Okay... Now, LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. [by R. Cromack]

I originally posted this in another thread as a response to an "Anonymous" poster who was taking the BRAWM folks to task for, I guess, possibly having cleaner tap water than he / she, and for NOT performing testing of his water source. And smacking that person down, which in itself was a fairly unusual thing for me to do, here, got me to thinking:

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT ALL THIS?

It's been a month, now, folks. At least four weeks since the first radionuclides started wafting up on our shores. It's IN THE FOOD CHAIN, now. It's in every cistern, very stream, every open-air reservoir, every cow that eats pasture grass or drinks from an unprotected trough. Every free-range chicken, pig, steer, turkey, deer, and alligator. Likely every farm-raised fish. Not to mention, anything caught or captured ANYWHERE in or near the western or northern Pacific Ocean, from kelp to crabs to tuna to tilapia.

It's on EVERY SURFACE exposed to the elements. It's in your house, your car. In your hair. In your pets' hair. On the glasses and dishes you eat off. Unless you have a fully capable, triple-threat home purification and filtering system, you MAY take baths and showers in it. You may be brushing your teeth with it. You may be "cleaning" your utensils and coffee pots and your kids' lunch boxes in it.

It's HERE, is my point. And if what I'm saying is scary, well, sorry, but TOUGH. This is reality now. There is no escaping it -- We now live in a free, unaware, but lightly irradiated country. It is a fine sedimentary layer that may well be readily observable to future generations of archaeologists. Trees cut down in the future may incorporate cesium into their rings. Autopsies performed on people who were alive during these times will almost certainly detect trace amounts of all sorts of lovely, exotic elements.

We've been here, a lot of us, for WEEKS, demanding answers and arguing theories and offering wildly varying perspectives and criticizing conclusions and throwing out our own widely sourced speculations. We are, ALL OF US, frustrated by the Government and the public-health authorities' and the so-called "experts"'s apparent lack of open communication, trustworthy data, prompt explanation, accessible clarification, and reliable transparency. We can ALL AGREE that, whatever this is, whatever it means, whatever the results will be, the people who are responsible for informing and leading and educating the public are doing, for whatever reason, an absolutely ABOMINABLE job of it. And their lack of seriousness, or forthrightness, or credibility, is causing even greater damage -- encouraging perhaps not wholly warranted suspicions, inspiring anxiety, fomenting conflict, and impairing the ability of those who really ARE trying to help us, from being able to do so, because of all the chaos that their self-imposed silence and platitudes and bulls--- is generating.

And now I say: It's time to STOP FIDDLING AND START DEMANDING ANSWERS.

Like I said in another thread: "You want local testing? Call up your area university or health services department, or your local water board, and start asking questions. Get your neighbors to do it. Start an E-mail chain letter. Pen a letter to the editor of your local paper. Get on talk radio. Contact the investigations reporters at your local affiliate. Call your Senators, your Congressman or -woman, your State Senator or Representative, your City Council, your Mayor. Start writing a blog. Start dedicating your FaceBook or MySpace page or your Twitter account or your YouTube Channel to running this down. Stand up at your burg's next open-attendance governance meeting and speak clearly into the microphone. Ask friends and family whether they know anybody with "pull". If we ALL -- myself included -- did that, and HAD been, instead of baiting and teasing and depressing and arguing and trying to one-up each other in this stupid Forum, maybe we'd BE seeing some sort of activity, by now."

I think it's time to stop tearing each other apart, now, and start coming together in a common cause, with a few clear and fixed objectives:

[1] Increased (hell, simply EXTANT) communication of information
[2] Vastly expanded and more timely monitoring
[3] Expanded access to raw data
[4] Clear, prompt explanations of measurements
[5] Consistent explication of possible impacts, short- and long-term
[6] Acknowledgment of the limitations of knowledge
[7] Access to informed experts in relevant fields, such as nuclear physicians
[8] Encouragement of differing opinions and solicitation of non-"approved" expert opinions

...And that's just to start.

Again, quoting myself -- the first and best sign of a deranged mind, remember: "Like Kazoo -- of all people -- said a day or two back: (paraphrasing) 'Hold on a minute, there. We're ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.' ...[I]t's time we all [stop snipig] at each other all the time and start WORKING TOGETHER to LIGHT A FIRE and get these folks at BRAWM some friggin' HELP.

"(And I'd just like to say -- I am NOT the person to "lead", or whatever, that effort. I don't say this for personal or egotistical or self-glorifying reasons. But IT'S TIME TO START DEMANDING ANSWERS FROM OUR GOVERNMENT, OUR PUBLIC-HEALTH AUTHORITIES, OUR MEDIA AND OUR SCIENTISTS. And I'm tired of this doomsday circle-jerk, folks, I really really am. If this IS a potential danger, short- OR long-term, to the health and welfare and finances and stability and even the LIVES of us, our families and friends, our neighbors, and our country, then, for the love of God and humanity, PLEASE LET'S GET OFF OUR ASSES AND START DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT, AND STOP JUST WALLOWING IN SUSPICION, FEAR, AND UNINFORMED SPECULATION. We all agree: There ARE people out there who actually know SOMETHING, right? ...Well, let's go find 'em.

"If someone wants to start thinking seriously about this, and start putting together a PLAN OF ACTION we can ALL start working collaboratively toward fulfilling, I would LOVE to hear their thoughts, no matter WHO they are. And I actually have a thought about someone's input I would like: Kazoo. I hope you read this, partner. Again, I may not like you, and I probably never will -- but I'm more than willing to admit that WE NEED YOU. Perhaps not to lead, but certainly, with your critical / skeptical mind and ability to cut right to the heart of the matter, to opine and, perhaps, to focus. And I am eager to hear your & others' suggestions, and to start TAKING ACTION.

"I would also like to hear from UCB Scientist, and Lisa, and Webworker, and many others.

"...You know, it's funny that this sort of thing might start here -- 'at' Berkeley. Life is full of juicy ironies these days.

"Oh -- one last thing. This may be 'my' post, but this is WAAAY too important to be tripped up, misdirected or just plain FUBARed by someone as immediately emotionally compromised, to use a 'Star Trek' phrase, as I am at the moment. The minute I become a distraction, is the minute I no longer serve any constructive purpose. If that happens, I ask to be told so, by E-mail or phone call if possible, but I'll listen no matter how that message is conveyed.

"That's all I have to say about this. Now I want to 'listen' to what YOU have to say. Thanks for reading this."

Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas
RichardFCromackJr@gmail.com
972-746-8575