The original cast of the stage performance of Les Miserables with a 250 voice choir, at the tenth anniversary in 2007

VIDEO
 
David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz discuss how the chemical industry and its powerful lobbies prevail in blocking efforts to reform outdated laws, leaving the public afloat in a soup of toxins. And Sheila Krumholz and Danielle Brian talk about the importance of transparency to our democracy, and their efforts to scrutinize who's giving money, who's receiving it, and most importantly, what's expected.

American Public Television
Distributed nationally by APT

David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz on Toxic Disinformation
Science can be a battleground -- witness the politics of climate change, the teaching of evolution, the uncharted terrain of genetic modification and stem cell research, among other contentious issues. But when industries release untested chemicals into our environment -- putting profits before public health -- our children are the first to suffer. Nowhere is this more troubling than in the ongoing story of lead poisoning.

Bill talks with David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, public health historians who've been taking on the chemical industry for years -- writing about the hazards of industrial pollution and the neglect of worker safety -- despite industry efforts to undermine them. Their latest book, Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America's Children, is the culmination of 20 years of research. Markowitz and Rosner warn that, for young children, there's no safe level of exposure to this dangerous toxin still lurking in millions of homes.

The authors discuss thwarted efforts to hold the lead industry accountable, failed attempts to find cheap solutions, and the cost to the future of our children. As long as the chemical industry and its powerful lobbies prevail in blocking efforts to reform outdated laws, Markowitz and Rosner say, we will continue to float in a soup of toxins -- inhaling, drinking, and absorbing chemicals that we may learn, years later, have put us all in harm's way.

There is a corruption at the heart of American politics, caused by the dependence of Congressional candidates on funding from the tiniest percentage of citizens. That's the argument at the core of this blistering talk by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig. With rapid-fire visuals, he shows how the funding process weakens the Republic in the most fundamental way, and issues a rallying bipartisan cry that will resonate with many in the U.S. and beyond.

Something to ponder . . .

Sherry Turkle studies how technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it.

Why you should listen to her:

Since her pathbreaking The Second Self: Computers and The Human Spirit in 1984 psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle has been studying how technology changes not only what we do but who we are. In 1995's Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Turkle explored how the Internet provided new possibilities for exploring identity.

Described as "the Margaret Mead of digital cuture," Turkle has now turned her attention to the world of social media and sociable robots. As she puts it, these are technologies that propose themselves "as the architect of our intimacies."

In her most recent book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, Turkle argues that the social media we encounter on a daily basis are confronting us with a moment of temptation. Drawn by the illusion of companionship without the demands of intimacy, we confuse postings and online sharing with authentic communication. We are drawn to sacrifice conversation for mere connection. Turkle suggests that just because we grew up with the Internet, we tend to see it as all grown up, but it is not: Digital technology is still in its infancy and there is ample time for us to reshape how we build it and use it.

Turkle is a professor in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT and the founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self.

"As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication -- and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have. Sherry Turkle studies how technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it."

BCTF Resolution #140, Vancouver, March 2013

Anthem       Leonard Cohen

The birds they sang at the break of day.
"Start again" I heard them say,
"Don't dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be."

Ah the wars they will be fought again,
The holy dove, she will be caught again,
Bought and sold and bought again. The dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs, the signs were sent:
The birth betrayed, the marriage spent.
Yeah the widowhood of every government -- signs for all to see.

I can't run no more with that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned up a thundercloud and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in. 

You can add up the parts but you won't have the sum.
You can strike up the march on your little broken drum.
Every heart, every heart to love will come, but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering. 
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

Observations and statements from doctors, scientists, journalists, government officials and a Harvard University Ethics Professor re censorship and lack of media coverage in the mainstream media re cell phone and wireless issues.

The Law of Mother Earth includes the following:

• The right to maintain the integrity of life and natural processes. 
• The right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. 
• The right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration. 
• The right to pure water. 
• The right to clean air. 
• The right to balance, to be at equilibrium. 
• The right to be free of toxic and radioactive pollution. 
• The right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities 
• The law also promotes "harmony" and "peace" and "the elimination of all nuclear, chemical, biological" weapons.

Invitation

"Once you decide on a course of action based on your beliefs, it is as if the Universe opens up resources for you to achieve your dream. Effort must be put in to take action towards those dreams, and then the right people, places and necessities will be drawn to you - assisting you along the way. It is as if you started the journey alone, only to later realize that others were there with you. You just weren't as aware of their presence then because the senses had not yet been awakened to that greater reality.

"The truth is, we are never alone when we are brave. Others have gone before. Courage is the birthright of every person who heeds the call to conscience."

Victor Khong
September 13, 2012