PUTNEY — They are the same.
In my opinion, today's pharmaceutical industry is behaving much like its kissing cousins, the petrochemical industry, and the pesticide industry.
All three of them - Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Agra - write the same narrative. Born of the “miracles” of science, they are technologies originated through need, transforming our lives for better and for worse, and advancing at a rate dangerously ahead of our human/earth biology.
These industries are booming, creating such riches that the drive to build up, out, and over - despite the long-term consequences - eventually eclipses their original motivation: to improve and ease our lives.
They are the same. All three wreak havoc on our health and planet.
What is not the same is the general public's acceptance of this storyline for Big Pharma, particularly for one of its all-star pupils: the modern vaccine.
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While with Big Oil we seem to have reached a tipping point of public opinion (and science) as to the dangers there, and while GMOs are accepted as questionable by the mainstream, not many wish to reflect upon the shadow side of vaccinations. People want to believe in a magic pill, at no real cost. But it simply is not for sale.
Diabetes, cancer, ADHD, Alzheimer's, autism, Crohn's...the rise of these diseases in our country, in the last 30 years or so, is off the charts. We are indeed in a health crisis, one deeply rooted in our increasingly toxic environment and all that we bring into our bodies, as poison, disrupting the magic we hold.
We've ingested air and water pollutants, highly processed, chemical “food,” antibiotics and antidepressants for everything, and insecticides. Our Food and Drug Administration's food pyramid has been upside down for 50 years.
People take one prescription drug to counteract the side effects of another. We over-stress and self-medicate. We are a nation of dis-ease and compromised immune systems.
And...we can reverse this. It might take generations of consciousness, commitment and massive lifestyle change but, we can turn things around and regain much power.
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But recent news from the Statehouse is doing little to shape or encourage such a shift.
Infants and young children are routinely injected with bits of diseases, neurotoxins, and carcinogens well before they have a chance to build up immunities on their own, as is basic to good health.
Upon hearing that both the Vermont Senate and the House have voted to repeal our state's philosophical exemption status for vaccinations for those wishing to attend public school - and that our governor has said he will not veto this - I felt myself profoundly injured. My sadness and concern overflowed.
To me, what stings most is the deep wound to our civil liberties. The complexities of the vaccine debate lie within.
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The day previous, I had been driven to voice my opinions on these highly controversial issues. On Facebook.
It was no picnic. Not only had I expressed my opinion, I had provoked strong emotion and incited argument.
It would have been much easier on myself, and others, had I just posted a picture of a fluffy little kitten batting a dandelion, but I couldn't not go down this long, dark alley, even while holding a burning torch.
I see Facebook as a tool of great potential, on many levels, not just the mundane and lighthearted. For days, I had been writing letters to my state representatives, state senators, and governor. I was ripe for another venue.
I was hoping to build something on social media, some kind of bridge, yet what was built was mostly internal. Emotions flared, and research articles abounded. In the end, I felt myself to be only a few paces from where we began, and my opponent had first declared the debate pointless. A closed book.
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Over and over, it is said that to not vaccinate is selfish and unfair, that it is to be ignorant of the facts and does not contribute to the greatest good. As if the answer to what is in public health's greatest good or the science on this debate is clear.
I was told that if I really care about community, I should simply follow along with majority rule, because in this case it is right!
Despite the fact that vaccine rates continues to rise in Vermont, they might soon be mandated because the general public believes the risks of not vaccinating greatly outweigh the risks involved in doing so. Period.
Opting out is seen as a privileged few riding upon the back of “herd immunity,” while putting others - especially those with compromised immune systems - at risk. Curiously, the especially immune-compromised infants and small children who follow the “less risky” protocol of vaccinations will most likely end up as bad vaccine statistics. (Is this not like trading apples for apples?)
Over and over, it is said that because of unvaccinated children, diseases are reemerging. This is a straw-man argument.
Disease is a constant threat. We will never outrun it; we walk a tightrope. Sometimes we believe we can gain a finer balance, or advantage, by pulling the rope even tighter, but in the end, too much pulling only causes it to fray. Diseases will continue to morph and strive and seek and prey and evolve, just as we do.
Despite all that vaccinations have done in the face of epidemics past, and all they promise for the future, many, myself included, believe that to mandate an increasingly aggressive vaccination schedule might be more a part of our health problems than it is a solution.
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At this point in our evolving consciousness and because of the earthly, spiritual, and bodily damage we are witnessing brought on by Big Oil and Big Agra, we view vaccines, and Big Pharma, in the same light - a light heavy with shadowy consequence.
What I, and many others who oppose these mandates, wish for, now more than ever, is to be given a chance to build upon the long view, the Big Picture, that which holds to all that is in harmony, sustainable, balanced.
In my book, I see assurance of a government order based, in part, on biased research, which puts limits on our personal freedoms and our ability to question the status quo while discouraging a deepening of our Earth connection - all things we need more, not less, of. All this spells is B-A-D M-E-D-I-C-I-N-E.
Let us be brave, people! Let us look deeper! At the very least, let us allow ourselves to keep the stage open so we may further debate and examine.
May we, as a majority, be in service of the greatest good by questioning systems and protocol that purport to advance and improve, while simultaneously decimating our brilliant Earth and our bodies - our Home.
Now is the time for more unbiased research and information, more accountability and transparency, within all three mega industries. The books must be open and read, together.
Now is the time to draw upon our past experiences and move toward more sustainable practices.
To draw the curtain on these discussions is to deny our potential.