This past year we have been fighting a big battle here in California. We were fighting to restore some of the services funding we’ve lost over the preceding years. We were trying to get a 10% increase in services funding, which wouldn’t make up for what we’ve lost over the years, but would be a big step forward.
This was a long fight, and one that we didn’t initially win. Even though we fought hard from the start, the budget did not include any increase for disability services. We could have used some help, more voices from the advocacy community. Even though we lost at first, advocates kept trying and finally got a 7.5% increase. And that’s a victory. The Arc of California/United Cerebral Palsy were working hard organizing the effort, organizing call in campaigns, fax campaigns and in-person activism in the state capital. Other groups, such as the Autistic Self Advocacy Network were also helping, as were others.
But here’s the thing: you wouldn’t know any of that if you were only following the vaccines-cause-autism focused groups and people.Carey goes on to name names.
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Yes, instead of doing anything, anything at all, to work towards restoring lost services funding, they were lobbying against a vaccine bill. Not “lobbying against a vaccine bill and working for a restoration of services.” Just lobbying against a vaccine bill.
A number of posts on this blog have discussed the antivax effort in California.
