BOB AND SUZANNE WRIGHT (BUT NOT KATIE) IN WESTPORT MAGAZINE

By Kim Stagliano

Addendum, Katie Wright just sent us a copy of the letter to the editor she sent to Westport Magazine.  It appears she was never asked to participate in the article.  Makes it rather hard to "decline an interview" if you weren't asked.  You can see her letter at the end of this post. She questions whether someone at Autism Speaks declined on her behalf, without her knowledge.

Bob and Suzanne Wright are featured in the February issue of Westport Magazine.  Westport is a well to do community in Fairfield County Connecticut. Paul Newman and many other celebrities live in Westport.  The Imus' are nearby too. I live up the road, er, on the other side of the tracks..... 

Here's a taste:

Despite the Wrights’ optimism, there have also been bumps in the road. Relations have been strained between Bob and daughter Katie, who declined to be interviewed for this article. Katie, Christian’s mother, has said that Thimersol, a preservative in mercury-based vaccines, causes autism and defends alternative treatments, which she says have benefited Christian. She has also criticized Autism Speaks for not supporting more families who believe likewise.

Her parents and the organization are reserving judgment on vaccines, saying they have yet to see scientific proof that they are behind the rise in autism. “We’re the 500-pound gorilla,” says Bob, “and we’re doing all of this research work and worrying about genetics, and she’s saying, ‘I’ve got a little sick boy here, and I’m only interested in dealing with him right now.’ That’s okay. I understand that.”

HERE's the entire article.  And Katie's letter is below.

Dear Editor,

Thank you so much for your support in drawing attention the autism epidemic
as well as all the wonderful work my parents, Boba and Suzanne Wright, have
done in founding Autism Speaks.

I just read your cover story and was dismayed to learn that I (Katie Wright)
" declined to be interviewed." At no time did anyone ask me for a quote or a
comment from Westport Magazine. I am concerned that someone at Autism Speaks
claimed to represent me without my authorization. If I had been contacted
and that is very easy for someone from AS to do, I would certainly have
agreed to answer your questions. I think I have a right to know who told
your magazine that I "declined to be interviewed."

Finally, it is not just the mercury, as your piece charcterized, that I
believe triggered by son's autism it is the intensity of the CDC's highly
aggressive vaccination schedule which lead to my baby receiving 5-7
vaccinations per visit from the age of 2 months old to 2 years old. Babies
receive 37 vaccines prior to 2 years of age and the combination of so many
viruses being injected into babies' delicate and developing nervous systems
has never been tested for safety. Post vaccination my  infant son had a 104
degree fever for 10 hours, horrible swelling at the injection site and
screamed non stop all day and all night. These are not merely my "beliefs"
but facts. Christian's GI system is severely compromised and my once healthy
baby now has Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the measles in his colon. I
believe this could have all been prevented had his vaccinations been spaced
out and administered when he was a young child, rather than an infant.

I want to firmly state that I am not anti-vaccine but pro-safe vaccine and
safe vaccine schedule.  I also want to firmly state it is not just the
health of my child who concerns me but of all children and that is why I
have lobbied AS to do more to help the children and families suffering with
autism now. I have been greatly diasappointed that AS has rejected so many
treatment studies, particularly GI research proposals. I think we can all
agree that alleviating pain in autistic children should be Autism Speaks'
top priority.

Sincerely,

Katie Wright

Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[Tim Welsh]

Thank you Katie. Please please stay involved with Autism Speaks. Given interactions I have had with them over the last few topics it seems they are trying so hard to stay neutral to drive donations and keep everyone happy. At this point I am sure they are losing support from families who need help now. Too big for britches.

[biomedmama7]

Thank you, Katie Wright. :)

[Death, Taxes, and Alison Singer's job]

In Their Own Words
By Katie Wright
Editor's note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author exclusively

It has recently come to my attention that the individual responsible for awareness and media relations at Autism Speaks has been informing journalists, on my behalf, that I do not wish to comment on my son's autism. This was inappropriate of her to do so because no one at Autism Speaks was ever granted permission to act as my representative, in accepting OR in declining interviews. I have never purported to represent Autism Speaks when I speak about my son, Christian Hildebrand and my belief that an overzealous and unsafe vaccination schedule triggered his autism and had assumed they would never falsely represent me. However, when I recently read a cover story in "Westport Magazine" featuring the amazing work of my parents Bob and Suzanne Wright, I was shocked to learn that I had "declined to comment" about Christian's autism.After a phone call with the magazine's editor I was informed that, indeed, this individual at Autism Speaks had both declined to comment on my behalf and had never relayed the journalists questions to me at all. Apparently, this had been Autism Speaks' policy for some time.

I think that a big tent should mean big tent. The fact that some individuals in this community are so fearful of opposing points of view that they would actively seek to silence others can only be interpreted as insecurity in their beliefs. We are in the midst of a catastrophe of unprecendented proportions. Autism is steadily rising and traditionally accepted points of view and conventional research have yet to yield any significant breakthroughs for our children living today. We should be energetically exploring all avenues of research and listening more to parental accounts of regression, illnesses, vaccine reactions, biomedical interventions and yes, recovered children- not silencing those voices.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/community/ownwords/intheirownwords_katie_wright.php

[Kathy Blanco]

As a parent of THREE children with autism, I have to say, that many parents like me did see a strange regression in my children after vaccines. One, a DPT shot from hell, which landed him with convulsions and high pitch screaming and fever of 105. But I ask a bigger question that maybe all of you have not thought of? If vaccines do cause autism, then everyone would become autistic no? My argument lies on both sides of this fence. I believe there are genetic predispositions to injury to vaccines, such as prenatal pathogens given to baby from mom, such as toxins from mom or environment, such as pyrlorric histories, such as copper overload, or iron overload, and low glutathione for examples? All of these and more can cause autism in our children, by lowering their cell mediated immunity TO vaccines. THEREFORE, some kids will get autism by a vaccine because they are dealing with a number of these factors FROM THE BEGINNING. I look at vaccines as a smoker who can get lung cancer, but if he didn't smoke, would he still get lung cancer? It is obvious to me, that a family that grew up in the most endemic area of lyme, could in fact have familial borreliosis, and vaccines act as a TRIGGER. See BRANSFIELD, TICK BORNE DISEAES and AUTISM on google or my webpage. Why are all the mothers sick too? Why do they have a high incidence of depression, MS, LUPUS, Chronic Fatigue, Fibro? Are they transmitting pathogens to their kids, highly likely, and what universal epidemic is also occuring at the same time as this epidemic? TICK born diseases. Not just from a tick, from mosquitos, knats, bed bugs, etc. Can be in your breast milk, can be STD's. My list at www.lyme-autism@yahoogroups.com shows this is correlating with the highest lyme states, and the highest autism states. This is not a far stretch. Even in the Alzheimers brain, they find borrelia, and I consider that to be the adult version of autism. So you see, I don't buy just one theory causes autism, however, I do buy, that vaccines are triggers.

[Sally Steele]

The only comment I have is that I am sick and tired of everyone calling this "Autism" from their children's vaccinations.
Tell it like it truly is. The diagnosis for these children if we are all going to be truthful here is that these children have been MERCURY POISONED. Just read the symptoms of Mercury poisoning.
All this bull about the diagnosis of Autism is crazy. The medical community, the CDC, the AAP have never had to deal with this before. When they tripled the shots to babies before the age of 2 and they were all laced with Mercury they had to call it something. Now the numbers keep going up with these children (who have been Mercury poisoned) they had to give it a name beside's Mercury poisoning, so they just started giving this crazy diagnosis of Autism. I guess it worked. Now they can brainwash us into thinking that Mercury couldn't be the culprit. It must be genetic. I am so sick of hearing all this craziness about Autism when we all know what they have done to these children by lacing their vaccines with Mercury.

[Raymond Gallup]

Dear Katie,

I'm very sorry that this is happening to you. It shouldn't be but then over the years NAAR and CAN ignored thousands of families with vaccine-induced autism. Now Autism Speaks does the same but also to the family member of the founders of Autism Speaks.

Shameful and a continuing tragedy. I have become jaded over the years and expect this behavior but it really is very shameful. Every day and every year our son will never get the help he needs, Instead he will languish in a residential center where he will bang his head and have tantrums and there is nothing I can do to change the situation unless I bring him home and he attacks family members and put holes in the walls.

I was naive in the 1990s that I could help Eric but realize I never will be able to help him because profits for drug companies comes before helping kids
with autism. That is what it is all about. Profits before the welfare of our kid's well being and health. Very sad!!!!

Raymond Gallup

[Autismvile]

"An integral part of the foundation, of course, is fund-raising. What began with a $25 million donation from Bernie Marcus, cofounder of Home Depot and whose son is autistic..."

This statement made in the article is also incorrect. Bernie Marcus does not have an autistic son. This appears to be a case of some sloppy reporting...

[Twyla]

Leila, I hope you read Katie's letter and understand better that it is not a matter of whether to fund "research" or "guesswork" but rather the question is, what kind of research? Unfortunately, parents trying to do biomedical treatments for their autistic children have to engage in a lot of guesswork because so little research is being done on these treatments. Nobody is saying to stop researching genes, only that studies on genetics and the brain should not dominate almost all funding to the exclusion of all else. For example, so many autistic kids are suffering from gastrointestinal issues and immune system dysfunction. So many kids are improving when medical and nutritional issues are addressed.

In addition to biomedical treatments, biomedical causes should be researched, such as vaccines and environmental toxins. If a bunch of people were getting hit by cars, you could spend millions on researching the genetic differences affecting why some people survive better than others, but it just might be even more important to figure out how to prevent the car accidents. Likewise, we can begin to address the question of whether our vaccine schedule is out of control even before we figure out genetic differences to explain why some babies' immune systems are more vulnerable to vaccine injury than others.

It should be noted that Autism Speaks is funding some immune system research, which is good.

[Rhymes with Humdinger]

Ask Katie if the culprit's name rhymes with "humdinger."

[biomedmama7]

Color me skeptical or cynical or both but the silence on the part of Wrights when it comes to certain topics makes me doubt their committment. If they weren't convinced about vaccines and autism, they wouldn't have helped their grandson with the interventions he received, nor would they be contributing to Thoughtful House. The privacy of these things stinks and it wouldn't be any of mine or anyone else's business if not for AS. It seems to me they have created a monster. Who has AS helped, exactly? They need to take control of the organization they founded. They have zero credibility with this parent of an autistic child.

As for AS message boards, I could not possibly state things more clearly than a dear friend of mine wrote:

Nothing is more frustrating than fighting the terribly
mistaken mindset that disease, accidents and disasters
are gifts or presents from God that we should cherish
and retain. God does not send evil to anyone! I share
your reaction especially in considering that when
Jesus set out on the first stop of his ministry at
Carphanum, it was to preach and to heal. Heal! How I
wish these parents who rhapsodize about the suffering
of their children from autism would focus on Jesus's
emphasis on healing. Let them show us even one
Scriptural passage where Jesus says a person should
not want healing, but instead hug one's illness to the
bosom. Isn't the attitude that Jesus expects of us
found in the example of the woman who pressed through
the throngs of people around him, just to touch,
however momentarily, the hem of His garment to obtain
healing for herself? Seek and get healing for your
children, parents! And you parents in love with
sickness, please don't dare to obstruct or play
guilt-inducing mind games with other parents
who try so hard to get alleviation and curing for your
afflicted children.

God does not originate, permit or experiment with
evil.

[Wright on the money]

Leila, the AS money is going to genetics. The Wright's money is going to Thoughtful House in Texas, where Christian is making excellent progress toward improved health and functioning. They're doing right by their grandson. Gotta give them that.

[Leila]

Uh... The money is going towards research because without it, there's no way we'll find treatment for people like Christian. So far there's not much we know about the reasons why there are different ways autism can impact the body and all the different autism phenotypes out there. The Wrights are not interested in half-a@@ research and guesswork. They want real solutions, and they understand it can't be done quickly enough to save their own grandchild. It must be extremely painful to them and this interview made me respect them more. They are thinking not only about their own family, but they are helping everyone who's on the same boat.

[Twyla]

"Her parents and the organization are reserving judgment on vaccines, saying they have yet to see scientific proof that they are behind the rise in autism."
So, they are "reserving judgement" on vaccines, but they are spending millions to research genes. Why are they taking a passive wait-and-see attitude towards vaccines? Why aren't they listening to the many many accounts of vaccine adverse effects told by parents? Shouldn't these thousands of so-called anecdotes inspire some research? Are they waiting for someone else to prove the vaccine-autism connection beyond a reasonable doubt before they will spend any money to look into this?

"We’re the 500-pound gorilla," says Bob, "and we’re doing all of this research work and worrying about genetics, and she’s saying, ‘I’ve got a little sick boy here, and I’m only interested in dealing with him right now.’ That’s okay. I understand that.”
He makes it sound like Katie is just involved in her own family's struggles to the exclusion of all else. Actually, she is quite active in the autism community, including serving on the board of the National Autism Association, speaking at conferences, writing... What I have heard her say is that she wants Autism Speaks to focus more on research that will help people now, such as research on treatments, instead of focussing almost solely on genetics and the brain. This is quite different from saying, "Don't bother me I'm too busy with my kid", which is how the conflict is characterised in this article.

Bob and Suzanne Wright's commitment to autism is extraordinary. If only they would open their eyes and see the biomedical paradigm of autism.

[Anne S]

I hate this line
“We’re the 500-pound gorilla,” says Bob, “and we’re doing all of this research work and worrying about genetics, and she’s saying, ‘I’ve got a little sick boy here, and I’m only interested in dealing with him right now.’ That’s okay. I understand that.”

I think she's saying more then "I've got a sick boy and I need to deal with him now". She's saying open your friggin' eyes to the OTHER research that needs to be done. We need the vax/nonvax study. We need studies that evaluate all these biomed treatments we're using. We need so much more than genetic-research-that-turns-up-nothing.

[Mike]

"She has also criticized Autism Speaks for not supporting more families who believe likewise."

I can understand the motivations of the federal agencies - the ones who are complicit in the vaccine crime - in not wanting to buy the biomedical story, but for the life of me I don't understand why the Wrights don't seem to get it. Not very smart are they? How come the corporations they head make so many billions of dollars. Do dollars make you get selective perception?

[Angela Warner]

Ohhh... I finally had to stop reading. If Suzanne felt that it was so "terrible" - meaning the wait for services and what was available - why in the hell has Autism Speaks not set up a fund in the form of grants available to help children and families? Why is all that money going towards research and nothing else? I know I'm asking the choir... but I still had to ask!

Ad nauseam... Proof by assertion...

Katie,

I am proud of you! And I am proud of Christian! I was a bit surprised that you declined, and then as I read as far as I was able to without having to make a trip to the bathroom, I totally understood why you declined. You have guts. You are a warrior, for Christian, and for all our children. And you know the truth! I can not in a million years imagine how difficult this has all been for you, but I thank you from the bottom of my soul for standing up for all of our children!

Here's to not putting up with nausea or assertion as proof! Clink :)
Ang