EDITOR'S COMMENT:

I've been waiting for months to send out this post; waiting for just the right time and introduction. Here's the background story:

Maria Grace is a good friend of mine. She lives in Sedona a few blocks away from me. She's a German-born woman living in America; a wife and mother; has a Master's Degree in cultural anthropology; has worked as a teacher, real estate agent, time share salesperson, gallery director, management assistant, office manager, deli girl; she's a Jack-of-all-trades. But slumbering beneath all the hats she wears and has worn, is a world class poet. In an effort to help jumpstart her longing to make poetry a more central part of her life, I encouraged her to start a blog and asked her to write a poem about her sad experience with vaccinating her daughter. She did both and now it's my turn to point you in the direction of her blog:

http://mariakgrace.blogspot.com/

And share her stirring vaccination poem with you.

But before I do that, I want to add one more important piece to the puzzle.

If you've been an NHNE reader for any length of time, you know I/we keep a close eye on vaccination news <http://www.nhne.org/tabid/445/Default.aspx>. On the one side, there are drug companies and mainstream health officials who claim that a growing number of childhood vaccinations (22 now and counting!) are safe "for most children". Yes, there is "a small percentage" of children who may suffer serious, sometimes life-threatening side effects. But these risks are acceptable considering the good that comes from safeguarding large numbers of children (and their families) from serious childhood illnesses.

On the other side, you have both conventional and alternative-minded parents and health officials who believe that injecting toxic substances into the bodies of children, especially toxic substances like thimerosal, is grievously misguided. And for a growing number of these people, this is not an academic issue. They have children whom they believe were profoundly harmed by being vaccinated.

Until recently, the battle between these two sides has been very lop-sided: drug companies and mainstream health officials easily dismissed and marginalized parents and health officials who questioned the wisdom of toxic vaccinations. But the tide appears to be turning. For the first time that I am aware of a mainstream television program has not only tackled the subject of toxic vaccinations, but has taken the side of parents who have claimed, for decades, that vaccinations not only harmed their children, but that these vaccinations were aggressively promoted by drug companies who knew they were dangerous.

The program I am referring to is ABC's pilot for "Eli Stone". You can watch it here:

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing

I encourage all of you to watch the program, read Maria's poem, and, after you've caught your breath, swing by and check out some of Maria's other fantastic poems:

http://mariakgrace.blogspot.com/

--- David Sunfellow

---------------

VACCINATION DAY
By Maria K. Grace
Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Original Link

One evening I sat in my garden with a glass of wine reviewing my life. I wondered what my greatest pain slash regret was. I let my mind wander, expecting it to settle on the day when my fiancé told me he had found someone else (on the phone for crying out loud!) and my heart splintered in thousand pieces; I thought my mind might settle on the unspeakable things that happened when I was a little girl and learned the handy skill of leaving my body. But it didn’t. Like it did not have a doubt, my mind came to rest on the day when my little daughter had another vaccine and was changed forever.

............

You are two years old,
and our white kitchen walls are filled
with your color drawings.
You can be happy for hours
with your big markers and pencils.
Red, yellow, and blue balloons
in geometric constellations
striving towards the sky.
You draw everything flying,
like birds and kites.

On a bright September day
we take the subway to see Dr. Osang.
There is a gentle breeze
as I push the stroller towards his office.
Your brown ringlets bounce gently
And I notice how small your feet are.
You have another vaccine for
Poliomyelitis,
Diphteria,
Tetanus,
and Pertussis.
Names like beautiful orchids
growing in foreign lands.

The next morning you go to
the kitchen table to draw
just like any other day.
You sit on your knees on the bench
in knitted garments of purple and green
and pick up a marker.
I put a load of whites in the washing machine.
And you pause.
I turn the knob to hot.
I get a cup from the shelf.
Your face says: I don’t understand.
I pour myself a cup of coffee.
Your face says: I don’t know this anymore.
There is an empty sound in my stomach.
You sit for a long time
holding the green marker.
The washing machine says swoosh, swoosh,
as it turns your little shirts and underwear.
A cold flash of fear crawls into my spine.
Then you give up and walk away.
I watch you go.
I slowly slide down onto the floor feeling
the vibration of the washing machine
in my back.
I hold my cup with both hands
and sit for a long time.
After that day there are no more balloons.
No more birds, kites,
or anything flying.

...........

NHNE Vaccinations Resource Page