queerbychoice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queerbychoice) wrote2003-08-05 12:55 pm
queerbychoice) wrote2003-08-05 12:55 pm
If They Wanted to Protect Us from Iraqi Chemical Weapons, Why Don't They Protect Us from Their Own?
All Arametta Porter knows is that the seizures will come and that several times a day a tingling sensation will creep across her face, like worms crawling under the skin. Then the left side of her mouth will be stretched back to her ear. Her eyes will squeeze shut, and odd chirping sounds will come from her distorted lips. It will last anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. . . .Please read this entire article.
The Army has acknowledged that some GB agent leaked from the depot Aug. 1-3, 1995, but says wind direction and other conditions make it doubtful any affected Porter, who became ill Aug. 3 as she dragged her recycling bin to the sidewalk. As she did so, Porter says, a ferocious downdraft of wind nearly knocked her to the ground. The first seizure came minutes later.
Medical tests ruled out strokes and other ailments, and doctors have said her symptoms are consistent with exposure to GB. That's enough to convince Porter that firing up the incinerator is a mistake, despite the Army's issuing of protective hoods and other emergency equipment to Pink Zone residents. It has promised to begin burning at a slow pace and to burn only from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., until nearby schools have been equipped with pressurized rooms to serve as emergency shelters. The entire incineration is expected to last at least seven years.
"What kind of life are we going to have, sitting in our homes from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.? We should be able to live our lives the way we want," Porter said before another seizure - the third in 45 minutes - rendered her speechless.
from Afraid to Keep It, Afraid to Burn It: Alabama town wary as Army begins destroying weapons stockpile
No, more than that.
Please memorize this entire article and carve it bloodily into the skin of all the top-ranking U.S. military experts who are responsible for this.
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superfund, incinderators, whatever. we have created these poisons, and now we have to do something with them. welcome to the food chain, volitile organics. welcome to the food chain, chemical weapons.
a few are responsible but everyone will eventually feel the consquences.
very, very, very sad.
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They are poisoning us to death, one square mile at a time.
This makes the terms of the conflict so much clearer, you see.
This is war.
This is war, declared upon the lower classes by the upper-upper-upper class.
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In a nutshell, the military waste that was dumped there included high concentrations of arsenic, which is still present in the topsoil of the upper-class community that was built there. When the rich folks first moved in after the community was built up, they all, of course, wanted their lawns landscaped, and of course they brought in landscapers and hourly laborers to spend long days digging around in the soil until they were covered in the stuff, and of course when you're not aware that there's arsenic on your hands, you don't wash them as carefully before eating. And, of course, hourly laborers have a hard time finding lawyers willing to represent them for a reasonable rate, and therefore had a hard time suing those responsible for exposing them to arsenic without their knowledge.
Eventually, when someone finally got someone else to admit how much arsenic there was in that soil, the really rich residents got their topsoil replaced. I suppose by that time the people working on that at least knew what they were getting into, and knew to be careful.
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