The Scourge That is Much Worse than Radiation

Surely, the accident at Fukushima has uprooted many people and changed their lives forever. It is under debate how many people will have their health affected by this disaster.


This article is about another hazard that is afflicting the youth of today. This hazard, this disaster, is going on right now all over the western world; and it is going on right in front of people - and these children's parent's faces - sometimes with those parent's blessing no less! 


This scourge is a slow killer. It destroys minds and imaginations. It is draining the lifeblood out of our youth. Just go to any American city and you will see hordes of obese children who are involved in this past time and, no, I'm not talking about junk food - although that can be said much about.

Previous generation role model

This unstoppable tsunami of brain damage is destroying lives right in front of our faces yet very few are doing anything to stop it. It is a scourge that is destroying the minds of youth today.


Make no mistake about it, even though this horrible infliction is widespread, there are those in the medical community who have been ringing the alarms bells, especially those involved in the area of psychology and physiology, but their voices are rarely heard. They haven't the power to make the dangers well known or to spread the word among the vast public at large. 


The medical community hasn't the marketing or promotional money or ability to take on this giant that is ravaging the minds of today's youth. The big business behind this scourge can buy all the advertising they could possibly want or need in order to poison the minds of the children today. 


But these big companies are not the worst offenders. The worst offenders are, in fact, the parents of these children who are damaged by this now common "disease." It is because the parents actually condone this disease and allow it into their homes. 


The changes that this scourge are causing amongst the youth today can be classified as a mutation. Specifically as a Spontaneous Mutation with one small difference.


A Spontaneous Mutation is defined as:


Spontaneous mutations occur without exposure to any obvious mutagenic agent. Sometimes DNA nucleotides shift without warning to a different chemical form (know as an isomer) which in turn will form a different series of hydrogen bonds with it's partner. This leads to mistakes at the time of DNA replication.


I suppose the disease I'm talking about now cannot be classified as Spontaneous Mutation as, the definition of Spontaneous Mutation is that it will lead to mistakes in replication. Well if, "mistakes in replication" means reproduction, then this definition won't work. The youth afflicted with the problems I am talking about couldn't possibly ever reproduce as they could never get a girlfriend. They seem unable to hold even the most primitive conversations, how could they possibly get a girlfriend? And even if they did somehow manage to get a girlfriend, they could never support a family as they will be too dumb and/or brain-dead to ever hold a decent job higher than flipping hamburgers.


Great! So they become drags on society. 


See? While radiation poisoning is rare, I'm talking about a common affliction that is sending our already wasted youth off the cliff to oblivion. The worst cases of this group won't ever be able to hold a job and will always be sponging off mom and dad or wind up in a crap job or be homeless.


Because of this affliction, the victims seem to lose the ability to perform satisfactorily in a social environment. What I mean is that they have terrible social skills and cannot converse or interact with other people. This is a problem when you are a monkey in a gregarious group of monkeys, er, excuse me, I meant to say a Homo Sapien..

This disease is actually worse than excessive TV watching for the mind. Everyone knows TV is brain damage. I've written about that before in Plug in Drug Redux and Plug in Drug where I pointed out: 

The TV is actually a drug. But its dangers are even worse than anyone suspects. Married couples think, "Without a TV, my husband and I would have nothing to talk about" (I've heard this many times) but these people have it backwards. Because they have a TV, the couples don't talk about important things and make the effort at spiritual growth (no I'm not talking about religion).

Have you figured out the disease yet? It's worse than TV because TV is left at home. This brain damage is portable and carried around all the time. Let me give you some more hints:


In Japan, this summer, I was at a birthday party for my then seven-year-old son. One of the parents told me that his son was just dropped from third grade to second grade. The father was quite puzzled and upset. He later related that he thought it had something to do with having to ride the bus to school. Last year, he said, his son didn't have to ride the bus and he got good grades. Over the summer they moved and now his son has to ride the bus and his son's grades have fallen through the floor.


Hmmm? Could riding the bus be the only culprit here?


Upon further inquiry (and being suspicious of the influence of TV) I asked some more questions. It seems that his son hated riding the bus at first (but loves it now) because the father said that his son had said he had no friends on the bus because "all the other kids had a Nintendo DS." 


"Aha!" I thought. Now we're getting somewhere. The father then told me that he bought a Nintendi DS for his son and now his son likes riding the bus.


I suspect that his son likes the DS. Being on the bus gives him a place to play the DS by himself. Whereas before, the son didn't have a DS so the other kids who did didn't talk to his son. Now, the other kids don't talk to his son either, but at least he has a DS to play with.


The dad confessed he regretted buying the DS as his son now will refuse to go anywhere without the DS and the father actually admitted that he has to use the DS as a bribe to get the child to do regular chores like clean up his room, do his homework, eat dinner...


Doh! The law of unintended consequences can be a bitch!


This father is a sorry failure as a parent and this kid is headed into a world of trouble.


If you are a parent, I hope you read the above and slap yourself on the forehead too. I haven't any kind words for what this father has done to his child.


What will this kid turn out like? You know. You've seen these kids everywhere. It is these kids who "have friends" but don't talk to them. These kids sit on the train together like robots and they all play hand held games while speaking only a sparse a word to each other every few minutes. 


Talk about excellent communication and social skills these games must be teaching these children! Just like you and I and our friends when we were children (HEAVY SARCASM!)


These kids who are zombified by these hand held games are heading for a bad future. Let me tell you about one I saw last night.


He was about 15 or 16-years-old. We were at a fine restaurant and at the next table, there was a family of eight or so having a birthday dinner for what looked like the grandfather. While some of this family spent time talking with the nice old man, two of this dysfunctional family were fixated on their iPhones (a different sad story there) but at least those two people spoke to the nice old guy a few times. 


The kid with the DS? I didn't see him raise his eyes once from the DS for the entire time they were there, which was about 2 hours.


I can just see the situation at home for that family now:


Mom (Divorced): "Junior put down that game and get ready to go to grandpa's birthday dinner." (Repeat 5 or 6 times with no answer)


Junior (Not looking up, finally responds): "I'm not going!"


Argument ensues with Junior not taking his eyes off the game even once (it's safer in that world after all). Finally mom loses her temper.


Mom (Screaming and throwing dishes and breaking them): "Put that down! We've had this conversation a hundred times and I'm not saying it again!"


Junior: "OK. I'll go as long as I can take my DS."


Argument continues. But under time pressures, Mom relinquishes and the family heads out to dinner. Junior never takes his eyes off the DS. They have their typical "wonderful" dinner for their typically wonderful dysfunctional family.


Now, dear reader and parent of elementary school child. Why would you want to do this to your kid? But, if you do, Mr. or Mrs. Parent... If you do give one of these gaming devices to your kid for whatever reason, all I can say is, "Thanks!" 


In the new economy jobs will be tough and our kids will need every advantage that they can get to survive, get a good education and job and make a good living. That parents like the ones who buy DS and gaming devices for their kids are stupid enough to do this to their children makes things all that much easier for my child and parents like me. 


Thanks. After all, someone has to flip hamburgers and do manual labor. I'd prefer it be your child and not mine.    


Make no mistake about it, Fukushima might be bad, but, in the long run, these games will do a hell of a lot more damage to the minds of children than Fukushima will ever do.


You would do anything to protect your child from radiation, right? Why do you voluntarily give them something that will hinder them and hurt their progress?


Don't believe me. Ask any educator or child psychologist or pediatrician. 

Your Attitude is Everything!

One of my dearest friends just had a horrible ordeal come to an end. Last night, his wife of 16 short years, suddenly fell into a coma and passed away in her sleep this morning.

Segovia - Variations on Mozart's Theme 

Kiyomi san - This song is dedicated to you

She was 56 years old. Far too young to have received such a fate.


About three years ago, this wife, this young vibrant woman, began having problems in her right foot. It was a peculiar problem at first. They thought nothing of it and expected it to go away in time.


But these problems persisted and, when they finally went to a doctor, the doctor couldn't diagnose what the problem was. This went on for months as they went from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital and the problem progressively got worse. Still, all these doctors, all these hospitals - the best medicine Japan has to offer with the best western medicine - yet none knew what the problem was nor did they even know what was wrong. These doctors couldn't identify the malady. They kept trying different things, but nothing worked.


Why do you think doctor's call their offices a "practice"?  


After playing doctor roulette for so long, my friend and his wife found a doctor who "specialized" in this sort of disease. I don't know how one specializes in unknown diseases, but specialize they do. It seems that only 2 or 3 people a year are afflicted with this special disease she had - of which there really isn't a name for - but it is what she was diagnosed as having.


As an aside, doctor's - as well as patients - need a name for their ailment as that makes it easier to understand. You know, it is easier to fight or complain about your, say, being overweight if you blame it on "Slow Metabolism" (then it is not your fault) or to blame problems on, say, Nazi's or Fascists rather than some unknown rebels lurking in the shadows; whether we are at war with people or at war with some disease, bacteria or physiological disorder. 


Naming the enemy makes things easier to understand for us mere mortals. Too bad that names do not make cures come easier. Also a mere name isn't a very holistic way to view the problem... 


The problem is that there are so many diseases (and created names for those diseases) that even when you name them, it means little. Like naming types of alcohol; even if you do, there's so many names for different variations of the same types. In wine, there's red and  white wine, Zinfandel, Chablis, etc. etc. (I know nothing of wines). There's whiskey; Bourbon, scotch, single malt and double... More? Not to mention gin, vodka, rum, beer... No matter. They are all alcohol. I could probably write pages of descriptions and still never name them all... But they are all, ultimately, variations on a theme.


Just like names for diseases... They are just types and throw-away classifications. Never mind the scotch that is sold to you as bourbon.


But, I digress....

Kiyomi and Michio in Hawaii. What a happy couple!

Kiyomi san passed away this morning. She was way too young. Life is fleeting and what is here today is not here tomorrow.


The world lost a loving human being who was the principal of a kindergarten school. As you know, it takes an especially wholesome and kind person to dedicate their lives to small children. She was this kind of person.


The world just lost a little spoonful of love when she passed away... This is really too bad as, today, the world needs all the love it can get.


My friend, Michio, Kiyomi's husband, has been caring for her for these few years since her illness first reared its ugly head.  This guy is like a rock. No matter how dark the days became, he was always positive and didn't become depressed. 


I don't know if I could do the same.


I mean, if it were me that got sick, I might want to kill myself.... But it might even be worse if I were the one that had to care for the sick person. How I would suffer and feel sorry for myself if this happened to me!


How selfish and vain a person I am!


But, my friend, Michio is different. He didn't moan and complain about his lot. Today, while his wife still lay silent in her bed, I visited him. We hugged and we both cried. Yet, he stood tall. He smiled at me and said, "Thank you for coming."


After we hugged and cried, he soon gathered his composure and told me that he wasn't tired or stressed. Of course it was an ordeal, but his attitude helped him to over come. He told me that if he had taken an attitude that, "This is awful" he probably could not have coped. But he took the attitude of "This is my mission. This is my calling in life. I am positive!" and he took the time and effort everyday during this ordeal to do the best and be the best he could.


He put love into everything he did for her and his family. He dedicated everything for them. It didn't matter of it was a trivial chore like mopping the floor, going to the grocery store or even slicing onions; if he took the attitude that it was for a higher purpose and it was his calling, then he could cope; he could adapt and overcome. 


I wonder if I could do the same?


Here is a man that is an inspiration to us all. He did it for a woman that he loved and, together, they made a story that will inspire me and my family for the rest of our lives. I write this blog now and hope that it inspires you, too.


It is a miracle that these sorts of things happen all around us everyday of the year... Isn't it just an easy change of attitude for you to see these miracles for what they are? Kiyomi's and Michio's experience shows me just how important each and every day is to each and every one of us.


Dear reader, think about your situation... Do you really have any time to waste? 




Thanks so much to Michio and Kiyomi Hashimoto. You both are an inspiration to us all. God bless you.