I have a theory.”
Crockett leaned forward, placed his elbows on the table and cradled his head. “I’ll bite. I am all ears.”
Trent leaned back and moved on. “I believe there are other environmental issues besides fish that began surfacing and are likely to be contributing factors to the problem. Around the same time mercury was added to vaccines in the U.S., it was also introduced as a fungicide for wood in a lumber mill down in Mississippi. That practice quickly spread through mills nationwide. People began moving into houses unaware that their new homes were laced with mercury used to preserve the very lumber used to build their home. To make matters worse, mercury was also introduced as a seed disinfectant in the agricultural industries all across the country. Mercury was suddenly being treated as some sort miracle compound and nobody bothered to consider the consequences. Hell, mercury has been used for hundreds of years in medicine. The Chinese and a whole bunch of other countries used it to treat a variety of diseases and a huge mining industry was born. In Europe, the Romans used convicts to mine mercury because they considered it to be a death sentence. Most of the prisoners sent to the mines would eventually die of unknown causes. Before penicillin, mercury was even used to treat syphilis and leprosy. Many of those patients were eventually labeled as insane. Looking back, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.”
Crockett sat back in his chair, realizing that Trent was suddenly proving himself to be a walking mercury encyclopedia. Hesitant to show his ignorance, he decided to jump in feet first anyway. “Then you think the Department of Education’s huge learning impaired increases I showed you two weeks ago could be tied into the vaccination schedule?”
Nodding his head, Trent only smiled.
Crockett persisted. “Convince me!”
Trent didn’t hesitate. “During the fifties the incidence of autism in the United States was around one in every ten thousand births. In the seventies it escalated to one in two thousand births. That’s a five hundred percent increase in just twenty years! The stats you got from the Board of Education confirm that those increases are multiplying as we speak. I believe those numbers will become even more alarming if we don’t do something.”
A nagging question that had been swirling through Crockett’s mind for days wouldn’t go away. He needed an answer. “What brings you out of the cornfields in Minnesota now to see me at this time in your life? You’ve obviously been thinking about this a long time.”
“Simple! Last year, the CDC implemented a new schedule for childhood vaccinations by adding hepatitis B to the inoculation schedule. Even before that change, I felt the exposure to mercury in the vaccination schedule was already dangerous. Hell, mercury is already all over the world. Problem is that it doesn’t break down. It never dissolves or goes away. As the world keeps mining the crap, mercury exposure levels go up every year. A lot of emissions float through the atmosphere to the U.S. from the Far East where they burn loads of coal and that just adds to the equation. Since the Industrial Revolution, mercury levels across the globe have increased dramatically every year and it’s all self-induced by man. With major increases in autism in the U.S. already a problem, adding another series of mercury-laced vaccinations to the CDC schedule just pushed my patience level over the top. I can’t do anything about what the rest of the world is doing to pollute the atmosphere with mercury vapors but I sure as hell can do something about presenting my case about vaccines and mercury. We’re blindly spinning a roulette wheel with our children’s lives and that doesn’t sit very well with me. I’ve been beating the bushes with the CDC and the FDA for the last year without much to show for my efforts. I was in DC in April when I heard through the grapevine that you were there doing a little homework of your own. I thought we might have a fit. As they say, two heads are better than one.”
The fact that Trent was having trouble with the bureaucrats didn’t surprise Crockett. The Feds might look into such a theory but would want no part of a national exposure to such a hypothetical premise. A mercury scare would cause parents to keep their children away from mandatory pre-school vaccinations leaving the Center for Disease Control with a real challenge on their hands. The CDC’s primary function was to prevent disease and they were doing a fine job, but a mass exodus from mandated vaccinations would put their program back to the stone ages.
When Crockett returned to Angel’s Camp, he found sleep elusive. A simple conversation he had in a Georgetown restaurant during his April trip to Washington DC wouldn’t go away. Matthew Manning’s casual comment about a rumored memo concerning the mercury levels in vaccines supposedly sent to the FDA suddenly had relevance. He needed to tell Trent.
Chapter 29
September 6, 1992
Angels Camp, California
Spending the previous day with Trent left Crockett feeling as if every ounce of energy remained drained from his body. True to form, Trent had been machine-like, appropriately equipped with an encyclopedic mind that was always in perpetual motion. Their planned two-hour meeting had stretched non-stop from breakfast through early evening before they finally parted ways. Adding the one-hundred thirty mile drive home extracted the last ounce of energy from his body.
Nearly noon the next morning, Crockett was still in bed. The footsteps he heard climbing the hardwood stairs was a sure sign that his prolonged rest was over and leaving his bedroom door open was an invitation for Anna to barge in. She wasted little time taking advantage. “What’s that thing downstairs?” she demanded.
Crockett reached for his glasses on the nightstand. He purposely ignored Anna’s question, suppressing an urge to supply some sort of weak response. The truth was that he didn’t know how to answer the question. Trying to fake an answer about something he knew absolutely nothing about was never one of his strengths.
Still standing just inside his bedroom door, Anna persisted. “Well?”
“It’s a gift from Jeremiah Trent!”
His reply didn’t work. Anna’s diminutive frame was inversely proportional to her persistence. “I didn’t ask where it came from. I asked what it is!”
Over the years, Anna’s job as his housekeeper and personal assistant quickly escalated to that of his best friend. While he would never admit it, he considered her propensity to rein him in when he got off course invaluable. “It’s a personal computer. Trent called it an IBM 486, whatever that means.”
“And why is it you need one of these things at this stage of your life?” she demanded.
“Anna, so help me God, it is my highest hope and aspiration that all of us, every man, woman, and child throughout the world, may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace. That wish includes everyone except the inventor of the telephone. Now, I’m afraid we’re going to have to include all those folks at IBM along with Alexander Graham Bell. IBM created that damn thing downstairs and, as far as I can see, it’s going to be a bigger pain in the ass than the telephone!
“So Dr. Trent thinks you need a computer?”
Crockett nodded in submission. “It would seem that way. He says it’s for something called e-mail. Says it will help us to stay in touch with each other better. He’s used one for years at the Mayo Clinic and now he’s got one at home. He’s already scheduled some technician to come out after Labor Day to set it up and train me. It’s even got a printer!”
“The printer won’t do you any good if you can’t even turn the computer on!”
Crockett ignored Anna’s observation and just looked up at her.
