PLEASE COME TO CHICAGO (WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Life has been a little too hectic. That’s what happens when your autistic child recovers to the point that he gets involved in the world around him.

I’ve also been involved in helping with some of the arrangements for an extraordinary event that will take place next month. And I’d like to invite everyone to be a part of it..

It’s called The American Rally for Personal Rights, and it will be held in Chicago’s Grant Park on May 26, 2010. Starting in the late morning, there will be a family gathering, and the formal rally program begins at 3:00 p.m.

The reasons for being there are becoming more apparent every day.

Americans are steadily losing the right to direct the course of their own health care. The “reform” of the health-care system has the potential to strip us of rights to choose particular treatments. Congress is also currently considering measures that threaten to greatly increase the cost of safe alternatives to prescription pharmaceuticals or even take many such supplements off the market altogether (even though the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 ran into some roadblocks, Senator Henry Waxman is trying to revive the threat by slipping it into a fiscal reform measure

And then there’s the single greatest intrusion into our ability to choose effective health care for our families: the vaccine schedule promulgated by the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and school districts nationwide.

Why does the overall health of our citizens keep declining as the vaccine schedule expands? Why are we seeing a sharp increase in autism, allergies, and other auto-immune disorders? Why are babies inoculated for Hepatitis B ⎯ a disease spread primarily through unprotected sex and intravenous drug use ⎯ on the first day of their life, before their immune systems are developed? Most importantly, why do we, as citizens of a nation that values freedom, not have the right to determine which vaccines our children receive, and when they will receive them?

The reach into this most basic of personal decisions has an impact on adults as well as children. Throughout the country, health-care workers are forced to submit to vaccinations for influenza. It is not a stretch to imagine that many more of us, including police and teachers will be next.

Billions of dollars were spent on the false swine flu pandemic of 2009. It is now recommended that all Americans over 6 months of age get the flu shot (most available doses contain thimerosal). We‘ve been told that the 2010–2011 flu shot will contain the H1N1 strain, despite several adverse reactions (including development of Guillen-Barre). It’s even being recommended that sixth-grade boys get the HPV vaccine (which was disingenuously justified to the American public as a preventative for cervical cancer). Where will it al end ⎯ with Paul Offit’s dream of 10,000 vaccines?

The American public must take a large and visible stand against further intrusion into our lives.

All of this is being done with copious cover being provided by the mainstream media, whose presentations have, in effect, been bought by powerful interests. Even PBS has not been immune (no pun intended) from the influence of a lot of money. Its recent Frontline program on the vaccine wars perpetuated the falsehood that the controversy is between science on the one side and a bunch of deluded parents on the other. The producers chose not to present anything ⎯ or even mention the existence of ⎯ all of the physicians, scientists, researchers and public-health experts who question the safety of the current vaccine program. Instead we just got the usual suspects (e.g., Paul Offit) offering sound bite after sound bite with no mention of their own vested interests. And how can any unbiased look at the issue discuss the Danish studies without even mentioning the criticisms leveled at the methodology (or lack thereof).

Those of us who will gather in Chicago will, of course, be labeled as “anti-vaccination” activists. I have a lot of problems with semantic oversimplifications in general, and this one in particular. This is not about condemning the concept of vaccination. This is about the right to choose what vaccinations your child should get, and when he/she should get them.

Do not miss this opportunity to join with others who believe that compulsory vaccination cannot be legally and morally justified and that Americans should have the freedom to make personal health care decisions guided by the professionals of our choosing. You can hear what Dateline didn’t tell you.

Whether you attend or not, you can help support the rally (which is an expensive undertaking) by clicking on the “Chip In” widget on the sidebar of this blog. But whether you can donate or not, please participate. Come if you can. If you can’t make the trip, check out the rally’s web site for information on satellite rallies and web access.

As is ever the case with such gatherings, each one of us there will be standing for so many who won’t be able to make it. So please be among us. You’ll be among friends.

He was singing about a different struggle, but Graham Nash’s words from several years ago say it best:

Somehow people must be free, I hope the day comes soon
Won’t you please come to Chicago, show your face
From the bottom of the ocean to the mountains of the moon
Won’t you please come to Chicago, no one else can take your place

We can change the world, rearrange the world
It’s dying ⎯ if you believe in justice
Dying ⎯ if you believe in freedom
Dying ⎯ let a man live his own life
Dying ⎯ rules and regulations, who needs them
Open up the door