Committee chairman Rep. Brad Barrett says he knows what's in VAERS and is watching it, but says no bills on the Covid-19 vaccines have been referred to his committee
Margaret, I am ashamed that I didn’t go. But I won’t sit here and whine about why.
My state rep told me months ago that they don’t care about Covid. They could care less how the jab hurt people. They are too busy decriminalizing abortion, and selling it as a ‘near-total abortion ban’.
There are groups in Indiana, we met them at the Statehouse in 2021. They are still active, but meet elsewhere in Indiana. We live in Downtown Indy. Please contact me, I may be of assistance if you go to the Statehouse again. I have a video camera.
Unbelievable! the minions just keep their heads down because they don't want to be the first to stand up and criticise the 'Narrative'. I must admit I haven't gone out of my way to find Government and local officials with responsibilities, but I'll start to find those running our lives badly!
I have written to various Health authorities and my local Doctor's practice asking what ever happened to "Do No Harm" 'and Informed Consent'. But no response - as anticipated.
My local Member of Parliament (Huw Merriman aka = a Chocolate teapot) is a typical politician. He's warned me that my suggestions (Vax dangers, hidden or manipulated Pfizer safety stats, the distorted stats on Covid related Deaths,) are all nonsense. He then blocked all attempts to email him any/all proof.
On the contrary, Andrew Bridgen (MP) has tried to bring the truth to the public attention, in spite of vehement avoidance tactics used by MSM to hide such 'nonsense'. BBC are the worst culprits!
Sorry to hear of your problematic experience with the public. Motivating them is always difficult. I'm particularly annoyed with the inactive public because I'm disabled (not from the shots, mind) and cannot go out. I used to try to hound my local politician at the very least when I still had my free movement.
That said, I do not recall a Substack article by yourself notifying in advance of the Indiana legislature's meet n greet. A great many people do not know how to find information, and what might be very easy for us online researchers to find, other people don't even know where to start looking.
You use what's known as a 'call to action' article. Many activist style reporting movements (Project Veritas, Rebel News) employ it. Usually theirs is to ask for money to help in specific legal fights, but they do also sometimes encourage contacting politicians or attending events, and they will notify in advance of those events.
It may also be advisable to find a 'support friend' who lives very near to you. Support friends are people who don't really know anything about the subject matter, but they're there to cheerlead you on and keep you company ('I don't know what you're doing but I fully support you in it!'), and can act as a counterweight to the pressures of being the 'only person in the room'. In-fact, there's no limit to how many you ought to bring, and a sizeable number will make the politicians think your position has support.
Remember one thing though: the lobbyists are *paid* to be there and don't have a passion for what they're doing (IE they won't have gone the extra mile and will know far less on the subject matter), you have a passion and your knowledge will easily outshine any lobbyist or paid 'expert'.
To paraphrase a saying: drag them outside and beat them with experience.
I don't disagree. But I'm focused on journalism. So can't really wear two hats. Wouldn't be ethical for me to rally people to come, and then report on big crowd at hearing. But I'm happy to preview hearings and bills as I'm able. I wish I'd done this. There will be many more hearings. There is a vax passport bill that was heard this morning, and hearing will be continued next week. Will be writing about it. Thanks.
I had an after-thought and I regret not raising this before.
"But I'm focused on journalism. So can't really wear two hats"
Au contrare my friend. Your article becries the absence of people helping to defend against the vaccine tyranny, you are naturally inclining yourself down the activism path, and are effectively wearing both hats. There is nothing wrong with this.
In terms of journalism, you have a choice to make:
1) Neutral journalism where you're "indifferent" to people abandoning their posts allowing the proverbial city to burn (whilst you burn down with it); at which point you don't get to decry the absence of the people (because you're not allowed to rally them to begin with)
2) Activism journalism where you wear the bias publicly so people can see your inclinations (and thus reasonably judge your position) and encourage people to act (at which point decrying their absence is a perfectly fine approach).
Journalism only becomes a problem when one becomes like the mainstream media outlets where they pretend to be neutral, and yet are clearly bias without willfully disclosing that bias.
Many of the great earlier journalists (pre-1900s) were reformists in their own right. They would write to stir the passions and emotions of the people regarding the horrors they witnessed, and call for change.
I don't think anyone can truly totally negate their presence or impact.
So long as you're honest and truthful, and keep self-interest at the door, I don't see a problem with also getting involved.
Agree that it is important to your journalism role to work in an way that activists can stay informed, but to draw a line on activism yourself. The conflict of interest principle yet again. The journalism role is hard enough.
Reporting when the events happen is still journalism. Steve Kirsch reports when movie screenings are, Rebel News reports when politicians will hold a meeting. You can invite them, even if you don't necessarily tell them what to say. Although, in my view, telling them to report substantiated facts isn't exactly unethical.
I also think the true neutral journalism is long gone. Activism journalism is de facto now. Project Veritas, Rebel News, various Substacks engage in it. I technically engage in it and I try to stick to the old school journalism ethics of neutrality.
Activism isn't the same as advocacy. So advocacy espouses a propaganda viewpoint ('I advocate for the right to steal old ladies handbags'), activism promotes, well, activism ('come out and protest', 'come down and vote', 'come air your views at the town hall').
Activism can be neutral 'get out and vote' (without saying a position), or it can be bias, 'get out and vote against vaccine mandates'.
Benjamin Franklin's printing press wasn't neutral. It was anti-British Colonalism to its core. Personally I prefer to be bias in my reporting so long as it is bias in favour of the facts (I consider facts to be neutral), and not just 'bias to my personal self-interest'. Saying the vaccines kill and people should vote to oppose it, is not dishonest reporting.
It's not neutral, but even neutral journalism can be dishonest (like pretending there's two even sides when there's clearly not). So long as I disclose my inclinations and make clear my views, I don't see it as an issue.
Yep. Exactly this. The rest of us mortals have regular jobs, households to manage, children to feed, lesson plans to teach, and so on. It can be quite difficult to take off half a day, or a full day, to be physically present at the statehouse. And even more so when we have no idea until the day or two before that an important bill is being heard. 😣
Agree about the helpfulness of calls to action. I appreciate that type of message very much and often can at least make a few phone calls.
True. Really, a group like Stand for Health Freedom should be rallying people to get to these hearings. They have hundreds, if not more than 1,000 members in central Indiana, from what I understand. It seems that some of their members could have and would have gone. Of course a lot of people have to work Mon-Fri. But there are younger retirees out there and people who have flexible schedules. If you can't get there, try to call your state rep and member of Congress and leave a message. This really works, believe it or not.
When a celebrity or famous activist shows up the people will come. Not since Indy Global COVID summit December 2021 have any of the docs and activists returned.
Are you saying that we don’t have docs or others in Indiana speaking up about these things? I know of pro-freedom docs in the state who are busily caring for patients and who spoke before the House on HB 1001 last session.
But as for public conferences or speaking, I haven’t seen that. But as good as that is, how does it impact our legislators and public health departments? They seem impervious even to mountains of evidence and testimony.
How do we figure out when these committees are meeting? Is it possible to know more than a day or two ahead of time?
I too was aware only of SB47 that needed urgent action prior to its committee hearing tomorrow.
What is a good way to stay abreast of things? With busy days filled with some fairly specific family responsibilities, I am not able to pour over the IGA website every day to track it all myself. I had zero idea that Public Health was having a hearing today nor that today would be a day on which they were debating the public health funding.
If you want to keep track, you just go to the main website of the Indiana General Assembly at https://iga.in.gov and you can see the hearings for that day or coming days listed on the right. If you click on them you can see what bills they are hearing and bring up the agenda. You can also sign up to testify on a bill through here.
I am going to have to figure out how to follow these events better and to find a way to react and participate. It would be best to do that with some support of a coalition of sorts.
I have just returned to Indiana as a full time resident over a year ago, and have been semi-retired these last few years. In the long past (mid 1990's) I spent several years in Indiana on a major public mental health initiative that was dedicated to planning and evaluating the closure of Indiana's oldest psychiatric hospital, Central State and the subsequent building of community based services and response teams. I was on an NIH funded policy and research postdoctoral fellowship and worked closely with the State mental health director and staff and Indiana's community mental health centers. That was under the time of Governor Evan Bayh. With two other colleagues I extended my fellowship and contract work into a very large NIH Research Infrastructure grant where I served as Co-Director to support a consortium of peopIe working on improving mental health services in the state. So participation included researchers, policymakers, clinical administrators and clinicians, and persons representative of consumers of mental health services and their advocacy groups. I spent time hanging out with several reporters at the Indianapolis Star, one a legislative bureau chief to learn their perspective. I sat in on a closed session of the state legislature in turbulent times where the reforms were debated. The subject and players were often chronicled in the Star and News, and often on the front page. I wrote a policy analysis paper for an international journal on mental health and law describing the whole process and the parts that came together to make it happen. That was an amazing time. I was overseeing several other large grant projects while affiliated with two IU campuses on research faculty positions. I ultimately left to do related work at the federal level as a program officer within HHS overseeing large multisite research trials and technical assistance centers among many projects there, learning about public mental health systems in most of the US states.
In any case I have a lot to offer as someone who could contribute to a health freedom movement here, but well understand the futility in these times of showing up alone to a hearing with data, or my perspective as an informed citizen as I well know what it looks like to be up against a sea of lobbyists. My journalist friends hated those types. For the Central State project, I testified to a subcommittee and my overview and questioning happened after some of those canned lobbyist presentations. There are moments in one's life one never forgets; when queried about the evidence base for a particular proposal for a set of new specialty hospitals I replied that I was mystified as to where the support for the efficacy or cost efficacy was for such models given the large body of work that had accumulated to show the positive benefits for building hospitals without walls in the community. The response was a round of astonished noise making followed by appreciative laughter. Who was I, alone, to confidently contradict everything these lobbyists were pushing for: expensive pharmaceutical advantaged options? I met many interesting people after the hearing, and found myself discussed in a follow up newspaper article.
I love Indiana, it is where I grew up and went to college and graduate school. It is painful to see it deteriorate in many of the same ways that other states are suffering.
Betsy, this is when I wish that Substack had a way to private message.
I assume that you are aware of Hoosiers for Medical Liberty and Indiana Medical Freedom? They are the two groups that seem currently active locally. They are on Telegram, and H4ML sends periodic texts and emails.
Stand for Health Freedom was very visible and active until after the 2022 session and primary season. They endorsed a bunch of incumbents for the 2022 primaries - the same incumbents who gave us the almost useless HB 1001. Lots of us were puzzled by that move. I’ve seen very little local action from them since that time. I don’t know what the situation is, but it seems odd.
I know a few pro-freedom docs who’d probably be delighted to work with you, but I am reluctant to put their names in this public forum.
Of course you no doubt have heard of Dr Dan Stock who has spoken locally and was at the co vid summit.
I sent you a gift subscription with my email. I would like to know more about active groups that might fit the bill, but it may just be that helping some of the people that Dr. Stock is working with is also a good start. Nice to meet you Copernicus.
I should pass along that I saw Leah Wilson, the head of Stand for Health Freedom, at the Indiana Senate hearing last week on Senate Bill 4. She gave excellent testimony. And she's pregnant. So this may be the reason you haven't heard as much from her. I plan to post her testimony and others with a write-up tomorrow.
Good question. You're right. No way for individuals to keep track of this stuff. I really thought Stand for Health Freedom would be tracking this and put out alerts to all their members. I was really surprised they didn't, and didn't make sure they had some people there.
I’ve been disappointed with them ever since they endorsed many of the status quo candidates in the primaries. I’ve heard absolutely nothing from them about the bills this year, which is odd.
I follow H4ML also and although they sent out about SB47, I haven’t heard anything otherwise.
I see the Senate public health committee will be graced with Dr Box’s presentation today. I wish I could go down but don’t think I can. You know, the system is really unfriendly toward those of us mortals whose job descriptions don’t include getting paid to give up half our day, or all day, to go speak in front of our representatives. Dr. Box and the hospital association people don’t have to take time off work to go give their presentations. Nor do they have to give up their household responsibilities for the day, as would stay at home moms/wives/homeschooling families. It is quite infuriating, honestly, that our REPRESENTATIVES cannot recognize that fact and give a bit more credence to our emailed and phoned in comments.
Just looking at the hearing from this week, I could have been down there almost every day. I shouldn’t have to play whack-a-mole with these people to get them to behave. 😡. It is not reasonable to expect citizens to spend days at the statehouse. That’s why we send, um, representatives.
I will send an email to the public health committee members for both chambers letting them know that I absolutely am opposed to more health department spending.
Thanks Margaret for going up there. I was only aware of SB45, and that only thanks to h4ml. I think they try to fly under the radar.. it's not like they want our opinion or anything.
Sure. I realize people didn't know. I really thought Stand for Health Freedom was on top of these, or Hoosiers for Medical Liberty. But I know H4ML is based in Fort Wayne, so that's sort of a hike. SFHF is in Indy.
Yup. We joined those groups in 2021. We live in Downtown Indy, so have not been able to go to meetings. Great reporting, BTW. I found this blog through a tweet by Peter McCullogh.I hope we get an opportunity to meet someday. If you need someone to hold a video camera for you when you interview someone again, let me know.
That's correct. We are accountable when we don't stand up. "The Good Citizen" substack uses the same admonishing language toward Americans. I've been telling to New Yorkers to participate. Keep doing this and shame us if necessary. 💚
Margaret, I am ashamed that I didn’t go. But I won’t sit here and whine about why.
My state rep told me months ago that they don’t care about Covid. They could care less how the jab hurt people. They are too busy decriminalizing abortion, and selling it as a ‘near-total abortion ban’.
When is the next opportunity?
There are groups in Indiana, we met them at the Statehouse in 2021. They are still active, but meet elsewhere in Indiana. We live in Downtown Indy. Please contact me, I may be of assistance if you go to the Statehouse again. I have a video camera.
Unbelievable! the minions just keep their heads down because they don't want to be the first to stand up and criticise the 'Narrative'. I must admit I haven't gone out of my way to find Government and local officials with responsibilities, but I'll start to find those running our lives badly!
I have written to various Health authorities and my local Doctor's practice asking what ever happened to "Do No Harm" 'and Informed Consent'. But no response - as anticipated.
My local Member of Parliament (Huw Merriman aka = a Chocolate teapot) is a typical politician. He's warned me that my suggestions (Vax dangers, hidden or manipulated Pfizer safety stats, the distorted stats on Covid related Deaths,) are all nonsense. He then blocked all attempts to email him any/all proof.
On the contrary, Andrew Bridgen (MP) has tried to bring the truth to the public attention, in spite of vehement avoidance tactics used by MSM to hide such 'nonsense'. BBC are the worst culprits!
Mick from hooe (UK) Unjabbed to live longer!
Hey Margaret.
Sorry to hear of your problematic experience with the public. Motivating them is always difficult. I'm particularly annoyed with the inactive public because I'm disabled (not from the shots, mind) and cannot go out. I used to try to hound my local politician at the very least when I still had my free movement.
That said, I do not recall a Substack article by yourself notifying in advance of the Indiana legislature's meet n greet. A great many people do not know how to find information, and what might be very easy for us online researchers to find, other people don't even know where to start looking.
You use what's known as a 'call to action' article. Many activist style reporting movements (Project Veritas, Rebel News) employ it. Usually theirs is to ask for money to help in specific legal fights, but they do also sometimes encourage contacting politicians or attending events, and they will notify in advance of those events.
It may also be advisable to find a 'support friend' who lives very near to you. Support friends are people who don't really know anything about the subject matter, but they're there to cheerlead you on and keep you company ('I don't know what you're doing but I fully support you in it!'), and can act as a counterweight to the pressures of being the 'only person in the room'. In-fact, there's no limit to how many you ought to bring, and a sizeable number will make the politicians think your position has support.
Remember one thing though: the lobbyists are *paid* to be there and don't have a passion for what they're doing (IE they won't have gone the extra mile and will know far less on the subject matter), you have a passion and your knowledge will easily outshine any lobbyist or paid 'expert'.
To paraphrase a saying: drag them outside and beat them with experience.
I don't disagree. But I'm focused on journalism. So can't really wear two hats. Wouldn't be ethical for me to rally people to come, and then report on big crowd at hearing. But I'm happy to preview hearings and bills as I'm able. I wish I'd done this. There will be many more hearings. There is a vax passport bill that was heard this morning, and hearing will be continued next week. Will be writing about it. Thanks.
I had an after-thought and I regret not raising this before.
"But I'm focused on journalism. So can't really wear two hats"
Au contrare my friend. Your article becries the absence of people helping to defend against the vaccine tyranny, you are naturally inclining yourself down the activism path, and are effectively wearing both hats. There is nothing wrong with this.
In terms of journalism, you have a choice to make:
1) Neutral journalism where you're "indifferent" to people abandoning their posts allowing the proverbial city to burn (whilst you burn down with it); at which point you don't get to decry the absence of the people (because you're not allowed to rally them to begin with)
2) Activism journalism where you wear the bias publicly so people can see your inclinations (and thus reasonably judge your position) and encourage people to act (at which point decrying their absence is a perfectly fine approach).
Journalism only becomes a problem when one becomes like the mainstream media outlets where they pretend to be neutral, and yet are clearly bias without willfully disclosing that bias.
Many of the great earlier journalists (pre-1900s) were reformists in their own right. They would write to stir the passions and emotions of the people regarding the horrors they witnessed, and call for change.
I don't think anyone can truly totally negate their presence or impact.
So long as you're honest and truthful, and keep self-interest at the door, I don't see a problem with also getting involved.
Agree that it is important to your journalism role to work in an way that activists can stay informed, but to draw a line on activism yourself. The conflict of interest principle yet again. The journalism role is hard enough.
I wouldn't argue it as wearing two hats.
Reporting when the events happen is still journalism. Steve Kirsch reports when movie screenings are, Rebel News reports when politicians will hold a meeting. You can invite them, even if you don't necessarily tell them what to say. Although, in my view, telling them to report substantiated facts isn't exactly unethical.
I also think the true neutral journalism is long gone. Activism journalism is de facto now. Project Veritas, Rebel News, various Substacks engage in it. I technically engage in it and I try to stick to the old school journalism ethics of neutrality.
Activism isn't the same as advocacy. So advocacy espouses a propaganda viewpoint ('I advocate for the right to steal old ladies handbags'), activism promotes, well, activism ('come out and protest', 'come down and vote', 'come air your views at the town hall').
Activism can be neutral 'get out and vote' (without saying a position), or it can be bias, 'get out and vote against vaccine mandates'.
Benjamin Franklin's printing press wasn't neutral. It was anti-British Colonalism to its core. Personally I prefer to be bias in my reporting so long as it is bias in favour of the facts (I consider facts to be neutral), and not just 'bias to my personal self-interest'. Saying the vaccines kill and people should vote to oppose it, is not dishonest reporting.
It's not neutral, but even neutral journalism can be dishonest (like pretending there's two even sides when there's clearly not). So long as I disclose my inclinations and make clear my views, I don't see it as an issue.
Ohhh, that makes sense.
But yes, as much as you are able to review and report is very helpful. Thanks.
The lobbyists are paid to be there.
Yep. Exactly this. The rest of us mortals have regular jobs, households to manage, children to feed, lesson plans to teach, and so on. It can be quite difficult to take off half a day, or a full day, to be physically present at the statehouse. And even more so when we have no idea until the day or two before that an important bill is being heard. 😣
Agree about the helpfulness of calls to action. I appreciate that type of message very much and often can at least make a few phone calls.
True. Really, a group like Stand for Health Freedom should be rallying people to get to these hearings. They have hundreds, if not more than 1,000 members in central Indiana, from what I understand. It seems that some of their members could have and would have gone. Of course a lot of people have to work Mon-Fri. But there are younger retirees out there and people who have flexible schedules. If you can't get there, try to call your state rep and member of Congress and leave a message. This really works, believe it or not.
When a celebrity or famous activist shows up the people will come. Not since Indy Global COVID summit December 2021 have any of the docs and activists returned.
I’m not sure what you mean?
Are you saying that we don’t have docs or others in Indiana speaking up about these things? I know of pro-freedom docs in the state who are busily caring for patients and who spoke before the House on HB 1001 last session.
But as for public conferences or speaking, I haven’t seen that. But as good as that is, how does it impact our legislators and public health departments? They seem impervious even to mountains of evidence and testimony.
Called all the Senate public health committee members {again} this morning. Will email later now that I know the hearing has been continued.
Thanks for bringing this up.
How do we figure out when these committees are meeting? Is it possible to know more than a day or two ahead of time?
I too was aware only of SB47 that needed urgent action prior to its committee hearing tomorrow.
What is a good way to stay abreast of things? With busy days filled with some fairly specific family responsibilities, I am not able to pour over the IGA website every day to track it all myself. I had zero idea that Public Health was having a hearing today nor that today would be a day on which they were debating the public health funding.
If you want to keep track, you just go to the main website of the Indiana General Assembly at https://iga.in.gov and you can see the hearings for that day or coming days listed on the right. If you click on them you can see what bills they are hearing and bring up the agenda. You can also sign up to testify on a bill through here.
I am going to have to figure out how to follow these events better and to find a way to react and participate. It would be best to do that with some support of a coalition of sorts.
I have just returned to Indiana as a full time resident over a year ago, and have been semi-retired these last few years. In the long past (mid 1990's) I spent several years in Indiana on a major public mental health initiative that was dedicated to planning and evaluating the closure of Indiana's oldest psychiatric hospital, Central State and the subsequent building of community based services and response teams. I was on an NIH funded policy and research postdoctoral fellowship and worked closely with the State mental health director and staff and Indiana's community mental health centers. That was under the time of Governor Evan Bayh. With two other colleagues I extended my fellowship and contract work into a very large NIH Research Infrastructure grant where I served as Co-Director to support a consortium of peopIe working on improving mental health services in the state. So participation included researchers, policymakers, clinical administrators and clinicians, and persons representative of consumers of mental health services and their advocacy groups. I spent time hanging out with several reporters at the Indianapolis Star, one a legislative bureau chief to learn their perspective. I sat in on a closed session of the state legislature in turbulent times where the reforms were debated. The subject and players were often chronicled in the Star and News, and often on the front page. I wrote a policy analysis paper for an international journal on mental health and law describing the whole process and the parts that came together to make it happen. That was an amazing time. I was overseeing several other large grant projects while affiliated with two IU campuses on research faculty positions. I ultimately left to do related work at the federal level as a program officer within HHS overseeing large multisite research trials and technical assistance centers among many projects there, learning about public mental health systems in most of the US states.
In any case I have a lot to offer as someone who could contribute to a health freedom movement here, but well understand the futility in these times of showing up alone to a hearing with data, or my perspective as an informed citizen as I well know what it looks like to be up against a sea of lobbyists. My journalist friends hated those types. For the Central State project, I testified to a subcommittee and my overview and questioning happened after some of those canned lobbyist presentations. There are moments in one's life one never forgets; when queried about the evidence base for a particular proposal for a set of new specialty hospitals I replied that I was mystified as to where the support for the efficacy or cost efficacy was for such models given the large body of work that had accumulated to show the positive benefits for building hospitals without walls in the community. The response was a round of astonished noise making followed by appreciative laughter. Who was I, alone, to confidently contradict everything these lobbyists were pushing for: expensive pharmaceutical advantaged options? I met many interesting people after the hearing, and found myself discussed in a follow up newspaper article.
I love Indiana, it is where I grew up and went to college and graduate school. It is painful to see it deteriorate in many of the same ways that other states are suffering.
Betsy, this is when I wish that Substack had a way to private message.
I assume that you are aware of Hoosiers for Medical Liberty and Indiana Medical Freedom? They are the two groups that seem currently active locally. They are on Telegram, and H4ML sends periodic texts and emails.
Stand for Health Freedom was very visible and active until after the 2022 session and primary season. They endorsed a bunch of incumbents for the 2022 primaries - the same incumbents who gave us the almost useless HB 1001. Lots of us were puzzled by that move. I’ve seen very little local action from them since that time. I don’t know what the situation is, but it seems odd.
I know a few pro-freedom docs who’d probably be delighted to work with you, but I am reluctant to put their names in this public forum.
Of course you no doubt have heard of Dr Dan Stock who has spoken locally and was at the co vid summit.
I sent you a gift subscription with my email. I would like to know more about active groups that might fit the bill, but it may just be that helping some of the people that Dr. Stock is working with is also a good start. Nice to meet you Copernicus.
Wow, thank you! How kind of you.
I will get in touch with the couple of folks that I know and see about connecting you.
I’m unaware of formal groups outside the ones already mentioned, but I have a very good friend who is a pro-freedom doc with connections. 😉
I’d really like to know what has happened w Stand for Health Freedom. They were a HUGE voice last year.
I should pass along that I saw Leah Wilson, the head of Stand for Health Freedom, at the Indiana Senate hearing last week on Senate Bill 4. She gave excellent testimony. And she's pregnant. So this may be the reason you haven't heard as much from her. I plan to post her testimony and others with a write-up tomorrow.
Is it required to sign up ahead of time to speak?
Day of (online appearance form)
Good question. You're right. No way for individuals to keep track of this stuff. I really thought Stand for Health Freedom would be tracking this and put out alerts to all their members. I was really surprised they didn't, and didn't make sure they had some people there.
Great point about SFHF.
I’ve been disappointed with them ever since they endorsed many of the status quo candidates in the primaries. I’ve heard absolutely nothing from them about the bills this year, which is odd.
I follow H4ML also and although they sent out about SB47, I haven’t heard anything otherwise.
I see the Senate public health committee will be graced with Dr Box’s presentation today. I wish I could go down but don’t think I can. You know, the system is really unfriendly toward those of us mortals whose job descriptions don’t include getting paid to give up half our day, or all day, to go speak in front of our representatives. Dr. Box and the hospital association people don’t have to take time off work to go give their presentations. Nor do they have to give up their household responsibilities for the day, as would stay at home moms/wives/homeschooling families. It is quite infuriating, honestly, that our REPRESENTATIVES cannot recognize that fact and give a bit more credence to our emailed and phoned in comments.
Just looking at the hearing from this week, I could have been down there almost every day. I shouldn’t have to play whack-a-mole with these people to get them to behave. 😡. It is not reasonable to expect citizens to spend days at the statehouse. That’s why we send, um, representatives.
I will send an email to the public health committee members for both chambers letting them know that I absolutely am opposed to more health department spending.
Thanks for what you are doing.
Thanks Margaret for going up there. I was only aware of SB45, and that only thanks to h4ml. I think they try to fly under the radar.. it's not like they want our opinion or anything.
Sure. I realize people didn't know. I really thought Stand for Health Freedom was on top of these, or Hoosiers for Medical Liberty. But I know H4ML is based in Fort Wayne, so that's sort of a hike. SFHF is in Indy.
Yup. We joined those groups in 2021. We live in Downtown Indy, so have not been able to go to meetings. Great reporting, BTW. I found this blog through a tweet by Peter McCullogh.I hope we get an opportunity to meet someday. If you need someone to hold a video camera for you when you interview someone again, let me know.
That's correct. We are accountable when we don't stand up. "The Good Citizen" substack uses the same admonishing language toward Americans. I've been telling to New Yorkers to participate. Keep doing this and shame us if necessary. 💚