Doctor Shaheen on dioxin...

Doctor Shaheen was guest columnist in the Sunday, July 10 Saginaw News. Sounds like he's been reading the same letters to the editor and other articles about dioxin and the so-called 'problems' associated with it that you and I have been reading. Since his generous offer to purchase any property along the Tittabawassee River for a fair price, he has been criticized by environmental extremist fear-mongers in our area. He speaks with such simple truth and honesty you must read what he has to say. Take advantage of my highlights or forgive them. He had so much to say in such a concise manner I felt a need to highlight what I considered most important. Even without the highlights, the article is colorful!

Job preservation behind offer to buy riverfront land

• Shaheen began his article with '...in more than 50 years of medical practice I have not seen an illness that stemmed from dioxin poisoning.' Who would know better than a physician, eh? This Doctor does not have weird 'lapses of memory' like the guy who calls himself a doctor and couldn't remember going to a mobile unit to have his blood tested for dioxin. Remember that Brasseur guy at one of the meetings?
• Shaheen's use of the term 'mass hysteria' is well-placed. This mass hysteria is caused by a few well-chosen actions on the part of extremists accustomed to using terrorist tactics to develop a following... and obviously are not afraid of planting a bit of misinformation here or there to aid their cause.
  Brasseur was one such plant. Then there was Gary Henry at the meeting where the extremists told me to 'shut up!' He started the falsehood to which I was responding when his cohort started the verbal mass attack on me... and retracted it after the meeting in private discussion. A prominent citizen along the Tittabawassee River floodplain told me he received a phone call prior to the lawsuit from a person inquiring whether he was worried about having all that dioxin in their backyard. This was during the environutz' litigant-shopping portion of their dioxin campaign. Well they found a few individuals to lead the hysteria parade, didn't they?
• Shaheen pointed out that Dr. Birnbaum's list of possible effects of dioxin are similar to the precautions inserted with prescription drugs.
• He also responded to people accusing him of false promises to buy their homes. So far he has made arrangements to purchase more than $1 million of riverfront property... completely by himself, he adds.

God bless you Dr. Shaheen. You are a pearl in a sea of sharks!