February 6, 2010Louise Kuo HabakusThe media circus surrounding L'Affaire Wakefield is what motivated me to spend a snowy Saturday composing this newsletter and my blogpost: Dr. Andrew Wakefield and the Distasteful Practice of the Medical Pile-On. If you have difficulty finding the post, please go to Life Health Choices and click on Blog in the upper right corner. My post includes commentary on the Lancet paper and an open letter to all doctors engaging in the distasteful practice of the ignorant pile on, otherwise known as kicking someone when they're down, when you really have no clue what's going on. Other professionals should take heed, too. |
WHERE HAVE I BEEN?I haven't disappeared! I'm working at a feverish pace. In the next few weeks, I'll be sharing with you my plans for this spring and how I will need your help and support. My work centers around the advocacy objectives that I briefly outlined for you in last month's newsletter. In the meantime, I have some requests: Please sign up for the Autism One/Generation Rescue conference at the Westin O'Hare in May 2010. (See below for more information.) Our rally will take place on Wednesday afternoon, May 26, just before the main conference begins. While you will not need to attend the conference to obtain our advocacy tools and resources, I urge you to attend. I will be speaking in the Grand Ballroom on Friday, May 28, and leading the advocacy track that takes place on Saturday afternoon, May 29. Many in our community will be there and will be helping with training and the breakout sessions. It will be an empowering experience. We must thank the Arrangas for their extraordinary support and unprecedented allocation of time and resources to deliver this message of advocacy in our communities. Send me your top vaccine myths and insults. What have doctors, school nurses and others told you and called you, when you dared to say that you were concerned about vaccination? I'll be compiling my top ten favorite myths and offering you my suggestions for a succinct and respectful but unambiguous reply to each. If anyone has access to low cost, volume quantities of the following, please let me know:
- custom t-shirts
- USB custom flash drives
- website programming
- graphic design
- color and black/white copies
- laminated flash cards (ideally on a key ring)
- business cards
- DVD replication
I have authored an article in the current issue of The Autism File. With the permission of Teri Arranga, Editor, U.S. and Canadian edition, I am able to share it with you HERE. After you read the article, let me know what you think. If you like it, please thank them for making the article available to you while the magazine is still on newstands. Support the magazine by subscribing or contacting them to make a donation. Another of my articles - on advocacy - will be published in the April issue, so stay tuned! |
SPEAKING OF NEW JERSEY... WHERE'S CHRISTIE?Governor-elect no more, Chris Christie is now the real deal. New Jersey's brand new Governor. I have been waiting to hear from him. I have duly and repeatedly contacted my designated deputy Transition contact Mark Braden and have received no response. Buoyed by the success of some of my colleagues, I friended Christie on Facebook and am similarly... waiting. What's going on? We should give him a break, right? After all, he has been awfully busy. Inauguration festivities. Installation of appointed officials. Payback for support given and promises made. I think most Americans echo the overriding sentiment that I'm about to share. We're not in the mood to give our elected officials a break. We have a full-blown crisis on our hands. Every single day, more terrified parents are compelled to vaccinate their children so they can be placed in daycare or school. Every single day, more children are diagnosed with autism and other chronic disorders, and no one knows why. Every single day, school districts are confronted with the reality of shrinking budgets, inadequate resources, and children who are again obliged to get the short end of the stick. Later this month, the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice plans to announce a call-in campaign and request a meeting with Chris Christie. Details to follow. I want to ask everyone on this list, New Jerseyans or not, to ask your lists to call The Honorable Chris Christie and ask him if he is, in this instance, going to be honorable. He made a promise to stand by parents and support vaccination choice. What exactly does this mean? Is he really going to appoint another pharmaceutical executive to the vitally important position of Health Commissioner? The people who voted for him are particularly interested in how he plans to make good on his campaign commitment to us. It is, admittedly, only February. But with each month that passes, the question doesn't go away... and it starts feeling less like a promise and more like "same old" in the Soprano State. Again, I'll send the call-in details with you when they are finalized. In the meantime, keep your letters to him (and copies to me) coming. You can call him at (609) 292-6000. You can e-mail him by clicking HERE. And you can write him: The Honorable Chris Christie
Office of the Governor
PO Box 0001
Trenton, NJ 08625-0001 Please send or scan and e-mail me a copy of whatever you send. |
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THE AUTISM ONE CONFERENCE -- MAY 24 - 30, 2010 -- CHICAGO, ILLINOISRegistration for the Autism One/Generation Rescue 2010
"Autism Redefined" Conference is open!
Are you ready to join those who are redefining autism?
KEYNOTE: JENNY McCARTHY
OVER 150 SPEAKERS
many new faces
many favorites prediction/prevention track
environmental track
advocacy track
PANDAS track
seizures track
adult issues
much more Join us at www.autismone.org
Chicago, Illinois, May 24-30, 2010
Hope is real. Recovery is happening. |
2/5/10: Louise On Wakefield... Chicago May 2010
