"…When my little brother was barely two years old, he suffered a loss of hearing that lasted until he was four.  Understandably, this was detrimental to his learning capabilities; little did we know that this would only be the beginning.  My brother would later be classified as ADHD, PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) and, finally, autism.
 "According to the doctors, my brother would while away his life in a world almost wholly of his own accord.  They said he would never grasp an abstract thought; never understand love or hate, joy or pain, security or terror.  Yet, On September 11th, 2001, and the following days, my little brother experienced the same feelings that the rest of us were dealing with.  I recall his constant seeking of reassurance that Osama bin-Laden would not come to snatch him away in the middle of the night like some bogeyman out of our childhood nightmares.  A week later, my brother would watch the 60 minutes special on terrorism.  He now understands what happened.  However, unlike many, he seeks no revenge, he desires no restitution, he feels no anger towards terrorists.  Call it naïve if you will, call it innocent, to me it remains special, for my little brother, and people who share his difficulties also share a special gift that the rest of the world must fight for on a daily basis.
 "People diagnosed with autism do not differentiate between themselves and the world around them; to them it is all directed inward.  In essence, each is the pivotal point of his or her particular world.  Perhaps it is selfish, but how can we place that label on someone who does not follow the conventional view of what defines self?  While it is true that they have difficulty understanding individual people's emotions and reactions, by that same token, autistic people usually do not discriminate between individuals' appearances, races, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
 "…To him, the world is a place to be explored, grasped, and comprehended as he tries to become just a normal boy…"