They've Assumed Control in California

[Mim]

Hi Everybody,

My name is Mim. I'm 35, and thanks to my older brother, I grew up listening to Rush in the 70's/80s. This music is wrapped up with many happy childhood memories, learning to count different time signatures with my brother who grew up to be a professional musician (really great percussionist), riding in the country listening to Red Barchetta on a walkman on a golden summer afternoon, trying to figure out how to play The Trees on the family piano, memorizing every beat of Exit Stage Left...happy things like that.

 

Tonight, I was listening to 2112, and the message at the end of it about them assuming control, and I suddenly needed to come find some Rush fans to talk to. I hope you don't mind listening.

 

Something terrible is happening here in California, where I live. 7 million people are going to be aerially sprayed with carcinogenic pesticides which will be dropped from planes which will be flying over our homes 5 nights a month, 9 months out of the year, for 10 or more years. I know this sounds crazy, but if you Google 'LBAM moth spray', you'll find it is being covered by all major news here. Lawsuits are in the works, and legislation, too, trying to protect the people from the agency that is doing this to us - the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

 

Last year, they sprayed in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties and hundreds and hundreds of families got sick. A little baby nearly died of respiratory failure. Hundreds of sea birds washed up dead on the beaches and the watershed was covered with this horrible toxic foam.

 

This summer, starting June 1st, they are going to be spraying San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and 7 counties around the Bay Area. This isn't spraying crops - it's spraying cities, and we've been told 'the authority lies with the state. There is no vote.'

 

My family's life has been turned upside down, and frankly, the people here are living in terror of the government. It's a huge, horrible mess.

 

The lies that are coming out of the 'official' mouths belong in the Temples of Syrinx. They tell us we'll be perfectly safe and have done everything they can to silence all the people who have gotten sick. We know we're not safe. We're going to be exposed to chronic doses of carcinogens and endocrine disruptors for years, and our environment is going to be completely poisoned, not only with the pesticides, but with the microscopic plastic spheres that they are contained in. These remain in the atmosphere for up to 90 days, get breathed into the deep lung, and can't be expelled.

 

What's happening is a crime - it violates our constitutional right to obtain safety, and once they manage to carry this off in California, they are going to hunt this totally negligible insect (the Light Brown Apple Moth or LBAM) across the state, spraying wherever they find it.

 

As a peaceable, quiet soul who loves liberty and who has tried to live a life that doesn't harm others, I am completely overwhelmed by the suffering I am witnessing around me. My whole way of life, my health, my world is being shattered by this public health disaster.

 

So, I am reaching out to the Rush fans. Maybe some of you are 70's kids, too, and remember a simpler world. Maybe, like me, you are disgusted that special interests and the corporate greed Rush has always sung about are allowed to take such precedence over human health that it's possible for businesses to get away with dumping pesticide on 7 million people in order to turn a profit. The chemical manufacturer and the ag department will make billions off of our suffering...and I just think that's plain wrong.

 

I hope I haven't come off sounding crazy or like I'm talking about a conspiracy theory. Like I said, you can Google this, read the news, go look it up on YouTube and watch all the town meetings.

 

I am so sick of this corporate, governmental abuse of people. I would like to ask the good folks here to consider investigating this issue. If you do, and you decide it's an evil nightmare, I humbly ask that you call our Governor - Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's the only one who can pull the plug on this crisis, but he's received $150,000 in donations from the pesticide manufacturer and just grins at everyone and says it's safe to spray pesticides on people.

 

His number is: 916-445-2841

 

There is also a Stop The Spray petition at ThePetitionSite...I'd link to it, but I don't want to seem to be spamming the forums here. I moderate a tech forum, so I understand there are rules about that. But, you can google it. It's got about 25,000 signatures now, and we desperately need more.

 

Also, if you want more information, you're welcome to visit my blog, veganreader.com. In the middle of this chaos, I have been trying to communicate with people who've been made ill, who are turning into refugees and selling their homes in order to try to flee the spraying.

 

Basically, it's the kind of crazy situation you'd think would only happen in a scary sci-fi movie, but it's happening, for real, in California.

 

Thanks, guys, for letting me talk about this, and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. This forum looks like such a great place to share that special feeling about the greatest band ever.

 

I'm hoping I can get back to the kind of peace some day where I can just enjoy the little things in my life...listening to music, taking a walk, looking at clouds. But all those things have been shoved to the side while I'm trying to fight for my life, and I'd so appreciate it if Rush fans could lend a hand. Thank you.

Mim