RE: Re: Someone put this on Stop Calling it Autism. Is it true???

[Guest guest]

Autism Speaks was infuriating to me as soon as they alienated their own

daughter! I can’t believe they’ve grown as large as they have from that

basis. It’s really both heart-breaking and disgusting.

Kristy Nardini

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<http://www.tazzini.com/> http://www.tazzini.com

kristy@...

Phone: 858.243.1929

Fax: 858.724.1418

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From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Sloan

Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 9:01 AM

Subject: Re: Someone put this on Stop Calling it Autism. Is it

true???

Personally, this makes me a hell of a lot angrier than even the DAN doctors.

At least some of the DAN docs think they are doing the right thing, besides

they don't have any power. Autism Speaks have power (aka money and the the

world's attention) and are just making themselves rich. EVIL!

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> > Or you could give your money to Autism Speaks so that they can throw a

> > party with it in their Park Avenue digs:

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[Guest guest]

I have a very personal note about Geraldine Dawson. I credit (I guess

that's what you'd call it) her with single-handedly setting back

recovery of my son a full year. We lost very valuable time in our

fight because of her.

Before she was head of the " science " at Autism Speaks, she was head of

the Univ of WA Autism Center. As such, she was giving a talk at a

Downtown hotel one day for the group " Cure Autism Now " which you all

might know was a non-profit on its own before it merged with Autism

Speaks. And, before they merged with Autism Speaks they put virtually

all their research money into funding genetic studies, which is I

believe, one of the reasons why Autism Speaks is now such a bad group in

terms of helping autism families. Many of those same Cure Autism Now

people remain with the merged Autism Speaks. Those same people are

still deciding where research dollars go and clearly their head of the

" science " has clear CAN ties.

Okay, anyway, so we were just starting to figure out what was going on

with our son. He was very young (3 or so) and we were in the process of

receiving a diagnosis and starting to research the angles of autism. We

were trying to find answers to causation so we could adequately fight

for our son. We sat in the audience of her Downtown talk for CAN. She

sat and talked about all the great genetic research that was being done

and truly made the case for autism being caused by genetics. There was

a woman in the front row of the audience who dared raise her hand and

ask about the vaccine link. She was shot down in a instant by Ms.

Dawson who neither gave her a chance to talk nor allowed anyone else to

talk about the topic. My husband and I had been wondering about

vaccines and environmental impacts on our kiddos but really knew nothing

about it yet. So, in that moment, with the vehement way that she

answered this woman, we made a very faulty conclusion. We decided that

since the head of the UW Autism Center was so opposed to even a

POSSIBILITY of a link of environmental factors, then we should

discontinue looking in that direction for answers. I mean, she was the

head of the UW Autism Center for god's sake! It was with the same

faulty logic that we listened to our child's pediatrician and vaccinated

even though it seemed excessive to us, that we believed the head of the

UW Autism Center wouldn't steer us in the wrong direction. That was a

pivotol night for us. It was because of that talk and her comments that

we disregarded all talk of environmental impacts for almost exactly a

year. Finally, a year later we came back to the argument when I was

introduced to a great parent group in my state. Thank God for that

group!

And, now, as a way to give back, I run a parent group of my own.

If there is one person in the autism community that truly makes my skin

crawl it is Ms. Dawson because of the clear personal (negative) impact

she has had on my son's recovery path. It is in spite of her, not

because of her, that we are now on a path of recovery.

Janelle

Re: Someone put this on Stop Calling it Autism. Is it

true???

Personally, this makes me a hell of a lot angrier than even the DAN

doctors. At least some of the DAN docs think they are doing the right

thing, besides they don't have any power. Autism Speaks have power (aka

money and the the world's attention) and are just making themselves

rich. EVIL!

> >

> > Or you could give your money to Autism Speaks so that they can throw

a

> > party with it in their Park Avenue digs:

> > <

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

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