A.R.M. - (Autism Recovery Mission) Political Action Committee - “By Parents, For Our Children”

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A.R.M. POLITICAL ACTION

“By Parents, For Our Children”

A Message from Bob Krakow regarding the formation of

A.R.M.

(Autism Recovery Mission) Political Action Committee

Dear EOH List Members and Fellow Parents:

I am pleased to announce the formation of A.R.M. Political Action

Committee, the Autism Recovery Mission Political Action Committee, a

national organization that aims to be a unified and strong political

voice for the autism community. We hope to become known simply as

A.R.M. Our goal is to enable parents as a political force.

The purpose of A.R.M. is to provide a hands-on lobbying and political

action organization for parents of children with autistic spectrum

disorder. Our initial focus will be on vaccine injuries, including

Thimerosal and MMR related issues, because these pose a direct threat

to children, but our attention will not be limited to those concerns.

Almost all our children, for example, are denied basic health insurance

coverage yet we pay the same premiums as other families -- we intend to

stop this inequity. This is one illustration of the practical problems

that confront parents. We expect to address these and other critical

concerns within our community by empowering parents.

A.R.M. will not supplant or disturb not-for-profit organizations,

biomedical support groups, or any other work with which many of you

have been involved. To the contrary, our purpose is to give the

individuals involved in all those efforts a unified political voice,

one that will be backed by the power of large numbers of parents. We

have already sought out and obtained the support of many parents, and

we are continuing this effort to establish a broad support base. We

have received an enthusiastic response.

Many of you have already been active in lobbying activities regarding

Thimerosal and many other issues affecting our children. The initial

working group of A.R.M. includes parents who have been deeply engaged

in this effort. They include Liz Birt (Illinois), Bobbie Manning

(Western NY), Rita Shreffler (MO), Lujene (MO) and Gilmore

(NYC). We are all parents of children on the autism spectrum and we

have worked alongside many of you in the past. Many of you have

distinguished yourselves in your tireless legislative and political

efforts. We invite you to participate with us in a collaborative

endeavor. We believe that the future of our children depends upon it.

Each of us has observed that often our political efforts are ignored

because we are not speaking with a unified voice. It is all too easy

for legislators and staffers to be courteous and sympathetic to

parents, only to ignore us once we’ve left the office. Even though

many parents are extremely capable, our lack of political power as

individuals has made it easy for Capitol Hill to ignore us.

Our idea, by no means novel but still bold and ambitious, is to amplify

the power of individual parents and parents’ groups by becoming one

political voice with a unified and coordinated political strategy.

There is no reason a well organized parents’ movement cannot be as

powerful as the AARP or the NRA or, to use a more recent historical

example, Moveon.org.

Our organization will be strictly non-partisan and non-ideological. Our

working group represents the political spectrum. We hope and expect

that parents of all political views will be united with us. Our one

unifying political focus is to get the truth out about what has

happened to our children and to make sure our children have a secure

future. We will arm parents to make sure this happens. We can succeed

because we will, indeed, be armed with the truth. Our sole focus will

be on our kids.

Our plans include the following:

•IDENTIFYING key issues with targeted lobbying strategies

•RATING legislators with a scorecard on key issues

•ENDORSING legislation that advances our children’s interests

•ENDORSING political candidates

•OPPOSING legislation that impairs our children’s interests

•EDUCATING the woefully misinformed media

•ADVOCATING for children before state and federal agencies(including

funding of Thimerosal related research)

•SUPPORTING other parent-led efforts to enact state legislation.

•TRAINING parents to advocate and lobby for their kids

•ORGANIZING parents at the grassroots;

•DEFENDING our kids through legal action to affirm their fundamental

civil & human rights

We plan to make parents effective lobbyists because they are part of a

larger organizing effort. Together, we have power; individually, we

have very little power. The only thing that has impact inside the

Beltway is power; power comes from money and influence. We will never

be able to match the money of some of our adversaries but we do have,

tragically, large numbers of potential constituents. Our power will

come from our numbers, if we are organized and unified. Our adversaries

may have 1200 lobbyists in Washington. We have the potential to have

120,000 or more lobbyists and with that will come real power. With real

power we can help our kids.

A great deal of effort has been made by many parents to get to this

point in our organizing effort. Courageous parents pioneered the issues

we care about most. Tough work, however, is ahead of us. We have been

assaulted on every front — many of our initial concerns about our

children are dismissed by medical experts. We are criticized for the

biomedical interventions we use; we are called irrational for

questioning the safety of vaccination; we are called greedy for

bringing legal claims to protect the interest of our kids; and we

sometimes fight with each other because we are all under the crushing

stress of trying to care for very sick children.

Now is the time to come together with one voice. In that way, we can

forcefully carry forward the ground-breaking efforts of these

courageous parents who braved criticism to advance our cause. I hope

you will all see the merit in doing so.

Our working group has much yet to do in launching this effort. Events

are moving forward rapidly with the encouraging rise in interest

triggered by Evidence of Harm. This message is to alert you that there

will soon be a vehicle for your political energy on behalf of your

kids, if you choose to join with us in this effort. We will report

back soon with an update. Your participation is vital to assure the

success of ARM. We urge you all to contact us directly.

For the sake of our children, it is imperative that we succeed in this

campaign. Please join us. Our children need us to be one strong voice

so that they may be heard!

Very truly yours,

Bob Krakow

Please contact us with your interest or questions at our respective

email addresses until our web site is available:

elizabethbirt@...

rkrakow@...

r.shreffler@...

bmanning83@...

yogilmore@...

lujene@...