On October 20th, Estepp received a detailed response from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy advisor to the McCain campaign. Vaccine safety is officially on the McCain agenda. If elected, McCain said he "will work with all agencies to take all necessary steps in an expedient manner to ensure safe vaccines for every American family." And, significantly, McCain also endorsed parental vaccination choice. In response to the new vaccine moratorium request, McCain offered: "The key to health care reform is to restore control to the patients themselves." The full text is provided in the October 23rd post on Age of Autism (AoA) www.ageofautism.com

In contrast, Team Obama has declined to officially clarify its position. Estepp is disappointed: "When asked about vaccine safety, he wrote a general autism position statement and didn‟t even mention the word vaccine." A copy of his letter to Rebecca Estepp is provided in the same AoA post. The words "vaccine safety" are not found in any Obama campaign materials or speeches.

Taking matters into her own hands, New Jersey parent Claudine Liss attended an Obama fundraiser with the express intention of getting an answer. Liss explains, "I shook his hand and would not let go until he answered my question. He looked right at me and said, "I am not for selective vaccination. I believe it will bring back deadly diseases, like polio.‟ Liss and many others are declining to vaccinate their children using the CDC-recommended schedule. New Jersey parents are furious about the first-ever mandated flu shot required for day care and preschool. Seven hundred people rallied in Trenton last week in support of vaccination choice. The freedom of choice issue resonates deeply and has made national news, with coverage on Fox News TV, ABC World News Tonight and an Associated Press article that was picked up by dozens of papers across the country.

Estepp extends a final plea to Senator Obama to clarify his position: "This is a party-neutral issue and many of our parents are waiting to make up their minds. Senator McCain says parents have the final say in how they vaccinate their children. Senator Obama appears to disagree. I sincerely hope that Senator Obama misspoke that night in New Jersey and he lets us know before November 4th."

The other week I was sitting on the sofa looking at my carpet. I had just vacuumed it earlier that day and yet it was already starting to look bad again. Both of our dogs are shedding plus dragging leaves and dirt in from outside, and the carpet just will not stay clean for long. The thought came into my mind: "Why bother?" Why should I vacuum again when I know it won't make a difference for long? But then I started picturing in my mind what would happen if I didn't vacuum for a week or more. Even more dirt and pet hair getting ground into the carpet as we walk on it. I thought about what happens when you don't clean your toilet for a long time. The longer it is before you clean something, the harder the job becomes. Yet there is part of me that dislikes cleaning. I'd like to procrastinate; save it for another day. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

Vacuuming the carpet or cleaning the toilet regularly is also sort of like "keeping a short account with God", as I've heard some people call it. We need to be examining ourselves daily to see if there is any "dirt" that needs to be removed. Most sins don't start out as huge, blatant episodes (adultery, for example), but tiny seeds of lust may be planted in your mind when you watch a movie with a sex scene. If you let that sin ferment, it will only lead to more sin as your heart becomes hardened and caked with sin dirt. Some Christians stress the important of repentence in the salvation experience but then forget that it is an ongoing process we should be doing daily, even hourly, if need be. So the next time you clean your toilet, remember to cleanse your heart before God too.