Editor:
Our constitution reads “We, the People”, a concept that has been lost in this country in our mad rush to accumulate money. Human values has been tossed aside in favor of consumer values. Consider; T.V. commercials show a lovely young mother spraying the air with some air freshener product, then smiling beatifically at the pleasant fragrance, unaware that she has just polluted her home environment with an assortment of factory designed and mixed chemicals, not natures’ scents. The FDA, because of deregulation, is not required to investigate the potential toxicity of any of these products. These pollutants will enter the lungs causing diseases such as cancer, asthma and various allergies, and then enter the blood stream to the brain causing mental and emotional aberrations, such as Autism and Attention Deficit Disorder among children (and we blame sugar for ADHD???). There are commercials for anti-bacterial sprays and soaps, to kill germs before our children come in contact with them. As doctors know, and have repeatedly stated, our immune system needs exposure to germs to develop resistance to them. A baby, protected from germs by these anti-bacterials, will quite likely die from any minor disease it is exposed to because it has developed no immune defense. There should be a huge outcry from the federal and state Attorneys General for misleading advertising, and from the American Medical Association, warning us of the dangers of using these products. There is none, because it is not about people, it is about money. We need jobs, we get tax cuts for the rich, we need health care, we get health insurance, we need warm, intimate, loving relationships, we get birth control bans. The entire world watches in fascination as America disintegrates, attacked internally by an utter lack of understanding of real values. We built a huge military force to defend ourselves against external enemies, and then, as Pogo in the old comic strip said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us”
Barrie Johnson, Exeland