The Shock'n Awe-ful Surge of our WMD

Precautions for a few, destruction for the masses? News warned the public about the planned (tiny area) spot spraying of remote Wood River trails in the Sun Valley area of Idaho. A large (6”x 8”) paid-for newspaper advertisement warned: “ALERT! The Wood River Trail Weed Control Program to commence July 12th”. This alert included the following information: “Noxious weeds will be spot sprayed on both sides of trails. Areas being sprayed will be identified with signs. Material Data Safety Sheets are available. Chemicals used will smell for days. (And in bold letters) Keep pets out until odor is gone.”

Such advance warnings indicate that even small amounts of herbicides could be poisonous to animals and people.

In sharp contrast, however, in the Snake River Plain just to the South of this area, hundreds of residential yards and hundreds of square miles of air, land, and America’s food products, are treated repeatedly with toxic herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, desiccants and pathogenic liquids and solids year after year. Such applications can occur at any time and without even an advance whisper to the public, not even to lovable pets.

Could pervasive multi-cides be one reason why: Teenage suicide attempts in Magic Valley have been increasing rapidly in recent years and are now averaging almost one and half huggable sons and daughters a day. Childhood cancer cases being treated by the Mountain States Tumor Institute are rising to about thirty percent over last year. Teenagers are dropping out of school and having children. Obesity is ballooning; immune systems and intelligence are declining. Jails are bulging with anger and hate. People are tattooing and piercing their bodies and frying their brains in frustration. Ever more people are escaping our collective harsh reality by withdrawing ever further into the hills or into fantasy and drugs. Society is becoming ever more chaotic in spite of, or because of, growing numbers of programs are substituting personal responsibility.

When will we hail the ultimate program, a “benevolent” dictatorship, to save us from ourselves?