I Nearly Died

Upon my return from my bicycle ride around the Great Lakes in 1987. I suffered from an acute bacterial infection that began as what I thought was just another bad case of strep throat. This would have passed into obscurity amongst an array of experiences that I have had if not for the fact that this week, in the news is the threat that prophylactic antibiotic use poses to our food supply. My own way, my knowing is based on first hand experience. When I first moved to Green Bay, I started getting what the doctors called strep throat. The more often I got it, the more conversational the doctors became about what it was. Apparently, many local pediatricians called it "Green Bay Throat", though they always refused to write that down on paper. I asked, believe me.

Consequently, I was prescribed antibiotics several to half a dozen times each year,which meant 30-60 days each year I would get antibiotics. Almost ten percent of the time, up to nearly twenty percent of the time. I loved getting away to Springfield, Illinois to spend summers with my dad, because that is the only time I never got sick. There was an awareness of the tragic chemical soup that was in the river that flowed past our house and I knew that the smell in the air was taking a toll on my health when I was young, but I did not understand how that chemical exposure could lead to bacterial infections in the first place. My near death experience was a combination of toxic metal poisoning and the bacterial infection that got so bad that it was hard to breathe, nearly impossible to swallow and so painful that I wanted to die. I could barely speak and was reduced to writing notes. Whatever bacteria it was just laughed at the several types of antibiotics they tried. I crawled tot he bathroom, ran insane fever and slowly watched my skin turn green, my eyes yellow and bruises go through me from coughs and chills so severe that I thought I would hurt myself permanently or die from the experience.

What saved me were techniques that I now use to heal others as well as myself. It will sound odd to those who have not heard of this kind of thing before, but a witchy woman used a pendulum to diagnose and treat me with what we had in the house. By that time I had learned a lot about staying healthy and understood vitamins, how the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowances) were arrived at and the major functions of each nutrient and mineral. I knew about using herbs for health and eating a diet suited to keeping the body healthy under normal conditions, but I knew little about therapeutic healing using herbs and vitamins. My experience with getting sick was going to the doctor. In retrospect, being under a doctor's care for twenty eight days and having them deliver me to death's door, nothing could be worse right? Even in my delirium and flagging condition, I took what this woman had to offer with several grains of salt. (pun intended) I always carried a good dictionary that included many chemical substances. The pendulum led my witchy friend to and eventually responded to our questioning with a "prescription" of five Tablespoons of Cream of Tartar, two immediately, two four hours later and one four hours after that. I had someone retrieve my dictionary and read all that I could find about Cream of Tartar. From what I read, it sounded as if it was like a wanton salt, looking for metals and material that might be too small for my immune system to recognize, this structural matrix had lots of bonding sites and the molecular structure was large, then as the adhesion of these tiny materials would inevitably take place, my own immune system could begin to eliminate what was weakening my whole body that allowed the infection to take me over in the first place.

I did what the pendulum said and by noon the next day, the pain lessened enough that I could drink water with less pain and by supper I had eaten my first solid food in nearly a month! How is this related to bacterial  threats in the food supply? Well, the resistance to antibiotics that nearly killed me was brought on by only having to adapt to antibiotics administered ten to twenty percent of the time. most livestock in the United States of America are dosed nearly constantly with antibiotics. The resistant strains of bacteria that thrive in our food supply can kill us. The system is broken and the monied interests tell us that without our food system, many people around the world would die. This is the last death rattle in a chorus of well-intentioned lies that were first perpetrated upon the Earth as the "Green Revolution". "Science" had "proven" that more food could be grown with monocultures dosed with expensive fertilizer, requiring expensive seed, chemical weed and pest control and always more mechanization. most third world countries are still staggering under the debt brought on by that series of well-meaning lies. The ugly truth is that these production measures, followed to their inevitable conclusion are what we are seeing today.

Farmers in most of the world are not expected to do what is best for their fields or herds, the soils or their neighbors. They work for the bank, the seed company, the petro-chemical interests and the machinery dealers. If a farmer wants credit, they have to abide by the terms laid out by their lender and this means a slippery slope of insurance, treatments and standards that reduce every decision to a cost/benefit analysis. I know a lot about creatures, humans included and none of us benefit from being seen as dollars on the hoof or "an investment" as many liberals like to say. No one can be let off the hook for objectifying another creature. be it man, woman, child or beast, we are all creations of the infinite. for my purpose here, it is not important whether you call it God or Goddess, Allah or he who cannot be named. If we all agree to disagree about what to call it, we can begin to talk sense. I know that the infinite power in the universe did not give us intellect to squander on capitalism, or poisoning our soils. Creator did not want us to risk being overwhelmed by microscopic creatures that are only breeding because we have poisoned so much of the planet, including our own tissues.

I realized today that we try to understand each issue that we confront as if it is a pyramid. Often, we barely distinguish the tops, the apex or peaks of the pyramids around us, thinking that we are keeping things straight in our minds. But lost in the clouds far below are a myriad of foundation stones, tier after tier of occurrences, labors and understandings that needed to occur, perhaps thousands or tend of thousands of years ago on which were built the first levels of these ideas, experiences and thoughts that we use to navigate our way through the world. every technology that we have invented to date has brought with it increased costs and more expensive benefits. I am sure that, if not for something as mundane as Cream of Tartar, I would be dead. What I have learned about bacteria since nearly dying from an infection of antibiotic resistant bacteria is that the way we utilize antibiotics in the food system is a serious public health threat and in every way I know how, I will fight the corporations who continue to risk human health for profit.

Fear Is Not A Family Value

Homo sapiens need a wake up call. Our hearts and minds have been heavily armored and who can blame us. The news programs and networks, that have proliferated and the "reality" television shows show us the most awful images and posit the most fearful views of life for us ad nauseum. We have been terrorized by the media for so long that it seems almost naive to trust, believe in, or count on anyone else. Other than our religious and political leaders, who have the most to gain from lying to us, we can include commercial interests, murderers, thieves, crazy people and sexual predators to the list of people who may be lurking around every corner. We have been led to fear nearly every bite of food that enters our bodies and every fluid that exudes from us as well. We now are beginning to understand that our water may be dangerous, the air definitely is and the very ground that we walk upon is "filled" with bacteria and fungus that might kill us if we have contact with it.

This morning, on a local news program, I learned that a local municipality is embarking on a program that will cut down hundreds of ash trees on city property to prevent them from being killed by the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that only feeds upon these wonderful shade trees. The fear of what might happen is being allowed to dictate to us how we will act, what we will do and how we think about our relationship to the world around us. Similar issues are played out daily in operating rooms across the US. There are probably few of us by now that have not heard of women being told that by having a mastectomy, or hysterectomy, they may be able to outlive their genetic "predisposition" to die from cancer, or that exposing their breasts to radiation might just save their lives. Fear is probably the most profitable industry to be in at present, although we are on the whole healthier and more secure than at any time in our history.

Before you let your mind wander down the slippery slope of what you have been told, we are actually living in the least violent time in history. that being said, we are all going to die. If we live long enough, it is almost certain that we will pray for a quick and painless death, but fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, doctors will almost certainly try every trick that they have up their sleeve to extend your life, expend more and prolong your life as long as possible. Feeling that heroic measures that allow people to suffer just a few months or years longer is worth their effort. It has been over a year since my father passed away, so I'm not just saying so because I am filled with grief. after his second, and third heart surgery, the effort to rehabilitate himself was extremely painful and no amount of schedule one narcotics could touch his pain. Luckily, when he was driving under the influence of these drugs, he did not kill anyone. I'm sure that it was mostly because of quick thinking and rapid action on the part of those who saw him coming in the nick of time. The last time I rode in a car with him, he nearly took out three other cars within about a mile.

The things that we really should be spending time in fear of often go unnoticed.I have shared with many people my feeling that the true terrorists in our midst are the millions of drivers who continue to use their cell phones in the car. these people just don't know when they are going to kill. doctors too fit into that category as well because iatrogenic (doctor caused) deaths, from prescribed medications are approximately equivalent to all deaths in car accidents in our country. Some sources have documented the fact that they are even a greater number. If we are to trust one another, we need to be acting in a trustworthy manner. The almost universal rejection of responsibility in our culture has fascinated me for the better part of half a century. In the last few weeks I have been reminding myself of the fact that when we point at others, there are three fingers pointing back at us. We are encouraged to fear by the powerful interests who wish to divide us and keep us isolated amongst our neighbors.

When we investigate most of the subjects that get covered by the popular press, we find that the causes and effects of these events are frequently left out of the coverage. The heroic actions of those who exhibit bravery or courage are usually not covered, nor are the actions of those who quietly persevere. These activities, quite often, don't photograph well or take place behind the scenes. My contention is that these actions and activities are far more common than we ever realize. Living is not a series of investments in insurance, or installing locks on everything that we value, nor is it the blocking out of all that threatens our way of life or ideas. In fact, the happiest people on Earth spend the least time on these sorts of activities. I have always wanted to be a preacher of sorts, but the reason is pretty much the opposite of any preachers that you might have heard speak before. I openly admit that I cannot tell you what to do. I'm not even sure that what I might say is right and i certainly don't want anyone to take any action in my name or in the "name" of the Lord or Lady, but rather because it is coming from your heart. I often write about the fictions that our minds spin for us into the illusion of truth. The ego is adept at lying to us and the weak of heart often subvert their true selves for the edification of their own deceitful egos. I am not who I think I am. Neither are you. The threats to your health and well being that you believe in do more to take you away from living your bliss than you may ever know. I apologize to those of you who may understand this already, but what speaker can resist the urge to preach to the choir from time to time.

Living our lives requires that we accept some risk. The more we hide behind layers of fear, the less we are able to see and understand the world as it truly is. There are many who reap the benefits of us shuttering our windows, living with our heads in the sand and turning our backs on those in need. We all have the power to live heroic lives, lives of infinite abundance and lives that recognize the fact that each and every human being is entitled to a life of love and realization. If each one teaches one, the process of growing into the people we want to be, rather than victims becomes much easier. We need to let go of fear if we are to have the power of love flow through us. The values that came down to us from our parents and theirs have been assaulted, attacked and undermined by the media for the better part of two generations. The threats that we face today are straw men, fabricated and propped up by those who want us to leave the churches, our government, the financial institutions and the schools available for their use as tools of oppression and they also want us to relinquish the airwaves to be used as an insidious tool for spreading fear. If we allow them to sell us a bill of goods that states that our children, their mothers, the elderly, teachers, gays, unions, pot smokers, liberals and conservatives are "the problem", then we will be sufficiently afraid of everyone and everything and we will be unable to do the things we need to do to break free of these mental shackles. We are always left to make one decision either from the depths of our hearts, or from our own tiny ego. Will we lead lives of quiet desperation or will we rise to the challenge that faces us today? I am willing to stick my neck out. Please look into how you might follow your own bliss and let me know what you find.

When a Great Spirit Passes the Veil...

Native people say that the heavens cry. A great man has passed and yesterday, as I grieved for him, the sky opened up and the spirits cried. Such a deep and loving, compassionate and forgiving soul is hard to find. I know that my friend brought nearly everyone he met joy and happiness. Perhaps it was the jaunty angle at which he wore his hats, perhaps it was his endlessly friendly demeanor, perhaps it was his zest for life, or honest appreciation for having the chance to live it. Whatever the qualities that he reflected, people who knew him can agree, there was no one better suited to spread feelings of happy wherever he went.

Sadly, he foretold the nature and timing of his death. Twenty-five years ago, when we were young college students, he took me aside and confided in me how afraid he was. He knew that he would be the first of our cadre to pass on and that cancer would take him when he still felt young. His endless respect for others, his undying love for those he knew and the childlike ways he played with any parameters you might set for his actions or behaviors kept him young in spite of the years that have gotten by on us all. I'm not sure whether the realization that he was mortal made him more alive or not. What I do know is that his love of life and the people he shared it with were self evident in his every action and interaction. some folks who had not smiled in years brightened their own demeanor whenever Tom was around.

Please, understand, we are each presented with an opportunity to participate in the world in a unique way. The vast majority of us seem to squander this opportunity, doing what others tell us to do, or doing things the way that they have always been done. It takes a strong spirit to challenge each and every aspect of "common knowledge" turning the act of living into an art. I understand that we cannot all be strong and creative, but fortunately for all of us who knew T, we are certainly glad that some people have the strength of will, the power and the creativity to try. Bless you, Tom and may your path be scattered with the fallen leaves of summer. May you find a place to lay down near a babbling brook and may the spirits of the place be as welcoming of you as we have always been. Miss you brother, Namaste'

#Occupy Wall Street!

As the word gets out that top corporate executives are making more than hundreds of their employees, combined, sympathy for "business as usual" is waning. The fallacy of Ronald Reagan's trickle down theory of economics has been proven wrong and yet there are those clinging to the image of Ronnie as a sort of savior. The real truth about shipping more and more of our dollars into fewer and fewer faraway hands is that as the money goes, so do the hopes of small towns, cities and the heartland of our great nation. What the media has told us so far is scant lip service and reactionary rhetoric that are a useless attempt to distract us from the real crimes being perpetrated on our culture as a result of greed and inequality. The raping and pillaging of our workforce, the housing stock, the transportation systems and the natural resources of our land for the benefit of a tiny number of obscenely rich individuals is finally being called out as the anti-social crime that it is.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters, meeting up across the country, are standing as testament to the will of the people that has not only been subverted, but just plain ignored by the monied interests that weave their webs of deception and avarice in the halls of Washington D.C. as well as state houses across our nation. You can tell by the cadre of rank amateurs vying for the republican nomination, none of the mouthpieces for corporate power have a shred of dignity or truth in their arsenal. Instead, they rely on out dated hostilities and fear tactics in the face of the fact that the world is shrinking by the day. Centuries ago, receiving news across vast distances took months. sometimes information would not penetrate remote areas for years. Today, anyone with modest equipment can keep their finger on the pulse of worldwide markets, weather conditions, or exchange ideas at nearly the speed of light. The few that are hunkered down for the long fight are just wasting our time. The majority was never made up of the splinter groups who claimed "morality" to be on their side. If they had been either moral or the majority, we could have suffered through their disastrous political legacy, but in fact, they were trying to get their scraps as they fell from someone else's gravy train. Today, tens of thousands will stand again for the right of the people, not the corporations, to control the destiny of our nation.
Wherever we live, there are those who would extract their living from the sweat of our brow or the aches in our bodies that labor can bring with it. Those same people generally extoll the virtues of pulling oneself up with their bootstraps or a rising tide raising all boats. The problem with this type of fairy tale worldview is that first off, bootstraps can only get you up to the top of your boots. In this environment of bullshit and deception, that may not be high enough to get up out of the muck. That rising tide thing only works if the boats are in good repair. Like many Americans today, the boats are leaking profusely and as the high tide of crap approaches, the ones that have stayed afloat are breaking free from their moorings. The amazing thing is that this revolution did not happen sooner. The writing has been on the wall for twenty-odd years. Those who capitalize on death and destruction, mayhem and misinformation do not want this revolution to be televised, so it won't be. However, when the millions who have been fleeced by the current system stand together and demand that justice be served to those who crashed the world economy, I hope we are allowed to see something on the news about it. Until then, keep educating yourself, keep our representatives up to date on the need for sustainability and help educate your neighbors about these truths that for so many are self evident. corporations are not people, their  highest goal is profit, their responsibility is to their shareholders, not our country, certainly not the good of all. You will be surprised to find that there is no other side outside the Fox "News" room. In fact, little disagreement can be found when you get down to cases. The 99% want to be included in the prosperity of our nation and are finally demanding to have more than lip service paid to their needs and aspirations. we know what the corporations want and have seen what it gets us.
Vote with your feet, get to a protest today!

Fake Terror Real Consequences

Concerning recent events, we can plainly see the real and present danger of fake explosives, fake detonators and fake operatives in the course of human events. Sadly, there is a real possibility that if our own government agents had not aided and abetted the fake bomber, some other "bad guys" might have materialized to fill their shoes, but as we have seen from several other terror related arrests, most of these "cells" lack the know-how and or wherewithal to become serious threats. Believe me, I know the complicated results that underlie the old saying, once bitten twice shy, so I do have some empathy for our Federal Bureau of Investigation. They say that 911 changed the world, but as many have seen and few have reported, the changes we have made have played into the hands of the terrorists, much more than having any beneficial effect on our safety and security. Our over the top response to terror has cost us billions, led to the repeated inconveniencing millions and eroded our rights. We have taken the very real posture of fear that cripples democracy, staunches the flow of free ideas and limits our freedoms that we often claim so many have died for.

I hate to climb on the conspiracy bandwagon, but the utter failings of 9-11 shout for complete revision of whatever policies were in place back then. To allow so many people who were on "terrorist watch lists" to simultaneously board the three planes that were used on that day could have easily been an "oversight". If it were just that, it might seem like pure incompetence. Failure to require cockpit doors be lockable might have been an oversight as well, but as we have learned, the government had been made aware that a plot to use commercial jets as projectiles against soft targets existed for years prior to 9-11. Maybe the FAA had better things to do, more likely, they were never told of the threat. Coincidentally, on the day of the "attack" there were military "games" up and down the East Coast, requiring F-16s to be scrambled. It is most chilling to listen to the dispatcher, who awaits just this sort of event, question, "Is this part of the exercise?" When you know with hindsight that it most assuredly was not. Had the scenario been played out as part of a movie or book, no one would have believed that so many could do so little for so long and that such a long series of mistakes could be strung together to create such a plot. Whether it was pure incompetence or an actual conspiracy is moot, the damage we have done to our own country since is blatantly obvious. The shadow government has ratcheted back freedoms and instituted fear tactics against all Americans in virtually every arena of our lives.

I do understand the very real threat posed by terrorists, but encouraging them to create mayhem to stop them is like trying to stop rabbits from reproducing through the use of tiny condoms. I am struck by the amount of time that was spent on the most recent FBI recruit. Instead of focusing on someone who was willing, but unable to carry out an attack, would not the cause of freedom and security be better served by concentrating on those who have the conviction and means to perpetrate mass destruction? I felt the need, after 9-11, to do a little figuring. Anyone who has been to New York understands that the whole rock of Manhattan is like an anthill. Throngs of people swarm up and down it's length. I wondered, what would happen if there was such a "strike" against an anthill. The answer I came to was absolutely nothing. Even if the World Trade Center had been the heart of the brood chamber, the ants would have carried off anything salvageable, creating a new chamber within hours. Within a week, or possibly as long as a month, the damage would be both inconsequential and undetectable. In our "developed" state, we have plans for a memorial. we are treating it like our own holocaust. We daily multiply the damage and danger by coining the term 9-11, repeating the story, highlighting the "threat" and refusing to ask the simple question, "Why are these crazy folks so dead set on trying to hurt our people?" It is becoming clear to some that we are a much bigger threat to ourselves than terrorists have ever been.

The America that I learned about in social studies and civics class has been eviscerated. No one is free if we are all to become suspect. The right to vote has even been undermined by fear mongering weasels with more money than we can fathom and, it seems, less concern for our country than their own wealth and dominion. The idea of an educated electorate has more or less fallen by the wayside. Like in the Harry Potter series what we fear the most cannot be named. Sadly, the difference between our early twenty-first century America and the magical world of Mr. Potter is that in the books, everyone knows who "he who can't be named" is. We, on the other hand, are led like hogs with rings through our noses from one "devil" to another. This election taxes were trotted out as the enemy. Driven by fear, like we are, it is easier to forget that the Republican juggernaut brought us a collapse of the world economy than question their motives. We seem to refuse to analyze any of the data that comes at us from whatever sources we trust, often choosing the "news" sources that most agree with our opinions. The oft repeated lies do not become true by their repetition, but it seems that we have not learned that yet.

We are a country of over three hundred million. Life is inherently dangerous. We kill more people each year by driving badly than terrorists have ever killed. Doctor prescribed medication kills more people every year than terrorists killed on 9-11. Although I am in favor of vigilance with regard a diverse set of threats, we need to keep a bit of perspective here. The same principles that apply to individuals guide the development of states. No one can be expected to thrive when basic needs are not met. Having our needs met include good nutritious food,which we know is under threat from all sides, receiving love and compassion from others, which is less and less likely in our increasingly angry land and security. True security depends on knowing we are safe, not being constantly told that we are in danger. Just as no one person can thrive under unhealthy or hostile conditions, neither can our nation thrive in an atmosphere of fear, fed only pablam and cheesecake. Searching for the nuggets of truth in the lies we are told by the mainstream press is a difficult challenge, but the value of facing the challenge is worth far more than I can put into words.

60,000 Crashes Per Year Caused By Cell Phones

This number is from self-reported cell phone users who were responsible for crashes in the US because they were too distracted by the phone to watch the road. Please, pay attention to the road, not your phone!

Update:
Now, the covid-19 crisis  has killed more than that in less than two months! We need to live our lives as if the lives of others depend on us, because they actually do in very real ways. May we each find the best path toward making the world a better place for everyone!

A Friend of Mine Was Murdered

A friend of mine was murdered.
Her husband planned it out.
Not her husband really, it was only her ex.
He planned it so that friends of his,
would be the first to respond.
He sat there over her body.
And smoked a cigarette.
Waiting for his friends to come.
So he could surrender to them.
Hand them the gun.
He had planned it all for months.
Making sure of every detail.
Parking a few blocks away.
Hiding in her garage.
He thought the claim, "Crime of Passion"
would let him fly free for his deeds.
Instead he is sentenced to life in prison,
but it won't bring her smile back to me.

At first, I sat in stunned silence, not wanting it to be true.
Then I grew restless, knew just what I had to do.
I would tell the world of her light,
cut down in it's prime.
I would fight the urge to hurl.
I would create a petition and get everyone to sign.
One to demand that those we trust, to serve the public good,
Are scrutinized with a microscope,
found to be free from hate and incapable of lies.

Then I found my way into the dark heart of her mate,
I hated myself for his rage, disgusted by our inhumanity.
I felt compassion for this weak and deranged creature,
who shot the object of his desire. Unable to see her truly.
Unable to fathom her depths, ignorant of her true worth.

I waxed and waned between wanting him tortured, killed,
and forgiving his senseless act.
No punishment can change the horrible loss of love that's felt
by all who know her name.
There remains an emptiness inside of me that "life in prison" cannot fill.
I only hope that in good time, her killer will regain, the part of himself that
went away when he stopped seeing someone there, behind the image that he made,
Upon which he leveled his cold dark stare.

It would be odd I guess, if I didn't tell the rest.
It's not the only love I've lost to husbands that were deranged.
Not the one I loved the most, I loved her just the same.
For all the ladies killed by men,
I pray and beg and boast,
that some good men are out here still.
So don't give up the ghost.

Ladies, you deserve respect.
Don't tangle with those boys,
who treat you like an object,
like one of their little toys,
and don't you let them tell you things
that put questions in your mind.
Boys will always be a waste of time.
Search until you find a man, who will stand up to the boys
and take you in his loving arms and feel and share your joys.

Lowest Crime Rate in Forty Years

All "traditional" types of crime are on the wane. Things we think of when the word crime is mentioned, murder, rape, assault, theft and property crimes have not been this low since the sixties. I don't think that we can attribute this to the fact that all the criminals have been jailed. Quite the contrary, people who have perpetrated crimes against me have never even been arrested. Oddly enough, the crimes that I have been victimized by have subjected me to ridicule from police, disbelief, or at least they have given the police a good laugh. Questioning victims as if they were perpetrators makes one wonder if cops just get off on dealing with "bad guys", or if they just get so used to dealing with criminals, that it makes them treat everyone with disdain. If we look to a larger picture, it only makes sense that as people learn to survive on less, and the economic outlook for so many continues a downward slide, there would be higher levels of desperation and propensity to steal and rob. Not so, I guess, we see crime rates falling in all areas, and for all crimes according to the FBI.

The petty sorts of crimes that hurt just one victim at a time have been replaced by crimes that hurt us all. Corporate outlaws who absorb billions in tax money and continue to make bad business decisions top my list of evil deed doers, but we seem to be at a loss for what to do with these bad boys. Law enforcement has been trained to look for footprints in the snow, leading away from crime scenes, finger prints and physical evidence that ties perpetrators to crime scenes. Now, there is even the ability to "search" the net for traces of illicit activity. Even though we have sophisticated ways of finding ordinary criminals, there is a definite lag between what is actually taking place and our response to it. If a company can be classified as "too big to fail", they can lay off thousands, pay their figurehead leader millions, and take our tax money with impunity. This double standard allows the rich to undermine our democracy in a most unsettling way. In response to these heinous crimes, it seems that some police agencies have redoubled their efforts to prosecute people who have engaged in victimless crime, growing marijuana, or God forbid, smoking it. It is confusing to see the attention we pay to trivia, while letting gross abuse of power and theft on a grand scale pass unnoticed. Profiling Muslims has become "defensible", but corporate outlaws are overlooked because we all "want to be like them", rich.

Back in the seventies, there was a pay disparity between the top CEOs and the average workers of 44-1. This meant that it would take working stiffs an average of forty-four years to earn as much as the top person in their company would make in one year. This was basically a person's entire working career, to equal one person's pay for a single year! The reasoning behind this was that top earners were smarter, better educated, under more stress, and responsible for bigger decisions that would make or break their corporation. Even though forty-four times smarter sounds impossible, forty-four times as educated sounds illogical, forty-four times more stress seems improbable and forty-four times more responsible ignores the fact that "average"workers are the ones that actually make products or provide services for which the company is needed in the first place.

Today, this pay disparity has climbed to 360-1. This means that what the average wage earner makes in a year is made in less than a single day by top "wage" earners. To equal the pay of a CEO today, a "family" of workers would require eight generations of toil to "earn" the equivalent of a single year of effort by these super-humanly smart, ultra-educated, incredibly stressed out, and uniquely responsible individuals who are "top dogs" in the largest companies the world has ever seen. Even as their corporations crumble, it is said that they deserve their unreasonable compensation. At some point, will we see through this charade? How long will we allow this insanity to continue? Is screwing a billion people okay if we only steal a penny from each person? How about a dime? A dollar? What if we force them into bankruptcy? Will we ever classify wage slavery as slavery and outlaw it? Why do we continue to look the other way? How can we support a system of all men being created equal but yet reimburse some as if they are 360 people? In this age of technological advances, we must develop our awareness, our culture, and our laws to keep pace with the lightning speed of injustice.

Letting those who have led us down a path toward inequality, have a say in resolving the problems they have created, is like letting a fox into the hen house. This is commonly the way our government deals with important issues. In Wisconsin, when "public utilities" got caught stealing 64 million dollars from residential rate payers, the utilities themselves got to decide how to spend the court ordered forfeiture. Letting insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals and health care providers tell us what they want in a "health care bill" guarantees that their interests get priority while the general public continues to get fleeced. Similarly, when the banks and some insurance companies had gotten into trouble, playing the odds with borrowed money, we gave their terrible managers a get out of jail free card. Many were able to leave their crippled companies with severance packages that exceed the lifetime earnings of 90% of all Americans. I think that bad managers should be punished. Perhaps, if they had to bear responsibility for their stupidity, lack of judgment, larcenous ways, illegal gambling with money that belongs to others, or misrepresentation that only benefits themselves, their illegal and immoral actions would cease. Lying, cheating and stealing are bad, no matter who has done them. People who are worth billions should not be exempt from laws that govern the rest of us. As happy as I am that the crime rate has plummeted, I think that we need to look for injustice wherever it occurs.

Hundreds of Known Killers Evade Police Daily

Having lost a third loved one to Cancer this year alone, my perspective may be a bit skewed, but the facts speak for themselves. Over four hundred compounds routinely created & released by humans fall into the category of known or probable human carcinogens. There are other substances that are called mutagens, which create genetic mutation in humans and teratogens, which cause genetic damage in the person's offspring, not the person exposed. Remember DES? Dimethyl-ethyl-stilbesterol was given to women during pregnancy and resulted in horrifying genetic damage. Even after this compound was banned for humans, it was still given to chickens to increase productivity.

Although nothing can take back the damage we have already done to our bodies and the environment, certain simple steps can reduce the threat posed by these killers and eliminate the deaths of millions of loved ones in relatively short order.

There are dozens of crazy things that we do on a daily basis. I'm not going to recite the litany of insane, stupid or senseless things that humans do. I'm just flabbergasted that chemicals are extended consideration that people would never be given. If I were responsible for the deaths of thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of people, millions over the course of a generation, would I be exonerated because it would hurt the economy? No. People are "innocent until proven guilty", but these chemicals, even when proven guilty, are used with relative impunity. They continue to get away scott free. I'm struck by the odd dichotomy that exists in our heads. When a person builds a commercial workshop, they may be required to vent toxic or carcinogenic compounds out of the building, "protecting" workers from exposure to these harmful chemicals. Neighbors are then exposed to the same chemicals that would eventually kill workers or sicken them if they were in the contaminated building for eight hours per day. Shut-ins who live down the block are then exposed to these chemicals all day long, even in their sleep. Back in the Seventies, I lost my first grandmother to Cancer. Back then, commercial interests claimed that they knew nothing about dangers of hazardous compounds like perchloroethelene, merchloroethelene, or the other commonly used dry cleaning chemicals that killed her.

Doctors wanted to try to fix a lifetime of poisoning, but they were unwilling to say that the chemicals killed her. In private, they would admit that the chemicals she used daily were surely the cause of her suffering and death, but they wanted us to fund cancer research rather than blow the whistle on the true cause. The results of our actions cannot be divorced from our actions any longer! Hoping to stem the rising tide of Cancer without stopping the creation and release of these culprit compounds only points out a mass hallucination or nationwide (worldwide?) psychosis.

We have plenty of evidence on the hundreds of compounds that are killing us. We just don't have the will to protect ourselves from the damage that they cause. Since we have a history of looking the other way, these chemicals and compounds are not even questioned, taken into custody, or locked up forever to prevent future deaths.

I often wonder why we wear pink ribbons, walk or ride our bikes to fund "finding a cure", when there is more than enough evidence to ban these substances outright. It takes a fraction of the will needed to change public policy to wear a ribbon, to give a dollar (or hundreds) or to walk or ride a bike. Personally, we all get to prioritize what is important to us, what we are willing to do or work toward, but we don't get to decide which of our friends and loved-ones will be taken from us by Cancer, or when. The pain and anguish is always the same. If we all made concerted efforts to reduce our dependence on these vile killers, it would go a long way to saving our friends and family from early, and immensely painful death. Even "Cancer-survivors" go through living hell. Living under the cloud of remission brings it's own terror and no one should have to live with that either. We need to spend our time educating ourselves about where these carcinogens come from, who stands to gain from their use, and why we have not realized our own part in their creation and distribution. Rather than just taking (absorbing) our unfair share of these offenders, we need to treat them as the killers they are. Stop accepting death as the wages of business as usual, ask the hard questions, and act with the knowledge that humans are more important that some fool's pocketbook.