if naive means hopeful and idealistic, or that people like ag and arnold (and worse) don’t exist, couldn’t possibly be that cold and cruel and uncaring and deceitful ……that nature is important, that nature is everything…..but you are also very strong and realistic as well because you are putting your thoughts into action everyday and educating and fighting.

unfortunately, it was cold and flu season when they sprayed which confused things as well. even though i am immune compromised, when i heard monterey was going to be sprayed adn we were to be next i had to play a little game with myself to feel it was going to be ok because the other option is moving. now i’m prepared to move.

my family was fine with the spray healthwise and that includes an asthmatic daughter and a semi-allergic husband whereas i got sick for months. my daughter knows no one at her high school that got sick. so we are living on different planets. that gives me direct insight into people’s attitudes towards the spray. they did not want to face me leaving.

we need more of people like u, mim. this fight can be depressing and disillusioning at times but we gather strength from somewhere and u pull it off with grace.

Yes, we are up against both lack of public education and a disturbing kind of apathy. I fear that, “it couldn’t happen to me,” is often a motive in a situation like this. People hear that folks got sick from the spray, but somehow believe that it won’t happen to them or anyone they love.

And then, I also think that the spraying is just too scary for some people to think about. They shut down their discernment and critical thought because they can’t handle facing it. I know that I can hardly handle it myself, so I have empathy with this.

A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a woman call into the Joanie Greggains’ show on KGO and she was eagerly explaining that the hundreds of families sickened on the Central Coast probably just had the flu. I had to ask myself why an average person would feel the need to call a radio show and insist that everything would be just fine.

I came to the conclusion that the woman is likely so afraid that everything isn’t fine, she is trying to convince others that it is in order to assuage her own fears. I’ve seen people do this before.

It makes me feel very sad for them. No one wants to believe that a government, our government, would launch an attack on its own people. What a horrific thought!

But, if they force us to come to this conclusion about their activities, we have a choice to passively allow them to do this to us because it’s too upsetting to contemplate…or we can do what you are doing, speaking to people, writing, trying to spread the word that something has gone so wrong with our government agencies that they have concluded they are authorized to poison us.

We want our country to be better than that, and the work we are doing, facing these fears, is in hopes that we can change what we see is so wrong.

Thank you so much, again, Kevin, for talking to people at Bay to Breakers. That was a very good idea. I am sure, even though you got some poor responses, that you got through to some of the people.

Mim

And, then, I start to have these dark fears that money is changing hands, and that this is why groups like Audubon, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (which is a huge and respected group here) are simply ignoring this.

I have no idea if this is accurate. But I’m trying so hard to understand why groups that state as their own mission conserving wildlife would then play dumb when wildlife is threatened. That just makes no sense to me, and leads me to start feeling like I am very naive and none of the groups are actually about valuing life at all. Is it all about money?

Thank you for your kind words and support, Donna. I really value your input.
Mim