We shall be heard…
Today’s post was written by Tasha David, one of the AVN's committee members, who has had to endure the grief of having several children injured by vaccines – followed by two extremely healthy unvaccinated children. Her greatest regret is that she did not learn about the risks of vaccination in time to protect her older kids, and she wants to spare families from having to deal with the same grief her family struggles with every day.
The promises from both major parties and the Australian Greens to penalise families like her own for making an informed choice about what medical interventions their children should or should not have, have motivated her to write this post. This is a ‘call to arms’ to help motivate the silent majority in Australia who believe that parents should ultimately be able to decide what is best for their own families and who would never force others to submit to a medical procedure which could cause harm or even death to susceptible children.
As I am sure you are all aware by now, Prime Minister Rudd announced that if he gets re-elected, he would be taking the Family Tax Benefit A Supplementary Payment away from families who are conscientious objectors to vaccination followed by removal of the Childcare Rebate. When I heard this, the unfairness of it hit me particularly hard! I felt really deflated and I couldn’t understand why after all we have been through, that this news story could get to me so?
After all, we made it through the time when the NSW Government tried to take away our children’s right to attend preschool and the “No Jab, No Play” hate campaign run by News Ltd.’s the Daily Telegraph. We survived Greens Senator Richard Di Natale’s vehement attack on the AVN and his support of those who have used harassment, violent pornography and death threats to attack our former President, Meryl Dorey.
Really, these kind of discriminatory statements have been thrown around so often by our politicians and in the media that it has become almost commonplace. So why did this one bring me to the verge of tears?
It was certainly not about the money, even though this payment was created for the specific purpose of helping low income families with the costs of raising children – not the costs of raising vaccination rates.
So if it wasn’t that, what was it about then?
We Have No Voice
That’s when it dawned on me. Our Government couldn’t care less about why 77,000 Australian families including mine, did not feel the recommended childhood vaccination schedule was in the best interests of their children! They were willing to take away our children’s rights to the government entitlements that are offered to every other eligible Australian family, without even bothering to hear what we have to say. The very people who are directly affected by this proposed legislation would have absolutely no input into it whatsoever. Even criminals get a chance to present their side of the story before a judge passes sentence, yet we as law abiding citizens of this historically freedom-fighting nation of ours, are not even allowed to present our side. I mean, you could expect this from a country that was living under some tyrannical regime, but from a democratic, first-world nation like Australia – surely not?
The other part of Prime Minister Rudd’s speech that cut me to the core, was when he said that he wanted to make sure that all Mums and Dads could feel confident that their children would be surrounded by vaccinated kids when they go to school. I couldn’t help but think about the parents whose children are injured or killed by these vaccines. How are they supposed to feel?
Should we ask little Saba Button’s family if they feel comforted knowing that their child’s ultimate sacrifice made the parents of vaccinated children feel more confident? (1) I mean, isn’t that why people who believe in vaccination get their children vaccinated in the first place – to feel confident that their children are protected? But now that’s not enough anymore, and our politicians are trying to coerce us into buying into their belief system as well.
Educated Families Making Informed Choices
Let’s look at this objectively. A family who chooses to vaccinate selectively or not at all, tends to have spent countless hours of research on vaccination and their own family's medical history before they arrive at that decision. But still, they are forced by government departments to go to a GP (if they can find one that is even willing to do it) for counselling on the pros and cons of vaccination (usually 99% on the pros and 1% on the cons) in order to get a conscientious objection form signed so that their children can get family and childcare benefits and the education that any other eligible Australian family would normally get.
Compare this to a family that makes the decision to vaccinate – whether they research a lot, a little or not at all. They are not forced to get counselling or get exemptions; they don’t even have to be excluded from school when their children have received live vaccines and their viral shedding can infect others. They get to make their choice without fear of punishment or ridicule – without any accountability whatsoever.
Somehow, we have moved into a system where our Prime Minister has no problem putting the ever-rising levels of the ‘theoretical model’ of herd immunity above the wellbeing of the children who are sacrificed to preserve it. (2)
Prime Minister Rudd did not even mention or worry about these children once. But then, he and the other people pushing this agenda against pro-choice parents don’t really believe that these children – our children – even exist.
I don’t think I can fully express how it feels to know that my Prime Minister doesn’t even acknowledge that vaccine injured children like mine live in Australia; to know that he wants to punish families for wanting to protect their children from the same fate.
How could he forget little Saba Button who was permanently brain damaged or Ashley Epapara who died, and the over 250 other children who were rushed to hospital because of the flu vaccine in Western Australia? How could he forget the tens of thousands infected during the recent whooping cough epidemic, most of whom were fully vaccinated, who still caught – and theoretically spread it despite the vaccine? (3)
There is a risk whether you vaccinate or not, and there is no way to predict which risk will be greater for your individual child. So making an informed choice is the only responsible option we parents have. How could politicians who are charged with protecting the people of this great nation want to take this option away from us? How could they possibly believe that discrimination and persecution against loving and caring parents is a reasonable option?
The whole situation was beginning to weigh heavily on my soul and I was beginning to feel very dejected and overwhelmed, until my big brother sat me down and reminded me of some very important facts:
Persecution has always followed those who stand for what is right; it is a rite of passage, a trial by fire. It is the adversity that builds character and shows you how weak or strong your resolve truly is.
The pro-choice families in rural Australia who are feeling isolated and alone and the families in suburban and metropolitan areas who are being browbeaten by GP’s as they desperately try to find a doctor willing to sign their conscientious objection forms, need to know that no matter what happens, there are organisations like the AVN in their corner giving them the support they need and fighting for their rights. Even those who may decide further down the line that the ever-increasing recommended childhood vaccination schedule is just too much too soon for their precious little ones, need to know that there is someone who is trying to fight for their rights as well.
My brother reminded me that we can take heart from all those in history who have been mercilessly persecuted and never gave up; Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Mahatma Ghandi. Their principles and values burned within their hearts and gave them the strength to stand against overwhelming odds, and those same principles burn within you, the AVN and your supporters. The strength of these principles and your commitment to them will cause the opposition – in its many forms – to pass over you, incapable of weakening your spirit but instead, firing you up and motivating you to be able to overcome anything.
In these words from my elder and much wiser brother, I found my resolve and I hope you can find yours too.
Our detractors think that we can be cowed; that they can wear us down with their insults and persecution; that our principles are only worth a couple of thousand dollars. They don’t realise that they are, in actual fact, waking the sleeping giant; catching a very angry tiger by the tail. That they are lighting the very fires that they seek to put out!
Use that fire, that righteous indignation – and take control of your own destiny! Do not let the persecutors dictate how we raise our children. If your member of parliament doesn’t want to represent your views in parliament, find a candidate who will and make sure that they know that you will no longer tolerate the unjustified attacks on your liberties – and especially on the liberties of your children. Write, ring or even better go and see them. The ball is well and truly in your court - now go out there and play hard.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou
“Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment. ”
― Og Mandino
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/sharp-rise-cases-new-strain-whooping-cough