In article  ,
truthfulted{at}shadango.com (Ted) wrote:

> I like myself a hamburger as much as the next guy, but I am pissed as
> hell that this family is undergoing this kind of bogus persecution
> over a scientific issue that the prosecutors in Florida don't
> understand!
>  If a famous nutritional expert like Michael Greger says that being
> vegan is safe, then it's safe. (http://www.drgreger.org/bio.html)  It
> isn't my choice, but Dr. Greger should know.  He is the dude that
> helped get Oprah Winfrey off when the beef association went after her
> and he is taking on the whole Atkins company and has proven that their
> diet is not safe. He is a general practitioner specializing in
> clinical nutrition and a founding member of the American College of
> Lifestyle Medicine. He is author of Heart Failure: Diary of a Third
> Year Medical Student and has contributed to a number of books on
> nutrition and food safety issues. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the
> Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University
> School of Medicine and teaches at Cornell.  If he was a quack, he
> wouldn't be teaching there.  This story pisses me off because it it
> about religious and racial oppression and not science.  Fortunately
> for this family, a great attorney by the name of  Ellis Rubin is now
> the defense attorney and it looks like they might get these false
> charges dropped.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/20/national/main668225.shtml
>
> This is the story"
>
> A Bizarre Case of Oppression
>
>
>             Think about it. How would you like to be arrested and
> thrown in jail because you were following a non-mainstream diet? Does
> that seem like fiction?
>
>             Further, suppose that your children were taken away from
> you and placed in foster care (for which you are then asked to pay
> child support while still under arrest) because the state believes
> that your raw vegan diet is not healthy. And this strange situation
> has arisen because, after four normal, healthy children that you
> successfully raised without ever having to visit a doctor, your fifth
> child died. Never mind that the child had a missing thymus gland (a
> fatal birth defect, documented in the medical literature as DeGeorge
> Syndrome, that impairs the immune system, leading to infection and
> death). And never mind that your baby lived for five months, whereas
> infants with this syndrome are reported as usually living for no more
> than a few weeks). It also appears to be of no consequence that before
> the ordeal began, people in public places have stopped to ask you how
> you manage to keep your children so radiantly healthy.
>
>             And how would you like, after spending three months in
> jail, to be under house arrest for the next year and a half with an
> electronic monitor permanently strapped to your ankle, 24 hours a day,
> seven days a week, while you fight a family court case (charges of
> parental negligence) and a criminal court case (charges of aggravated
> manslaughter), pay for two telephones in your home (so you can be
> "monitored"), pay child support and rent for your section 8 apartment.
> (Don't even ask how you can pay these bills when you no longer have a
> vehicle—because the insurance expired while you were in jail and your
> car is now in police custody). And your passport and residency card
> have been confiscated, while you are still expected to find a job and
> show income in order to even have a chance of getting your children
> back.
>
>             And you—a devoted parent and a highly spiritual individual
> who believes in treading lightly on this earth, hugging the trees for
> the life and nourishment they provide—wonder what will happen next.
> Two birthdays of your four young children have passed without your
> even being allowed to see them once; meanwhile, they have been
> vaccinated against your wishes, causing them to fall sick, and two of
> them, at least on two occasions to your knowledge, have been taken to
> the emergency room in a hospital—when your children had never had to
> see a doctor in all their lives before this nightmare began. And you
> and your spouse have been through one public defender or pro bono
> attorney after another, and they all get to the same perspective
> eventually—accept a plea bargain for a limited sentencing. The state
> realizes that it made a mistake in your case, but then, it doesn't
> want to look bad. And for this reason alone, the prosecutor's office
> is not going to let you go free. They and the public defender's office
> work hand in hand to dispose of the huge number of cases they have on
> their plates. Your enormous misfortune is that you've fallen into
> their plate.
>
>             Hang on to this scenario—because this is reality for
> Joseph and Lamoy Andressohn of Homestead, Florida. She is only 29, and
> he a little older. Their crime is that they are on a living food diet.
> They fed their children only organic fruits, vegetables and nuts, even
> though they made barely enough to live day-to-day. Yet the state has
> charged them with parental neglect, labeling the children
> "malnourished" without evidence to back it up; and charged the parents
> with "aggravated manslaughter" of their fifth child!
>
> Keep reading the story here: http://www.familynightmare.org/

Welcome to the Florida Legal system! A sordid backwater system, run by
neo-puritinacial micromanaging assholes with control issues. Hell, they are
such jerks they even went after Rush Limbaugh! The best thing for anyone to
do in Florida is move OUT!



--- UseNet To RIME Gateway {at} 3/5/05 12:57:42 PM ---