Dr. Weeks’ Comment: It takes courage to stand on principles. I salute Robert Cohen.
I Lack Courage "Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?" - Cowardly Lion "Courage!" - Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman * * * * Tomorrow is an important day for members of the Jewish Faith. Tomorrow we confess our sins of the previous year. Tomorrow is our Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. My sin is one of regret. My greatest regret is that I lack courage. I have accomplished all that I am capable of. I possess the secret study in which every laboratory test subject got cancer from Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. That study was authored by Richard, Odaglia, and Deslex, and if I release the study I will go to jail. On October 11, 1996, the Economic Espionage Act was signed into law by President Clinton. That law was enacted in the middle of my federal lawsuit seeking the legal release of that study and sent a clear message to me. If I revealed Monsanto's trade secret I would be committing treason and be subject to a $10 million dollar fine and 15 years incarceration in a federal prison. A few months after the law was signed, President Clinton delivered his State of the Union address and praised Monsanto as a company to lead America into the 21st century. I have offered this study to Marian Burros of the New York Times and will agree to take my chances if it is published on the front page. Is going to jail worth revealing the horrors of what happened to lab animals? Is going to jail worth preventing a poison from entering the bodies of my children and yours? I would do so, only if my act became more than just a scream in the darkness. I will not "urinate into the wind," for who would bear witness to my anguish? Just myself. I have attempted to work within "the system," relying upon the ethics and morality of unbiased FDA reviewers. Unfortunately, there exists no such creature. * * * * "I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing." - Leonard Nimoy