The Right Place at the Right Time

Greetings,

Have you ever been in the right place at the right time for an event that brought out the best in you?   Like helping with a car accident or coming across an event in which your talent was needed?

Thursday morning I traveled with the Phi Beta Lambda group from the college I'm attending to the capital building in Des Moines.  We were going to be meeting with a couple of lawmakers & then take a tour of the building including going all the way to the top to the top of dome.

When we were seated in the room to meet with the lawmakers I "checked in" via Facebook that I was at the capital building.  An activist friend contacted me via messenger that a bill written to give Iowa a philosophical exemption was going to have a hearing in about 20 min & if I could go up to the hearing.  I told her yes & I would find a way to leave for the hearing.

After our group picture, I asked our tour guide where the House Lounge was.   She told me it was upstairs & next to the house chamber.  I told her there was a bill hearing that I wanted to attend to & she said that our group leader would probably understand me not going on the tour.

I quickly ducked out of the room to head up to the lounge.  Fortunately, I found a staff member that was heading up to the same room.  There was a lot of people there & it was quite crowded for small area.  This hearing was quite different than the hearing I attended in Nebraska four years ago. 

In the lounge there was two tables within ten feet of each other.  At each table there was a hearing with subcommittee's going on.  At the table by the window, there was maybe a dozen people for that hearing.  At the table for the philosophical exemption, there was around 75 of us.  There were medical professionals, a rep from the Iowa Department of Health & other representatives from the professional community.  I was the only lay person & the only person there that was for this bill.

The lady from the Iowa Department of Health spoke first.  She talked about how immunization rates have dropped in Iowa leaving us vulnerable to disease outbreaks.  She couldn't answer specific questions from the law makers but just referred the lawmakers to the print out she brought with her.

The next person to speak was Dr. Nathan Boonstra.  He is a pediatrician with Blank Children's Hospital in the Des Moines metro.  He said that by offering a philosophical exemption there was a chance to lower herd immunity leaving kids that can't be immunized or those with cancer vulnerable to getting a disease from the unvaccinated.

I kept shaking my head & kept myself from laughing from some of the things he was saying.  One of the lawmakers, asked if the MMR could be broken down into separate shots as he was questioning the safety of the MMR vaccine.  Dr. Boonstra told him that the MMR vaccine was combined into a single shot years ago.  He went on to say that he has seen kids become sick & die from vaccine preventable disease.  I have to wonder how many kids became vaccine injured or died after receiving vaccines from this doctor.

The lawmaker running the meeting then asked who wanted to speak next, I raised my hand saying that I wanted to.  I introduced myself & where I was from.  I told them I was with Vaccine Free Health & Iowa for Health Freedom.

I started off by saying my position on the bill & why I was supporting it.  I told the lawmakers if they took away our religious exemption they were against the constitution.  I mentioned that there was unclean animals in vaccines per Lev. 11 & aborted fetal tissue.  I named off the names of aborted fetal tissue according to the CDC ingredient list.  I then mentioned how the CDC has covered up the  vaccine-autism link for years thanks to Dr. William Thompson coming forward to tell us about the fraud involving the CDC.

I told the group that my daughter had gotten chicken pox for a 3rd time thanks to someone who was shedding after getting a chicken pox vaccine.

I told them this bill must go forward & become law to make sure all parents have the option to say no.  I was recorded but I don't know by who.  The lady asked me if she could put down home maker & mom.   I told her no, I was an anti vaccine activist.  She gave me a disgusted look & moved on.

The lawmaker that was running the meeting then said for the sake of time is there anyone else that would like to speak about something that hasn't been mentioned yet.  A lady talked about the measles outbreak at Disney & that more of these outbreaks will happen because of unvaccinated.  (She seems to forget the measles outbreak came from overseas ).

The lady from the Iowa Department of Health then restated their position & that the bill must be blocked to prevent disease outbreaks.  She kept turning to me & giving me a dirty look.  I kept my laughter to myself.

The lawmaker that was running the meeting then said he had serious reservations about telling people what they had to inject into their body.  Two other lawmakers shared that view.  One woman lawmaker said that putting stuff into our body was likened to putting alcohol into our body & then going out & driving drunk.  We had to think about what was best for the community overall.  I thought this was a horrible analogy.  If I get into a car accident with a drunk driver part of my safety equipment is my seat belt & the shell of my car.  If I get toxins injected into me, the injection bypasses all of my bodys safety systems.

The lawmaker running the meeting then said he pushing this bill forward to full committee.  I said Thank you.  I was getting dagger looks from Dr. Boonstra, the lady from the Iowa Dept. of Health & the lady who brought up the measles outbreak at Disney.

After the hearing broke up, I walked over by Dr. Boonstra who was being interviewed by a reporter who I would later find out was from the associated press. He just regurgitated what he had said during the hearing.  I was then approached by a reporter from the Cedar Rapids Gazette.  He asked for the spelling of my name & then again for the organizations I represented.  He had me summarize my stance again, thanked me & walked off.

I then walked out of the room & out into the spacious halls of our beautiful capital building.  I saw people from the hearing grouping up & talking.  I stood for a few minutes observing the people trying to tell us we have to inject toxins into our bodies but not accepting the financial responsibility if we become vaccine injured.

The reporter who was talking to Dr. Boonstra approached me.  She said I know you have talked to many about your stance & I was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk to me.  She was totally new to the subject & I spent quite a bit of time educating her on the dangers of vaccines, how much has been spent on vaccine injuries, the hazard tax per the IRS code & how vaccine manufacturers are immune from lawsuits.

It was interesting to watch her facial expressions as I educated her for about 15 min.  My final statement in my talk with her was - Where there is risk, there must be choice.  It showed on her face that the statement registered with her.

Almost 30 years of studying of vaccines led up to this day.  I had 15 minutes of prep time.  I didn't have my usual print offs to hand out to the representatives nor did have a speech written up or rehearsed.  Now that this bill has moved on to full committee, there is another hearing coming up.  I'm going to assemble my hand outs to educate the committee & our new governor Kim Reynolds so that they have the info before the next hearing & before they decide to either further this bill to the floor for debate or to kill it.

Until next time,

Lori