RA stalwart Terry Michael dissociates from RA and its Washington conference
September
12, 2011
RA Board and other rethinkers:
Due to an irreconcilable difference with the other two organizers of RA2011, I
am withdrawing my participation in, and my support for RA2011.
David Crowe and Siggi Duesberg seem to think the conference should be another
effort at rethinkers talking to each other. From the beginning, I promoted the
mission of this conference as an outreach to the victims of HIV=AIDS--gay men,
Africans and African Americans--who are not even represented on the RA Board. I
urged that it be held in the epicenter of the HIV=AIDS myth, Washington, DC,
with our large number of gay men and African Americans, and in the city that
will be the venue seven months later for the International AIDS Society 2012
AIDS-fest conference of 15,000-20,000 cult members in Washington, DC. I urged
that the conference begin on World AIDS Day as a way to facilitate some kind of
media attention for our effort.
I have spent countless hours in planning for the conference, beginning with
visits to a half-dozen possible hotels ten months ago, including the one we
eventually contracted with. Though I have no personal wealth, I committed to
$2000 in donations to RA, $1,250 of which I have donated, including paying the
$150 registration fee.
The only thing I asked was to be able to do a two-hour special seminar for local
people. This was after David and Siggi refused to even consider allowing local
people to observe the conference without paying the steep registration fee. The
local attendees would be gay men and African Americans who have never
heard of opposition to HIV=AIDS; just people who I would persuade to
open their minds to hearing us.
I also recently urged that a student, young adult or low income special
registration fee be offered, but again, Mr. Crowe and Ms. Duesberg just
dismissed the idea.
And now, I understand that David is trashing me as uncooperative, trivializing
my efforts. It is correct that I am insisting on starting my seminar no earlier
than 3:30 pm on World AIDS Day. It is an absolute fabrication that I EVER agreed
to starting at 1 p.m. I told David and Siggi a long time ago that my best guess
is that the AIDS Industry here will be doing another free AIDS Day luncheon for
members of the local Industry, and I wanted my seminar at the end of the day. To
begin at 1 pm or 2 pm would mean local people would have to take off their
entire afternoons from work. I reluctantly agreed to 3 p.m. as a start time,
and then Siggi and David arbitrarily demanded that I start at 2 pm. I suggested
that the conference start at 6:30 pm instead of 6 pm so I could start later. All
of that was rejected by them--reflecting their lack of commitment to making this
conference an outreach to the community of victims of HIV=AIDS. And, RA Board
members will recall the doom-and-gloom report that Ms. Duesberg gave in the last
RA Board conference call, with an incredibly negative attitude toward the
success of the conference.
I will continue to research and write about the HIV=AIDS myth, but I will do
that independently from Rethinking AIDS.
I thank you all for your efforts at ending the psychological terrorism and the
drug poisoning of the HIV=AIDS myth.
Regards,
--Terry Michael