Keeping the Pressure On and TV Coverage of the Response to the Ransom Notes Campaign

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

As some of you may already be aware, I appeared on the CW 11 Evening News

last night during a segment about our response to the " Ransom Notes "

campaign. While I didn't see the segment personally - I was traveling back

from Manhattan at the time after filming - I am told that it gave positive

coverage to our side. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network remains hard at

work keeping the pressure on for a recall of these offensive and damaging

ads. As you can see, our response campaign is continuing to pick up

momentum, with coverage on television, in the New York Times, the New York

Daily News and the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. We have heard from

sources close to the NYU Child Study Center that your calls, e-mails and

letters are having an impact. However, they continue to believe that the

furor will die down if they just " ride out the storm " , as Dr. Harold

Koplewicz, head of the NYU Child Study Center, stated in the New York Times.

It is time that we show them that we're not going to let them get away that

easily.

There are now twenty disability rights organizations involved in the joint

campaign to ensure the withdrawal of these letters and more are on the way.

Hundreds of signatures are being collected endorsing the disability

community's joint statement - please join them by signing

this<http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/petition.html>petition. Yet,

the most important thing you can do is to write, e-mail and

call the Child Study Center and the other supporters of the " Ransom Notes "

campaign. Details about how to do that are

here<http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=21>.

Please don't hesitate to pass this e-mail and the other information on how

to respond to the " Ransom Notes " campaign to the listservs, blogs and other

Only by contacting those responsible and calling on them to withdraw this

campaign immediately can we communicate that our cause is not a passing

storm, that NYU can weather and disregard, but a undeniable campaign of

outrage from a united disability community. We will not go away. We will not

surrender. We will not be ignored.

I'd also like to take a moment to point out to you a positive example of an

awareness campaign that we hope will someday soon be emulated throughout

those sections of the medical community dealing with disability. The Cure

Pity Campaign <http://www.curepity.org/>, by the Gillette Children's

Specialty Healthcare, shows children with disabilities as human beings,

deserving of the same respect and possessing the same hopes and dreams as

everyone else. At the same time, I do not think anyone can deny its

effectiveness in communicating its important message. Perhaps someday we

will see NYU and other research centers taking similar approaches. Until

then, thank you to all of you who have written, called and e-mailed and to

those of you who have yet to do so or will do so once again.

Regards,

Ari Ne'eman

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President

http://www.autisticadvocacy.org

info@...