I
found it ironic that East Palestine was the
name of the town where
the recent horrific train disaster happened.
The aerial views likened
to images of Palestine in the Middle East
after Israeli rocket and
mortar attacks. Once again, the disaster in
Ohio pulled the covers
off the cozy relationship between the
government and industries that
put profits over the lives of people.
When
18-wheelers
and trains rumble through working class
neighborhoods, we
can’t possibly know the risks involved.
Often there’s no external
markers to let you know what these deadly
means of transportation are
carrying.
The
Southern
Norfolk trains were carrying a host of toxic
chemicals, some
that didn’t get discovered until after
the derailment. Vinyl chloride butyl
acrylate, ethylene glycol,
monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and
isobutylene. Most of us
can’t pronounce them but trust me, they are
no friend to the human
body.
The
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) did its usual
song-and-dance
and assured residents there would be no harm
to humans. Residents
reported dying chickens, cats and dogs. By
its own calculations, the
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
estimated the deaths of nearly
44, 000 aquatic wildlife - like frogs,
crayfish and snails.
How
in
the hell are all other living organisms
dying or being gravely
affected by the toxic chemicals, but human
beings remain unscathed?
Many residents reported dizziness,
difficulty in breathing,
headaches, rashes, nausea and other
symptoms. If we’ve been paying
attention to the trajectory of other
disasters, we can predict that
in 20-25 years, East Palestine will report
high rates of cancer. The
deadly impact is slow but sure.
The
EPA
is the independent agency with the sole
responsibility for
environmental matters, just as its names
implies. These are the
people who we pay to tell us lies that
man-made disasters are
harmless. Their theme song at every disaster
site is “Everything is
gonna’ be alright.”
First
responders
at the World Trade Center on September 11,
2001 were told
that the dust and chemicals they were
inhaling were not harmful. More
than twenty years later, thousands of people
who were at Ground Zero
are dead or wished they were dead. Many are
struggling to receive the
necessary medical care for their painful and
debilitating conditions.
The
rail
system is responsible for transporting much
of the dangerous
chemicals that move across the country. As
we often hear, East
Palestine was an accident waiting to happen.
That’s because over
the years, regulations have been softened,
forcing harsher working
conditions. Regular testing and review of
safety procedures are a
joke. Companies are more willing to pay
compensation to victims (or
string out lawsuits endlessly) than to
invest in critical safety
measures.
I
urge you to put some fire under the feet of
your elected officials to
hold these greedy corporations accountable.
Across the board,
taxpayers are paying people to be our watch
dogs from the local city
officials to the federal government. We
can’t keep losing out to
high-paid lobbyists who put their employers’
interests over ours.
And we shouldn’t have to pay with our lives.
Find
out
what the protocols are in place for
transporting deadly chemicals
through residential neighborhoods or on the
bodies of water near you.
I’m willing to bet there’s not much in place
which means citizens
have to get organized to help co-create the
measures to protect their
families and their livelihoods.
The
feelings
of fear and anxiety by East Palestine
residents have now
been replaced by feelings of anger and
hopelessness. They can’t get
the answers they so desperately need. The
fact that President Biden
has not visited the area wouldn’t mean a
thing to me. The fact that
the head of the EPA is a Black man (Michael
Regan) is of no comfort
either.
In
situations
like this, people don’t want photo ops or
empty
promises. They need the truth - no matter
how harsh it is. They need
real-time support for what they are and will
be facing. They need
guarantees that they will not be put at risk
again. That’s not too
much to ask of a government of the people,
by the people and for the
people.
