Enormous Truth-Telling Opportunities
regarding vile truth-suppression in sports, health & climate
SOS #146 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (2-22-22)
This SOS Memo features numerous "opportunities" associated with truth-telling vs. truth-suppression. It is in keeping with my New Year's resolution to put as positive a spin as possible on everything I write.

Before going any further, I must acknowledge one thing -- a rare event that many people are talking about today -- one that won't happen again for eleven years -- on 3-3-33.

There are a whole bunch of "twos" in today's date (2-22-22). As for having nothing but deuces on the day after my 77th birthday -- I am choosing to view those twos and sevens as good omens. Normally, I am not superstitious, but in these trying times, I'll take anything I can get.

Today's topic is all about eliminating the global suppression of truth for commercial reasons. Turns out it happens in football, medicine and agriculture -- and its impact on climate change could spell disaster for humanity's future as a species.

Because of some recent exposure via the NY Times and a 2015 Will Smith movie, I begin today with the NFL and then move on to chronic disease and climate change. Sadly, all three have been the victims of rampant suppression of truth -- in ways that boggle the mind.

Although not a pretty story, hopefully this SOS Memo will jolt many readers into the supremely important realization that we must always embrace the truth -- especially when it concerns the possible early demise of humanity.
Nine days ago, on Super Bowl Sunday, I began my day by reading a New York Times article about the tragic deaths of three of the Miami Dolphin football players who were veterans of the 1972 team that won every single game -- the only team in the NFL to ever accomplish that feat.

A total of six of players on that infamous team died of C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head. By the time I finished the article, I had decided that I was no longer a football fan -- at any level of competition.

If you watch the movie, you will probably reach the same decision.

The two young people in the Times photo below are the daughter and son of one of the members of that "perfect" Miami team -- Jim Kiick (aka Butch Cassidy) a great running back. His backfield buddy was Larry Csonka, aka the Sundance Kid.

The sheer number of cases of CTE are not that large -- but the article speaks to where we are as a species and figuring out the difference between right and wrong. The trophy they are holding in this image is actually an urn containing their father's ashes.
Click on this image to read the article.
I immediately shared this article with my son, Jason (48) who decided long ago that he would not allow his sons (ages 6 to 20) to play American football. A wise decision on his part, almost twenty years ago. I didn't really get it at the time, but I do now.

After Jason read the NYT piece, he suggested that I watch the 2015 movie "Concussion" starring Will Smith. It is a two hour film on Prime and other streaming services. We watched it last Monday evening.

Since it's a true story, there is no spoiler alert here. The movie was a very sad wake-up call for me. Will Smith, who played the role of a forensic pathologist who was very interested in C.T.E. and what causes it -- did an awesome job of bringing football's dirty little secret out in the open.

It turns out that there are tons of data linking American football, which is all about hitting -- whether it be blocking or tackling -- to C.T.E. But that's what football is all about -- and that's why they all wear helmets, beginning as early as five years old. From this piece:

  • Many leagues introduce tackle football for players as young as five (5) years old, but some organizations recommend measures to avoid head impacts until later ages.

While doing a little online research on football and CTE, I found this little tidbit of information from an article in the Orlando Sentinel entitled, "Mamas don't let your babies play tackle football."

  • Researchers have found that 96 percent of deceased NFL players and 79 percent of all football players they studied in autopsies exhibited CTE. As for the question in this image...
The correct answer is NEVER!

In a nutshell, nature did not design our bodies for a game like football -- and there's been tons of research on the topic. Other than boxing, it's the only sport that includes a lifetime of blows to the head as a normal part of the "game."

But now that football has become so popular -- from little kids to professional players -- those in charge of decision-making respond to the severe, debilitating, life shortening injuries by concluding that those problems can simply be better "managed" by some combination of protective gear and rule changes. Wrong.
The Bottom Line for Football
Suppressing the truth for commercial reasons
In a civilized society, the medical truth tells us to abolish American football completely -- and to do so as soon as possible. But the NFL is a huge business; likewise, NCAA Football has become a huge business and now we're a nation of football fanatics in all shapes and sizes.

And while that cult-like phenomenon has exploded -- our overall "football system" in this country has suppressed the truth about the sport's dangers -- because feeding this monster keeps many people employed and making lots of money.

A final question about football: What would the powers that be think might be a tolerable number of concussions, compromised mental abilities and early deaths per year? Tolerable for whom?

  • For the league or the NCAA: Maybe One hundred? One thousand? Ten thousand?

  • For the families of the victims? A single death is too many.
Next, Suppressing the Truth in Healthcare
Instead of reversing chronic disease, the relevant truths are suppressed by schools of nutrition, the animal-based food producers and the entire healthcare industry.
As the movie ended last week, it dawned on me that what has been happening in football for many decades has been happening in the food and healthcare industries for just as long. This same fact applies:

The Truth is Not Good for Business.
So, we suppress it!

We suppress it when it comes to the reversal of chronic diseases -- and we suppress it when it comes to the slowing or reversal of climate change. Successfully doing either one would be life-savers for billions of people -- but it's not good for business, keeping your job or getting re-elected for the next term.

The two 'truths" shown below are largely associated with our food choices -- meaning that we as individuals can affect both of those truths by simply changing what we put on our forks three times a day.
Truth #1. Since the beginning of Covid-19 about two years ago, some six million people have been killed by the disease.

Truth #2. During that same two years, almost ten times as many...

SIXTY MILLION PEOPLE...

...have died from heart disease and cancer -- both of which are largely preventable and/or reversible by simply replacing all meat, dairy, eggs, fish and highly processed food with whole, plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes & grains.

Prominent scientists and physicians from impressive organizations like Cornell University and the Cleveland Clinic know the truth about the role of animal based foods in promoting chronic disease -- and have tried to promote that truth for over forty years.

But the sad fact is that there are now huge industries who make tons of money as long as millions of people remain sick. Between the big corporations that grow the animals that we eat, the schools of nutrition that receive heavy financial support from Big Ag and the massive global healthcare industry that makes money by "managing" diseases instead of reversing them -- we have another situation where...

Truth is Being Suppressed
for Commercial Reasons

And, while suppressing the truth, a wildly popular way of eating has evolved such that leaders in the government, industry and healthcare are unable to promote changing the system because it would cost them their commercial job or their elected position in government.

One final point regarding the truth about food choices. It was tragic that six million people have died from Covid-19 (so far), but it is even more tragic that that the entire epidemic could very likely have never happened if we had walked away from eating animal-based foods about the time that factory farms were invented -- close to one hundred years ago.

There is one more chapter in this saga that is far more crucial for our future than needless football injuries/deaths and a costly healthcare system that promotes dollars over true health.
Animal Agriculture IS the
LEADING DRIVER OF CLIMATE CHANGE
This truth has been suppressed by governments and global industry for many decades. And it was not even mentioned from the podium at COP26, although people like Greta, Dr. Sailesh Rao and others were shouting loudly about it in the streets.

Two days ago, I delivered a Zoom talk to several hundred followers of Dr. Michael Klaper, one of the world's most knowledgeable physicians -- when it comes to the prevention and reversal of chronic diseases -- resulting from a simple shift to a whole food, plant based diet.

He also plays a major role in this excellent 55-minute video with John Robbins a few years after John's famous book was published in 1987.
It turns out that, as a fringe benefit, if everyone in the world began eating the way Dr. Klaper has been promoting for over three decades, we would be able to stop climate change in its tracks and, in so doing, prevent the near-term demise of humanity.

This slide from my presentation Sunday night includes the endorsement that I wrote for my friend, Glen Merzer's, 2021 book shown here. His strongly recommends that all animal-based foods be replaced with whole plants ASAP. Click on book to visit Amazon.
The text below the title of the book is difficult to read, so here it is with a larger font:

A Response to Al Gore, Bill Gates, Paul Hawken
& the Conventional Narrative on Climate Change

So what exactly is the "conventional narrative" that we hear so much about? For that, I will share another slide from that presentation.

It features five attendees at the recent COP that convened in Glasgow, Scotland this past December. With the exception of young Greta, who was not allowed inside the building, the other four pictured here -- only talk about the reduction of carbon emissions along with some vague promise to end deforestation by 2030.

Dr. Sailesh Rao and I dubbed this failure to mention the #1 driver of climate change and the only driver that could be eliminated within five years...the "deafening code of silence."
At COP26, in the USA and around the world -- there appears to be a "code of silence" that prohibits any world leaders from talking about significant actions that would hurt the global economy -- regardless of how crucial those actions might be when it comes to saving the biosphere's ability to keep us alive.

Such actions, like demanding that all countries begin an urgent shift to a plant-based diet -- to be completed by 2026 -- are not being embraced by the powerful people in charge. They're not even acknowledging them -- even though such a move would likely reverse our global deforestation problem in just a few years and would quickly get us on the road to slowing climate change.

Click on this image for a powerful 9-minute video by Gerard Bisshop -- who explains, in very simple terms -- the 87% animal agriculture number in Sailesh Rao's peer-reviewed paper below:
Dr. Sailesh Rao, pictured above, is currently organizing a massive grass-roots initiative from the ground up -- aimed at completely replacing animal agriculture with plant-based foods. He has promised his only granddaughter, Kimaya, that he will dedicate all of his energies to making that happen -- having concluded that this transition must be completed by 2026 or, at least, be well on its way.

While I totally support the incredible challenge that Dr. Rao has undertaken, I am focusing most of my efforts toward finding and inspiring powerful leadership to promote and lead a similar transition to plant-based foods -- but starting with heads of state and powerful people in industry or entertainment -- instead of at the grassroots level. Hopefully, we will meet somewhere in the middle.
The Bottom Line
We must replace truth-suppressing with truth-telling
To that end, I am sharing with you the last few slides from my presentation earlier this week. In the the next two, I feature a total of 13 internationally famous and highly regarded people: six women and seven men.

I contend that if any three or four of these thirteen people had a serious interest in pulling this entire group of 13 together for a high-level planning session on this topic -- I believe that it could happen. As for the first slide, I know two of the people personally and Sailesh, of course, knows Al Gore.

In this first slide, only Greta, Jane Goodall and David Attenborough have spoken out passionately about nourishing the natural world. Mr. Gore talks about the importance of ecological health but fails to mention the leading driver of climate change. Maybe he will soon come around and start telling the complete truth.
The next slide contains the images of three heroes that I am in the process of trying to engage in the discussion of getting real serious about climate change. All of them are brilliant, well-known and highly accomplished -- and the world will listen to them.

I have reached out directly to Mr. Cook and Professor Chu and have formally applied for an executive position in the Erica Adams administration in New York -- proposing to serve in the capacity of Global Food & Climate Envoy for the Mayor of New York City.
The final two slides in my recent presentation appear below. Many people seem to think that I have gone crazy and you may be among them. But, as Steve Jobs can attest, sometimes, that's what it takes.
All of the slides in this SOS Memo are included in my latest "big picture" presentation entitled: Food, Protein, Pandemics and the Future of Humanity.

I would be delighted to make a live Zoom presentation to your group of any size -- absolutely free. Contact me at jmorrishicks@me.com

Please share today's timely SOS widely. It is #146 and appears first on this list of all of my SOS Memos.
One More Item for Today
A relevant video from the NY Times
The third and final animal agriculture video from the New York Times' recent series was not as good as the other two, but I provide it here for you in the spirit of keeping my word.

It is entitled What insects can learn from lobsters about rebranding. It runs eleven minutes and you can watch it by clicking this image.
Also from the New York Times last week was another opinion piece entitled, The New Secret Chicken Recipe? Animal Cells. I liked this piece better than I liked the above video about eating insects. Why eat insects when we know that we can reverse chronic disease by simply eating mostly whole plants?

As for the above article, the top-ranked comment (509 likes) not only conveys what the piece is all about but conveys what we should do about it. That comment was posted by Kris Bennett from Portland, Oregon, on 2-15-22:

  • Most of the people who say they won't eat cell-based meat, might not eat meat at all if they visited a factory farm. Our casual acceptance of growing animals in horribly inhumane conditions for cheap and easy consumption is disgusting. Anything that makes factory farms a thing of the past is a step in the right direction.
One more thing. Please share today's timely SOS widely. It is #146 on this list of all of my SOS Memos.
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Finally, contact me directly at the email address below with any questions you may have.



J. Morris (Jim) Hicks

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The section below will continue to provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics.
"Big Picture"
Data and Info Section
This section has been appearing at the end of my weekly SOS Memos for several months. It contains links to relevant information that form the foundation of what our options for responding quickly and appropriately to our global crises appear to be.

In order to respond appropriately, we must first grasp the all-important "big picture" regarding how we got to where we are in the first place. The various links below will help you do that.

This powerful summary by Dr. Sailesh Rao was added on February 4, 2022. The FACTS about climate change being the leading cause of climate change.

Next is a half-hour video that was published in November of 2021. It as produced by Michael Dowd, a non-scientific researcher like me who does a very fine job of explaining the many facets of the obstacles standing between us and survival as a species.

Dowd has a pretty good handle on most things, but he seems to be unaware of the simple weapon that we can all use to fight the leading driver of climate change. Our forks.

That said, he does a terrific job of describing our ever-worsening dilemma. Click the link below to view this very informative 33-minute video, published November 15, 2021.

This next item is a free 83-minute documentary film that is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.
This powerful film will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture." Just click on the hourglass image.

I will continue sharing this TEN BILLION link in future weekly SOS Memos
More Data re Leading Driver of Climate Change.

Beginning in September of 2021, I have been including links to world-changing scientific information that thought leaders everywhere should read and and share with others.

What can you do? For starters, you can buy the new documentary -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix -- and watch it often with your friends and family.

Also, you can:

  • Share this SOS Memo with everyone you know.
  • Get an e-copy of OUTCRY. Visit Outcry page on Amazon and get a much bigger understanding of the situation in which all humans find ourselves.
  • Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic. Urge them to read these SOS Memos and our latest book, OUTCRY.
  • Completely stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish today and tell everyone why you are taking such a "radical" step. You're doing it for the innocent children of the world.

  • As noted above, do yourself a favor and make sure that your plant-based meals of the future consist of whole plants -- the kinds of foods that prevent or reverse most chronic diseases AND enable your body to effortlessly seek its optimal weight.
A final word. Hopefully, the kind of crucially serious situations expressed in these SOS Memos will soon replace meaningless and trivial topics that dominate a ridiculously large percentage of all of the conversations in the world.

We must all start talking much more about what's really important. That is , we must start doing everything possible to maximize the chances of a meaningful and pleasant life ahead for the young people of the world.

I volunteer to help you do that. For Free. Invite me to collaborate with you and your group via Zoom. To help you jump-start that all-important conversation, I will be happy to present and discuss this topic at length. Here's an advance link to my standard presentation: 62 slides.

“Food, protein, pandemics and the future of humanity” This is the latest title slide that I am currently using for those kinds of sessions:
The image above is a clue regarding the essence of my "family game plan" that is revealed only in my talks. I do not put that in writing.

Want to share some of my SOS Memos with others? Visit my SOS Memos page where the most recent ones are listed first.

Finally, I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested OUTCRY, that there might at least be a more robust conversation taking place about our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world -- and what it will take to get us focused on maximizing our chances of survival as a species.

To be sure, we must do a lot more than change what we eat -- and OUTCRY helps explain the "why" and the "how" of that proposition. 

To my knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.


Regarding the free Zoom conferences with your group,
Send me an email and let's get started.
Our book, for a host of environmental reasons, is only available as an e-book on Amazon. As such, it contains hyperlinks to hundreds of references and videos, is less expensive, does not kill any trees and does not have to be manufactured and delivered. 

The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018.
You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 
As always, I am just trying to help spark the all-important "conversation" about what is needed. By sharing a vision of what I believe is possible, I hope to influence others to think bigger, faster, better and bolder. 

You will find that there aren't many books that cover both the health of your body and the health of your planet. This is one of them -- a book that my son Jason assisted me in writing. It was published ten years ago this month.
Order e-book on Amazon
Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth
Want to see earlier SOS Memos? Click here
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