This was the lovely view from my kitchen window last Wednesday. I just want to break out in singing, “Autumn day, autumn day, God gives richest gifts today.” I am glad I snapped this moment before the snow fell.

Hey, if you haven’t already, go watch the Greater Good Movie. You could watch it tonight for your Saturday night family movie. The producers of this documentary are letting people watch it for free until midnight of November 5. http://vimeo.com/31036452. It is about vaccination risks.

I watched it last night after everybody else went to bed. For our family movie night, we watched The Little Woman Behind Little Women, a PBS documentary about Louisa May Alcott. Ever since I read Good Wives by LM, I’ve wanted to know more about her. I will have to blog about that movie another time.

So then I couldn’t sleep and I wanted to watch something just with me and my husband. Instead of watching some romantic movie I wanted to watch the Greater Good Movie since the free offer to watch it expires tonight. He was too tired to stay awake and parked on the couch with a pillow, but Princessa couldn’t sleep either so we watched it together.

It was very good. It was heart-wrenching to watch three American families tell their stories of how they have been damaged by vaccines. This is not a hysteria-based movie, it is just taking an honest look at the damage vaccines have done and raises questions. The King family of Portland have a 12 year old boy who became autistic at age 2 because of mercury poisoning from his vaccines. The Swank family has a 15 year old daughter who got very ill because of the Gardasil vaccine. She has partial facial paralysis, constant seizures, partial blindness in one eye, and sometimes can’t walk. She had to take 30 drugs daily to deal with her symptoms and then those drugs gave her the side effect of kidney stones. They were paying $2000 a month on the drugs and lost their home and the parents divorced over the stress. Then the other family, the Christners of Tulsa OK lost their beautiful baby daughter to vaccine damage. The baby died at around 5-6 months form anaphylactic shock, which was a reaction to a vaccine. The mom tearfully said, “I just don’t understand…I had this beautiful baby…I played by the rules…and now she’s gone.”(Have a box of tissues handy for that scene.) The mom is a physician herself and feels betrayed by the medical establishment. She says nobody ever talked about the risks of vaccinations in her medical training. She has since done a lot of research and found that ever since vaccines came out, there have been reports if increased neurological problems in children but the media has largely ignored these reports.

Three medical doctors in the movie raise questions about vaccines, including the son of my favorite pediatrician, Dr Sears. Dr. Sears Jr. (Robert Sears M.D.) has written a book called The Vaccine Book. I really appreciate his honest inquiry and willingness to raise questions by writing this book. Many M.D.s are not even willing to look into the issue of vaccine risks. I stil remember him presenting his findings that he based his book on at a presentation at the 50th Anniversary International Conference for La Leche League in Chicago in July of 2007. I was there at the conference but did not go watch his session. My girlfriend and LLL co-Leader Amy did though. She got to get a picture of herself posing with Martha Sears, one of my heroes, at the end of the session. Martha is Bob’s mom and the elder Dr. Sears’ wife, and a LLL Leader herself. I have been jealous of Amy to this day. Oh, how I digress…

Back to the topic of the movie…one of the M.D.s said that he has been practicing medicine since 1973. In the 70s he saw one case of autism, in the 80s, a few hundred (if I remember right) and now in the 2000s he has seen thousands. He confirms that the King family’s son got autism because of the mercury in his vaccines. Another tear-jerker scene was to see the mom of the King family say that autism is not a blessing. It is not something her son would have chosen for himself. He was precocious, talking in full sentences by age 2. Ever since the vaccine damage he has not been able to talk, and he’s 11-13 now. She said it’s like having a toddler for 11 years. My heart aches for this woman, her son and their family. I wish I could make it all better.

For homeschooling one morning this week my daughter learned to draw a bunny and an Indian, and Cowboy,

below, felt inspired to write and spell his first sentence on the chalkboard by squeezing it on.  He wrote, “Bob put on a bib.”  

Barbara Loe Fisher, mom. author and vaccine awareness activist appears several times. I enjoyed hearing everything she said. Her son became brain-injured because of vaccine damage so she started raising awareness of vaccine risks with her books and organization.

A neuroscientist appears with a PhD who says he did an experiment on rats by injecting aluminum in  them (aluminum is also found in vaccines) and that rats had severe behavioral declines.

The movie points out several thought-provoking things. Such as:

• Why did Congress make it so that vaccine manufacturers can not be sued for damages?
• Why is it that all of the doctors on the board that approves vaccines for sale in the U.S. also make money from the sale of vaccines?
• Why is it that state governments used to mandate 23 doses of 7 vaccines and now that schedule has increased to 69 doses of 16? Are we as as a people sicker so we need more protection from disease?
• Why is it that we have seen a rise in chronic diseases, autism, and disability in children since vaccines have become widespread in the U.S.?
• Why is that the Gardasil vaccine went to market after only 15 months of testing when it was originally scheduled for four years of testing?
• Is it the government’s job to protect us from illness?
• Are parents smart enough to analyze scientific data and make the choice about whether or not to vaccine their child?
• Is there a middle ground for vaccinations, neither “anti” or “pro” but centrist? This would mean being willing to use them if the risks are thoroughly researched by an independent organization that has nothing to gain financially from their use, and the risks are clearly explained to you by your doctor?
• Some vaccination promoters claim that we have to use vaccinations to achieve “herd immunity” for the greater good of society. Some of them do acknowledge their risks, including death. What is the number of children our society is willing to sacrifice for the greater good?

I like the tagline of one of the conferences that Barbara Loe Fisher organized, “Show us the science, give us the choice.” As she explains about the limited testing of Gardasil and its premature release for consumer use, “That’s not science, that’s politics.” This movie suggests that there’s a lot more going on in terms of politics and money in the vaccination industry than meets the eye.

If you would like to discuss this movie and vaccination risks or share your stories, please go to our discussion forum here http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/forum/topics/what-are-your-vaccination