Heroes! Chili's Supports Safety For People with Autism: Thank you!
UPDATE: Wow - Chili's CAVED to media pressure and cancelled their support of NAA. What a tragedy - from now on when a child wanders and dies you can Tweet and FB Chili's and remind them.
Chili's Grill & Bar 54 minutes ago Chili's is committed to giving back to the communities in which our guests live and work through local and national Give Back Events. While we remain committed to supporting the children and families affected by autism, we are canceling Monday's Give Back Event based on the feedback we heard from our guests. We believe autism awareness continues to be an important cause to our guests and team members, and we will find another way to support this worthy effort in the future with again our sole intention being to help families affected by autism. At Chili's, we want to make every guest feel special and we thank all of our loyal guests for your thoughtful questions and comments.
PLEASE dine at Chili's on April 7 to support NAA. There is a bot-based campaign to ATTACK NAA - a great org - started at the kitchen table of real autism Moms a decade ago and protecting, loving and supporting real families EVERY DAY - these attackers have branded NAA falsely - and viciously in social media - to protect an industry. NAA SAVES LIVES with their wandering program. Eat. At. Chili's.
We'd like to thank Chili's restaurants for their support of the National Autism Association and their many programs that help keep children, teens and adults with autism spectrum disorders safe and in many instances, can save their very lives.
Lol but as I just mentioned on another thread, the pharma troll that started up a thread on a sports off-topic forum doesn't even have many commenters and some people have obviously seen through him. Poor little bot. He's trying hard, though.
Posted by: More and more bots on sites than you can imagine. | April 07, 2014 at 11:21 PM
These pharma bots are everywhere- on sports forums, gossip sites. Trust me. And they are starting conversations/threads about vaccine related issues on the "off topic forums." They are clearly science majors (possible paid) who like to use pictures and charts and they seem to impress *some of the uninformed who look in on the blog. Of course they pick and choose their information and present the issue as "settled."
People who don't appreciate the finer points of the discussion - such as the real increase in the number of shots, the combining of shots (such as Pediarix) that don't allow some choice for parents, the lack of good safety studies, the research that shows problems with aluminum or thim, the imcrease in the numbers of children experiencing autism, learning problems health problems like seizures- these are all lost to them. It is very obvious that these people are more than just average persons on a sports blog. They are working hard.
Posted by: More and more bots on sites than you can imagine. | April 07, 2014 at 09:51 PM
Bruceboy;
I did not mean to give you a short, snide answer to your proposal, but that is how it came off.
I agree with you. I think that is what we all have been doing -- some better than others.
And you are right you should continue - we all should continue.
Today checking out of the Dollar Store - they are collecting for Autism Speaks
And I said to the entire crowd - plenty in line that it was nice that the Dollar Store thought about autism and was wanting to help out but they could have chosen a better, more helpful autism organization than Autism Speaks. Like National vaccine Information Center, or Generation Rescue, or National Autism Associaition.
They all looked surprised! And then that knowing look we get when we think the guy asking for a buck is going to use it on booze came across their face.
Yeah, that figures -- No one checks these organizations out. Cause we don't have time.
That is the people on the street - none of them have a clue
we depend on The Dollar Store or Chilis figuring it out for us and we donate.
So clearly this attack on Chilis --was something like robotics or tiagae the long arm of the CDC. I promise you it was not the average Joe in line at the Dollar Store that can't wait to hop on the computer and complain.
Now do I go ahead and complain on line to the Dollar Store for supporting Autism Speaks???
I don't know - maybe it will hurt more than it would help -- make the Dollar Store just like Chilis kind of gun shy at helping anything - every again that mentions the word autism?
Posted by: Benedetta | April 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
In the future, we should donate money directly to NAA in memory of a child who died from wandering. The NAA should run an ad thanking the donors listing the names of these kids. Energy better spent.
Posted by: autismmom | April 07, 2014 at 03:54 PM
I do want to give Chili's credit for their initial decision. I have to think that they did some level of investigation into what they would be supporting and chose to help either where they saw the most benefit could be generated or where they saw the most need. I don't believe organizations that are preoccupied with not learning or calling attention to anything inconvenient will ever truly, effectively help those affected.
@Twyla & Linda,
Thanks for the very good ideas (I don't know why I didn't see them until today) to donate directly to NAA what you would have spent at Chili's today! We can't eat there, but I was thinking about ordering a couple of gift cards.
@Benedetta,
I'm thinking the same so much of the time, especially with the type of discourse that often fills the net. A nation of the vaccine injured? At least clearly, we are burdened with accumulating effects of pollution and, I think, are risking much by not honestly investigating whether the route of injection of such substances combined intentionally to provoke long-term, essentially inflammatory, responses in the body is not one of the harmful routes of exposure we are subjected to.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | April 07, 2014 at 03:52 PM
Benedetta, Please reread my post. I am saying that it is time to reverse roles with this crowd. We gather data and research and they reject it citing superior credentials and science. Time to put them on the defense. The pro-vaccine group fly's the flag of science and it is a fraud. Science is objective, reference-able, reproducible, challenge-able and willing to refine itself with new information. Lets take the pro-vaccine community to task and demand they substantiate their positions. I read all of these blogs and they claim science is on their side but they are more of a religion in reality. Ask for the science. The burden of proof is on the vaccine culture to provide. An injection in my child does not deserve an innocent until proven guilty status. I want water tight proof it is safe, effective and needed. They cannot offer that and stand up to questions. The vaccine folks need to defend themselves on the premise that they have the science. I maintain they just don't have it. They are a religion, they believe in vaccines, that they are beyond reproach, and they believe they have science. The CDC is like the Vatican to them and the followers have faith that the one truth is being told there. That is not science that is faith. Lets call them on it.
There are so many areas where science under the pro-vaccine religion, is abandoning these kids. Let me point out two examples. There are literally tens of thousands of previously normal moms who claim an almost identical story of a reaction to a shot. Shared behaviors and physiological changes that are unique to this previously unrelated group of moms. This behemoth of anecdotal evidence is a form of scientific evidence. The next responsible scientific step would be to truly study if autism shares this common onset or if thousands of previously unrelated people are sharing identical hysteria. It is one or the other. This work has not been ordered of course. Can you tell me why. The other lacking action step by the peer review crowd is so natural its absence says a ton. There is a huge body of un-vaccinated people. Just do the study comparing them. For crying out loud, if un-vaccinated kids have the same autism rate then just do the study. If they do not then it warrants the conclusion that Vaccines may cause Autism and that is where the research should go next.
We have seen a 6,000% increase in Autism in our lifetime. Vaccines are clearly implicated in some aspect of the cause. I am not going to be quiet about this cover up any longer.
Posted by: Bruceyboy | April 07, 2014 at 02:37 PM
I had measles, mumps, and rubella. I didn't die. The world didn't end. My mom still went to work; she just had to find a babysitter for me who had ALREADY HAD THOSE diseases! They were mild. I also had roseola. I somehow didn't have chicken pox as a child. No, I got that at age 25, from my own child. And having them as an adult was WAY worse. My mom should have made sure I got that one, too, but she was afraid I'd scar myself picking the scabs (I probably would have). I was born in 1954. I knew exactly ONE child who had juvenile diabetes. I knew exactly ONE child who had "hay fever." I knew NO CHILDREN with peanut allergies. I knew one boy who was deemed "retarded" and a brother and sister in another family who probably, today, would be diagnosed with Asberger's. I had sensory issues, as did my mother before me. I also, likely, had some form of ADHD. I also had a mouthful of mercury amalgams. My grown sons both have ADHD and impulsivity issues. My daughter has OCD, to some extent. My son's sons are both in the autism spectrum. The chemicals are affecting the genome.
Posted by: Sue Morgan | April 07, 2014 at 01:47 PM
Bruceyboy: Twyla has wore herself out blogging her statements and then posting where she found them.
J.B Handley has wore himself out with quoting exact numbers that only a computer should be able to spite out.
John Stone has wore himself out too.
And the list is endless.
We are not going to convince guys that are some how linked to the vaccine industry - We just hope we make some headway with how the majority of the people of this society thinks.
And while we are talking to Mike about the millions -- I don't know how old Mike is -- but I am old enough to remember tobacco science; as millions lite up. And if you are too young to remember how smoking was so normal and everyday event in society have a look see at the old black and white movies.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 07, 2014 at 12:28 PM
I tried to look up wandering deaths and all that I see is percentages of autism children who wander (which is very high) and of course precedes death and drowning in too mnay instances. We need raw numbers. How many deaths (approximate in last 5 years or even this year?) I bet we will be at a much higher number than measles deaths. Thanks, Chili's.
Posted by: Not surprised. | April 07, 2014 at 10:26 AM
@ Mike
"It wasn't media pressure. It was pressure from people that believe in the importance and efficacy of vaccines and there are millions of people like me"
As to the "millions of people" .. I would offer just two of the most recent examples .. where "millions of people" believed and trusted "experts" who apparently lied:
#1 .. the millions who brought GM autos believing them to be SAFE" .. only to learn .. for at least a decade .. they had been driving autos that GM knew were defectively designed
#2 .. the "millions of people" who believed our government's most trusted political representatives and intelligence experts .. that Saddam not only had weapons of mass destruction .. but .. those officials and intelligence experts knew exactly where those weapons were stored.
Unfortunately, these are precisely the "millions of people" who should be demanding an independent, scientific .. study of "vaccinated v. unvaccinated" populations .. to prove BOTH populations have suffered the same dramatic, inexplicable increase in chronic autoimmune disorders that are now so common among this generation .. and .. were far less common in all previous .. less vaccinated .. generations.
It is as President Reagan said .. "Trust .. but .. verifiy"
Do the damn study and prove the vaccines are as "safe" as those "millions" who believe them so.
With all due respect .. would you ask your elected representatives to publicly support the pending federal legislation that seeks to fund that particular study? If not .. why not?
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | April 07, 2014 at 10:22 AM
Concernedbutnotcrazy is afraid of our 'Chili/bot body count' (autism wandering drownings). That is a clue that this is exactly what we have to do. Play ball! Start counting and attributing. We can't worry about playing by the rules or being nice any longer. Otherwise we really are crazy.
Posted by: Not surprised. | April 07, 2014 at 09:56 AM
I was up late last night reading all of the Huffington post comments. It was a sea of unanimous pro-vaccine concensus. Stranger yet was their repeated affirmation that vaccines and Autism are proven unrelated and that anti-vaxers are LIARS. They claim that the pro-vaccine sentiment is all science and that anti-vaxers are like a religion. Citing junk science and the following of the now discredited Andrew Wakefield.
Lets make this conversation more scientific. Science has references. If you write a paper you had better have a footnote. When you make a claim that vaccines causing autism have been debunked you better have a reference.
Also please always ask the pro-vaxers this question. “ Wouldn’t you agree vaccines are an unnatural event? They are a concoction of viruses dead or attenuated, mixed up with preservatives, binders and other items assembled in laboratory and placed in a syringe to be delivered into the body via needle injection, bypassing the body’s normal shields like skin bleeding and digestion. This is an unnatural event right”? If you don’t get agreement you have met a true faith based zealot with no interest in the truth and you should end the conversation. Once you have agreement however, that vaccines are unnatural regardless of perceived benefits, you need to simply state they will have to be shown to be SAFE, EFFECTIVE, and NECESSARY. This also requires a reference. That is where their side begins to break down.
An affirmation of science is not science it is religion. I do believe, I do believe, I do believe... vaccines are good. The burden of proof about vaccines is and will always be on the pro-vaxers side. Hold them accountable to the lack of science.
Posted by: Bruceyboy | April 07, 2014 at 09:40 AM
There is also a disease out there that like measles have a red rash
unlike measles you are not going to recover from that disease with out some kind of lingering disablity.
Unlike measles you are going to have a fever of around 105.
Unlike measles it is not a virus -- they don't know what causes it ???? Just like autism - they don't know.
It is called Kawasakis, or should we just call it by it's real name -- serum sickness.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 07, 2014 at 09:24 AM
Mike Garland:
That is my fear, that we have a country full of brain damaged people from vaccines -the numbers rising through the roof, threatening our very soceity because instead of informed citizens doing their duty and making sure they are ever watchful -- they have decided to put their faith in other men .
If that is what happened and you are not a bot -- you are still guilty of a lot of things - for one having no (lacking all ) compassion to those that witnessed their children's brain injury right after a vaccine.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 07, 2014 at 09:16 AM
Mike - you just took money away from SAFETY PROGRAM to keep children alive - rather contradictory to your mission of saving lives via vaccines don't you think? Come on, man - this knee jerk reaction of "Anti=vaccine" is not rooted in reality. The NAA Big Red Safety Box program is invaluable. The NAA grants to single parents are a lifeline. Stopping this campaign works against safety 100%. Learn your facts - visits the NAA site and see what they are all about. Please.
Posted by: Stagmom | April 07, 2014 at 08:21 AM
@Linda - Re an article on Huffington Post:- "Also, a comment by "Ramona J. (Ramona_Jackson)":
"F&F. I suffered every type of measles medical science knows. No parent should ever want their child to have any of those diseases. German measles was the worst."
Every type of measles? How many are there? And German measles was the worst? German measles, rubella, is a mild 3 day illness. The danger of German measles is that it can cause birth defects if contracted during pregnancy, but this "person" says it was "the worst"? Really?"
This link is on another AoA thread, but includes a photograph of a very sick baby, allegedly infected with rubella. The rash is all wrong. Rubella causes an all over red pinprick rash, which usually lasts for only a day or two. Having experienced REAL rubella myself as a child and in my two infant daughters, more than 40 years ago, I know what rubella looks like. This sick baby has sparse dark random spots which vary in size. Almost certainly Bacterial Meningitis, which can be fatal.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pro-vaccine-messages-actually-backfire-study-finds-n41611
Rubella vaccine for girls was introduced in the UK, during the 1970's. In 1988 rubella was incorporated into the MMR vaccine. Most present day UK and US physicians will never have encountered rubella. Ignorance about this mild disease, along with totally spurious scaremongering, seems to have spread to the press and media-and of course the pro vax trolls!!
Posted by: Jenny Allan | April 07, 2014 at 08:18 AM
Why couldn't Chili's say they wanted to raise finds to help with the Big Red Safety Box efforts? Why does it matter NAA has anything on their website about vaccines? They are focusing on safety issues and that is the most important and helpful thing they could do.
At least NAA acknowledges we parents who say vaccines are a factor. Unlike Autism Speaks who pretend we don't exist and ignore our children's stories of regression and illness. Unlike Autism Speaks who does nothing to help with real world issues.
NAA is the best organization out there and we need to find different ways to support them. Shame on Chili's and any person thinking they were doing something good complaining about this event. Children who wander and their families are the one's who will be hurt.
Posted by: Andrea | April 07, 2014 at 08:02 AM
It wasn't media pressure. It was pressure from people that believe in the importance and efficacy of vaccines. I am not a bot -- and there are millions of people like me.
Posted by: Mike Garland | April 07, 2014 at 07:54 AM
Is NAA's position on vaccination the main concern with these "people"--can't find words for the concept of Chili's possibly being swayed in part by entities that cannot actually eat--or is there more concern with the stated purpose of the once-intended partnership, the effort to improve safety for those on the spectrum, something that may lead to a greater awareness during Autism Awareness Month of the mortality risk of autism?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | April 07, 2014 at 04:46 AM
The reason these diseases are on the downturn is due TO the vaccines...Take the risk now, or i guess you could end up like the parents of all the kids who have DIED these last couple months alone in Texas and many other states from diseases that they have a shot for...I applaud your messages guys, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but going after chili's for a "business decision" makes you all sound more like the kids you claim to be trying to protect..There's my 2¢...The other 98 I will donate to AS to help sooth a little of the chili burn..
Posted by: ConcernedButNotCrazy | April 07, 2014 at 01:35 AM
Article up on Huffington Post about this, with some very strange comments. One by someone claiming to be an ER doctor, "Kay R. (kaykaythere)" says: "I have diagnosed measles and whooping cough just this year already............ and when I tell their parents that yes-- You kid is being admitted to the hospital with MEASLES and their kid is very very sick, then look at me like I have 6 heads................."
Now, let's say this person is a doctor and that what he says is true (I do think this was written by a program). I wonder, are all measles cases now automatically admitted to the hospital to be quarantined? Everyone I grew up with had the measles and no one I knew was hospitalized for it. Are the few cases now forced to be hospitalized?
Also, a comment by "Ramona J. (Ramona_Jackson)":
"F&F. I suffered every type of measles medical science knows. No parent should ever want their child to have any of those diseases. German measles was the worst."
Every type of measles? How many are there? And German measles was the worst? German measles, rubella, is a mild 3 day illness. The danger of German measles is that it can cause birth defects if contracted during pregnancy, but this "person" says it was "the worst"? Really?
Reading through some of these comments I was just shaking my head. Bizarre.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/06/chilis-vaccination_n_5101026.html
Posted by: Linda | April 06, 2014 at 11:01 PM
The bots may be able to make a good showing online, but the way to show Chili's what happened and what people really think, is to follow through with Chili's good idea of donating to the NAA on April 7th anyway. It's better this way. Chili's should not be rewarded for serving GM food.
I hope that after tomorrow the NAA can publicly thank Chili's for inspiring the public to donate on April 7th.
And if it's too short notice to get enough people on board for tomorrow, then make the second week of April the donate to the National Autism Association. It could go on all next week.
Posted by: Linda | April 06, 2014 at 10:23 PM
So, from this day forward, every April 7th, everyone donate directly to the National Autism Association, and this year, in addition, send a little note to Chili's informing them of your donation. Make April 7th Donate to the National Autism Association Day to help families cope with autism.
Posted by: Linda | April 06, 2014 at 10:05 PM
People can give directly to NAA at:
http://nationalautismassociation.org/get-involved/ways-to-give/
Forget Chili's! (or the other F word)
Posted by: Twyla | April 06, 2014 at 09:43 PM
Thank you Jonathan Rose. I just went shopping at B&N. Chili's makes me sick--what's wrong with those people?
Posted by: Catherine Schleimer | April 06, 2014 at 09:21 PM
Any estimates of how many children with autism have drowned over the last 20 years?
Posted by: Not surprised. | April 06, 2014 at 08:01 PM
Shelly - I can't say I'm surprised. These bots have infiltrated everywhere. Let Chili's know what you think of their decision to cancel. We need a lot more quick, hard hitting propaganda to counteract them. Memes, maybe a wondering body count would be good.
Posted by: Not surprised. | April 06, 2014 at 07:12 PM
Evil, evil is all I can say. They all sound like mini-me copies of Lilady. For that they should all be embarrassed.
If I had the energy I'd start a body count page with their names on it....to count the children who wander and drown. A sad, sad day.
Posted by: Shelly | April 06, 2014 at 06:32 PM
The Monday "Give Back Night" has been cancelled at Chillis,
due to the PRO-Vaccine groups who cannot figure out something 100 times more common than Polio.
http://blog.chilis.com/posts/update-on-the-april-7-give-back-night/
I would suppose donations can be sent to Autism Speaks.
Posted by: cmo | April 06, 2014 at 06:03 PM
Apropos of this, I forward this related message from Kim Mack Rosenberg: "National Autism Assoc. NY Metro was given a great opportunity by Barnes & Noble to fundraise. Online purchases at http://www.BN.com/bookfairs using the code 11343365 between today and April 7 will result in a generous donation to NAA NYM from B&N."
Posted by: Jonathan Rose | April 06, 2014 at 03:27 PM