Working With Organized Consumer Groups - Bruce & All

August 11, 2005

" Bruce Guilmette wrote:

> How about a concept to fight all this stuff: What if we were to

>start a petition drive to congress that opens up lawful treatment

>with just about anything to those with diagnosed stage 4 conditions?

Hi Bruce,

I share your enthusiasm for fighting for our rights and freedoms.

You say, " How about the concept to fight all this stuff. "

You are new to the list and maybe you haven't read the archives.

We have been fighting this stuff and we almost won the battle against

CAFTA being passed until President Bush went to congress and began

offering huge rewards for votes. We will continue working hard to

protect our rights, not only for stage IV cancer patients but for

everyone. And to me that is the central issue, protecting the rights

of everyone to choose alternative health care at anytime and the

right of doctors to practice alternative care without fear of

harassment by the government.

We have two organizations that have been presented on this Cancer

Cured board that are consumer rights groups that are fighting to keep

our freedom to choose. One group has been presented regularly here by

our long-time list member, Arnold Gore. The other organization

advocated a letter writing campaign in an alert that I posted to the

group yesterday. I hope everyone will join one or the other or both.

The group that Arnold introduced us to, posting many of their

letters, is the International Advocates of Health Freedom.

http://www.iahf.com/index1.html

Their site describes their purpose this way: " Central to our

philosophy is that the elements of coercion have no right whatsoever

to tell us what substances we can ingest into our bodies, as they

belong to US, not the statists. "

The group that I posted information on yesterday is Citizens for

Health: http://www.citizens.org/

Their purpose ties in with ours it seems to me - " making healthier

food / farming practices a priority, protecting access to dietary

supplements and all health practitioners, creating a truly

integrative health system and respecting individual's wisdom and

giving individuals full and final responsibility for their health

dollars and decision. "

Anyone can sign up for free alerts from these groups so that we can

join letter-writing campaigns, sign petitions, make phone calls or

meet with our government representatives to pressure them into

keeping our interests above those who want take away our rights to

alternative health choices. It seems that joining already

organized consumer groups like these is better than trying to start

something different. The problem seems to be in getting more people

to take action. I hope that any of our members who haven't taken

action before will sign up for free alerts from these organizations

and take a few seconds to write to their representatives. The letters

are prepared. It's just a matter of filling in a few blanks.

Also, I wrote to the headquarters of Whole Foods Markets and asked

them about their policy regarding CODEX. They wrote back saying that

they are watching the situation closely and will take action when they

see a need to do so. I believe that health foods stores will get

involved when the issue becomes even more threatening and they will

have petitions in the stores that millions of people will sign, as we

did in '93 which gave us the law that is still protecting us now but

is on the line as a new bill is trying to sap it's power.

However, I believe that in the meantime, we ALL need to keep sending

letters to Washington to let them know that we are expecting them to

protect everyone's rights to health choices.

August 11, 2005

Yes, I am new to the group and No I have not read archives. No good excuse

other than I review about 20 different groups now, deal with 53 regular

terminal cancer issues, and sort through about 200 emails a day plus have a

life outside of this.

Unfortunately the loss against CAFTA is a major problem. We now have to

play catch-up ball and the impetus for change is significantly greater than

maintaining the status quo. We lost the status quo when we lost CAFTA and

the effort will require several orders of magnitude and even that may not be

enough. Most places like Whole Foods will participate only at the last

minute. If they raise too much fuss, guess who comes to visit? Also, they

are in the business of running a business and that takes priority. Been

there and done that, so I fully understand the economics involved. This

fight will be the lowest priority on their list and for legitimate reasons.

Now comes the time to launch a campaign. That's why I threw out the idea of

supporting " anything goes " for terminally ill people. It is a place to

start. It is a way to get others to focus on the issue that if people that

are off the radar scope of modern medicine can come back, then there is a

reason to look at the other positive effects that can be had by everyone.

We need test rats. They want tests and we must give them something they

cannot ignore.

Bruce Guilmette

From: Olson