If the love of money is the number one root of evil then the love of SECRECY must come in a close second.
Everyone knows of a lapse or error or crime (or good deed) of their own or of someone or some group they want to protect. We try to keep it SECRET. The common ways to keep a secret are to keep it hidden or to lie about it. A little secrecy is good and it smooths our lives. Secrecy in public things is rarely good in the long term- but too many people think their particular secret is an important exception.
There are secrets that I, Bob Scott, want to expose to the public and I will work on these if I am elected US Representative.
1.what is in the fluids used for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (“fracking” for short).
2.what are the computer programs used in voting machines.
3.what are the ingredients in consumer products.
4.what are the names of the people making big election campaign contributions.
5.what is the stated purpose of election campaign contributions by corporations.
6.I am certain that you, the reader, can give me many more.
I have a favorite story (sort of involving watermelons).
I was working on a project for my company, Shell Chemical, to make Temik insecticide for another company. I found information on toxicity that was disturbing. Temik was very toxic and the solution we would be making was bad enough that if a worker got 4 cubic centimeters (a teaspoon) on the skin and didn’t get it off it would be lethal and the antidote wouldn’t work! The toxicologists were upset that I, who was considering how to design the plant, had found this out. This attitude of the toxicologists led to the federal government legislated requirement for safety data sheets on everything.
The Shell workers handled Temik solutions carefully with protective suits when they put Temik solution in a truck but the truck drivers said that when the trucks were unloaded there were no protective suits (secrecy at work?).
Several years later I read that a large watermelon recall had taken place because Temik was in the watermelons- maybe someone was keeping another secret.
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-14/news/mn-6355_1_melons
