AN INSPIRATION—ON ANY DAY

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”  — Martin Luther King, Jr.

TO THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW MY WORK, it’s common knowledge that I admire Martin Luther King, Jr. immensely. He was front-and-center in my documentary on race relations called THE WAR WITHIN and was the driving force behind my comparative analysis of the Civil Rights movement and the Health Freedom movement in my 1993 film LET TRUTH BE THE BIAS, which was narrated by James Earl Jones. In 2005 he was featured again in my documentary WE BECOME SILENT, a film about "Free Trade," multinational corporations, and something called "Codex Alimentarius." That film, produced in mere months, was narrated by the internationally revered actress, Dame Judi Dench.

As it happens so often with artists, the title for WE BECOME SILENT came as an inspiration in the middle of the night. It was 3:00 a.m., I believe, and I was in the midst of 17-20 hour days. I was determined to produce an honest film about the dangers of Codex and the deleterious effects of “free trade.” As I began to doze deeper into my well-earned slumber, I heard Dr. King’s voice say, “Our lives begin to end the moment we become silent about things that matter.” 

Spaced out and disoriented, I sat straight up in bed. The words I heard the strongest were "we become silent," and a few hours later, well, after at least one cup of coffee, I discerned that these three words would make a great title for the film. After all, they had been whispered to me in the middle of the night by the most powerful speaker in American history, and "we become silent" seamlessly correlated to the scheming of governments, big business, bureaucrats and other dirty dealers who incessantly try to assert their will over the rest of us. Their collective goal, of course, is to eliminate medical freedom of choice and to keep the status quo in tact. Then — as now — they want us to simply shut up. 


With the FDA ‘walking point,’ they have tried mightily to achieve their monopolistic goals through regulations, by banning health books from health food stores, through ridiculous undercover sting operations, the falsification of scientific research, and worst of all, through guns-draw raids at holistic clinics and even health food stores. 


This is not America.

So once again — in the middle of the night — Dr. King played a pivotal role in my professional and personal life. His moral clarity helped align my values and put the struggle for medical freedom of choice into perspective. Oh, and by the way, since people love the title WE BECOME SILENT, it is only fitting to give credit where credit is due.


I am reminded of something that occurred during a screening of LET TRUTH BE THE BIAS in 1994. There’s a scene in the documentary where hordes of armed policemen—with batons at the ready and with the strength of a football team pushing a blocking ‘sled’ — thrust dozens of African Americans backwards. Elderly men, women and children are forced to the ground—and are trampled in the ensuing melee. While this scene was playing out, I heard someone comment rather loudly, “Hey, this guy must be a liberal” — as if showing the struggle for basic human rights was somehow a liberal issue.

Today, we should all humbly acknowledge that there is much more work to do. 

As a humanistic writer, I have often been compelled to take the path less traveled — to follow my innate sense of right and wrong. As one who vividly recalls the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, I can attest that many of the ideals he put forth during his short time on this planet are indelibly branded into my heart and soul. 

We should all honor Dr. King for blazing a peaceful trail to positive change. We can learn from not only his courage in challenging injustices, but from his unyielding vision of fairness and equality. “Life's most persistent and urgent question,” said Dr. King, “is, 'What are you doing for others?'”

Amen, Reverend Dr. King. Amen. 


Your words are an inspiration — on any day.

ENEMY OF THE STATE

WHILE EDITING MY FILM LET TRUTH BE THE BIAS in 1994, I was surrounded by people who tried desperately — and unsuccessfully —to exert their will over the contents of my first-ever film about health freedom. I was inundated by the musings of extremists on every side of the issue, and one of the quotes that people kept mailing me was supposedly written by Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution.

The quote attributed to Rush was relatively unknown at the time, but has since become a rallying cry for those pursuing what I call “medical freedom of choice” in America. You can find it on hundreds of websites — but not in LET TRUTH BE THE BIAS.

"Unless we put Medical Freedom into the Constitution,” Rush is reported to have said, “the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship. . . restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a Republic.”

Rush was a Physician, writer, educator, and was also ‘the father of psychiatry’ in many ways. If it were true that he had spoken or written those words, it would have provided powerful fodder for my film. Imagine, one of the framers of the Constitution who had the foresight to include medical freedom alongside religious freedom!

So like any good journalist, I tried to verify the accuracy of the quote attributed to Rush. I looked in the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and finally, spoke with historian and author Alyn Brodsky, who had examined thousands of documents while researching his book "Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician." Brodsky assured me that he had seen nothing even remotely similar to the quote — and told me that it didn’t even sound like Rush, a man who was revered for using bloodletting, mercury and other elixirs as agents of “healing.” He researched it further, however, and months later concluded that the quote was not genuine.

Today, now more than ever, though, I wish Rush had spoken those words. And more importantly, I wish he had inserted those words into our Constitution or Bill of Rights.

For today, I'm commiserating the fact that a poor mother and her 13 year old son were forced to run away from home in Minnesota because the government was going to FORCE chemotherapy on the lad.

It's another sad day in the 'Home of the Free.'

We have allowed often corrupt and ill-educated people — from within corrupt and misguided entities like “Child Protection Services” to exert their will over free beings. . .over parents . . .and in truth, over us all. These are the same groups who decide to “protect” 50 percent of foster children by drugging them with mind-wasting anti-psychotic drugs, who often rip children from the arms of their loved ones, and who force their idealogy on millions of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

And now they’ve done so to Daniel Hauser.

Daniel, a 13-year old boy from Minnestota had the audacity to ‘say No to Chemo,’ for his Hodgkins. The “Child Protection” authorities forced his parents into court, where another clueless and spineless judge decided that Daniel must undergo chemotherapy to ‘save’ his life.

Today, now more than ever, I wish Rush had spoken those words.

His mother Colleen took off in the cool of a Minnesota night on Monday — and is now a fugitive from ‘justice.’ There is a nationwide manhunt for Daniel and his Mom, and the blogosphere is full of righteous people screaming “Child Abuse!” and “Throw the Parents in Jail!”

The Hauser's are now enemies of the state.

I love my country. But once more I am ashamed to live in a nation where we really believe that this is justice — that we have the RIGHT to make these decisions for others.

If Rush had written those words, this would not be relevant. Parents — and individuals — would be allowed to make their own personal health choices. Just as proponents of chemotherapy think alternative cures are quackery, I can guarantee you that proponents of alternative medicines — tens of millions of them — believe that chemo is quackery too.

But none of that matters now, evidently. A frightened 13 year old boy — and his equally frightened mother are on the lam, sent into hiding by the powerful forces of "child protection" services, big medicine — and their equally senseless judges. It is they who made the decision, not Colleen Hauser or Daniel. It is they who want to take a precious child away from his loving parents simply because he doesn’t want any more poison in his body.

You can disagree — or you can think the Hauser’s are crazy — but NO ONE should have the right to force medical treatment onto a 13-year-old boy — tied to a gurney like a criminal — against his will. THAT is a medical dictatorship.

Oh, how I wish Rush had spoken those words.