Dear President-Elect Obama - Please Stop the Poisoning of Our Children

Dear President-Elect Obama,

I envision a country where the health of our citizens trumps pharmacy and every one of us "pays-it-forward" through sharing what we know and can do to help others have better lives. 

My daughter suffered permanent neurological, gastrointestinal, and motor damage as the result of our modern-day, one-size-fits-all from newborn to 400 pound men, "standard of care" at three months of age; her decline continued through the third year of her life.  As a matter of fact, until she was nearly five, mainstream physicians, educators, and therapists wrote her off as destined for institutional care. 

Thank God for a very special community of parents and doctors who have dedicated their lives to helping children like my daughter - they gave me the tools to help my daughter regain her future.  She is nine, now, although she will always struggle with her severe developmental disability, neurological impairment, GI dysfunction and more (and despite these high hurdles), she is finally participating as a "typical" child in school and at play - a stranger would never guess the challenges she faces moment-to-moment, all day long.

My point is that our practice (and I chose this word purposely) of medicine is dangerous.  There is far too much about our current system of "health care" that is less about our population's health than about profit.  Our "medicines" cause more problems than they cure, allowing the prescription of follow-on drug, after follow-on drug.  The ingredients in "medicine" injected into our pregnant mothers, infants, toddlers, and children upward of 30 times in 60 months include the most carcinogenic antibiotic known to man, heavy metal products that require disposal as toxic waste, a metal that is known to cause permanent brain damage, and much more.

For the majority of pharmaceutical products prescribed for and injected into this population no long-term safety studies have been performed.  No research has been performed to ascertain the safety of concomitant administration of these products (neither short-term, nor long-term).  Most alarming is the fact that none of the products injected into this population have been proven efficacious.  The products used on these, smallest, American citizens are causing this generation of children to be the most sick (rampant autoimmune illness) and the most disabled (1 in 6 children are suffering a developmental disability).

This said, some of us are finding that certain interventions can enable our children to have better health and developmental outcomes.  Although these interventions cannot stop the damage, we ARE mitigating the damage in a substantial population of children.  These children are regaining developmentally lost years and finding their place in "typical" classrooms and peer groups.  These interventions require clean (free of pesticides, chemicals, preservatives, antibiotics, and steroids) food (allergen-free, and often gluten-, casein-, and soy-free, as well) clean water (free of public works pharmaceuticals, chlorine, fluoride, and other chemicals), and therapists with advanced degrees.  These cost vast sums of money.  But institutional care for these children, for life, costs ten times more.

I am (and have been for over four years) doing my part.  I run a tiny one-woman non-profit to help families improve their lives with Autism.  The only thing I ask in return for my help is that families "pay it forward."  The vast majority of families who contact me are seeing their children making giant strides toward better quality of life.  However, I am just one person and I am spread too thin.  I am a member of a large movement, we all share information and help one-another - but we are not heard over the propaganda carried by the media outlets, funded by the pharmaceutical companies that are destroying our children.

Please, please, PLEASE put on your cross-examination hat and READ what is in our vaccines, have your staffers actually RESEARCH the vaccines and drugs prescribed for children ten and under, ask the manufacturers of ready-to-eat foods why they use neuro-toxic dyes, DEMAND an answer as to why our drinking water contains potent pharmaceutical agents and poisonous chemicals. 

Our children (and we, adults, too) need a Hero with a brain.  We elected you because we know you are just that.  Please eliminate corrupt Government Agencies who look the other way, when it comes to the health of this nation.  Please hear our voices, we are the many who are trying, desperately, to heal this generation of environmentally and chemically disabled children.  Please hear and lift up our concerns to the highest level of Government; fund programs to educate (instead of warehousing) our children, fund initiatives to help parents help parents and help parents help educate Government agencies, fund training for the doctors and therapists - guided by doctors and therapists who are succeeding in returning these children to their families, fund an initiative to clean up the water we drink and bathe in, encourage our nation to eat foods with natural ingredients, encourage the thoughtful practice of medicine (including full disclosure of risks and benefits of all treatments, and the option to choose which medical interventions are appropriate for our families), and, for those who are beyond repair, teach our nation that our children are not dis-abled, but simply differently abled.

My husband frequently criticizes me for my idealistic ways and dogged efforts to change the world into a better place.  Call me the eternal optimist, I know it can happen - all it takes is vision.

Thank you for not simply reading my words but acting upon them.

Sincerely,

L Pa
Hopeful American, Mom, Wife, Volunteer, Autism mom, Rescue Angel