Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Boom cars hazardous to health, our peace

The problems brought about by boom cars warrants much more attention than a letter. It would take a series of articles to cover all the aspects of the problems caused by these acoustic terror machines.

One article in the series could cover the manufacturers whose advertisements encourage already incorrigible youth to “Disturb, defy, disrupt, ignite,” and “Disturb the peace,” “Hate your neighbor,” and “Put the over-40 crowd into cardiac arrest.”

Perhaps the same article could cover the millions of dollars that manufacturers and groups like SEMA throw at ensuring laws allow them to promote this mindless assault on entire neighborhoods.

Another article could cover (at least part of) the health risks associated with high intensity/low-frequency (HI/LF) noise, and cell-crushing infrasound, like the sonic emanations used by whales to explode their prey.

Perhaps this article could cover the military use of infrasound as a silent, invisible, and deadly weapon, or the relationship of the U.S. Navy’s low frequency experiments with the beaching of whales. Be sure to include vibroacoustic disease, and the World Health Organizations report on the detrimental effects of this type of noise on humans and communities.

Other articles can cover the extent of the disruption of normal people’s lives, the attitudes and short-sighted logic of boom car operators, the association between boom cars and crime, the cost to local economy in terms of people moving, real estate values dropping, lower productivity, increased mental illness, etc.

In my opinion, this problem is very much overlooked. No one affected by this sonic bullying can understand why this should continue. I notice, the subject does become newsworthy when someone gets murdered over loud car stereo use. There is a reason Mayor Bloomberg launched his Silent Night campaign.

Some good food for thought on this subject can be found at www.lowertheboom.org. This site also provides links to other informational sites.

Thank you for giving this issue some newsprint/cyberspace, for taking the time to consider my thoughts, and for anything you can do to help restore sanity to our neighborhoods.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

May we all have some silent nights.

Les Bird

lesbird@aaahawk.com