What to be thankful for

I have a hard time this year to thank anyone other than the voters who elected our new President. I am looking forward to a brighter future. Other than that my heart is heavy. Is it because I almost stopped reading the book "Slavery by Another Name", by Douglas A. Blackmon?

The first third of the book describes a part of United States history I had not been aware of. It describes story after story how blacks in the South after the Civil War were incarcerated for crimes they didn't commit. They were given a fine. Then a plantation owner would pay the fine for which the black convict then had to work for many months.

I am still reading the book because history changed in 1904 with a new President. Apparently when Theodore Roosevelt became President, he started investigating the abuses of blacks in the South, and there then was hope. I am now looking forward to read on. So, there is hope.

My heart wants to believe in the strength of the people to buck the trend of complacency. But my head looks at the situation and is still full of worry. This country needs to wake up. Rip van Winkle is a man of the past. I hope each of us keeps believing in inner strength. I hope there is compassion. So I give thanks to hope!

The plot thickens

A recent study Autism Prevalence Rates and Precipitation Rates in California, Oregon, and Washington Counties indicates that there is an environmental component to autism. Apparently autism occurs more often in areas with increased rainfall.

What the article says is not that more rain causes autism. It says that there is a correlation. The way to interpret that is to say that there is either something in the rain that causes a toxic effect--that may be mercury blowing over from China--or simply that children who don't get as much sun and with that lack Vitamin D are more more susceptible to autism. Both hypotheses make sense. But a third hypothesis that both mercury-laden rain as well as the lack of Vitamin D work together is an even stronger argument.

Whatever the case may be the proposition that the lack of Vitamin D in conjunction with mercury coming from any source might cause autism is a very compelling supposition. I have already proposed that the reason for the difference in the outcomes of the Faroe and Seychelles studies might be explained by correlating the Vitamin D status of the children (Faroe Islands children are deficient due to their northerly geographic location, Seychelle Islands children have plenty due to their location close to the equator (~ 10 degrees latitude) with year-round UV-B exposure.

It would be interesting to see if children whose mothers are Vitamin D deficient are more likely to be autistic. It might also be interesting to see if adding high doses of Vitamin D given shortly after a mercury containing flu shot or after applying mercury amalgam to teeth or for that matter after eating mercury-laden fish would lower the incidence of autism.

Vitamin D helps to make glutathione and gutathione is necessary for mercury detoxification.

Day before election eve

I have hope that things will turn out for a better world. I came to this country 44 years ago. I had hopes that my choice to come to America for a life free of prejudice would free my soul. Things were not quite what I expected, and the last eight years were a rude wake-up call. I could not have foreseen that the collective decision-making power in this country has slowed to a snail's pace. I started to doubt that my choice had been made wisely. I knew that the place where I came from was not where I wanted to be. I completely embraced the American way-of-life. Often people tell me that I don't have an accent. I took great care to fit in because I loved the place I was able take in society, and that it was of my own choosing.

What I didn't realize, as I studied to be as American as could be, was that I was chasing a dream that was more elusive than just being reborn into a new world. I wanted it but it did not present itself the way I had anticipated.

That's why this election means much. I hope we do not expect too much. America is looking for new leadership. I for myself am only looking to a time when starting small will again be possible. Let the young be again able to fully realize their potential. Let it be possible for anyone to come from humble beginnings again.

Our economic system is like a puffed up balloon. All it takes is a pin prick to make it collapse. Let the lies die that promised great riches to only the few. It's time that this country wake up from its slow leaden ways and honor again the self-made man or woman. Let's share again and maybe let's accept ideas again that come as they did when Phoenix arose from the ashes.