egypt, the New 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:52.720 York City skyline, the Grand Canyon. 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.600 With your travels, what was the best part about govern 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:00.000 to Church? 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:00.760 Oh? 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:05.160 I just enjoyed going there, saying, the Turkish Bela dancers 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:06.920 perform and all that good stuff. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.720 Of all the trips that you've done, could you tell 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:11.880 me like a couple of your favorite ones. 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:18.440 Going to Grace, I'd fly to the to the airport 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.200 in Athens and take either a shuttle to the hotel 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.680 I was staying, or sometimes taking a text from the 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.280 airport to the hotel. 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:30.840 It's again typical of Donald that when he talks about 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.200 his travels, he brings the conversation kind of around to 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.560 the logistics of his travel rather than to the experiences 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:39.720 he had and the people he met and the flavor 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:40.160 of it all. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.240 What Donald isn't mentioning there is that he meticulously documents 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:50.200 his trips, taking thousands of snapshots iconic buildings and statues 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.400 and mountaintops, the ones he had seen on TV or 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.040 read about in books when you returned home from his trips. 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.520 He organized all of his photos in albums until his 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:03.720 bookshelves were filled with memories. 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.840 Then in the nineteen nineties he learned to use a 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.320 computer and Donald went back through all of his albums, 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:12.840 and now he's assigning numbers to each of his trips 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.560 and he's creating a database and an index that makes 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:17.840 it a lot easier for him to find specific photos. 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.120 It's something about the categorizing, the organization of it all 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:23.720 that brings him pleasure. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.080 Also, that's how he made sense of the world. That's 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.320 how he kind of makes the world his own. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:29.720 You know. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.320 The travel part of his life is something that doesn't 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.840 fit neatly into the idea that Donald doesn't like change, 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.000 because of course every place is going to be different. 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.840 And maybe that shows how people with autism do grow 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:45.080 and stretch. 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.600 But it's also true that Donald established a kind of 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.320 routine within the experience of traveling with going away for 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.200 just six days all of the time. And in fact, 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.600 many of the countries he went to he visited over 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.000 and over again, so there is kind of a routine there. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:03.240 Or maybe he just really liked going to these places. 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.720 Donald was a world explorer, but he always came home 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.280 to Forrest, where he lived in his parents' house his 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:18.760 entire adult life. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.240 Forrest provided Donald with a sort of perfect combination of 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.600 circumstances for a man like him. Life in a small 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:31.720 community afforded predictability, tranquility, and safety. The pace was slow, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.480 it was quiet. One day was just like the next. 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.359 And Donald, by virtue of his wealth and his parents' 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.240 social standing, found himself in this embracing web of relationships 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:45.640 that come along with small town life where everyone knows 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:47.560 more than a little bit about everybody else. 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.080 Forres just accepted Donald. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.960 As Donald's friend. Sid Salter says, and I'm paraphrasing a 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.000 little here. In a small southern town, if you're poor 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.840 and different, you're just different. But if you've got money 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.879 and you're different, well then you're eccentric. 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:14.600 The whole discussion begs the question of had Don's family 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:18.600 not had the bank, if there had not been the 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:26.000 respect for mister Beeman triplet that the community had, would 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.320 Don's life have turned out the same way? If there 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.880 had not been the network of support, the job at 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.000 the bank, all of those things. Would Don's life have 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.000 turned out? Would he be able to travel the world alone? 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:44.040 Would he be able to function without oversight or a guardian? 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:51.119 And I think the answer is maybe, because one of 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.400 the things is a journalist that I observed, And it's 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.080 true in Mississippi, it's true all across the South. I 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.960 think it's probably true all over the country. Woefully inadequate 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:09.840 funding for mental health. And that's for more pronounced things 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:16.040 like schizophrenia. But when you talk about something as delicate 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:19.760 and mysterious as autism, which we still don't understand a 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.920 great deal about as a society, and we certainly don't 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.360 know how to deal with people who have profound autism, 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.320 I think it would have been very difficult if Don 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:31.680 had not had that. 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.600 After the break, we talk about the cost of autism misunderstood. 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.800 As we piece together Donald Triplett's adult life, we want 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.199 to take a moment to point out that today so 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.399 much of the conversation around autism is focused around young kids, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.679 and that's progress, but there are so many big and 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.480 difficult challenges facing young adults and grown ups on the spectrum. 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.080 They are so vulnerable in many ways. 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:12.679 A lot of people on the spectrum don't have the 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.560 sort of family or community support and awareness that Donald 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.080 Triplet has benefited from. Donald's parents had his back always, 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.680 and his community everybody from his neighbors to his teachers 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.480 to the police department, they all knew that Donald had 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.840 special needs. And John Robison and Amy Garvino, they're both 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:33.439 excellent communicators. But there are people on the spectrum who 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:35.800 don't have that kind of support and who cannot speak 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.760 for themselves, people who are more challenged and have difficulty 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:45.400 in complicated social situations, and that can have consequences, dangerous consequences. 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.560 You know where that comes up a lot, it's where 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.520 autistic people come face to face with the police. When 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:55.080 a cop doesn't know a lot about autism, that's not 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:55.720 a good mix. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.600 There are so many terrifying stories about police officers misunderstanding 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.119 or not having the proper training to effectively interact with 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.480 people on the spectrum. Think about it. A lot of 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.760 autistic people do things that police are trained to see 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:13.120 as suspicious behavior. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.159 You know, they might not look people in the eyes, 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.280 or they might need more time than most people to 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.679 answer even simple questions. They might run away when somebody 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:22.920 speaks loudly or sharply at them, or they might lose 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:24.240 it if somebody touches them. 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:26.879 Any one of those has the potential to trigger an 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:31.160 officer's instinct that they're dealing with a suspicious situation when 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.720 all it is is autism. An innocent autistic person whose 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:40.639 behaviors the officers translating the wrong way. This is a 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:41.520 huge deal. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:46.120 Drexel University published a study in twenty seventeen that estimated 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.320 one in five teenagers with autism was stopped and questioned 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.879 by the police before the age of twenty one. Five 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.120 percent were actually arrested. 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.480 And researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.840 people with disabilities, including those on the spectrum, are five 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:05.639 times more likely to be incarcerated then people in the 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:06.600 general population. 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.280 Even a rudimentary Google search tells a devastating story. 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.440 A Salt Lake City police officers shot and seriously wounded an. 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.280 Unarmed thirteen year old autistic boy last night. 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:19.200 The boy's mother called nine one one. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.080 Night and her officer with the Vacaville Police Department is 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.159 in hot water after video footage of him punching a 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.919 seventeen year old teenager with autism was posted by the 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.720 boys Fox night. Lawyers from the pomp Beach County Sheriff's 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.000 Office and the parents of an autistic team shot eleven 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:36.560 times by a deputy have reached a settlement of one 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:37.080 million dollars. 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.199 Sheriffs deputies in a New Orleans suburbs set on a 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:45.000 shackled obie severely autistic sixteen year old boy for nine 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:47.440 minutes and put a choke hold on him for part 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.199 of that time until he died, escording to a federal 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:54.240 lawsuit filed Thursday against the sheriff and seven deputies in 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:55.400 the pad last. 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:57.960 Year and now that police are wearing cameras a lot 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.560 more than they used to, where a starning to see 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.080