Well...some of this web site's more distinguished correspondents appear to be locking horns. I hope not.
Congressman Morgan Griffith has long, and to some ways of thinking justifiably, been proud of his efforts to bring 5G cell phone transmission to the hills and forests of the Ninth District. Some people want this. Some would even say they "need" it.
I think that, like everything else, 5G technology offers potential benefits and potential dangers, and should be approached cautiously, with a focus on reducing the dangers.
But some people in Robert F. Kennedy's Children's Health Defense network are now saying that they're super-sensitive to phone and radio radiation. They say that they can feel when phones and laptops are connected to Wi-Fi, that the way they feel the effects of the radiation is as malaise, forgetfulness, or even illness.
I don't feel those effects myself. I've never known anyone who did. I can tell what my laptop computer's doing. When it's doing anything at all it heats up; when it's connected to Wi-Fi, due to my tendency to have unreasonable numbers of tabs open, it heats up to the point that the little heat waves I feel coming out of it remind me to close a few tabs. But the only health effect I've ever felt from being around computers has been eyestrain--or loss of sleep or exercise when I get involved in a computer project.
And? Though as many as one-third of Americans now have some difficulty digesting wheat because of the glyphosate residues, and pseudo-celiac reactions are now very common, genuine genetic celiac sprue is something that happens to about one in ten thousand people of Irish descent. The celiac gene has been found in the rest of Western Europe and wherever Western Europeans have gone, but it's rare. Most people have some sort of adverse reaction to glyphosate. Most of them have similar reactions to other things and can't tell when they're reacting to glyphosate. My close relatives and I are the only people I know who will reliably gush blood-flecked froth every time we're exposed to, apparently, any discernible amount of glyphosate--and, since we know how to avoid eating wheat, only when exposed to glyphosate. But so we do. And I say nobody has a right to inflict this kind of pain, humiliation, and damage on us, merely because person is too lazy to weed per garden or too miserly to pay laborers to weed big fields.
Well, then, it follows that, even if I might get some benefit (better phone connections) out of 5G technology, I have no right to make others ill for whatever little benefit I might get, either; and no more has Congressman Griffith.
I added my name to a CHD e-mail blast. The CHD e-mail blast is less sophisticated than the petition systems I usually sign, and does not allow any sort of personalization. It is the equivalent of one of those printed petitions on long sheets of paper where thirty or forty people write their names on lines below a petition, rather than a letter. Because of this lack of sophistication, I risked appearing rude to the congresional staff--as if I hadn't been reading Congressman Griffith's E-Newsletters all these years, and hadn't realized how hard he's been trying to satisfy those of his constituents who want 5G, like, from 2017, what's the flippin' hold-up? Mountains, hills, and trees make wireless and wired technology very hard to support--and very expensive.
But I do think all our members of Congress should know this about my town. Students want 5G. A few business people want 5G. I don't particularly want 5G, or think it's likely to be worth its cost, but I'm not afraid of the kind of effects our CHD colleagues are reporting. (And I know some people want to say "It's all in your minds," and to them I say, "How dare you say such a thing, in the absence of proof? What goes around, comes around! Tremble!") But a majority of people in my town don't want 5G, actually, though they don't seem to fear it and don't report any particular sensitivity to radio or cell phone radiation.
From its beginning this web site has been poor. None of its members is really destitute but none of us has much in the way of liquid assets. Well, creative art has always depended on sponsors. This web site's reliable sponsors are few, and also, relative to my network of acquaintances, they are remarkably non-wealthy. They are not the millionnaires I know. The millionnaires, like most of the ordinary middle-class people I know, aren't into new technology. It's not that some of them haven't wanted to support my writing career. It's the Internet they perceive as an unnecessary, distracting, money-wasting boondoggle. "If you need money you can always sell those wretched computers! Your father wouldn't have had such things in the house!" I've heard. "The Internet is the Devil," I've heard repeatedly. "When are you going to stop fiddling with computers and go up to the college and write a real book?"
So, of course: "Computers in the schools? What a bad idea. Better to throw out all the computers and teach the children something worthwhile." And, "Phone towers? Well...if the companies are paying, with the money their victims send them, to put them on their own property, that's their right--but I'm not putting my money into it!"
Thus speak Gate City, rich and poor. In working to bring 5G technology to the Ninth District Congressman Griffith has been serving a few of the schools and businesses well, but has not been representing most of my town at all.
We are actually a town where for years, all the stores had land lines but squabbling between different phone companies kept their phone numbers from being listed in the telephone directory. Then the storekeepers discovered the economic benefits of using cell phones and paying by the minute of actual phone use, rather than by the month, since they didn't have listed phones to take calls from customers anyway. Then the spammy text message and robot call problems exploded. Now it's downright out of style to have any kind of phone. Seriously. I have displays of books in three different stores: damaged books in a charity store, very new or very old books in the shelves in a furniture store, and ordinary gently used books in that mission store that's not properly opened yet. And none of those three stores has a phone.
I don't think the plain people of Gate City are really opposed to our Congressman's support for 5G but I don't think it's exactly a campaigning point for him to use, either...This recent mess with Verizon having bought out Tracfone, and threatening to stop our trusty Tracfones working, comes as the last straw for some of us. I have one of those nasty "smartphones," and I will say it makes a good flashlight, but it lives in a drawer and I will not be the one who pays to connect a so-called phone to Google, for pity's sake. I believe in cell phones as personal safety devices, but if my Tracfone is forced into obsolescence I will remember how long people lived without them. I'm not alone in this. There is a real little backlash movement against the greed of the technology industry, out here.
Anyway, after all that, here is the polite form letter...I suspect it was a staffer who e-mailed me this form letter. I suspect it was intended as polite chastisement. It feels that way. "Hello? Clue for the clueless, here!" I'm not all that clueless--I posted some of the facts below when they came in the Congressman's E-Newsletters, didn't I? I have tweeted at him, though, about the need to respect and protect the people who claim to be hypersensitive to this stuff. I wouldn't mind the form letter if it showed some concern about those people.
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September 16, 2022
Dear Ms. King,
Thank you for contacting me regarding the deployment of 5G. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.
As millions of Americans work and learn from home during the coronavirus public health emergency, we see yet again how vital fast and reliable Internet service is in the present era. A strong presence in 5G spectrum by the public and private sector is an important component to America’s economic and national security.
I am concerned about actions taken by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the telecommunications industry and the use of state-run enterprises to advance the CCP’s agenda. The CCP routinely exploits its relationships with Western countries to enrich itself and promote its own power while still engaging in abhorrent human rights practices.
On April 22, 2020, after hearing from many stakeholders, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously approved an application by Ligado to deploy technologies in the L-Band, a low bandwidth spectrum, to support the services of 5G and Internet of things (IoT). Ligado agreed to deploy its network at reduced power levels and ensure the protection of adjacent band operations, including the Global Positioning System (GPS) from interference.
Ensuring the availability of spectrum will help deploy and advance new technologies that will benefit American consumers and allow the United States to lead on a global stage in 5G and into next-generation applications.
You’ll be interested to know that on June 1, 2020, I sent a letter to the FCC encouraging them to find ways to speed 5G deployment and to continue their work at modernizing and innovating our networks to use 5G.
I am eager to see additional 5G related legislation move through the Energy and Commerce Committee to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Quality Internet access expands the horizons of commerce, agriculture, health, and numerous other aspects of modern life, but the digital divide limits too much of the country. Please know that I will keep your thoughts in mind should I have the opportunity to vote on broadband policies in the House of Representatives.
For more information on what is happening in Congress, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. If I may be of further assistance to you on this, or any other issue, please feel free to contact me in my Washington, DC office at (202) 225-3861. I remain
| | Sincerely yours,
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH
Member of Congress |
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