Who Is Afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth? Or, Checkmate as Payback!

Indeed, who IS afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM)? Apparently the California Secretary of Agriculture Kawamura for starters. Why is the state of California AGAIN (see below) planning to poison its citizens with a carcinogenic pesticide-pheromone cocktail called Checkmate (nice strategic and metaphoric name with its applications) in efforts to "eradicate" a relatively nonexistent pest to protect potentially future private profits at the expense of public health? Why would the state earmark almost $75 million of taxpayer money to poison its citizens? Read on...

Well, Redpill8 has a blog entry that's a great place to start. And thanks to Redpill for some of the LBAM graphics!

Please read the aforementioned links and the ones below if you like to have healthy children, breathe clean air, eat great organic food, and drink pure water. If you believe in the right to live and pursue your happiness without being poisoned by the state in the name of corporate or elite political interests, please research this crucial issue more. Is the LBAM such a pest in CA? And how have others dealt with similar problems with the LBAM? What is this all about anyway?

Furthermore, what happened in Santa Cruz, CA last fall surrounding LBAM issues when urban populations were literally test subjects of the spray? The headlines could read...



Let's hear from a Santa Cruz city council member...




And what of the political ramifications of the onslaught against public health by the state for corporate interests? Scholar and author Michael Parenti and a colleague of mine in psychology at Diablo Valley College, Jerry Cross, suggested Checkmate was Payback from the Bush administration to punish the Blue State areas of CA. Why spray the LIBERAL and urban San Francisco Bay Area where no crops really grow, virtually no LBAMs have been seen, and millions of people live while NOT spraying the CONSERVATIVE central valley where especially cash crops actually DO grow (not to mention what would happen to many migrant workers in fields subjected to the spraying if it went there)? Hmmmmm...much to consider.

On that note, the State of California seems to have a similar preemptive strike policy on the LBAM to that of the Bush administration on Iraq for alleged but nonexistent WMDs. Alleged but nonexistent. Interesting. Like the LBAM and potential future missing profits (however that may be measured)? Like how the U.S. has been at war every year since WWII with people of (a light brown) color around the globe. Now it's time for the moth of light brown color to pay, too. Light Brown. Notice that it's the Brown moth. Like the Africanized killer bees that never came in the 1990's. They had to be Africanized, much more aggressive then the European bees the corporate media told us. How subtle from a country that practiced race based slavery for several hundred years and then had that fuel segregation and discrimination both domestically and abroad in its foreign policy throughout the 20th century. Khalil Bendib expressed this best in his recent editorial cartoon "Shock and Awe, California" seen here:



When are people going to wake up to this historical nonsense? The LBAM spray is not proposed out of some historical vacuum. The U.S. government has long experimented on and attacked its citizens for profit or political gains. Sad, but true. So...

See details below to get involved!

Wednesday, April 23rd, we're holding a teach-in about this crucial public health issue and onslaught on the population by the state for corporate interests. Details about the teach-in and more information below:

BERKELEY CITY COLLEGE-- Eco Fair from April 22nd to the 24th

Event: "Who is afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth? Or, Checkmate as Payback." LBAM Spray Teach-In- Wednesday, April 23rd, Noon to 2 P.M. BCC Downstairs Auditorium

A teach-in about the political, environmental and human health implications of the proposed Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) Spraying this summer in the Bay Area with speakers:

Pauline Bondanno, Berkeley Unified School District, Health Educator
Jerry Cross, Diablo Valley College, Psychology
Tara Levy, Naturopathic Doctor
Michael Parenti, PhD, Author, Scholar
Maxina Ventura, East Bay Pesticide Alert, DontSprayCalifornia.org
Nan Wishner, Chair, Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force

Audience Q&A to follow.

Moderator/Facilitator/Organizer: Mickey Huff, History, Critical Thinking, Media Studies

Contact information: Mickey Huff, event organizer, mhuff@peralta.edu

This event is part of the BCC Eco-Fair and is free and open to the public, wheelchair accessible. BCC, part of the Peralta Community College District, is located at 2050 Center Street, one block west of the Downtown Berkeley BART.

Other information about the Spraying is below...and plenty of information will be available at the event.

Listen to Michael and Maxina with others on the second part of KPFA's
Living Room with Kris Welch on the LBAM Spray (around 33 minutes in). And...

LBAM Spray
Pesticide Alert
Cal Alliance to Stop the Spray
Don't Spray Op/Ed

See you there!