[glew]

The first time that I witnessed Wagner's Die Walkure: "The Ride of the Valkyries" Act III I will admit that I did not know what they were saying.

One of the best things about growing up as an ordinary average American is that you don't understand foreign languages, it's almost a birth right. That way when you come across something like Opera you see the mouths moving and here the band playing and you can decide for yourself how the music will speak to you.

[glew]

In the United States there are several risks contained within a free and open learning environment, (this is not to imply that everyone learns in the same way in the States). More homogeneous societies have opted for a myth foundation that at least starts everyone out on the same page so to speak. The idea is that if everyone is working together then progress can be made. As one grows older it is not mandatory to believe in the myth foundation, only to respect it. But getting back to the U.S.-

One of the problems with the way society as a whole learns in the U.S. is that since there is no myth foundation society as a whole must re-learn everything over and over again and again. For example-

Ben Franklin described the "Dropsy". Something the Europeans were already very familiar with. Then again in the twentieth century the U.S. "discovered" lead poisoning in the environment and began to take measures to halt it by following the Europeans. The Europeans have a long history with lead while Americans don't have a long history with anything.

What attracted Americans to lead was that lead contains many desirable attributes. For example, the use of red lead paint to coat bridges. This type of paint is extremely durable and it's color is vibrant. And the more lead in the paint the more durability and vibrant the color. But the EPA says, and rightly so, that lead based paint is so dangerous that around one part per million is a very highly destructive risk. To children and adults. What lead poisoning does to children is destroys their ability to learn. (Oh yes, I meant to tell you how Ben Franklin described it. The victims of Dropsy can't hold their arms up at their sides. The victims lose their ability to resist gravity. Just like the child victims of lead poisoning loses their ability to resist ignorance.)

[glew]

What makes lead mitigation important is that lead accumulates in a person's body. For instance-
Take a child who is calcium deficient and ingests lead. The child's body "sees" the lead as a calcium substitute.

The theory behind lead mitigation is -
1 complete removal
and/or
2 total encapsulation
All the while that the lead mitigation is being preformed great care must be taken to ensure the containment of contaminated dust.

[quip]

We went from music to lead ...which led...to led....then to...led Zepplin!