A Walk Across the Country
November 11, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
On May 13th, two men from Worcester (Massachusetts) started walking across the US in memory of Elias Tembenis, who was autistic and passed away last year at the age of 7, and on behalf of the National Autism Association (NAA). The two men completed the walk last week on Election Day.
Reading about this, I get this image in my mind of Jim and Charlie someday undertaking a similar walk, or maybe going for their longest bike ride ever………..
I was happy at first to see that the money raised through this walk will help families pay for treatment. A closer look at the article about Elias Tembenis and at the NAA website made me apprehensive about how the donations will be spent. It seems the focus is as much, if not more, on questionable treatments like chelation as on intervention like speech therapy and ABA.
the Tembenis family’s story is told in Jenny McCarthy’s “Mother Warriors” – a very bad sign. Unfortunately, they link their son’s autism and seizures to “a severe vaccine reaction”.
I knew the name was familiar, and when I clicked the link, I realized where it was from.
I know Jim and Charlie will be biking for a different type of awareness.
Lately I have started to think, what autism fundraising is there that isn’t for “research” in certain areas, with certain goals—-fundraises like walks, rides, etc. all seem to contribute to such.
While on a walk later in the evening with Charlie, I started to get into (a highly speculative) planning mode for how Jim and Charlie could manage a cross-country bike ride—–maybe a bike ride through NJ first. They can go 12+ miles easily through a couple of towns, and more than a few people are still surprised o see Charlie pedaling off on his bike.
Yes, it would be a very different kind of “awareness.”
Alex’s Autistic Celebration Run, tip to tip run across PEI, was an awareness and fundraising venture *NOT* aimed at research. He runs *FOR* autism, not against it.
Jim and I have started talking about a “bike across New Jersey” trip this summer with Charlie…..
If you read the press release it says,in part:
“Elias suffered a severe vaccine reaction at the age of four months,and was later diagnosed with a seizure disorder and autism.”
One might conclude they are equating vaccines with autism,which is exactly what the National Autism Association promotes.See here for example:
http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/thimerosal.php
I would assume they spread the “anti-vaccine gospel” at every stop along the way.