The George Orwell Award, Goes to....

Blog Announces New Award Program

Future recipients of this award will distinguish themselves by their Orwellian policies, as forecast in George Orwell’s classic political horror novel, 1984.  They will either be acting like Big Brother, imposing undue control and monitoring of the citizenry, denying real food to the people, setting up Ministries that do the exact opposite of what their name implies.

Or, they will be Big Brother wanna bes, attempting to thwart freedoms and impinge on civil rights by advancing totalitarian programs with misinformation campaigns, back room lobbying or monopolizing free markets and keeping small businesses out of their industry?  I eagerly solicit from our readers, your nominees for this dishonor.

This dubious distinction is earned today, by the State of New York.

For the last three years, concerned parents have been trying to get a bill through the state legislature, to allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccines that they do not believe are in the best interest of their children’s health.  Currently, one of the only options is to declare a religious objection to such vaccines.

The State of New York has thwarted parental civil rights, by a “Sincerity Test.”  State entities are grilling the claimants of the religious exemption in lengthy interviews, to expose their insincerity and deny their claim.  Most parents undergoing this scrutiny are indeed denied their claim to forgo vaccinating their child.

To my knowledge, no major world religion has as an article of faith, Thou Shalt Not Vaccinate.  But implicit in such creeds is the concept of family rule, that is, that the parents are to guide and train their child, nurture and provide for the child and make authoritative decisions for the child until such time as they are ready to do so for themselves.

Hartke Is Online would submit the following evidence of Orwellian behavior in order to justify our award to New York State and its public education system, health system, and any other entities involved in this overreaching intrusion.  This is a video of an attorney interviewing parents regarding their religious exemption claim.

You Tube Video--A Must See!

Letter from an advocate for legislation to end this abuse of Power:

The Religious Exemption Bill # A.883 needs immediate attention.

Here is what you need to do:

• If you are an organization, you must send a "Memo in Support" TODAY or as soon as humanly possible.  AND reach out to your members to do the "If you are an individual (below)."

• If you are an organization that is NATIONAL, then write a memo and urge your NY affiliate, if you have one, to write a memo, or put both your names on it.  In fact, a memo can have more than one organization's name on it, if that is helpful to save time (but may be more work).

• If you are an out-of-state organization with national readers (like PROVE), urge your NEW YORK STATE MEMBERS OR READERS to follow instructions for "individual."  There is no reason to have people from out of state write, unless the person is a leader of a national organization or a well-known organization.

• If you are an MD, do all.  IF YOU ARE AN M.D. WITH a professional affiliation that would support either or both bills, get those memos done from your organization if possible, otherwise, from yourself.

The memos must be sent to our office: (Richard N. Gottfried, Chair, NYS Assembly Committee on Health), gottfrr@assembly.state.ny.us; the Assembly Majority Leader, Ron Canestrari, canestr@assembly.state.ny.us ; the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver speaker@assembly.state.ny.us ; and to your representative, who you can find at http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/ or http://takeaction.lwv.org/lwv/dbq/officials/

People who do not have email can send the letters addressed to the legislator, at Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12248.

If you are an individual:
You must write to your representative asking for his/her support and vote for the bill when it comes to the floor of the Assembly.  Write why you think the bill is important, including if you have had to undergo extensive and intrusive questioning about your religious beliefs, or other relevant experience or information.  It is best to keep in mind this bill's goals.  You must also write to Richard N. Gottfried, Chair, NYS Assembly Committee on Health, gottfrr@assembly.state.ny.us; the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver speaker@assembly.state.ny.us or you can make them a "cc."  You can find your representative at http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/ or http://takeaction.lwv.org/lwv/dbq/officials/

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