Autism One Newsletter

[Guest guest]

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Dear Friends and Colleagues –

Autism in the News – Leading Autism Organizations Joining Forces

Great news! The leading autism organizations are joining forces to form the Autism Collaboration to better meet your needs.

I would like to thank Dr. Edelson for creating the collaboration of organizations, including Autism One, Autism Research Institute, Generation Rescue, National Autism Association, SafeMinds, Schafer Autism Report, Talk About Curing Autism, Treating Autism and Unlocking Autism.

Dr. Edelson, the Director of the Autism Research Institute, has generously provided Autism.org to promote the effort. While I do not speak for the other organization, I think it’s fair to say that we all share a deep reverence for Dr. Rimland and indeed owe our existence to his work, dedication and vision.

Each of the above organizations shares a common foundation of belief and action. Call it “Autism is Treatable”; “Think Autism. Think Cure”; “Our Children Get Better” or any number of slogans that eschew the unhelpfully silent patter of mainstream think and directly talk about recovery.

With over 75 years of combined public service focused on saving children, the Collaboration is the best resource for the most up-to-date information regarding treatments, therapies, research, education, family matters, and other valuable information. (More below.)

TACA Mom! Author, Actress McCarthy to Promote Effective Autism Treatments

McCarthy - actress, comedian, model, mother, and author of three NY Times bestsellers can add one more title to her name and career: Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) mom.

Her son Evan, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2005, is the focus of her fourth book: Louder than Words - A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism.

’s appearances include:

Friday, Sept. 21

20/20 (e-mail a comment to 20/20); Find show time

Monday, Sept. 24

Good Morning America (e-mail a comment to Good Morning America); Find show time

Tuesday, Sept. 25

The View (e-mail a comment to The View); Find show time

Wednesday, Sept. 26

Larry King Live (e-mail a question in advance to ask during the broadcast); Find show time

Sunday, Sept. 30

Book signing at TACA's Fourth Annual Family Picnic, in Irvine.

Sunday, Oct. 14

Defeat Autism Now! Conference -Garden Grove California (near Disneyland)

National Autism Association Conference (NAA) – November 8 -11

Don’t miss the National Autism Association conference, November 8 – 11, at the Hyatt Regency, in Atlanta, Georgia. Join keynote speakers and Deirdre Imus, plus more than 35 of the leading lights of the autism community who will provide insight across a variety of the most important topics facing our children and families.

Additionally, there are a host of special events and subjects mixed with the all around intelligence, good will and good cheer served up by our friends at NAA. Since the early days organizing rallies in Washington D.C. to their multi-advocacy work, today, NAA fights for the best interests, with the best motives, to secure the best possible futures for our children.

You will listen, talk, share, laugh, learn, and when you leave understand autism is less about fear and far more about recovery than ever before.

Schafer Autism Report

For all your autism news subscribe to the Schafer Autism Report here.

Autism One Radio

Thanks to Jo Rudy at About.com for the nice words about Autism One Radio.

“Meanwhile, while it's nice to have easy access to some of the Autism Speaks videos, there are far better presentations and far richer audio/video archives available on other sites - such as Autism One Radio and Talk Autism.”

Please see the complete post here.

Call for Volunteers

In support of the Autism Collaboration we have some very important projects coming up and you can help.

I’m a great believer in Collaborative Intelligence – Knowledge derived from collaborative efforts is increasing proportionally to the reach of the world wide web. Think open-source software, DMOZ, or Wikipedia to appreciate the power of collaborative web efforts.

If you are interested in helping please email me, Ed, at earranga@... or feel free to give me a call - 714.680.0792. Together we will save children. I look forward to hearing from you.

How I Know There’s a God and the Glass is Always Half Full

I apologize for my, more-or-less, silence over the past 12 months. As some of you may know I got married about a year ago. After ten years of just the two of us, me and my son, Jarad, it was something of an adventure doubling the size of the family. One minute there is calm, the next minute chaos may be too benign a word to describe the situation.

Ian, my stepson, is 9-years old and is as enchanting a little boy as you could imagine. He is beautiful beyond words and his big blue eyes blaze with the glory and intensity of his intelligence.

Sitting in our fenced backyard is one of my favorite methods of watching Ian. Ian is free to stay inside or come outside and play, while I attempt to work. At least that’s the general idea.

About six months ago I was sitting in the backyard watching Ian when he appeared at the doorway. In one hand was a bottle of shampoo, in the other a razor. After securing the refrigerator, bedrooms, kitchen cabinets, the dog, and anything else that could possibly prove problematic I had somehow overlooked the bathroom.

Ian paused for a moment then dramatically threw the shampoo and razor onto the cement and stepping outside began plying the bottle of shampoo with one foot, creating an expanding puddle of soap, while rocking the razor blade under his other foot, sending shivers down my spine.

Glancing upward I asked, “Dear God in Heaven could there be anything else Ian could do in such a synchronized manner which could possibly more immediately demand my attention?” And in an instant God answered. Without missing a beat, without so much as taking a step, Ian, sans pants at the time, plunged one hand up his derriere, which he then used to stir my coffee, while with his other hand he grabbed my cigarettes and lighter from the table and threw them to the ground, all the while mind you, without ever releasing his syncopated footholds on the shampoo or the razor.

Ian smiled broadly at me, rightly proud of his multi-limbed accomplishments. I smiled weakly back more enlightened as to questioning, what at the time, what in hindsight had been good fortune.

Things are different now. To my way of thinking the glass is always at least three-quarters full. If I think otherwise Ian is all too willing to remind me how at any moment the cup may change to overflowing.

The Autism Collaboration Ahead

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.

- Bishop Berkley

I do not believe this collaborative effort can simply be content with the removal of thimerosal from vaccines. Apriori increasing the thimerosal burden both sides knew vaccines injure some children. The question is not ‘do vaccines injure children?’ the question is ‘to what degree does the vaccine program contribute to the autism epidemic?’

The problem we face is the belief in the safety of the immunization program is a psychological not a scientific one.

This worldview overwhelms all other senses and has purposefully been deeply engrained into the fabric of society relying on power, money, and fear to inhibit critical inquiry and prevent alternative options from seriously entering the public debate.

The mistaken belief that there is no autism-vaccine connection operates at the pre-linguistic level and has taken the form of an idealized myth creating a halo effect for those involved with vaccine promotion, production and delivery. Any challenge involving rational discourse is met with hysteria radiating from their epicyclic center.

Mainstream manufactured moments of concern are self-serving epiphanies cloaked in genetic markers, denial, and dismissal, while you are asked to suspend belief in cause and effect and donate to clueless and causeless autism.

I believe vaccines alone are not responsible for the epidemic and a number of other environmental agents are at play. Other triggers, however, are often shrouded in the same “vaccine-type” denial which gives sanctuary to the belief that discounts causal factors.

Solution

Encourage, promote, and support private interests across a wide variety of concerns which are in accordance with the above mentioned principles of agreement while actively pursuing policies to substantially revise programs associated with the rise in autism.

The Gordian knot of capitalism at its worst is expressed in the alliance of pharma and the federal government designing, controlling, producing and mandating vaccines. An idealistic program has slipped into sophism, creating greater social costs, while at the same time stifling innovation, and accountability.

By any objective measure the immunization program has run amok – a closed-system practiced, preached and presided over by self-serving interests looking to ever increase its scale and scope. The natural tensions designed to be limiting factors in government actions, which act to safeguard the life and liberty of its citizenry have been swept aside in favor of a program that is unwilling and unable to change itself.

Ending autism will require a massive social movement. Mainstreaming the mounting evidence to bring about a radical reformulation of the immunization program along with the recognition of the efficacy and widespread adoption of current treatments necessitates capturing and cultivating aid and support from public as well as private concerns.

Capturing support from private concerns (and by private concerns I mean business, particularly Wall St.) could be accomplished by bringing to an end the current “duopoly” of big pharma and the federal government controlling the “vaccine business.”

By artificially controlling the price of vaccines and their administration the federal government has decreed a one-size-fits-all homogeny disregarding the authentic needs of each recipient. The questions and answers of the current immunization policy focus on the acceptable rate of injury and how to vaccinate as many children as possible at the lowest possible cost.

From manufacture to inoculation the over-extending hand of the federal government dictates costs, controls vaccination schedules, and partners with pharmaceutical companies providing both advocacy and oversight in a Byzantine system that defies transparency or accountability.

If the federal government was involved to the same extent in the computer industry the average home system would be steam driven, communicate via bells and whistles, crash every hour and cost $10,000. History is replete with storied failure after storied failure of the federal government advancing the very problem they were attempting to address by adversely intervening in the free market.

The immunization program needs to be reformulated by removing the federal government from its role in setting prices, including production and delivery, allowing the market to respond, which will as history has shown, reduce costs and increase safety. Government’s role will best be served as monitor permitting the market to carry forward the fortunes of immunization minus the overarching herd-ideologue which has served the interests of the few to the determent of our children.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas. Thank you.

Ed and Teri Arranga

714.680.0792

Autism One

www.autismone.org

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