Musings: Dear Dateline

Is the Hawaii Center for Food Safety suffering an attack of conscience? Or is it just worried about being sued?

Yesterday, it sent out an email breathlessly — and brazenly — claiming:

Did you know that in the 1980’s autism prevalence in the US was reported as 1 in 10,000 but as of 2014 it is 1 in 45? Here in Hawaiʻi, this could be due to the heavy commercial pesticide use near schools and other sensitive areas.

Dr. Ryan Lee, a Pediatrician and Director of the Neurodevelopmental Clinic at Shriners Hospital, testified in strong support of buffer zones around schools after he read the overwhelming literature linking autism and pesticides exposure in children.

A few hours later, they sent out another email, this one supposedly “corrected by our staff scientist,” that contained none of the alarmist, inflammatory language — and no reference to Dr. Lee. Perhaps he wisely recoiled at the prospect of his good name being associated with that blatant fear-mongering.

As I noted in an email that I sent to CFS director Ashley Lukens, the issue of autism causation is not nearly so cut and dried as she is trying to pretend. But then, why let facts get in the way of good fear-fest?

Meanwhile, I'm hearing NBC's Dateline is on-island to do a story — at the behest of anti-GMO activists — about the “poisoning of paradise.” If Dateline is anything like the other media that have come here at the invitation of the antis, it will include only the perspectives of the true believers.

So I thought I'd pen this open letter.

Dear Dateline,

Please don't believe everything you hear from the red shirts. They've got a serious ax to grind, and they don't represent a majority view on Kauai.

I'm sharing two recent comments, both left by the same person, in hopes they will help your team understand the views of westsiders who typically keep their thoughts to themselves. The comments were left in response to another commenter, in reference to a conversation about the overturned anti-GMO/pesticide regulatory Bill 2491/Ordinance 960, and the resulting Joint Fact Finding Group:

The silent majority said from the start. Show the facts first before the bill. Now the JFFG wants to start the process, which is great. The JFFG also said no evidence to the claim.

The silent majority still waiting for data to back up the original 2491 claims.

We back to square 1, getting the data.

We are silent and make a difference when we voted. We silent because we live n work around ground zero.

We silent because we know pesticides not killing us. Drugs, diet, and prolonged abuse of our bodies shorten our lives. When the good Lord wants to take us he will.

For me! I'm not afraid of dying, I've been close a bunch of times. I'm ready if its my time.

We silent because when you look at the big picture of how this island functions and what we have, we know pesticides is the least of our worries.

FREAKING DRUGS IS! The zombies fucking up themselves n their families is at the tipping point. But you wouldn't know. You don't see or pay attention to that world.

Yea we silent. Drugs abuse is what we protecting ourselves from. And other things more important than pesticides.

When you were gone, we the silent majority was working our asses off to take care what was important to our communities. You not here long enough to FEEL the hurt of this freaking division.

I can only hope that Dateline doesn't come up with another hit piece — like the one done by Chris Pala — that serves only to spread lies that further the "freaking division."

Aloha,
Me