The EcoVision Journal: The War On Freedom

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The WAR on FREEDOM

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar." - Julius Caesar

By Larry Cook, Publisher
An opinion piece

There is a war on freedom being waged in the United States. It's a covert war, thrust upon an unsuspecting public by its own government, the multi-national corporations, mainstream media conglomerates and sponsors of traditional healthcare modalities, to name a few. Citizens who do not question the information they are given become unknowing victims of and participants in this war. Because the war is usually ignored and actually encouraged by mainstream media, unless you have an open mind and are actively receiving information from a variety of sources, it's likely you have but just a glimmer of what's been going on behind the scenes.

Suppression of Freedom
To live in a democracy means to always ensure that those in power do not limit our freedoms, but instead liberate and empower us. In this issue of The EcoVision Journal we reprint a speech given on 2/17/02 by Dennis Kucinich, a U.S. Congressman from Ohio. Here you'll get a glimpse of how our own government is deliberately taking away our rights and dictating to us and members of Congress that they have the authority to do so in the name of fighting terrorism. What's ludicrous about this outrage against our civil liberties is that if you connect the dots from various sources of alternative and mainstream media, you'll find that many high ranking government officials had full prior knowledge of the attack on September 11th and deliberately did nothing about it! The John Birch Society-a very conservative group that has advocated freedom from government control for more than 40 years-is one source that has documented evidence that U.S. officials in high positions of power knew what was coming on Sept 11th and did nothing to stop it (see http://www.jbs.org). See also http://www.infowars.com.

Every citizen has a duty to hold their elected officials accountable for their actions (or non-actions), and the first step is to investigate their integrity and if it's found lacking, to get more involved in our democracy. 1 When we suspect that our elected (or un-elected, as the case may be*) officials are intentionally misleading us, then it's imperative that we not turn a blind eye and accept what the majority of mainstream media says, and instead research the situation ourselves and then decide a course of action. For the media is not the objective party they pretend to be, and corporate interests, political maneuvering and representatives of conventional medicine too often do not act in the best interest of the population.

*Or un-elected, as in the case of George Bush; read "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore and learn what the media isn't telling us. There's been nearly a full media blackout of Mr. Moore's book, yet as of this writing it begins its 16th week on the New York Times Best Seller list and, remarkably, it does so by returning, once again, to #1 position, and it's now in its 24th printing!
See: http://www.michaelmoore.com

Mainstream Media & Commercials Subvert Truth
One of the most frightening foundations of the war on freedom is the widespread and accepted lack of unbiased truth reported in the media-a practice that is encouraged by the hierarchy and politics of mainstream U.S. media which fosters blind complacency on the part of the mainstream audience. The fact is that only a handful of privately held groups own nearly ALL (local and national) forms of media (networks, newspapers, studios, book publishers, etc.); furthermore, these very same groups have strong ties to corporate interests, the military industrial complex and individuals in high levels of government.

Directly opposed to popular claims that the press has an adversarial relationship with the government, in truth U.S. media generally follow Washington's official line. This is particularly obvious in wartime and in foreign policy coverage, but even with domestic controversies, the spectrum of debate usually falls in the relatively narrow range between the leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The owners and managers of dominant media outlets generally share the same background, worldview and income bracket of the political elite. Top news executives and celebrity reporters frequently socialize with government officials. The most powerful media companies routinely make large contributions to both major political parties, while receiving millions of dollars in return in the form of payments for running political ads.

In this incestuous culture, "news" is defined chiefly as the actions and statements of people in power. Reporters, dependent on "access" and leaks (deliberate propaganda) provided by "official sources," are too often unwilling to risk alienating these sources with truly critical coverage. Nor are corporate media outlets interested in angering the elected and bureaucratic officials who have the power to regulate their businesses.2

I've worked as a sound person on multiple national television programs, and I've seen firsthand how people in the media sensationalize stories. Remember the Freemen in Montana in 1997? They had a beef with our government, which they felt was corrupt, and they had ideas about how to address this perceived corruption. While I was in Montana covering the story as a sound guy for NBC News, I witnessed a well-known anchor broadcast live to millions of viewers complete untruths about the Freemen. I was appalled that this anchor blatantly lied to Americans on national TV to intentionally manipulate viewers' perceptions about the situation.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a history of the media not telling the whole truth about certain stories, completely ignoring other important stories or giving favorable opinions on controversial topics to please their advertisers, which does little to help us understand the "real truth." Take for example our story on Mercury Amalgam Poisoning in our May/June issue.3 On May 28th, just three weeks after our story appeared about mercury amalgam, The Seattle Times ran four (four!) stories which suggested that mercury amalgam is quite safe. In Tacoma, the Tacoma News Tribune in a June 14th editorial asserted that fluoride is "good for humans," yet offered no research to prove it. So, check out our story in this issue, look into sources and decide for yourself if you think fluoride ought to be considered "good for humans" and, furthermore, forced upon citizens.

I could generate lists of misleading articles found in newspapers all over the country, but fortunately, a non-profit group already does that: "Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting" (FAIR: http://www.fair.org). They even have a book out that documents dozens of outrages in the press that would have Americans up in arms if they knew the deliberate deception being perpetrated against us. And these researchers give very credible examples of provably inaccurate information being pumped out by mainstream media. They show examples of media reporting an event one way, and another media reporting the opposite view on the very same day! The multi-national corporations which feed us nutrition-less, cancer causing foods are the same ones who own (directly or indirectly, through their advertising dollars) these media and therefore control the content of the messages (otherwise known as programs-ever wonder why they're called "programs," as in "programming"?).

Probably less shocking-but still an impediment to trut-was what I learned while I worked in Hollywood in TV commercial production for several years. I learned firsthand that the advertising game isn't about giving us accurate information about productsæit's about using whatever means is required to convince people to buy products, even if "claims" are "sleight of hand," that is to say, to appear one way even though the truth is different. I saw it more often than not on the dozens of TV commercials I helped produce for multi-national corporations.

Multi-National Corporate Control of Freedom
Multi-national corporations aren't much better about telling the truth than the media...especially when it comes to our food supply. Most of today's popular foods and drinks are full of cancer causing pesticides and herbicides,4 cooked to kill the enzymes (required for proper digestion and assimilation), processed with more chemicals to keep them from spoiling,5 greased to add flavor and alter the "mouthfeel," packed with the neurotoxin MSG to enhance "flavor,"6 irradiated to kill bacteria which chemically alters our food for the worse,7 artificially colored to make them look wholesome and artificially flavored8 so they'll taste somewhat "normal," and then preserved with more chemicals so huge quantities can be profitably shipped and stored without spoilage. And we wonder why we get cancer! Are we "free" when we're ever so slowly being poisoned into degenerate health every day? To add an element of irony to the situation, many corporations that sell toxic food are the first to sponsor such events as walks for breast cancer or MS research.
Then we have the promotion of genetically modified food so that mega-corporations can take control of our food supply under the guise of "producing more food to feed all people." In truth, their actual motive is to expand their dominance over our food supply beyond mere distribution to the point of complete ownership of plant life itself, and therefore ownership of our food supply.9 Why else would they modify seeds in a way that makes their offspring unable to reproduce to the next generation, except to force farmers to repurchase the same varieties each season (under threat of lawsuit!). This is another example of more freedom gone in the name of enterprise, which is a manipulation of capitalism.

And, consider the neurotoxin additive Aspartame, which is used to "sweeten" thousands of foods because it was given the OK by self-serving FDA officials who made a lot of money after they approved this harmful additive. Furthermore, after its approval, the majority of that same FDA panel just so happened to go to work for the corporation that had bought its approval!10 Even a common appliance most of us use-the microwave oven-has been shown to alter the food enough to cause health problems, yet we are told it's safe.11

"Animal food" isn't much safer with higher concentrations of pesticides and herbicides than conventionally grown veggies. They're loaded with antibiotics (which weaken the effectiveness of antibiotics intended for humans), given artificial growth hormones (which causes early puberty-especially in girls), pumped full of tranquilizers to sedate their nervousness from inhumane living conditions, and then processed in filthy disease-causing slaughterhouses.12 Put it all together and it's easy to see why poor health is rampant in America.

Those slick TV commercials, which so convincingly display their wares, make all of the above seem unreal and far-fetched. What's ludicrous is that every day of the year we watch on our TVs and read in our newspapers their advertisements which tell us that all the food they're selling us is not only good tasting, but good for us too! All the while, hundreds of well-documented scientific studies combined with millions of cases of anecdotal evidence says exactly the opposite. Are we truly free when we're bombarded with misinformation every single day for the purpose selling us products which will compromise our health (over time, of course), destroy our environment and create social injustice for the workers who produce such products? [The alternative is to buy organic whole foods.]

Natural Healing Modalities Suppressed
Our conventional medical science is great for acute trauma, such as when we get into accidents. But for chronic diseases, "allopathic" western medicine is severely lacking. Medical doctors go to school to learn three fundamental techniques for "health care:" diagnosis, drug treatment (management of bodily systems) and surgery. Now, this is superior for acute trauma, because if I get in a car wreck and have severe injuries, please take me to the nearest hospital and give me some pain medication and drugs to control bleeding, then sew me up and send me on my way. [I'd like to have some alternative options in that process, mind you...an integration of modalities.] However, what's lacking is attention to how chronic diseases manifest or what to do to actually cure them.

Medical doctors know how to figure out a symptom (say an ear infection) and then know how to prescribe a drug (an antibiotic) to kill the bacteria "causing" the ear infection. There's only one major problem with this, the bacteria is not the cause of the ear infection, it's the result. A weak immune system is the cause, and thus a "natural doctor" will work to find out why the immune system is suppressed in the first place.13 Interestingly, antibiotics kill friendly bacteria in the gut, and friendly bacteria in the gut are partly responsible for a strong immune system (thus the reason children easily get repeat ear infections when taking antibiotics). A natural doctor will probably give some anti-microbial herb drops to kill the offending bacteria in the ear, but will also go after the root cause of the illness (for example, food allergies can be a root cause). This is the prime difference between allopathic care and "alternative" health care practitioners: "natural doctors" use protocols which help the body heal itself, whereas most allopathic protocols are designed to indefinitely manage symptoms with drugs (great for drug companies, bad for us)...until surgery is ultimately (and frequently) required!
The truth of the matter is that multi-national pharmaceutical companies wouldn't make much money if we were all walking around in vibrant health. There are multiple cures for cancers, AIDS, herpes, MS and a host of other supposedly incurable diseases. But the FDA does a really good job of suppressing the most dramatically effective of these therapies by shutting them down after they begin curing people, or never allowing the technology to enter our country in the first place. For example, oxygen therapy, via ozone therapy of one's blood, will kill the AIDS virus and cancer viruses and bad bacteria, resulting in a cure, hence why it's been illegal in the U.S. (but legal in Germany).14 Cancer cures abound in alternative therapies,15 and even children with ADD/ADHD have had great success reversing their symptoms with holistic therapies.16 But we aren't told these things in the mainstream media...we're more often advised that such treatments are ridiculous. Why would the media have motives in suppressing that kind of information?

Once again, look no further than to the owners of these multi-national conglomerates and their strong ties to the very industries that have much to gain by keeping us sick, dis-empowered and in the dark. Natural treatments are often demonized in the press and made to look ridiculous, and without scientific backing, to boot. After all, if there's a new wonder drug on your favorite morning show, it's got to be for our own good, right? They subtly convince us that we should consider the latest form of Viagra, vaccine or flu-shot while behind the scenes the government is creating policies to make it mandatory to adhere to health models scientifically proven to CAUSE health problems!

For example, why FORCED vaccinations, when many vaccinations are known to cause major health problems in some children (and it's been proven that many vaccines simply aren't required for good health)?17 Or FORCED fluoridation, which has been proven to be toxic to humans? How about FORCED medical care with penalty of arrest if we don't abide by government orders (see our May/June article "Legislation for Tyranny"?).18 Is our Constitution and Bill of Rights something we only memorized as fourth graders? Only to be forgotten, or worse, stripped from us, all before our very eyes (in the name of "freedom"!)?

Defend Our Freedom
Adolph Hitler once said that if a lie is told often enough and long enough that people will believe it. Fortunately, though, it's also been said that the truth shall set us free. So freedom rests on our ability-your ability-to have an open mind and discern what's happening behind the scenes in our government, the multi-national corporations, the mainstream media, traditional healthcare modalities and other institutions of power. Investigate, and if you find an injustice which limits our freedom-especially through fabricated half-truths-then challenge it or join others who already do. Again, that's what it means to live in a democracy-to always ensure that those in power do not limit our freedoms, but instead liberate and empower us. And if those currently in power do not provide us with these God given rights, then let's elect those who will. Yes, let us unite at a grassroots level, and then defend our freedom from those in power who would take it away from us by telling us they need to have complete control of our lives in order to be "free"-an oxymoron if I ever saw one.