I prefer asparagus...

...grown in my own backyard - you know - one of those backyards in the Tittabawassee River floodplain... you know the yards our own Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and a few misguided people denigrated with their accusations.

I'm sure you've heard about the E. coli epidemic in foods grown in California. This article from Detroit Free Press actually doesn't cover the more recent information I heard this morning. Cleaner spinach starts in the field The latest news tells us some bodies of water in farming areas are contaminated with E. coli. They tell us that these dangerous creatures (bacteria are creatures, aren't they? - microscopic but nonetheless creatures) actually permeate the foods they invade. In other words, you can't wash it off like you can wash lesser contaminants.

Hmmmm! E. coli = makes people very sick and kills people! Dioxin = insignificant difference between our local backyards and the rest of the country and it hasn't been known to kill anybody even in gigantic quantities (remember Yushchenko?)

Today's Giggle...

can be seen in the Midland Daily News - Disposal site eyed by Dow? I was just about to say something nice about some of the people in this article but changed my mind when I read it! I guess it just goes to prove 'old hippies never die - they just continue to make themselves look silly.'

A September 9, 2006 Midland Daily News article reminded me...

..so I searched my computer for this photo which I took in springtime 1962. It shows my husband Frank and our four oldest daughters, ages 6, 5, and twins aged 4. It was pretty cold that day so the 2 year old and 2 month-old baby were in the house. This was our second springtime along River Road and our second flood. Not sure how this pic survived since most of our family photos were destroyed in the flood of 1986.

This photo depicts why I speak up against the faulty logic passed on by environmental activist fear-mongers. They say '...what about the babies & pregnant mothers?' and all that scare tactic stuff! Well, we were the mothers. Our children were the babies!!! ...and we weren't the only ones. There were generations before us along the Tittabawassee River plain. There were plenty of mothers... plenty of babies! Most of us were and are healthy! Past generations along this river plain lived long lives back before it became almost common to live for 90 plus years!!! We are the test and the proof that fear-mongering is just that - fear-mongering!!!

...so here is that article that inspired today's tirade:
The rain beat down for 27 days - so says the Midland Daily News. If you're even a few years more than 20 years old I'm sure you remember that year! I'll remember it. We had over five and a half feet of water in our house... and it stayed and it stayed. Guess who cleaned it up! We did - some of our children and my husband Frank and me!

A while back I promised to share my comments on the August 15 University of Michigan meeting when Dr. Garabrant & his team discussed results of the two-year blood serum/soil study. I took a while, but here it is:

• I saw the angry little pack who just do not want a solution. They only want revenge for a wrong that occurred before anybody knew it was a wrong. They want revenge even though actual scientific studies indicate there is no health problem. This is obvious in this article published in the Saginaw News Opinion page on August 20, written by a leader of that angry pack.
• I saw a much larger group of people, including me, who were happy and excited to hear the good news. This group was hopeful that perhaps the 'problem', the labels on our properties and the eco-fearmongers lies would be put to rest. This was expressed simply and elegantly in this article by my friend Len on the same Saginaw News Opinion page.
• I saw a group of brilliant scientists who had done a terrific job - whose work was now being denigrated by a few people who apparently want to 'make a name for themselves' based on pseudo-science and suppositions.
• I saw employees of a large company (Dow Chemical) and regulatory employees of the state of Michigan (MDEQ) - trying to fix a problem the few fear-mongers created through their publicity and their need for recognition within their little 1970's anti-establishment greenpeace community.
• I saw a situation that will not be resolved unless and until the company and the state ignore the squeaky wheels of professional environmentalist activists whose ears are closed to all but their own goals.

Now, just because I thought you might be interested, here are more articles I wanted to share with you:

• These letters to the editor Saginaw News were published after the August 10 meeting at the Horizons in Saginaw. This pdf document includes: a letter from the scientific community, Dr. Varner and one from an individual who remembers the old days playing in, around and on the Tittabawassee River, with no side-effects in his older years as well as another letter from the local chronic 'aginner' (one who is against everything).
• an article from Midland Daily News after that meeting, entitled Don't paint Tobico trails with a reputation. Gee, not that there should be a need to mention this but - did it occur to anybody that when one strays from a trail in our local parks along the Tittabawassee, we are greeted with giant signs, decreed as required warnings by our local econutz, scaring people away from those parks? ...and yet just a few feet from the Tobico paths.... no warnings? The 'powers that be' at Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have no qualms about giving our homes along the river plain a bad reputation!!!!