Subject: Erin Brockovich (guru)..
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 104039 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
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Hi everybody:
Heeding the advice which a number of you had given me, last evening
I went to see the "Erin Brockovich" film....
It is as you told me - a (true) story that is a very close parallel
to that which we are experiencing in the EMF saga..... It has most
of the very same elements:
(1) The power company that displays absolutely no sense of public
responsibility in its willingness to unload a serious public health risk
on an uninformed public. (In the "Brockovich" case, it is a chemical
contamination, chromium-6, but it's consequences are much the same as
the EMF contamination which that company is continuing to unload on an
uniformed public ... even as this is being written.....)
(2) The desperate legal battle against that politically powerful and
$$$$$$$-loaded power company. In the "Brockovich" case, it is not the
lawyer that leads the fight, but his minimally educated 39 year old (sexy
and curvaceous) "beauty queen" female assistant - a lady he had been
"forced" into hiring because he had lost a torts-damages case for her
which left her penniless. For her part, she was not only totally broke
and desperate financially - dependent upon a male "biker" to babysit her
three young children - but twice previously married and divorced from
two no-good husbands..... She had no college education and certainly no
experience in the law, except her own failed attempt to win a liability
suit against an insurance company. Still, it was she (Erin) who can truly
be said to have "lead the fight." (Folks, we have some cases that closely
approximate Erin's plight ... on this list.....?1?)
(3) Then, there was (as almost always) the clever, smooth, big offices
and staff, "torts-damages" lawyer who was willing to "come in" and "take
over" the case against the power company - but only if he could have 40%
of the "take." ....Which he got, even though most of the really important
"spade work" was done by Ms Brockovich..... (The point that needs to be
WELL understood, here, by all: .....If it had not been a multi-million
$$$$$$ damages case, NO lawyer would have been willing to take it....!!!!!
Have any of you heard that before???? There are no lawyers ... and no
justice ... for the middle-class $50,000 to $200,000 or so cases we hear
about on this list almost every day..... Why ... because few lawyers can
afford to get tangled up in such cases for so few dollars in the ultimate
settlement and thus, the fee..... These cases are **exhaustive** on the
attorneys who pursue them - all their staff and financial resources are
likely to be tied up for maybe YEARS!!!!!
(4) The power company (Pacific Gas and Electric, one of the nation's
largest), for its part, employed all the "usual" dishonest, misleading
propaganda tactics ... even **lying** to the public about the chemical
which they were using that was causing the problem.... They paid for
minimal medical care of the victims - hiring "company" doctors who
reassured the hundreds of people in the neighborhood affected
... that "the water was perfectly safe".....!! They even went so far as
to destroy some of the company records that were "proof" that the "big"
parent company knew the truth - even as the "big" parent company created
an intermediary (phony) company to take the loss - thereby intended to
make fewer $$$$$$ available to the litigants..... (Folks, everything
described in this paragraph is TYPICAL.....!!! Haven't some of you noted
"out there" that the cell phone industry has started creating "tower
companies" to own and operate the towers......!!! That is being done to
"shift" and reduce the possible $$$$$$$ losses to the industry - if damage
"judgments" occur..... I ask the legislators and other "responsible"
government people on this list to please take note!!!!)
(5) Finally, the story depicts the totally ruthless and intimidating
"theology" that is the embedded "culture" of the U.S. "free market"
capitalist system today ... carried out under a "look the other way"
governmental culture ... all focused at the vortex of the seemingly utter
hopelessness the average citizen experiences ... if he/she decides to take
on a "Goliath" industry, with its unlimited $$$$$$ and other "P.R." or
political resources...... [.....Written by a "Main Street" - some say
"moderate" - Republican....]
Not in my experience ... has a movie ever captured that aspect as well as
does "Erin Brockovich." I hope ALL of you will get to see it.......
The one criticism of the film which I venture: it may lead many people
to believe "the system is working" ... after all, the "good guys" won.....
But that is NOT what happened...... The good guys got a big $$$$$$$
settlement because they were willing to go to arbitration - instead of
court (with a public jury and all the attendant publicity) - making it
possible for the **criminal** activities of the corporation to be
finessed, and to get "the power company" off lightly ... actually!!!
(Though the company may still get "its due" in another case scheduled for
the courts later this year!!)
This kind of a settlement makes it easy for the "status quo" to
continue.... The government (s) at all levels (local, state and
federal) can continue to "look the other way"..... The company can put
the $$$$$$ losses it incurs into its rates..... Profits $$$$$$$ continue
unabated..... And the rapacious American corporate culture, which places
profits above people (with the government's approval) ... will go on......
It is the **system** that must be changed....!! **Balance** - meaning
GENUINE EQUALITY under the law - for every American citizen MUST be
restored...... That is what I understood John McCain to be saying.......
And that is why his candidacy scared the living **B-Jesus** out of the
Republican oligarchy....!!!!
Cheerio......
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
NEW!!! Website... http://emfguru.com
...................People are more important than profits.................
Missed opportunity...
$$$$$ We could have changed the corrupted system!! $$$$$
McCain !!
DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST???
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com