Have you checked out 5 Minutes for Going Green yet? When I’m not spending my time here posting pictures and waxing poetic, I’m wrangling fabulous a bunch green writers, and am continuously amazed at the great articles they come up with day after day. Just in the last couple weeks we’ve had:
It’s that time of year again, when the Bloggy Giveaways are flying fast and furious. I can’t resist taking part and joining in the fun. And with the launch of my baby, 5 Minutes for Going Green, I figured how better to celebrate than to giveaway some of my favorite reusable bags?
Get Hip Get Green has some of my favorite reusables, because their sleek and boxy design means they are light weight and hold a ton. They have a few different designs, and I’m giving away a set of FIVE in the design of your choice. Cool, eh?
All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me which post from 5 Minutes for Going Green was your favorite in the last week. You can earn an extra entry by twittering or posting about this giveaway, just leave an additional comment with a link to your tweet/post (also send me a tweet at @ToThink to let me know you did!). The deadline is midnight on Friday August 1st. Winner will be picked at random. Good luck! And be sure to check out the plethora of other giveaways going on this week!
If you thought I was a busy bee before, hang on to your hat. It’s getting a whole lot busier, and a whole lot greener up in herrr.
I am the Managing Editor of the shiny and new site called 5 Minutes for Going Green. It’s a new sister site of 5 Minutes for Mom, and I’m over the moon about this new baby of ours. We have a team of amazing writers on deck to bring you stories, tips, hilarity and more. I know you will absolutely LOVE it, and we need your help in spreading the word! So come on over, add us to your reader, post about it, tweet about it, tell your friends go crazy!
And while you’re at it, don’t stop there. Check out the other fabulous sister sites that were also born today. It’s a whole family of hip and smart women, that I know you will adore.
Big hug and smooches to Janice and Susan from 5 Minutes for Mom for bringing me on board and making all our dreams a reality!
We were surrounded by parents and relatives who I was not only honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with, but was humbled to hear their personal stories as well. Stories of grief, loss, perseverance and hope. Stories of how vaccines had injured, or in some cases killed, their precious children. On Wednesday, 8,500 people (and the thousands they represent) had their voices heard.
As we approached the place where all the marchers were gathering, at the magnificent Washington Monument, I couldn’t help but feel a plethora of emotions welling up within me. We could see people far away walking in the same direction we were heading, wearing the same green shirts. Ahead we could see the groundswell of the crowd gathering, lining up and growing larger by the second. Couples (like us), grandparents, even entire families had traveled so far to be there on that day. Traveled to make a statement, to stand shoulder to shoulder, to turn the tide of what is happening with vaccines today in America and create change.
Before long we started walking the walk. Slowly but surely, we headed down Independence Ave., proudly holding up our signs and pictures as we walked by each intersection and the hundreds of cars who had to stop and wait for our entire parade to pass by. Most stared, some honked. No one heckled or booed. How could they? The signs spoke for themselves.
We were energized but solemn. Each and every one of us would have given anything to not be there. To not ever have heard of autism or vaccine injury. To not had our children disabled. To have never needed a rally to get the government to pay attention to the epidemic they are enabling.
But we were, and we have, and they are, and we did.
And as our pace slowed down a bit while we passed the Health and Human Services building (parents of the CDC), we raised our voices a little bit louder and wondered if they were watching the mass of people below them from their cushy office chairs above. Were they wondering what we were doing and saying? Did they notice the faces of the people they are continuing to ignore? People who are “weak” and have no purpose except to fulfill their “unfit” destiny in this “survival of the fittest” mentality? I doubt they could be bothered. But I hope they were. I hope they were very bothered, indeed.
Finally as the entire group made it’s way to the mall area of the Capital, we were handed water and gathered around a small stage that had been set up across from a large platform full of the press corp. Cameras galore, we started to get excited thinking that this rally was actually going to get the coverage it deserved. Most of us realized that with the Obama/Clinton situation going on that it would be hard to be seen, but we remained optimistic.
First Dr Jay Gordon spoke (famous pediatrician, and doctor to Jenny McCarthy’s son Evan), and talked about how proud he was of all of us, and pointed out the thousands that would never be able to be at a rally like this, due to the extensive amounts of money they have to pay for their child’s treatment and thus lack of any funds to travel. Next Dr Boyd Haley (I might be out of order with a few of these guys, so my apologies if that’s the case), renowned scientist and expert on mercury, came up to the podium and reminded us all that science is on our side but no one will read it. He reprimanded the press for their continued refusal to cover the story in an objective way (i.e., nothing but regurgitating flawed CDC information). I’m told that many videos from the rally ended when Dr Haley said “you members of the press are a big part of the problem”, even though the rally went on another hour. Apparently the mainstream press don’t like to be called on their shizzle.
After Dr Haley was Dr Jerry Kartzinel, the doctor that has treated Evan and countless others, and recovered them from autism. He said that he himself injected his son with MMR and watched him slowly slip away in the days and weeks following. He said that his wife told him, “You broke him, now you fix him!”, and he is.
Next we heard RFK Jr speak intelligently and passionately, and I have to say he was one of the most inspiring and compelling speakers I’ve ever heard. Here’s an excerpt of what he had to say:
Next came Jim Carrey who was my favorite of the day. He had so many incredible things to share, I wish I could just type out every word here. Suffice to say I totally love the guy. Here’s a clip:
And finally Jenny spoke. She has a very charismatic and down to Earth way about her, that we love from seeing her speak (and meeting her in person) at the Autism One conference. She had awesome stuff to say (and I will share more clips later) but the most moving part of her speech was actually when she was not talking at all. She had each of us hold up a picture of our affected children (some people held up pictures for families that could not be there) and asked us to hold them all facing the press while she played a song. It was by far the most difficult part of the rally to get through, and I had a hard time comprehending every one of those pictures. Thankfully my husband got it on video:
I’m not sure if you can feel the energy in that video, but I know it does not do that moment justice. You can’t see the thousands of people or most of the pictures because we were way on the side in the back, but you can get an idea of what happened. It was life changing. Truly.
After that the rally ended, and we all dispersed. Hugs, exchanging information, taking a few last pictures. Some people went to a meet and greet with Jenny and Jim, others met with people from their State and went to meetings with the legislators to talk about the most pressing issues in vaccines, research and laws.
I have more to tell you, specifically the AFTERMATH, which not only includes abysmal and biased press coverage, but torrential rain and tornados (apparently I took one with me in my pocket when I left the Midwest).
So for now, enjoy the videos and feel free to ask any questions. Also, if you come across any news coverage, I’m happy to post them here, so email them to me or leave the link in the comments. I won’t link anything that pretends to be about the rally but is actually about how TOTALLY AWESOME AND SAFE vaccines are. Good luck finding something like that.
Thanks so very very much to my readers, my friends, my twitter followers and my family (for taming the wild beasts back home so we could do this). You all supporting us and cheering us on is what kept us going that day and every day. I adore you and love you and would totally spoon you if you were here. Peace.
**Here’s a link to press pics of the event. Great shots of the speakers.
While I work on adjusting to re-entry into our house-o-crazies, and pour through the pictures and video we captured, hopefully your appetite be satiated with a little slide show. This was made by Wendy Fournier, President of the National Autism Association.
I will tell you all more about it very soon. Because let’s be honest, you won’t get the real story through the press (even though there were tons there). The drug companies don’t pay me or advertise on my tv network newspaper magazine blog, so I will be back soon to tell you what REALLY happened.
So tomorrow we are on our way. My hubs and I will head to the airport ALONE to fly to Washington D.C., with only CARRY ON BAGS. You parents know what a big deal that is. The one bag we will have that we don’t normally have is my artist portfolio, which will contain our two large foam board signs with the carefully picked words we (and by we I mean my sister) painted on. On the reverse side we are gluing pictures of our boys with autism, and we will carry these signs the whole 1.5mile march. I wrote about the rally and it’s purpose over at Chicago Moms Blog here today.
It’s a big deal for us to leave the kids overnight, the routines and schedules and all the rest are very difficult for anyone else to take over, if even for one day.
But we had to go.
This rally will be the day when parents are given a voice. And with that voice we will stand up for so many children who don’t have a voice. For the kids who are injured and who slipped away from this world literally and figuratively. For the future children who are on a path to be harmed. We march for us, for them, and for us all.
In my previous post where I showed you the pic of me with Jenny McCarthy I mentioned that she and I had a moment to talk about this rally. I told her that as a parent, she was a huge inspiration to me. She travels around and around to venue after venue, tv show to tv show talking about this issue. The issue of vaccine safety. She’s not working, not acting, just spreading the word. She sincerely and genuinely cares deeply about this issue, just like so many of us at home that would never get the ear of Larry King or Oprah. Naysayers like to continually bring up her sordid past, but I fail to see its relevance. If my current opinion and intelligence were to be based on choices I made when I was younger I would be in big trouble, as I’m sure would many of you, my dear readers.
I also told Jenny that this rally will be a turning point in the cause of vaccine awareness. Not that she needed the affirmation, but she agreed and told me that it will literally be a historic rally. The huge thousands of people that are coming will be making a statement. We’ll be telling the government that they need to stop and listen, telling them to look out, because now we’re organized. We’ll be putting them on notice that a flood is coming. The dam is breaking.
And we won’t keep quiet any more.
Look for us on the news. Tell your friends to look for us on the news (entice them by telling them they’ll see Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey). Blog about what you see and hear and feel.
And if you’re in the D.C. area come join us in making history, one step at a time.
**Come back tomorrow for a special guest post that will keep you entertained (and most likely wiping away tears) while I’m away.
Lotus over at Sarcastic Mom sent out a challenge recently, for everyone to take time to pick up trash around their neighborhood and look at changes we can make in our own habits and households to help keep nature beautiful. This would not normally be too big of a challenge, but with the sub-zero temps we’ve been having I decided to let nature fend for itself this week. Since I can’t sacrifice my nose or toes to pick up trash at the moment (but in a few weeks–litter, you better be scurrred), I decided to still participate in the challenge and post about what we as a family are doing to make every decision count.
We haven’t always cared about recycling or living green, and honestly we sort of thought it was a lost cause. Why bother? We’ve also been really anti-Hollywood since leaving Los Angeles, so the whole green celebrity trend did not help matters. Slowly I started feeling convicted…am I participating in squandering this beautiful gift (our planet) that God gave us by not going out of my way to make it better? We’re stewards over our money, our children, our bodies…and as I now believe, the Earth. While finances prohibit us from getting crazy about things (no hybrid GMC’s in my future), and we’re still on the fence about this whole “humans are boiling the Earth” stuff, there’s not really anyone who could deny that taking care of our planet while we’re on it is spiritually and humanly important.
So, what can we do? We’ve been card carrying members of natural health for quite some time, so getting the rest of the chemicals out of our bodies was an easy place to start. We buy organically when possible, we are building up our collection of reusable grocery bags (great post about them here, and reviewed at Mama Speaks here and here), and are working harder and harder to get the chemically processed foods out of our diets. Picky eaters make this tricky…not gonna lie. But it’s important to us to support those companies that contribute these types of foods (including local farmers, I can’t wait for the summer veggie co-op) so that they can become more widely available and cheaper. Also because red food dye makes my kids wild beasts, and that evil stuff is in everything!
We have also gotten almost ALL harsh chemicals out of our home (the last man standing right now is the toilet cleaner!), which is really no small feat when you still want the products to clean the gunk really well. Purchasing online is the way to go when you live outside the city (i.e. next door to farm mecca) and it’s too dang cold to go shopping anyway. We buy our cleaning products from Good Earth and Method, and when you plan ahead to purchase enough to last you a while your shipping is usually free. Once again, the benefits are not only that our house is free of these toxic things, but we’re supporting companies who are doing the same. And that matters.
Recycling is something we’re getting better at, but are still very green (badump bump) about. We’re experts on separating the cardboard (we’ve got it good, our recycle pick-up takes everything, and doesn’t make us break anything down!), but the plastics, etc. are a whole other animal. I’m hoping as soon as the weather isn’t trying to kill us that we’ll be setting up our own recycling station in the garage. I can’t wait for that, actually! We’ve begun purchasing mostly recycled paper products for those paper items we do use, and are working to get rid of the plastic water bottles (hello Nalgene, you saucy minx). If we can support companies who reuse and reduce waste by purchasing their recycled products, then we feel better about those disposable things we have to consume (I won’t be giving up paper towels any time soon).
Lastly–the baby area! We use only natural skin care on the kids (actually on our skin as well), and it’s almost all from Arbonne. We also use Seventh Generation diapers and wipes, purchased for less from Diapers.com. I can’t get myself to do even MORE laundry than my boys already create, so cloth diapers are not an option right now. Seventh Gen makes diapers from recycled materials, so at least we are helping in the re-use department. We also like the fact that the diapers are not bleached–another place chemicals are introduced to our little ones’ booties and bodies.
Writing it all out makes me feel better about the direction we’re headed, and seriously folks…if we can do this, anyone can.
I wanted to participate in this challenge to spread the word that even normal every day people can make small changes to clean up this planet we’re on, without turning the environmental issues into a pseudo-religion. You don’t have to have money to recycle, and often times buying recycled products would simply re-allocate funds that you were already sending in a different direction. Give it some thought, think about the planet as a gift, and join us in keeping it beautiful!
Peace.
For a great list of links to get you started taking your first bite out of this elephant, read Mama Speaks’ list here, or peruse our awesome Eco-friendly category in all its glory right here.
