Asking for Public Comment And Bright Ideas
Sunday 01 Jun 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
Yesterday, hundreds marched across the Golden Gate Bridge in protest of the proposed and illegal spraying of human beings with aerial chemicals which experts say will destroy human health. LBAMSpray.com has some great photos. The bridge march was a bright idea. Not only did it do much to galvanize the efforts of Bay Area families who are working tirelessly in an effort to defend themselves, but it also alerted anyone driving across the bridge yesterday to the seriousness of this dire issue.
We need more bright ideas like this.
Just yesterday, Dr. Anne Haiden explained on Joanie Greggains’ KGO radio program that one of the spray ingredients - BHT - is used by vivisectionists to create massive tissue damage in the lungs of lab animals. This is the substance CDFA and the USDA intend to force 7 million Californians to breathe day after day, month after month, for years and years. And, it is just one of the ingredients in the toxic spray compound which cause both short-term and chronic harm to living beings. CDFA’s LBAM ‘program’ is an unforgivable assault on public health and our doctors are calling it the most colossal government blunder that will have been made in modern times. In other words - this is real, this is dangerous and it demands a response from any Californian who values health and life.
But what is that response to be?
Over the months, I have been engaged in countless conversations with Californians who are working from an amazing variety of angles to stop the spray. Some are acting with science data, medical data, legal data, environmental data, humanitarian data and so on. Every morning, I wake up with the question in my mind, “what can I do?” and I know from many of my readers that you are having the same experience.
As I see it, we have 2 issues to face here.
1) Many of our Neighbors Still Don’t Know About The Spray Or Don’t Realize It’s Going to Sicken Kill People
Potential Bright Ideas:
- What would it cost for city councils in each of the cities set to be bombarded to send a letter to every household, giving perhaps a 10 point bulleted list regarding the spray? CDFA intends to send out little post cards right before they start their assault on the cities. Can city councils take a preemptive action to warn their neighbors of the spray and ask them to join the fight against it?
- City and town Mayors and Supervisors have been some of the most outspoken heroes in defense of the people of their communities. What would it cost to hire a couple of trucks, hang them with signs regarding the spray, get a volunteer driver and equip the Mayor or Supervisor with a loudspeaker to announce basic information about the spray? If this was done after normal workday hours, it would bring people out of their homes like the ice cream man does and fliers could be handed out to the community, again informing them of the reality of the spray and asking them to join the fight.
- Millions and millions of people live in the spray zone. Does ANYONE have ANY connections with television, public or otherwise, or the money to invest in TV time? Political candidates are able to run tons of ads at campaign time. Are any philanthropists in Marin, San Francisco, Sonoma County, Santa Cruz, Monterey, or any of the other cities willing to use their funding to inform Californians of the reality of the spray via a television advertisement? If I had the means, I can’t think of a better way to let millions of people know what is happening.
These are just 3 suggestions. I am asking you, my readers, to please use the comments field to brainstorm and make other suggestions for how we can let EVERYONE know what the spraying will mean to their hopes for a future, for health, for life.
2) Once People Know About The Spray, They Don’t Know What To Do
Great efforts have been made to invite people to sign John Russo’s Stop the Spray petition. Some 27,000 people have signed it. I so applaud this effort. And yet, after people have taken this step, what is there for them to do?
The Gandhi method of protest basically hinged on the concept that the opponent, being a moral being, will turn away from his evil actions if he is repeatedly forced to face the reality of them. Gandhi led marches, inspired thousands to risk and endure physical harm, enacted hunger strikes and employed other non-violent methods of protest that forced the British Empire to stare at the chaos and disaster they were causing Indians. First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win, Gandhi said, and he succeeded in forcing the British Empire to withdraw from India.
Californians have experienced the being laughed at part already. Our own agencies are sneering in the faces of the hundreds of families who have been severely damaged by the 2007 spray and are winking at the millions who will be sickened by the impending spray of 2008. We have been subjected to lie after lie in the mouths of incompetent, corrupt agencies regarding the ‘dangers’ of an insect and the ’safety’ of spraying pesticide on human beings. The arrogance, condescension and derision we have met with in our public servants - the governor and the CDFA/USDA - has been very hard to listen to. So, we’ve been laughed at.
Now comes the fighting part, according to Gandhi. For this non-violent man, fighting did not mean buying guns and swords in order to fight the opponent with his own weapons. It meant shaming the opponent by steadfastly speaking and showing the truth of the immorality of his aggressive actions against the innocent.
Likewise, for most of the people I’ve spoken with, fighting the CDFA does not mean hiring Homeland Security airplanes and Suterra Pesticides so that we can fly them over our opponents houses and sicken their families, as they intend to do to us. It means finding ways to publicly shame them.
And yet, this is where I find myself missing Mohandas K. Gandhi. He believed in the basic morality of his opponents. I believe I have lost faith in the picture of these agencies as ethical. As our friends and neighbors have revealed, the American government has been guilty of performing at least 30 experiments on its own people since the Industrial Revolution, and the government doesn’t deny this. We are facing an evil here, an utter amorality, the like of which can only be compared to the darkest works of scientists employed by the darkest governments the world has ever known. Anyone who takes a job, the nature of which, is to spray deadly chemicals on infants has, I fear, lost touch with what any sane person considers moral thought. When I listen to the robotic, stone-faced message coming from CDFA/USDA, we will spray you, I am increasingly finding that I lack Gandhi’s belief that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, A.G. Kawamura, Steve Lyle and their colleagues are moral beings.
If the specter of baby Jack Wilcox’s heart stopping in the ER after he had inhaled checkmate isn’t keeping these men awake at night, if our entreaties not to attack innocent people with biochemicals are falling on deaf ears, what paths do we have left to us?
I think private citizens may only be left with the power of public shame. While lawyers and scientists and doctors continue to publish reports, warning CDFA that their plans are reckless, unwarranted and illegal, maybe we can do something, too. But how can we best let CDFA/USDA and the governor who has allied himself with these agencies rather than Californians know that they are not operating in a vacuum. That they cannot quietly assault and sicken 7 million people with impunity. That the eyes of the world are upon them?
Potential Bright Ideas:
Family and friends in other states and countries who care about you could do much to begin alerting their cities and countries to what is happening in California. Can you ask you international loved ones and Internet friends to begin campaigns where they live to get their groups and governments to condemn the actions of CDFA/USDA and Gov. Schwarzenegger? Imagine if European countries began sending letters and news articles to the United States upbraiding them for this evil attack on innocent people? What is happening here deserves to be world news and this will fight off the danger that we can be silently assaulted with no one in the world the wiser.
Embracing the principles of non-violent non-cooperation, villages in South America have turned out in the streets banging pots and pans to protest injustices. Just banging pots and pans. Drawing the eye of the world to their lands and shaming their governments. Imagine the streets of San Francisco teeming with pan-drumming citizens while the cameras are rolling and the world is watching ‘upwardly mobile’ city professionals roaming their neighborhoods demanding that no one spray biochemicals on them. It would make the reality of the situation very clear, very quickly.
Strikes have long been an effective measure of gumming up the smooth operations of daily life on which agencies like the CDFA depend. Imagine a day in Oakland where no one went to work, no buses ran, no taxis, no BART, no business going on in the highrises, no interactions with Wall Street. Imagine the entire Bay Area workforce saying that protecting public health is worth going on strike for. Imagine Governor Schwarzenegger, sitting at his nice desk, fielding calls from the NY Times demanding to know how he intends to respond to the workers striking in protest of being assaulted with biochemicals.
One by one, doctors from up and down the state have written reports, attended meetings, spoken on the radio regarding the chronic and fatal damage that will be done to infants, children, women, elders, sick people and others by this pesticide. Imagine if these doctors could be gotten together in a single body and demanded a press conference with every major media source in the state of California. Imagine the picture of 20, 30, 50, 200, 1000 doctors standing at microphones saying, “this pesticide will cause human fatality. The government will be guilty of causing deaths.”
These are just a couple of ideas. Please, I am asking all of you, my smart readers, to use the comments field to start brainstorming. How can we get the attention we need from the world in a manner that will so shame our corrupt politicians and agencies, with the spotlight of notoriety shining full in their faces, so that they will be forced to halt this horrific plan? We have so little time left. We need some really good ideas.
Sunday 01 Jun 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
Great post, as always. I was at the Golden Gate Bridge march and rally and was very inspired. It was great to see lot’s of passionate people from Santa Cruz and Monterey and all corners of the Bay Area come together. After talking to lot’s of different groups, I think we all agree we need to get the word out a lot better, and encourage more people to join the movement and to help out. Too many people hear the spin of the CDFA and think the moth is a big threat and the only solution is to spray the Bay with this “innocent pheromone”.
I just formed a group on Flickr and posted some photos of the march to it:
LBAM: Human Crop Dusting
http://www.flickr.com/groups/737627@N24/
I encourage others to post and share theirs too, and discuss. This is an example of the power of the Web as we can use it to all have a voice and share our thoughts, photos, videos, and connections with each other.
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, so we all have to work hard together and execute on the ideas. To that end, a few of us just set up a social network that we can all join to connect with each other on the issue, find the latest news and blog feeds, share our thoughts and media, post event and meeting details, self-organize and much more. It’s very easy to make posts, comment, share, tag, favorite, discuss, import from other services and sites (YouTube, Flickr, blogs, etc.) and connect with others. Please try it out. I just started a discussion post inspired by this one to help us turn ideas discussed here into action.
http://www.sprayalert.org
Mim,
Great post and photos. I, too, share a lot of concerns about those folks that don’t know for whatever reason. However, let’s not forget nursing home residents, the homeless, non-English speakers, disabled, tourists, out of the area college students and business people, etc.
Hi Mim,
I believe, as you mentioned, that letting the “outside world” know is a very important part of this. Much attention has been given to local media and organization but now we have to find ways to contact news media and organizations outside the state and country. I tried contacting Bobby Kennedy Jr. on “Ring of Fire”. I don’t believe he has spoken specifically about LBAM yet but last night he was talking about the ERA, chemical companies and pesticides and what a hard time the farmers are having protecting themselves in their own communities from this type of poisoning.
If we write to anyone like this that we can think of I believe someone will pick it up. Also spreading the word among visitor bureaus and travel companies is an area where I plan to spend lots of time. I would be so angry if I visited the Bay area and was sprayed so I think this is an area where we can definitely do something.
Just putting up fliers on campuses, in stores and coffee houses will reach some of the people. We can wear something - a T shirt, button whatever and be ready to start a conversation. My husband wanted to send his favorite T shirt back to the Monterey Bay Aquarium as a protest but I told him to use it as a way to tell what they are doing - or not doing.
We need more people like you, Kevin and all the others who visit the site but we will do this! We must.
Take care,
Mary Anne
Just realized that I said ERA instead of EPA. Sorry
Kevin -
Wow! The SprayAlert.org social media site is awesome!!! I have not only bookmarked it but have signed up. Count on me as a daily visitor. I hope you can get a ton of people to join that. Social Media is very powerful. I like the Flickr site, too. That’s really great. I hope the images will get some question-oriented comments from Flickr users.
I am totally thrilled that you went to the effort to set SprayAlert up. This may well become the most critical of all of the LBAM websites.
BMP - Your reminder is a subject I find haunting. Every day, I drive past elder care homes located in the middle of alcohol fields which are sprayed up to 10 nights a month. Inside of those cozy looking homes, the infirm elders are being subjected to constant doses of pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, fungicides, chemical fertilizers…things which cause dementia, alzheimer’s, heart and lung diseases, cancers. Your reminder makes me think of these poor elders and the oblivion in which their caregivers and families are doubtless living of the doubltess fatal damage being done to them by the alcohol growers.
We must always remember to speak for the infirm, the elders, the unborn, the homeless, for wildlife, for all who are unable to have a voice. Thank you for saying that.
Hi Mary Anne!
I hope your letter gets through to Bobby Kennedy. That’s great. It sounds like both you and your husband are being very creative in getting the word out and we so need that!
The travel angle is such a good one. When you think that people come to coastal California for a healthy vacation…to be near the sea and see the beauty. To think that they would be blasted with aerial pesticides. It’s horrendous.
Keep working hard, Mary Anne.
Thanks, everyone, for sharing your idea. We need more!
Vegan Reader gets lots of visitors every day. If you’ve never left a comment here before, let this be your first time. We want to hear from you and hear any smart ideas you have about spreading the word and stopping the spray!
Mim
i have met people who were visiting monterey and were walking around outside getting sprayed. they sprayed at 8 pm over downtown santa cruz on a friday night! people thought it was cloudy and would be another cancellation. nope. people out bike riding. tourists clueless. what an outrage! concerned motel employees told by bosses not to mention the spray.
there has been talk of the spray on fodor’s travel site in the forum section. there is an extensive list on the yahoo group “stopoverheadspraying” if people want to join, on all visitor conventions, chambers of commerce and city contacts. (kevin, if you read this, i posted your url to the group.)
as far as celebrities, i wish more were involved but this weekend there is a concert in sausalito featuring peter coyote, maria muldaur and bob weir plus more.
mim, please let us know how the open house went. i’m hoping you don’t get anywhere near a twist tie.
I posted my ideas at SprayAlert, in a reply to Kevin, that it may be time to take our focus OFF ’stopping the spray.’ Some of you may have heard of the Law of Attraction. The kicker with the LOA is that it operates according to our vibration, not to our “no.” If we say yes to something, the universe brings it to us. If we say no to something, ditto. To quote Daniel Jacob of reconnections.net:
“The Magical Manfesting Mind always says ‘Yes’ to whatever is typed
into its command line. Creation is forever positive. The Triple M
does NOT recognize the idea of ‘no’ or ‘not.’ When those words are
presented in a command, they are automatically removed, and the
subject of the command continues to completion.
Remember, back in 2003, when there were signs posted all over the
place which read: ‘No Iraqi War?’ How’d that work for us? We
decided to declare ‘War on Terror’ and how’s THAT working for us?
I’ve never been overly enamoured with Dr. Phil, but I do love it when
he uses that phrase on his show!”
It may be time for us to investigate the Intention Experiment:
http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/
I haven’t read the book, but a friend who is reading it shared with me:
“Thoughts, concentrated thoughts, have been studied by scientists with very
interesting results. At this particular point in the book several studies have been ongoing
for years by different groups of scientists regarding healing modalities and biofeedback. They found
’somebody else’s good intentions for you may be as powerful as your own.’ Braud’s other
studies also suggested that we can most influence others to become more ‘ordered’ when
we ourselves are ordered For instance, in his studies, calm people were the most successful
at sending mental influence to calm down highly nervous people, and focused people the
best at helping distracted people focus. Braud’s work also suggests that the greatest
effects occur when the person most needs help.
Scientific evidence also reveals that we can affect virtually any other living thing as
well….thoughts can have powerful effects on a variety of plants, seeds, single-celled
organisms such as bacteria, yeast, insects, other small animals. The evidence convinced
me that we can improve our health, enhance our performance in every area of our lives,
and possibly even affect the future by consciously using intention. The intention should be
a highly specific aim or goal, which you should visualize in our mind’s eye as having
already occurred while you are in a state of concentrated focus and hyper-awareness.
When you imagine this future event, hold a mental picture of it as if it were occurring to
you at that moment. Engage all five senses to visualize it in detail. The CENTERPIECE OF
THIS MENTAL PICTURE SHOULD BE THE MOMENT YOU ACHIEVE THE GOAL.
The book talks about several studies of healers being utilized to help heal others, prayers
being used to pray for others, etc. it seems as ‘they’ wrote in that famous book
the bible as Jesus said ‘where two or more are gathered in His name’, aka where many are
focused on the same outcome, there is more strength in the results performing according
to the intent.”
I’m visualizing the results of the human and environmental testing leaving them with no choice but to cancel all plans for the spraying. I don’t see this as saying “no” to the spraying as much as it is “yes” to a safe, clean
world that is nurturing both to the Earth and to all of its inhabitants.
And, I’m visualizing us all celebrating at a joyful party!
Sound good?
Jen
Hello, I’ve just launched a new site to help raise
awareness about the LBAM spray plan. Please take a look and let me know what you think:
http://dontspray.com/
I’d love for you to link to the site from veganreader.com, and I’d be happy to discuss future collaboration ideas as well. Thanks!
There are so many people who were harmed, physically and emotionally, who have not come forward. Here in Monterey, residents of Hamilton House, a shelter for the homeless, were told to not report or talk to anyone of the illness they experinced during the spraying of Monterey. According to one resident, everyone was sick, particularly the children and infants. These are people who are without power, not even having a roof of their own over their heads, further abused by govt. sponsored programs. The tentacles of our immoral govt. agencies reach so far and wide. So many have been silenced. We speak for the least among us. We speak and act against the immoral govt. and the few who are willing to abuse the many, lowering us all in their grip to a much lesser country than the promise of America held such a short time ago. We are here to move our country from the forces of evil to the side of the glory of life.