SIMPSONWOOD REMEMBERED

Okay, I haven’t fallen off the edge of the earth; I still exist. I haven’t had time to post anything meaningful lately because of other commitments, including fighting the good fight with the local school district (a fight that is sadly necessary even if the district we’re fighting does, in general, a “better” job than the district we left last fall).

I’ve been working on a rather long series about Autism Speaks, and hope to have it posted soon. I hope I’ll have something meaningful to add, which assumes that Ginger won’t have said everything that needs saying. If you haven’t already done so, go check out what she’s been saying about the controversial “umbrella” wannabe.


In the meantime, I wanted to share some pictures a friend recently sent me that were taken at the “Truth Is Coming To Light” event, sponsored by the United Methodist Women’s Division, at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center, and the “Simpsonwood Remembered” Rally, sponsored primarily by Moms Against Mercury, which took place outside the gates of the CDC.

Both events commemorated the seventh anniversary of the Simpsonwood meetings, in which the infamous Verstraeten epidemiological study was magically transmogrified from something that indicated a correlation between thimerosal-containing vaccines into a “neutral” study that has been incorrectly cited as proof that there is no connection.



It has been stated that the transcripts from the meeting are not a “smoking gun” of a cover up, and that’s true enough. I would be surprised if any of the participants ⎯ primarily representatives of the CDC, the vaccine industry, and other “insiders” ⎯ would have made a statement for the record that the truth needs to be buried. I’ll even go so far as to say that some of the participants may not have been motivated by evil intent. But when one reads the transcript, one gets the sense that a combination of greed, incompetence, indifference, vanity, and arrogance led to the final report. There were vested interests of various kinds, including financial and professional; the only interest not represented were those who felt their lives had been intruded upon by the vaccines. At its most benign, the Simpsonwood meeting of seven years ago, and the resulting report, gives proof to the old adage that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.




Thanks to the friend who sent the pictures. Although these were taken at a public gathering, if anyone depicted in these images does not want to be posted on this blog for any reason (even if you just don't want to be associated with me), email me through the link on the main page, and I will comply with your wishes.







After a rally in Washington, a little over a year ago, I was prompted to write about the representation of us all by those who are able to make it to these events. As I look at the pictures from the recent Simpsonwood events, I recall what I wrote then:

I’m not too concerned over the numbers. It is enough to know that for every person there . . ., there were many, many others who could not be there for one reason or another. There are a lot of us out here, and we’re not going away any time soon.

Indeed, as A-CHAMP now expresses that sentiment, “we are everywhere and we’re not going away.” Yes, everywhere that the truth is in danger of being buried, you will find some of us ⎯ and through them, all of us. And we’re not going away.