Hooray for World Autism Awareness Day...Now About the Rest of the Year...

I mean, super awesome, we get one whole day!

Then what? Then people go back to their lives and feel free to disregard Autism? It begs the question: why is there only one day to recognize things like Autism or Gender Equity or Suicide Prevention or Rabies?

To me, it's always seemed a little shallow, for lack of a better word. You see people change their profile picture to the little ribbon of (insert color here) to show pride for (insert cause here), and then it's back to the selfie with their BFF or their dog or some weird meme about velociraptors. Besides that one day, there is a noticeable lack of discussion about the issue(s) they demonstrated support and/or solidarity for on the designated awareness day(s). What's all that special about taking one day to be aware of an issue? Not how to do anything about the issue, mind you, just recognizing it exists.

Your cousin is also, for
some reason, a stick figure,
which only makes him weirder.

It's a bit like that weird cousin you have that no one really talks about. But once a year, your whole family gets together and are forced to become aware of him and his penchant for running around screaming while wearing one strategically placed sock and nothing else. Then, after that traumatic day, you wall off that part of your life and do your best to scour your memory of all the times the sock slipped off "on accident."

I get it. There are an insane number of causes out there: civil rights, disabilities, wars, refugees, immigration, religions, politics, gender, cancer, cats—you name it, there's a cause for it. There's only so many things we can care about and devote time to. But does that mean it's okay show support for something 0.274% of the time (or 0.273% of the time for Leap Years), and then feel free to ignore it the remaining 99.726% (99.727%)?

To be clear, I don't have anything against awareness days. I actually
think it's great to promote awareness of causes. It's the subsequent ignoring of said cause every other day of the year that I take umbrage with, that grinds my gears, ruffles my feathers, gets my goat, etc., etc., ad infinitum and all that jazz.

I believe, radical that I am, if you really care about a cause you shouldn't limit yourself to spend two picoseconds on one specific day to show off your support profile picture and author your obligatory support post—show support all year round. Read up on the subject, volunteer, share helpful information, anything that furthers the cause and helps others affected by it—directly or indirectly.

If Autism isn't your thing, that's fine. However, if one truly wants to spread awareness and really help your favored cause, there's a smidge more one can do beyond showing off a picture of a pretty ribbon.