Joseph
by Virginia Haynes With Patricia Burke
The Virginia Story
I am a mother, grandmother, spiritual student, medical practitioner, and psychotherapist. I have a keen interest in the relationship between mind, body and spirit, from experiential learning in various therapeutic and spiritual traditions, as well as from studying Western research models. As a child in rural Maryland, I was able to experience and appreciate the delicate relationship between people and their environment. I started writing poetry about my relationship with the natural and social world around me, and went to college to major in English with a plan to be a writer. What happened was completely different. Instead of finishing school, she took some time to live in California in the late 1960s, and became involved in the anti-war and civil rights movements. These activist days have planted inside me the seeds that grew underground while I was in school to become a physician assistant, raise three children, work in the medical field, and then return to graduate school to study psychology. During this time my husband and I settled in Concord, Massachusetts, and we were very content with our lives. We had no way of predicting what would happen in the summer of 1997.
Microwave antenna In our church?
That summer, one of my church colleagues told me about a proposed PCS antenna in the tower of the Trinitarian church, my family’s church! My answer was “What is PCS?” I learned that the microwave radiation that would be emitted from the proposed antenna in the steeple had negative biological effects. She gave me an article with the title:Clear Call: America Unplugged-A Guide to the Wireless Issue “ by Blake Levitt Which I read on the train on my way to work the next morning. I learned a lot quickly.
According to Mrs. Levitt’s article, the ban is in Communications Act 1996 On consideration of “environmental” impacts in decisions regarding the placement of wireless antennas intended by their authors (telecommunications industry) To prohibit consideration of the health effects on humans. The article stated that even In 1996 there was enough reputable science showing the damage caused by microwave radiation To beware of massive build of personal computer antennas – and the telecom industry has known that.
My husband and I couldn’t have imagined that our church would collaborate with Sprint Spectrum at the time to earn $ 18,000 a year to broadcast microwave radiation into the neighborhood, which included three nursery schools.. We knew we had to do something.
Trying to work with the church
We prepared a notebook withA peer-reviewed science He presented it to the Church Committee. The committee responded by inviting an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Risk Assessment to meet with any members of the church with an interest; Peter Valberg. (This event was not widely publicized.) Several members attended a meeting at which the PhD attempted to reassure attendees with statements like this [the proposed antenna] Not a problem more than a light bulb. “
During this process with the Church, it was clear to me that we were providing them with genuine scientific research showing that this technology was harmful and yet they were not able and / or willing to understand it and act accordingly. Our small group of people threatened the core belief of Church members and leaders that technology approved by government authorities and highly educated engineers could not harm us. In order to resolve the contradictions between PhD ideas and those of our small group, something had to be presented. What he “did” was our small group.
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Although church members were informed that they would be consulted before agreeing to an antenna, the Church Committee signed a contract with Sprint. In response to our group’s objections, church leaders formed a “horoscope study group” including us and other church members, including doctors and scientists. While this group came together to study the case, the antenna was installed in the steeple.
Then our small group forced the church as a whole to hold a meeting to decide whether to honor the contract. We have been sidelined as a way to relieve the pressure of the obvious Cognitive dissonance. Surely the church committee couldn’t be wrong? They were responsible and good people. So, it had to be us. Church membership voted to honor the contract. After the vote, it was announced Forty people in the church neighborhood signed a petition asking the church to cancel the contract with Sprint. These neighbors were not invited to a church meeting nor were their concerns shared before the vote.
The Concord Citizens for Responsible Tower Setting (CCRTS)
Next, The Concord Citizens for Responsible Tower Setting (CCRTS) was formed. It was our first job To place an article on an order for a special city meeting Scheduled for the fall of 1997, to create The moratorium On the development of any new wireless facilities. This would allow the city to create a protective bylaw – never allow an antenna to be placed in a densely populated neighborhood like the one in my previous church.
The moratorium was passed at the city special meeting and approved by the MA Attorney General. Our group spent the next six months working with the Planning Board to create a regulation that would be as protective as possible, given the limitations of Section 704 of the Communications Act of 1996.
We also had a presentation in nearby Lincoln. The foundation was laid for a new organization and forum on the science and constitutionality of the Communications Act of 1996.
Massachusetts Council for Wireless Technology Impacts (MACWTI)
A follow-up meeting was held in Lincoln on May 5, 1998 to “Challenge the Cell Tower Rampage.” We formed MACWTI with a mission to help cities in Massachusetts put in place protective regulations. We gained members from many Massachusetts cities, and spoken in congregations from Cape Cod to western Massachusetts. Our eyes have also focused on a patriotic effort.
Public Forum: “Cooking America in the Microwave: Will the Communications Act of 96 endanger our health, our property, and our democracy?” And EMR network
In 1998 a public forum was held, sponsored by the Northbridge Alliance for Democracy, the Concorde Citizens’ Union for the Responsible Tower Site and the Concord Environmental Health Defense Association. Among our speakers: B. Blake Levitt plus scholars, policy and constitution experts.
Two of the people attending the American Microwave Forum were Janet and Dale Newton from Marshfield Vermont. In the fall of 1998, they invited interested activists to attend a meeting in Lake Morey, Vermont, to form a national organization to address the wireless issue. People from California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other states met and formed the EMR Network: Citizens and Professionals for the Responsible Use of Electromagnetic Radiation, which has Great achievement Dealing since it was formed.
So why are we all so anxious?
What is the concern about technology allowing people to speak anywhere to anyone, anytime without wires? What could be this bad?
Science
Thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies Exposure to microwave radiation (at energy levels and frequencies to which one may be exposed from wireless antennas and cell phones) has been shown to cause biological harm. The media focuses solely on cancer, as if it were the only possible consequence of exposure to microwave radiation. In addition, exposure has been shown to cause: a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (which protects the brain from harmful substances); Short-term memory loss Impaired immune function. Decrease in reproductive function. Beside Less developed memory and attention and slower reaction time in children. The weight of the evidence now exists Exceed The weight of the evidence linking smoking to lung cancer when general warnings were issued about the dangers of cigarette smoking.
Dynamics of power and the movement towards cognitive compatibility and modernization
There is enough evidence to begin resolving cognitive dissonance and move toward what Dr.. Leon Festinger call Cognitive compatibility. In just the 25 years that I worked on this problem, people have gone from carrying their phones next to their heads, to headphones to now carrying phones away from their bodies and using the speakerphone feature of their phones. People turn off WIFI at night. People are returning to wired systems.
Concorde citizens of the responsible tower website Had turned into Concord SAFE technologyAnd work on many fronts, including encouraging the Concorde Library Sustainability Committee to connect the Internet to the library, the local Concorde factory to introduce fiber-optic cable into homes to communicate with electricity meters, and the Select Board to develop a policy to protect the city from 5G, among other projects. In January 2020, Concord Safe Technology and EMR Network presented a forum in Concord, Technology is in our midst: How WIFI, smart meters, cell phone antennas and 5G pose risks to our health, privacy, security and planet.
Massachusetts Council for the Effects of Wireless Technology It was replaced by Massachusetts Safe Technology.
I still work on a board of directors EMR networkAnd the Now she is twenty-three years old. We support other organizations, maintain a website and have an educational face book page: Campaign for Radiation Free Societies: Places People Call Home.
I have also been working on an awareness project, to educate healthcare practitioners on the need to practice electromagnetic hygiene in their offices.. Office of Retinal Chiropractic in Acton, Massachusetts Already adopted recommended wired accommodations.
EMR Network will publish Message on our website To take to your healthcare provider information about how and why they should replace wireless devices with wired devices.
I joined a board of directors Leto Foundation, Which focuses on protecting children, incl Tech Safe Schools-Provide legal, scientific and technical information about the impact of WIFI on children in the classroom.
I think wireless radiation is changing our world for the worse. More and more people are becoming sensitive to electricity and getting sick from exposure in their homes and workplaces. When I think of my countryside childhood, devoid of the microwave radiation that is now, literally, Is raining From the satellites to my children and grandchildren, I feel sad. However, I gather strength when I look at their cute faces realizing that if my colleagues and I continue to work on educating people and changing policy, then there is hope that we will bring people to their senses, thus eliminating the wireless connection between us.
You can read the rest of the Mother’s Day series Here And find the entire Patricia Burke archive Here.
Highest Image Credit: Facebook / Campaign for Radiation Free Communities
Patricia Burke works with activists across the country and advocates internationally for new limits on exposure to microwave radio frequencies based on a biological basis. Resides in Massachusetts and can be reached in [email protected].
