What I should have said was: Oh crap, a guy who survived the bureaucracy and back-stabbing of GE for more than 30 years by striving for consensus, deferring to perceived experts, delegating major decisions, and ensuring that he can seek cover and blame someone else for any mistakes along the way. It turns out a corporate survivor and changing the course of autism are a very poor match, indeed.

What’s it take to change the course of autism?

It takes Andy Wakefield’s integrity.

And Jenny McCarthy’s guts.

And Lyn Redwood’s sense of duty.

And Mark Blaxill’s uncompromising demand for truth.

And Lujene Clark’s refusal to give up.

And Bernie Rimland’s generosity of spirit and willingness to challenge orthodoxy.

And Katie Wright’s –- ironically –- singular commitment to her son’s welfare.

And thousands of other parents, willing to risk being ostracized by friends, doctors, teachers, and relatives, willing to accept the whispers behind their back and the stares across the school parking lot, to pursue the truth, and to put the welfare of our kids above all else.

Since February 2005, when Autism Speaks opened its doors, we have witnessed an explosion of truth about autism: that it is an epidemic, that it is triggered by the environment, that vaccines are a major part of the problem, and that children are indeed recovering through biomedical intervention.

And, yet, on these core “four truths”, Autism Speaks remains mum. Mystifyingly, the organization that Bob Wright started remains convinced that autism’s origins are a mystery, its prevalence a matter of debate, and genetics the most promising route for funding. Recovery? Just watch Autism Every Day: the autism of Autism Speaks is only suffering and challenges. No hope. No recovery.

When Autism Speaks neighboring state, New Jersey, seeks to mandate vaccines for preschool children, do they speak up to help? No, it’s left to A-CHAMP and Deirdre Imus to speak for our kids and our community.

The departure from Autism Speaks of Katie Wright earlier this year, so pathetically public and poorly handled, grows more astonishing with time: Bob and Suzanne Wright really did choose to put an organization they started in their grandson’s honor ahead of their grandson and daughter.

2007 was the year of great change in autism, thanks largely to Jenny McCarthy, standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before her and shouting with all her might to shock parents into re-thinking what they may have believed about autism. We are not too far from the day of truth and the day of reckoning on autism, where people will be remembered by where they stood when this growing controversy finally exploded into the health scandal earthquake of our time.

Maintaining his current trajectory, Bob Wright will be standing on the side of the crumbling land descending quickly into the sea, unwilling to rise above the din of the yes-men and establishment scientists with one hand in the cookie jar scurrying about and still debating whether or not autism cases are actually rising.

Here’s hoping he finds his spine in 2008.

JB Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and Editor at Large for Age of Autism.