Historical Statements

[Jonesie]

In this posting you said, ?We are doing a pilot project to look at vulnerable populations (including Indian tribes) who have less access to traditional health care, who might have poultry around.

I am a white person living in a subdivision. I am also vulnerable to the flu. So are my 'Indian' neighbors (Eastern and American).
What makes us so vulnerable is not the domestic poultry wandering around, but the thousands of migratory geese and ducks that camp out in many locations throughout this subdivision and also in this heavily populated tri-county region.
Developers have dug out huge ponds to attract wild waterfowl and sold real estate to 'nature lovers' throughout this area. The residents deliberatly attract the geese and ducks (all potential carriers of deadly flus) and maintain them in this heavily populated region, as it is illegal to keep domestic fowl here. They feed these wild animals and make pets of some. They step in their droppings on a daily basis and drag the feces into their homes on their shoes.

Of course, we have a lot of health food stores in my area stocked to the gills with traditional flu remedies used by varying cultures for the past few thousand years. My neighbors know how to feed and protect their beloved wildfowl, but can they feed and medicate their own families during a pandemic they exacerbated by harboring these disease carriers in their backyards?

Where is my pilot project?

I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people,
but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.
- David Sedaris -