What is justice? This was a question that came up in a discussion I had with a social media whirlwind bringing multifaceted awareness to autism over the last 7 years. Simply known as @TannersDad, the man behind the daily media blitz has brought concise advocacy that cuts to the heart of American’s current fight to find answers to its autism epidemic. Producing so much original, focused content daily, @TannersDad is often mistaken for a computer generated algorithm. However, the father behind the Twitter handle known throughout the autism and vaccine-injury communities is far from a machine. Having raised Tanner — his now 18 year-old son who regressed into autism shortly after vaccination — Timothy Welsh said he had thought of the question “What is justice” many times. His answer was that he simply just wanted it to come to an end. By “it”, Timothy meant the abuse parents of children on the autism spectrum have — and continue to — endure at the hands of caregivers, the medical community, mainstream media and politicians.
The humble demeanor of Tanner’s Dad spoke volumes to those who understood endless years of interrupted sleep because your adolescent son on the autism spectrum wakes you up by jumping on your bed two to four times a night. The healthcare professionals will never know the trauma they caused by denying care because they weren’t educated in recognizing or healing autism — a disorder they told Tanner’s dad to bring back a brochure on so they could learn more. The legal system will never comprehend its immoral depths for requiring parents to pay thousands in court to gain custody over their own autistic children once they turn 18. Its endless stories like these Timothy has lived through that keeps the passion going to end the abuse once and for all through his advocacy work on social media.
@TannersDad burst onto the advocacy scene as a mega-force in February 2011 after receiving the green light and a time frame of three months to help the Marino Foundation raise money for autism advocacy event. The Marino foundation's shock came when, led by @TannersDad’s influence, a $100,000 was achieved in 72 hours.
Fast forward to today where @TannersDad's advocacy has reached some major milestones. Recently he passed 200,000 live tweets and has been — along with his group — a major factor propelling the viral media success of the documentary film Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe. For Tim, he feels that society is coming to the end of an era of advocacy. Live streaming platforms like Pericope, Facebook and YouTube have changed the paradigm almost overnight. We are now all citizen journalists and whatever content we produce and put out instantly has the ability to compete head to head with the biggest news media outlets on earth. From someone who has lived through this evolving genesis from social media advocacy on Twitter to the new era of live streaming, Tim said that he feels like Charlie Chaplin moving from silent movies [Twitter] into live streaming [color movies with sound]. Autism advocates — that were fighting just as hard and passionate before social media — continue to utilize the tools of their time to spread awareness. @TannersDad and his group have been involved in every form of advocacy including book promotion, film, petitions, legal suits, activist causes and journalism. The lines once separating advocacy, journalism and media have officially vanished. The mad scramble to control this wide open arena is fruitless as the return to truth and issues of major importance to humanity may forever claim this limitless space by default in these serious times.
The humble demeanor of Tanner’s Dad spoke volumes to those who understood endless years of interrupted sleep because your adolescent son on the autism spectrum wakes you up by jumping on your bed two to four times a night. The healthcare professionals will never know the trauma they caused by denying care because they weren’t educated in recognizing or healing autism — a disorder they told Tanner’s dad to bring back a brochure on so they could learn more. The legal system will never comprehend its immoral depths for requiring parents to pay thousands in court to gain custody over their own autistic children once they turn 18. Its endless stories like these Timothy has lived through that keeps the passion going to end the abuse once and for all through his advocacy work on social media.
@TannersDad burst onto the advocacy scene as a mega-force in February 2011 after receiving the green light and a time frame of three months to help the Marino Foundation raise money for autism advocacy event. The Marino foundation's shock came when, led by @TannersDad’s influence, a $100,000 was achieved in 72 hours.
Fast forward to today where @TannersDad's advocacy has reached some major milestones. Recently he passed 200,000 live tweets and has been — along with his group — a major factor propelling the viral media success of the documentary film Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe. For Tim, he feels that society is coming to the end of an era of advocacy. Live streaming platforms like Pericope, Facebook and YouTube have changed the paradigm almost overnight. We are now all citizen journalists and whatever content we produce and put out instantly has the ability to compete head to head with the biggest news media outlets on earth. From someone who has lived through this evolving genesis from social media advocacy on Twitter to the new era of live streaming, Tim said that he feels like Charlie Chaplin moving from silent movies [Twitter] into live streaming [color movies with sound]. Autism advocates — that were fighting just as hard and passionate before social media — continue to utilize the tools of their time to spread awareness. @TannersDad and his group have been involved in every form of advocacy including book promotion, film, petitions, legal suits, activist causes and journalism. The lines once separating advocacy, journalism and media have officially vanished. The mad scramble to control this wide open arena is fruitless as the return to truth and issues of major importance to humanity may forever claim this limitless space by default in these serious times.