Aftermath News

Associated Press | May 11, 2008

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON - Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court.

They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.

Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as the test cases that determine whether the children and their families should be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally. But, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress and show symptoms of autism.

Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except the flu shot. In 2004, a committee with the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.

Overall, nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children. Lawyers for the families will present three different theories of how vaccines caused autism.

The case beginning Monday focuses on the second of those theories: that thimerosal-containing vaccines alone cause autism. Lawyers for the petitioning families said they will present evidence that injections with thimerosal deposit a form of mercury in the brain. That mercury excites certain brain cells that stay chronically activated trying to get rid of the intrusion.

“In some kids, there’s enough of it that it sets off this chronic neuroinflammatory pattern that can lead to regressive autism,” said attorney Mike Williams.

In the end, the families’ attorneys hope to convince a special master of the U.S. Court of Claims that thimerosal belongs on the list of causes for the inflammation that leads to regressive autism.

To win, the attorneys for the two boys, William Mead and Jordan King, will have to show that it”s more likely than not that the vaccine actually caused the injury.

Many members of the medical community are skeptical of the families’ claims. They worry that the claims about the dangers of vaccines could cause some people to forgo vaccines that prevent illness.

“I think that what’s so endearing to me about the anti-vaccine people is they’re perfectly willing to go from one hypothesis to the next without a backward glance,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Dr. Andrew Gerber, a psychiatrists, said that medical experts don’t have a comprehensive understanding of what causes autism, but they do know there is a strong hereditary component.

Toxins from the environment could play a role, but currently, data does not support that they do, Gerber said.

Arguments are scheduled to go on throughout the month. A final decision could take several more months to occur. Claims that are successful would result in compensation taking into account lost earnings after age 18 and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering.

The families or the federal government can also appeal the decision of the special master to the Court of Federal Claims or to a federal appeals court.

While there have been about 5,000 claims relating to autism, there have been fewer than 3,000 claims for all other vaccines.

“The English have become obedient-consumers rather than active citizens, with brand loyalty the nearest thing to religious/spiritual belief,” says the guide.

“The English may have more material goods than they ever have had before, but they also swallow antidepressants by the bucketload.”

Daily Mail | May 9, 2008

By SEAN POULTER

On the minus side, England is a nation of “overweight, binge-drinking reality TV addicts”, according to the latest edition of a top-selling tourist guide.

It accuses the English of being quarrelsome, contradictory and “obsessed with toffs and C-list celebrities”.

But before Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells starts spluttering into his Earl Grey, it should be said that the Rough Guide to England pays the country plenty of compliments as well.

For example, England is “also a country of animal-loving, tea-drinking, charity donors, where queuing remains a national pastime and bastions of civilisation, like Radio 4, are jealously protected”.

The cradle of Shakespeare, Newton and Dickens is described as deeply conservative yet having “a richly multi-ethnic culture” whose people’s “warmth is in the humour, a sort of national solidarity that is bred in the bone”.

While it highlights a perpetual collision of culture, class and race, it says the country does still manage to “fit together”. London is praised as a “colossal, frenetic city” with “a unique aura of excitement and success”.

The guide concludes with the slightly back-handed compliment that: “Of the 200-plus destinations across the world that Rough Guides covers, there is none so fascinating, beautiful and culturally diverse, yet as insular, self-important and irritating, as England.”
It does not name the “C-list celebrities” dragging down the nation but may well have had the likes of Jade Goody, Wayne Rooney and Girls Aloud in mind.

The warts-and-all assessment by the £15.99 guide, which is published around the world, was taken in good part by the tourism body, Visit Britain, yesterday.

“I think readers of the guide would recognise these comments are tongue-in-cheek,” a spokesman said. “Our sense of humour is one of the many reasons, along with heritage and culture, that people come here. “The comments demonstrate the quirkiness of the English personality that is so attractive to many visitors.”

The guide lampoons the national obsession with the weather, saying: ‘A two-day cold snap is discussed as if it were the onset of a new Ice Age and a week above 25 degrees starts rumours of a drought.’

It also highlights contradictions, pointing out: “It’s a nation that prides itself on its patriotism - yet has a Scottish prime minister, an Italian football coach and a Greek royal consort.”

A vigorous debate on heavyweight political issues such as immigration, terrorism and street crime is “served up with liberal dollops of celebrity chit-chat”.

Fish and chips has long given way to chicken tikka masala as the favourite dish, and while all things European tend to be distrusted “the English increasingly embrace a continental lifestyle”.

The guide suggests only a sense of humour allows the English to negotiate these contradictions, as well as cope with overcrowded roads and “risible” public transport.

Some of the other comments might test that sense of humour, however.

“The English have become obedient-consumers rather than active citizens, with brand loyalty the nearest thing to religious/spiritual belief,” says the guide.

“The English may have more material goods than they ever have had before, but they also swallow antidepressants by the bucketload.”

The Rough Guide also warns tourists that the English are ‘the most contradictory people imaginable adding: “However long you spend in the country you’ll never figure them out”.

The Rough Guides series was founded by Mark Ellingham some 26 years ago after he was unable to find a suitable guidebook for a student trip to Greece.

The company was sold to Penguin in 2002.

“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that the threat of global warming and the like would fit the bill…. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”

- “The First Global Revolution”, (1991) published by the Club of Rome

AFP | Mar 28, 2008

by Madeleine Coorey

SYDNEY (AFP) - Twenty-six major cities around the world are expected to turn off the lights on major landmarks, plunging millions of people into darkness to raise awareness about global warming, organisers said.

Cities officially signed on include Chicago and San Francisco, Dublin, Manila, Bangkok, Copenhagen and Toronto, all of which will switch off lights on major landmarks and encourage businesses and homeowners to follow suit.

Ridley said it was also likely that other major European cities such as Rome and London, and the South Korean capital Seoul, although not officially taking part, would turn off lights on some attractions or landmarks.

The initiative began in Sydney last year and has become a global event, sweeping across 35 countries this year.

From 8:00 pm local time in Sydney, the energy-saving campaign will see harbourside icons such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House bathed only in moonlight, restaurant diners eat by candlelight and city skyscrapers turn off their neon signs.

Organisers hope the initiative will encourage people to be more aware of their energy usage, knowing that producing electricity pollutes the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels which are contributing to global warming.

But they are also aware that it will be just a small step in solving the problem of rising temperatures around the globe.

“Switching the lights off for an hour is not going to make a dent in global emissions,” organiser Charles Stevens, of the environmental group WWF, told AFP.

“But what it does do is it is a great catalyst for much bigger changes. It engages people in the processes of becoming more energy efficient.”

Stevens said the initiative encouraged businesses to be more careful with their electricity use while at the same time sending “a fairly powerful message to governments that people are demanding action.”

Some 2.2 million people participated in last year’s ‘Earth Hour’ in Sydney, cutting the central business district’s energy usage by more than 10 percent.

While no cities from China or India are involved this year, Stevens said it was hoped that the movement would expand in 2009, which he said would be a particularly significant year given that it is the deadline for United Nations talks to determine future action on climate change after the Kyoto Protocol.

Ridley, who began ‘Earth Hour’ last year while working with WWF Australia, said the initiative was about individuals and global companies joining together to own a shared problem — climate change.

“Governments and businesses are joining individuals, religious groups, schools and communities in this terrific movement that’s all about making a change for the better,” he said.

“It’s staggering to see so much support from across the globe in just our second year and we’re hoping that this will continue to grow year after year.”

Cities officially involved in ‘Earth Hour’ include Aalborg, Aarhus, Adelaide, Atlanta, Bangkok, Brisbane, Canberra, Chicago, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Darwin, Dublin, Hobart, Manila, Melbourne, Montreal, Odense, Ottawa, Perth, Phoenix, San Francisco, Suva, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Vancouver.

AP | Mar 16, 2008

By MARTHA MENDOZA

Test it, study it, figure out how to clean it — but still drink it. That’s the range of reactions raining down from community leaders, utilities, environmental groups and policy makers in reaction to an Associated Press investigation that documented the presence of pharmaceuticals in major portions of the nation’s drinking water supplies.

“There is no wisdom in avoidance. There is wisdom in addressing this problem. I’m not suggesting that people be hysterical and overreact. There’s a responsible way to deal with this — and collectively we can do it,” said Washington-based environmental lawyer George Mannina.

A five-month-long inquiry by the AP National Investigative Team found that many communities do not test for the presence of drugs in drinking water, and those that do often fail to tell customers that they have found trace amounts of medications, including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. The stories also detailed the growing concerns among scientists that such pollution is adversely affecting wildlife and may be threatening human health.

As a result, Senate hearings have been scheduled, and there have been calls for federal solutions. But officials in many cities say they aren’t going to wait for guidance from Washington to begin testing.

Pharmaceutical industry officials said they would launch a new initiative Monday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service focused on telling Americans how to safely dispose of unused medicines.

The subject of pharmaceuticals in drinking water also will be discussed this week when 7,000 scientists and regulators from 45 countries gather in Seattle for the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology. “The public has a right to know the answers to these questions,” said Dr. George Corcoran, the organization’s president.

“The AP story has really put the spotlight on it, and it is going to lead to a pickup in the pace,” he said. “People are going to start putting money into studying this now, instead of a few years from now, and we’ll get the answers sooner than we would have otherwise.”

Environmental leaders said some answers are easy.

“It’s basic. We need to test, tell and protect health,” said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Washington-based Environmental Working Group.

Wiles said the Environmental Protection Agency needs to widely expand the list of contaminants that utilities are required to test for. That list currently contains no pharmaceuticals. He also said government agencies and water providers that don’t disclose test results “are taking away people’s right to know, hiding the fact that there are contaminants in the water. We don’t think they have that right. It’s hubris, it’s arrogance and it’s self-serving,” said Wiles.

As part of its effort, the AP surveyed 62 metropolitan areas and 52 smaller cities, reporting on positive test results in 24 major cities, serving 41 million Americans. Since release of the AP investigation, other communities and researchers have been disclosing previously unreleased local results, positive or negative.

In Yuma, Ariz., for example, city spokesman Dave Nash said four pharmaceuticals — an antibiotic, an anti-convulsant, an anti-bacterial and caffeine — have been detected in that city’s drinking water. In Denver, where the AP had reported undisclosed antibiotics had been detected, a Colorado State University professor involved in water screening there e-mailed the names of 12 specific drugs that had been detected.

Officials at many utilities said that without federal regulations, they didn’t see a need to screen their water for trace amounts of pharmaceuticals. But others have now decided to test, including Scottsdale and Phoenix in Arizona, Palm Beach County in Florida, Chicago and Springfield, Ill., Bozeman, Mont., Fargo, N.D.; Danville, Va.; and a group of four sewer partners in the Olympia, Wash., region.

“We read the AP story and made a determination that we should test our water and be transparent, just let the people know what we find. I’m confident we have safe and clean drinking water,” said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Officials in Freeport, Ill., one of the smaller cities surveyed, said they plan to work with the state EPA to test the area’s drinking water for pharmaceuticals. Mayor George Gaulrapp said he is looking to the state agency for standards, regulations and testing procedures for that city’s water, which comes from a deep well.

In some places, residents learned that the rivers and lakes that feed their drinking water treatment plants have already been tested, or that tests are under way.

In Marin County, California, officials said repeated tests in their watershed for pharmaceuticals have come back clean. In Massachusetts, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced a program to screen rivers, streams and reservoirs for pharmaceuticals.

Dozens of newspaper editorials called for testing in communities where water is not being screened and the release of any test results.

“The first, and least expensive, step is to let the sunshine in: Water utilities that currently test for pharmaceuticals should make that information freely available to their customers, along with more information on the potential impacts of drugs in the water supply,” read an editorial in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has filed an open records request for a copy of a study conducted on the city’s water after the mayor refused to give the AP and the newspaper the name of a pharmaceutical detected in the drinking water. City officials say publishing that information could jeopardize public safety, citing post-Sept. 11 security concerns. A Texas attorney general’s opinion is being sought on possible release of the information.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel urged readers to take responsibility as well.

“It’s a problem in which the average person has both a stake and a role in the solution,” read a Journal Sentinel editorial. “He or she can do something as simple as not flushing unused medications down the toilet or into the drain.”

And the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette observed that “given the national scope of the problem, a strong leadership role for the federal government suggests itself in areas such as testing and upgrading water treatment plants. So it is discouraging to note that the Bush administration in its 2009 budget proposal cut $10 million from the water monitoring and research program.”

While the local responses are encouraging, Lisa Rainwater, policy director of Riverkeeper, a New York-based environmental group, said the EPA should step aside and let the National Academy of Sciences or the General Accounting Office study the impacts on humans and wildlife.

“Frankly, the EPA has failed the American public for doing far too little for far too long,” she said.

At least one local water official is putting part of his faith in another quarter. Wayne Livingston of the Oxford Water Works in Alabama said he has confidence in the existing treatment system. But he said his agency probably will test for pharmaceuticals now, although he doubts anything will turn up because the water is pumped from underground.

“The good Lord filters it,” he said. “But this is something we should keep an eye on.”

Under 7s ’should be banned from playing computer games or risk damaging their brains’

Daily Mail | Jan 9, 2008

By SEAN POULTER

Experts fear computer consoles such as the Nintendo Wii harm child development

Children should be banned from playing computer games until the age of seven because the technology is “rewiring” their brains, it is claimed.

Bombardment of the senses with fast-pace action games is said to be causing a shortening of attention span, harming the ability to learn.

The concerns emerged as technology industry experts gathered at a special summit discussing the development of children, held yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Educational psychologist Jane Healy said research indicated that computer games fuelled the development of basic “flight or fight” instincts rather than considered reasoning.

“If you watch kids on a computer, most of them are just hitting keys or moving the mouse as fast as they can. It reminds me of rats running in a maze.”

She believes parents would be wise to keep children away from computer games until at least the age of seven to allow their brains to develop normally.

Researchers from the Joan Ganz Cooney Centre, which investigates the relationship between children, the media and technology, said the average age that U.S. youngsters begin to use electronic gadgets has come down from just over eight to just over 61/2 since 2005.

They looked at more than 300 products including computer games, toys, virtual worlds for children and supposedly educational software to be run on home computers.

Of these only two educational video games employed proven learning techniques.

The researchers found that too many products involve children sitting isolated in front of a computer screen.

Others make unsubstantiated claims about their educational benefits.

There has been an explosion in the creation of virtual worlds for children in the past year.

Huge numbers of children in the U.S. and Britain are members of internet sites such as Club Penguin, Webkinz and others dedicated to Barbie or the Bratz dolls.

The summit heard calls for an industry code of ethics designed to do away with commercial exploitation of children who visit such sites.

By contrast, Alice Cahn, of the Cartoon Network, told the summit that technology was delivering huge benefits.

“We should not be worried about technology changing the face of play, but rather that all kids have access to the best kinds of technology.”

This is an interesting bit of marketing strategy by Mountain Dew where they utilize the concept of a futuristic fascist police state to market their new drink under the moniker of “DewMocracy”.

Soul Travel | Nov 16, 2007

by Mike Adams

Children herded like cattle into Maryland courthouse for forced vaccinations as armed police stand guard

Following the State of Maryland’s threats against parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated, children were herded into a Price George County courthouse being guarded by armed personnel with attack dogs. Inside, the children were forcibly vaccinated, many against their will, under orders from the State Attorney General, various State Judges and the local School Board Director, all of whom illegally conspired to threaten parents with imprisonment if they did not submit their children to vaccinations.

The State of Maryland has now turned to Gestapo tactics to force its medical will upon the People, stripping parents of any right to decide how they wish to protect their own children from infectious disease.

Health authorities in Maryland there have already announced their intent to essentially kidnap parents and throw them in jail, removing them from their children for up to thirty days if they continue to refuse to have their children vaccinated.

This will all be conducted at gunpoint, with armed personnel and attack dogs at the ready, making sure nobody steps out of line, and suppressing any attempt at public dissent against the Orwellian vaccination policies.

The entire campaign against these parents is blatantly illegal. There is no law in Maryland requiring the vaccination of children, thus parents who refuse to do so may not be legally charged with violating any law. Instead, Maryland health and school authorities are threatening to charge the parents with child truancy violations, criminalizing them for daring to protect their children from the dangerous chemicals found in vaccines including thimerosal, a chemical additive containing a neurotoxic form of mercury.

The methods of organized medicine is becoming apparent

As more and more parents are becoming informed about the dangers of vaccinations and their link to autism, state health authorities are increasingly turning to “Gunpoint Medicine” to force the People to submit to the poisons of conventional medicine. Parents who attempt to save their children from deadly chemotherapy chemicals are being arrested and having their children kidnapped by Child Protective Services.

The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) announced its strong opposition to the Maryland “Gunpoint Medicine” vaccination campaign. In a press release published Nov. 16, the AAPS states:
“The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons today condemned the “vaccine roundup” executed in Prince George’s county Maryland this week, and promised to do everything it can to support parents who refuse to immunize their children.”

“This power play obliterates informed consent and parental rights,” said Kathryn Serkes, director of policy for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), one of the few national physician groups that refuse corporate funding from pharmaceutical companies. Read the rest of the press release.

Conventional (pharmaceutical) medicine is the only system of medicine in the world that is so unpopular with informed consumers that it must be administered at the barrel of a gun.

At the Nov. 17th event in Maryland, activists Jim Moody and Kelly Ann Davis from SafeMinds were able to get in front of TV news cameras and voice their opposition to the coerced vaccination policy. Yet, amazingly, most parents just lined up like cattle ready to be branded, not bothering to question the sanity or legality of the very system in which they were now agreeing to participate.

A health freedom blog called Center for the Common Interest also covered the event.
What’s next for Gunpoint Medicine?

As the truth continues to emerge about the extreme dangers of vaccinations and pharmaceuticals, “Big Pharma” is becoming increasingly desperate to coerce the public into relying on its products. It is now working closely with state authorities (including Governors of several states) to mandate the use of vaccinations on young children. This results in the criminalization of parents who refuse to subject their children to these dangerous chemicals.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already criminalized nutritional supplement companies who dare to tell the truth about the health benefits of their supplements.

What’s most interesting about this issue of using the threat of imprisonment to force vaccinations upon children is not necessarily who is speaking out against it, but who has chosen to remain silent?

The American Medical Association, for example, has said nothing in opposition to the policy.

Neither has the Food and Drug Administration.

Where is the outrage from the Maryland Hospital Association?

None of these organizations seem to have a problem with Gunpoint Medicine. All of these organizations are closely tied to “Big Pharma”. They’re all in favor of vaccinations for all, it seems, and I have no doubt that some individuals in these organizations (especially the AMA) are strongly in favor of the Gunpoint Medicine coerced vaccination policy being played out in Maryland right now.

It wasn’t too long ago that Americans would have stood up and rallied against this kind of medical tyranny. People would have been marching in the streets, demanding their health freedom. But today, it’s a different America. The People are drugged up on pharmaceuticals and dosed on fluoride. They’re too intoxicated to think straight.

The “free” America we all once knew is long gone, and it has been replaced with The United States of Corporate America, where police tactics are now used to enforce hazardous public health policies and perform large-scale medical experiments. That’s what modern vaccines are, after all: A grand medical experiment whose effects will only become known after a generation of mass poisoning has come and gone.

I just have to say that the elite’s belief that the commonors are nothing but dumb sheep to be herded to and fro is well illustrated in this little incident.

Ironically…..

‘The novel is a critique of post-11 September paranoia, whipped up by politicians, the media and security services.’

So you see, the trauma-based mind-control is working marvelously across the planet, just as the elite high cabal had intended it.  Regular people are paranoid of each other, rather than recognizing the true threat simply because they have been dumbed down and conditioned that way by the media and the politicians.

PW

…

Independent | Nov 16, 2007

By Kathy Marks in Sydney

Reading a book in a pub might seem an inoffensive activity but when drinkers saw the title of a book being read by Michael Chalk, they complained to bouncers and he was ejected.

Mr Chalk was reading The Unknown Terrorist, the latest novel by the Australian author, Richard Flanagan. The book has received critical acclaim, but patrons in Shenanigans, an Irish pub in the Queensland city of Cairns, clearly had not heard of it.

Mr Chalk, a teacher who was in town for an education conference, had not even ordered a drink when a security officer asked him to leave. “He said several customers had complained about the literature I was reading and I’d have to move on,” Mr Chalk told the Cairns Post.

Mr Chalk said he believed his appearance – he is olive skinned, with dark hair – played a part in the incident.

The Unknown Terrorist is about a Sydney pole dancer who finds herself Australia’s most wanted terrorist after spending a night with a man called Tariq. The novel is a critique of post-11 September paranoia, whipped up by politicians, the media and security services.

In Cairns, the title of the novel was enough to make Mr Chalk the object of suspicion. He said: “It was my last night in Cairns so, after dinner, I walked into Shenanigans and decided to have a bit of a dance. I put the book face up on a ledge near the dance floor. Shortly after, a security guard came over to me and said “move to the front, please’.

“I hadn’t even bought a drink yet, so I asked why, and he said he’d explain outside.” Once on the pavement, the bouncer told the 40-year-old from Melbourne that other patrons had expressed unease about his choice of reading material. “I was absolutely flabbergasted,” he said.

“I found it quite distressing. I was wondering whether I’m in a place where everyone is in the grip of fear, where they see danger everywhere, or the sort of place where a vigilante group might hunt me down for reading a book.”

Flanagan, whose previous novels include Gould’s Book of Fish and The Sound of One Hand Clapping, said in an interview last night: “If it wasn’t so disturbing, it would be deeply comical. The criticism that was made of my book when it came out was that it was implausible. But I guess it goes to show that it wasn’t implausible enough to match the bizarre reality of contemporary Australia.”

Mr Flanagan said recent cases such as that of Mohammed Haneef, the Indian-born doctor wrongly detained in Australia as a suspected terrorist, reinforced his message. Charges against Dr Haneef, who is now back in India, were withdrawn for lack of evidence.

Earlier this week, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against Izahar Ul-Haque, a Pakistan-born medical student accused of training with a terrorist organisation. A Sydney judge voiced scathing criticism of security officers, saying they had kidnapped and unlawfully detained Mr Ul-Haque.

Flanagan said: “Far from being far-fetched, my novel correctly predicted the future of Australia.”

Report laments the social costs

Globe Staff | Nov 19, 2007

By David Mehegan

We know what young people are doing more of: watching television, surfing the Web, listening to their iPods, talking on cellphones, and instant-messaging their friends. But a new report released today by the National Endowment for the Arts makes clear what they’re doing a lot less of: reading.

The report - a 99-page compendium of more than 40 studies by universities, foundations, business groups, and government agencies since 2004 - paints a dire picture of plummeting levels of reading among young people over the past two decades. Among the findings:

Only 30 percent of 13-year-olds read almost every day.

The number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure.

The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading.

“This is a massive social problem,” NEA chairman Dana Gioia, said by phone from Washington. “We are losing the majority of the new generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor reading.”

It is not just the amount of reading. According to the report, reading ability has fallen as well. While scores have improved for 9-year-olds, they dropped sharply for 17-year-olds. Only about a third of high school seniors read at a proficient level, a 13 percent decline since 1992. “And proficiency is not a high standard,” Gioia said. “We’re not asking them to be able to read Proust in the original. We’re talking about reading the daily newspaper.”

Apparently, things are not much better among college students. In 2005, almost 40 percent of college freshmen (and 35 percent of seniors) read nothing at all for pleasure, and 26 percent (28 percent of seniors) read less than one hour per week. Even among college graduates, prose-reading proficiency declined from 40 percent in 1992 to 31 percent in 2003.

The report incorporates national studies that have been carried out since the NEA’s 2004 report, “Reading at Risk,” found that literary reading - fiction, poetry, and plays - had crashed over 20 years among adult Americans. The new report, titled “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence,” focuses on reading in general, and it reaches down to younger age levels. While not all studies are exactly comparable in some details (such as time spans), overall they trend in the same direction.

“We took information from so many sources, you would expect some results in the opposite direction,” Gioia said. “But I was impressed and depressed at how consistent the information was on the general decline in reading and reading ability.”

Continued…