Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 12 Issue 24…Dedicated to the Dialogue
on Race…June 14, 2009
Venue for an Artist
Pollution!
By D. C. Vickers
As we stand on the hill
We can see twenty miles
And all of the garbage
Is heaped up in piles
And a little girl
Looks at her daddy and smiles
'Is this what you
leaving for me?'
We can see all smoke
We can see all the rust
We can see all the fields
That are turning to dust
And I wonder why this
Little girl
Put her trust
In people like you
and me.
She grips at my hand
And she gives a big sigh
And she says to me
"Daddy
Are we all going to die?"
And the lump in my throat
Prevents my reply
'Cause the truth is
I really don't know.
About
Me: Writer D. C. Vickers resides in the
Halliburton Loophole
Hydraulic fracturing is the
process that increases oil and gas yields by shooting an oftentimes toxic brew
of chemicals underground at high pressures. Hydraulic fracturing is suspected
of endangering drinking water in six states. Poisoning drinking water should be
a violation of federal law.
Unfortunately, a provision slipped into the highly-controversial Energy Policy
Act of 2005 at the request of Halliburton, Exxon and a handful of other
corporations, exempted the oil and gas industry from having to comply with
critical provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act--a law that protects
underground sources of drinking water for millions of Americans. Due to the
"Halliburton Loophole" exemption, EPA lacks the authority to
investigate instances of contamination and cannot regulate this controversial
practice.
Members of Congress recently
introduced legislation to close the "Halliburton Loophole" and ensure
that Big Oil has to follow the same laws as every other industry. H.R. 2766,
introduced by Diana DeGette (D-CO), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jared Polis
(D-CO); and S. 1215 introduced by Bob Casey (D-PA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
would regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Please contact members of your
congressional delegation and ask them to cosponsor these important pieces of
legislation. You can take action today! Simply log onto http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/hydrofracturing_0609/7n3x862q77n353w?#.
It only takes a few minutes to send
a letter that could encourage congress to pass legislation to protect our
drinking water.
Environmental Racism: The
By John Burl Smith
Anytime the word
"racism" comes up, white Americans tune everything that follows out.
They view such statements as attempts by blacks and people of color to blame or
paint them as "Ku Klux Klan" types, burning crosses and spewing
hatred. Over the years, many have come to apply a broader meaning to the term.
For them it indicates an insensitivity by those with power toward those without
power and the use of that power to exploit, injure, deprive or otherwise
enforce standards or laws against a particular race or class that is
socioeconomically and/or politically incapable of resisting. Such actions may
not result from a conscious decision; it may simply be their job as part of a
larger systemic function that is racist in affect. The actions of ordinary
Germans, during the reign of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, are a glaring
examples.
Slavery and "Jim Crow"
segregation in
Environmental racism is one
example of how whites systemically maintain their lifestyle at the expense of
slave descendants. A case in point is Holt v. Dickson. This case has been
featured in numerous national media outlets, including CNN, New York Times,
Washington Post, Essence, Crisis and People Magazines. It has been profiled in
a study prepared for the United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness
Ministries, entitled Toxic Wastes
and Race at Twenty1987-2007. Released in March of 2007, the study's
authors tagged the Dickson case as the "poster child" of
environmental racism.
These newspaper and magazine
articles detailed how in 1968, the same year Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated in
The Holt family has owned their
150-acre homestead for four generations. Generations of Holts and their
relatives survived the horrors of post-slavery racism, followed by "Jim
Crow" segregation in the
Even though government officials
became aware of the TCE contamination in the Holt family wells in 1988, they
continued to assure the family their wells were safe. TCE is a known
carcinogen. In 2003, the Holt family sued the city and
A governmental facility's toxic environmental racism has not only destroyed a
hard-working African American family's health but contaminated their land,
diminishing the family's transformative and intergenerational wealth (loss of
their land's value). Nonetheless,
Back on November 29, 2007, the National Black Environmental Justice Network
(NBEJN), Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University
(EJRC), Race Relation Institute at Fisk University (RRI), Deep South Center for
Environmental Justice at Dillard University (DSCEJ), Detroiters Working for
Environmental Justice (DWEJ), and WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Inc.
(WEACT), held what they called "Take Back Black Health Toxics Tour."
This was a national campaign to spotlight the deadly mix of toxic racism and
TCE contamination on an African American family (the Holts). The tour included
a coalition of national leaders, representing environmental justice, civil
rights, scientists, women's health, academia, faith-based religious groups,
elected officials and congressional staffers from around the country. They met
at
Dickson is not an isolated occurrence. Unfortunately, it epitomizes
differential exposure and unequal protection facing African Americans and other
people of color across this land. Nationally, African Americans are 79 percent
more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is
suspected of posing the greatest health danger. Congress held two hearings in
2007 on this unequal burden borne by slave descendants and people of color, but
nothing has been done and there is no plan to do anything.
Unfortunately, even more disappointing, Pres. Barack Obama's administration,
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency, Nobel-laureate Stephen Chu
and Dr. Thomas R. Frieden CDC Director are all mum on all issues related to
blacks and environmental racism. They are a part of the denial process that reinforces
systemic racism in
Judge Okays
In February, civil rights
activists from the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the
National Action Network and other organizations marched through
Located in the shadows of
Activists claim the planned grave removal is based in racism and greed.
Stephens MDS' owner, John Stephens, has contributed to the campaigns of all
five
A number of lawsuits were filed
to halt the removal, and the county's district attorney, Tracy Graham Lawson
received requests to conduct an investigation. Lawson cleared the permit
process of any wrongdoing shortly after launching an investigation.
On Thursday, Clayton County Superior Court Judge Albert Collier dismissed the
final lawsuits, paving the way for the graves' removal later this month.
Snyder v.
On Monday, the Supreme Court
refused to hear a Marine's lawsuit blaming the government's dumping of toxic
chemicals at
Snyder lived at
Snyder's son was born in 1971 with a congenital heart defect. Snyder's pregnant
wife drank the water at
Health officials think that as many as 1 million people may have been exposed
to water toxins over a span of about three decades before the wells were closed
22 years ago.
The lower courts said trichloroethylene was not regulated as a dangerous
substance until the late 1970s. Because of that, the government cannot be
faulted for the dumping at
Federal health officials plan to
withdraw a 1997 assessment of health effects from the contamination at
Disgruntled feels: Gouged! It is that time
of year again -- the summer driving season - when families hit the road to
visit grandparents and the nation's tourist destinations. And, just like
clockwork, the oil and gas industry is raising prices. At the pump, regular gas
has jumped more than fifty cents a gallon since April in my area. Sure, the
price of a barrel of oil has risen, but the increase in gas has lost all
relationship to the raw material. Moreover, the gas stations raise prices
simultaneously. Independent companies can only succeed in synchronizing price
changes like this through collusion. In case you missed it, consumers are being
gouged and no one is doing a darn thing about it, just like when oilmen Bush
and Cheney were in the White House.
Disgruntled
says: Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsay Graham are threatening to
shut down the Senate, if legislation they have authored does not become law.
The draft legislation, if passed and signed into law, would retroactively
prevent the release of photographs of tortured detainees. Under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA), the ACLU has asked that these photos be released.
According to press reports, Lieberman and Graham are concerned that releasing
these photographs will "compromise our national security in the name of
freedom of information and transparency." And, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki has warned that "
Disgruntled
wants to know: The banks and
insurance companies that received huge government bailouts enjoyed tremendous
support among our nation's lawmakers.
After all, these institutions are some of the world's largest campaign
contributors. Not that there is any quid pro quo! Likewise, some of the
senators that voted against allowing the Food and Drug Administration to
regulate tobacco are some of the top recipients of tobacco industry campaign
contributions, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Strange_Days@topica.com ...Coal Ash
Spills Too Dangerous to Reveal to Public, DHS Says..."There is a huge
muzzle on me and my staff," Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said. "Homeland
Security and the Army Corps (of Engineers) have decided in the interests of
national security they can't make these sites known." Just how bad has the
coal ash situation gotten in the
Email www.theatlantavoice.com ...Swine
Flu Genes Traced to North Carolina Factory Farm...By Sue Sturgis...Writing
about swine flu last week, we observed that massive hog farms, like those
clustered near the outbreak's epicenter in the Mexican state of Veracruz
"can act as a vector for environmental injustice," and pointed to
studies done in North Carolina - the nation's second-biggest producer of hogs
after Iowa - that found such farms put nearby residents at risk of serious
health problems and tend to be concentrated in communities with high poverty
rates and a high percentage of racial minorities. As it turns out, there's a
more direct connection between the current swine flu outbreak and
Email www.legitgov.org...Breaking:
WHO declares influenza A(H1N1) 'swine flu' a pandemic 11 Jun 2009 An emergency
meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) has ended by declaring the
influenza A(H1N1) or "swine flu" outbreak a global pandemic.
According to the world's peak health body more than 28,000 cases of influenza A
(H1N1) have been reported globally and over 141 confirmed deaths. In at least
two regions of the world the virus is spreading, with rising cases being seen
in the
Email www.scrippsnews.com ..Recycled radioactive metal contaminates consumer products
By Isaac Wolf...Thousands of
everyday products and materials containing radioactive metals are surfacing
across the
Email www.ap.com Pollution experts: Save fish from
drugs in water...By Jeff Donn...Pollution experts on Tuesday pressed a
congressional panel for stronger action to keep pharmaceuticals and other
contaminants out of the water, saying they are hurting fish and may threaten
human health. Thomas P. Fote, a