From: wade wainio [prestonchurch@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 8:43 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Commercial Freedom of Speech

To whom this may concern (everyone):

In light of recent court decisions that expand rights of "commercial 
speech," I figured that I had better send word to the FDA.

Not too long ago, a Proctor & Gamble curriculum called Decision Earth,
expressed to school children the idea that clear-cut logging is not just 
good for the environment, but that it is an economically and environmentally 
sound method because it "most closely mimics nature's own processes. 
Clear-cutting also opens the floor to sunshine, thus stimulating growth and 
providing food for animals."
-- Proctor & Gamble's Decision Earth free school curriculum claimed the 
controversial practice "mimics nature's way of getting rid of trees."

The Digging for Data study-guide provided to school children by the National 
Live Stock and Meat Board says that: "Eating meat makes people taller."  The 
guide asks students to use data to learn why early American settlers were 
short in stature.

Zccording to classroom materials from the Council for Wildlife Conservation 
and Education, "There are no endangered species." They happen to share a 
mailing address with the National Rifle Association.

Power from Coal, an environmental study program from the American Coal 
Foundation dismisses the greenhouse effect and claims that "the earth could 
benefit rather than be harmed from increased carbon dioxide."

as Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert puts it:
"When corporations enjoy First Amendment protections it essentially 
nullifies the speech rights of individuals, since individuals cannot afford 
the massive advertising campaigns that corporations wage, and so cannot talk 
back."

Now, freedom of speech is a great idea, but corporations are not human 
beings.  Corporations are institutions in which the public hold trust.  They 
are not supposed to be governing bodies either, they are supposed to serve 
the public interest...that is what they are supposed to do.
Of course, it is not what they really do.

If our culture is allowed to become even more commercial than it is now, who 
has the freedom of speech?  Human beings or sloganeers for propaganda 
machines?

One of the key points of the FDA should be that it should not let food and 
drugs become one and the same, and they should not treat the symptoms of 
commercialism in our culture as nothing short of a public health risk.  
Possibly one of the reasons the American Cancer Society isn't able to get 
rid of cancer is that they spend tons of money flooding the airwaves with 
advertisements yet do almost nothing to address environmental issues and 
continually fail to recognize carcinogens as a cancer-causing agent.  Are 
they providing a public service or are they looking at disease as some sort 
of growth industry?

If there is no way for corporations to improve things outside of sweeping 
them under the rug, what good are they?
The answer lies in just looking at how eager corporations are peddled to a 
relatively uneducated populace (target audience), who are supposed to know 
no better or no worse than what they are being sold.

The United States has become a cartoon...a slanderous, ridiculous cartoon.  
Our drug and fast-food-addled culture can still be turned around, but not 
with the right drugs, junk food, or through the
process of being misinformed.
Our history and heritage offers few other options but to seek new 
alternative options, and if that can be found in scrapping corporate 
propaganda and seeking a clearer picture of the world than what we are fed 
on television, then so be it.
Let the FDA have some dignity and let it represent something real, not  
Ronald McDonald or Mickey Mouse.

Thanks,
       Wade Wainio
       consumer of products, human







------------------------------------------------------------------------


Until we meet again, remember that
basic human rights are much more important than basic human wrongs.


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