Cautious but Free

On Tuesday, September 6, 2011 our friend in Costa Rica arrived early to a scheduled hearing at the Civil Court in Puriscal, Costa Rica. Unable to establish any charges against our friends prior to the scheduled hearing, our friend who was served, arrived at the Civil Court under the impression that the case involved the issue regarding the vaccination of our friends' minor children. Our friend brought with her two witnesses. Also in attendance was a legal representative for PANI, the agency for the protection of women and children, and Dr. Cerdas, director of the Ministry of Health in Puriscal, Costa Rica who arrived at least twenty minutes late.

Once all attending parties had finally arrived, our friend was asked by an assistant to the judge for her identification. Our friend answered that she was the individual to whom the order had been addressed and delivered. Our friend offered that her two witnesses could testify to the fact that our friend was the individual who the order had been issued to. Our friend also suggested that Dr. Cerdas, the individual who had accosted our friend at her home previously, could testify to her identity. The judge looked out from the court room on more than one occasion but did not address our friend. Finally, the judge's assistant delivered a message to our friend that without our friend providing identification deemed satisfactory, there would be no hearing. Our friend was, in the flesh, answering to an order presented to her. No charges were disclosed. There was no hearing. Our friend and the two witnesses with her left.

Later that day, an uncounted number of officials forced open the locked gate to our friends' private property, invaded and ransacked our friends' personal sanctuary and confiscated our friends' personal belongings including a computer. Dr.Cerdas was one of the officials present. It is critical to state the obvious fact that no crime has been committed by our friends. There is no harmed body. Our friends have not so much as acted in contempt of court. In contrast, our friends have made great effort to point out the constitutional laws which define the parameters of authority of the Ministries which have issued complaint against our friends. Our friends have very respectfully and patiently defined our friends' status and have expressed willingness to listen to the court objectively.

I would have expected more from a person who calls himself 'Doctor.' I have always looked upon doctors as servants of the health and well being of those around them. I imagined that people who call themselves doctors held a higher level of integrity and followed a certain sophisticated code of conduct. I never would have dreamed that someone who calls himself a doctor would so brazenly use intimidation and coercion to get his way. I would have thought that someone who calls himself doctor would have been eager to establish dialogue in order to communicate the benefits of his offer. I realize that language is often convoluted and that I have, perhaps, been mistaken to the purpose of the title of doctor in this case.

Included in the Dictionary.com definition of 'doctor,'

Doctor- (5) Machinery- any of various minor mechanical devices, especially one designed to remedy an undesirable characteristic of an automatic process.

I believe the above definition more accurately explains the role that Dr. Cerdas has played in this unraveling drama. Our friends clearly qualify as "an undesirable characteristic of an automatic process." As I have stated from the very beginning, this situation is not about vaccines; it is about law. This case is about perceived authority and enforced compliance.

The function of our friends' lives has been deconstructed. The community has been spared no threat of harm. Instead, the community has been robbed of some of its productive and contributing members. The community has been drained its resources for the sake of terrorizing educated, responsible individuals. Collectively, the community has financed the terrorization of innocent children. Our friends, with their children, have looked on their home, which once was their sanctuary, one last time and gathered what little they could and walked away, cautious but free.