[scifinoir2] The entire community is now a toxic waste dump
This article is chilling: The rich will not suffer from any of this. Only the poor. It is a taste of things to come. Really makes a person want to slap a few rich people. Fitness first, ecosystem after, if at all. How could it be otherwise? Indeed. XM What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are. - Epictitus The Gulf Coast is drowning in a poisonous stew, people are dying from waterborne bacteria, and federal funds have been drained by years of pro-industry policies. Katrina is one of the worst environmental catastrophes in U.S. history. Sept. 9, 2005 | From 500 feet in the air, Chris Wells, a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey, looked with dismay on the landscape pounded and then abandoned by Hurricane Katrina. As Wells flew on Wednesday above the Louisiana coastline, across New Orleans, the marshlands south of the city, and over Mississippi, nearly every tree was snapped, their limbs twisted around in a braid, the bark shredded right off the trunk. The marshland below looked as though somebody had taken a spatula and scraped away the marsh grasses, leaving a sea of mud. Aside from a number of shorebirds, and one 8-foot alligator swimming about 20 miles offshore, Wells saw no wildlife. What he did see were streaks of oil, some miles long and 200 yards wide. It was on any body of water of any significance, he says. Hundreds of thousands of inland acres are covered with a spotty sheen of oil. The landscape right now is absolutely bizarre and unreal, Wells says, from his home in Lafayette, La. It's emotionally draining. Even if nobody was hurt, it's heartbreaking to see what has happened to the environment. Wells suspects that much of the oil has drained from thousands of boats lying at the bottom of countless bayous, canals, and the ocean. Within the impacted area are at least 2,200 underground fuel tanks, many potentially ruptured, says Rodney Mallett, spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Officials also predict that thousands of cars, lawn mowers and weed-eaters are also submerged, leaking gas and oil into the waterways. In addition, tens of thousands of barrels of oil have spilled from refineries and drilling rigs in at least 13 sites between Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico. Along the coast, Katrina damaged 58 drilling rigs and platforms in the Gulf, according to Rigzone.com, an oil and gas industry Web site. At least one rig has sunk and another was swept 66 miles through the gulf before washing up on Dauphin Island. It remains unclear how badly the hundreds of underwater pipelines connecting the oil to shore have been damaged. Yet the destruction that Wells witnessed from the sky is only the most visible element of a poisonous stew bubbling in Katrina's wake. On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that bacteria in the water flooding Gulf Coast areas are at 10 times the agency's standard for human health, and already four people have died from waterborne bacteria. Although the samples are from flooded neighborhoods and not heavily industrialized zones, officials predict that the impact zone's water is laced with a slew of toxic chemicals such as lead, PCBs and herbicides. This sludge will eventually settle onto the soil and filter into the groundwater below, says Gina Solomon, M.D., a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. While it may be too early to predict the levels of total contamination, many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, birth defects or neurological problems. With human life still hanging in the balance and people desperate for food, water and shelter, public officials have understandably placed the environment in the back seat of priorities. Yet it's become apparent that federal and state agencies had no plans in place to deal with the environmental impact of the storm and are now scrambling to know where to even begin to address the catastrophe. What's also become clear is that Superfund, the federal till for environmental cleanup, notably for Louisiana and Mississippi, has run dry, due in large part to anti-tax and anti-regulation policies favorable to oil and chemical industries. Chemical spills that would normally seem horrible on their own are dwarfed by the huge scale of this disaster, says Solomon. Right now, people quite rightly are focusing on getting food and water and shelter for the victims, but the environmental mess and contamination could haunt this area for many years to come. Aside from oil spills, the list of other potentially toxic ingredients in the water drags on and on. The floodwaters in Louisiana alone have hit nearly 160,000 homes, most stocking shelves of household cleaning products. In piles of debris as wide as three miles along the Mississippi coast, lead paint and asbestos cling to the remnants of old buildings. Louis Skrmetta runs a family business started by his grandfather in the
[scifinoir2] The End of American Exceptionalism
But this is America. In sorrow, in rage, but mainly in incredulity, as the images of the suffering in New Orleans and its region began to rip at the eyes and the minds of the entire country, Americans were heard to say, in one way or another: But this is America. The mass pain that was inflicted by Katrina was not only tragic, it was incoherent. For Americanism is significantly the faith that such evils do not happen here. It is the doctrine of insulation. That is why many people wish to come here: They believe that here they may escape the malevolences of history and nature, that here they will be in some unprecedented way safe, and strangers to tragedy. Americans are always so shocked when they turn out not to be exceptions to the universe. Their president also: The people we're talking about are not refugees, President Bush insisted. But they are plainly refugees, and these refugees will be a feature of American life in many states for many months and even years to come. When was the last time that the noun refugee was modified by the adjective American? So the Americanist innocence, too, was drowned in Katrina's waters. Our invulnerability is not perfect. The storm beat us. But this is America. The words were not a protest only against the flood. They were a protest also against the aftermath of the flood, which was not a natural catastrophe but a human one. Americanism is also the conviction that the wretchedness of large numbers of Americans is unacceptable, an offense to the American idea, a spur to American action. We take care of our own, and our efficiency is a measure of our decency. But when our efficiency fails us, we must conclude that our decency failed us, too. No insignificant person was ever born, Bush unforgettably declared in his first inaugural address. How significant, exactly, were the persons who waited for days for relief and rescue from the Superdome and the Convention Center and the other makeshift purgatories, while the rest of the country watched their dehumanization on television? We did not take care of our own, not swiftly, not fiercely, not as if nothing in the world was more important to us. The natural fury that caused this misery should have been met with a human fury to alleviate it. It was not. More, the American belief in American decency is, to a large extent, a belief in American government. For all the suspicion of power upon which this country was founded, the view of government as a force for ill has never really prevailed in America, because it would have defeated the American hunger for justice. American history over the last hundred years is a stirring tale of government in the proud and largely effective service of compassion. Consider also the ironic history of the Bush administration, the many times that human need, real and imagined, at home and abroad, has required it to betray its philosophy of small and limited government. Sometimes we cannot take care of our own; only our government can. In times of emergency, the power of the federal government may be a beautiful thing. When Bush finally flew to the devastation, he said: In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in our hour of need. And the federal government will do its part. Its part? But this is America. Sometimes the federal government's part is the whole, or most of it. This should have been so in the early hours, when the local and state authorities showed their fecklessness. Instead, micro-incompetence was succeeded by macro-incompetence. And by our own, we mean all of our own. Disasters often reveal how we live. One of the most chilling things in New Orleans last week was the extent to which all of us were not represented in the crisis. The some of us who suffered were overwhelmingly poor and black. If you did not see race and class, you were blind. Barbara Bush saw race and class, and expressed race and class, when she visited the Houston Astrodome: And so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. So this is working very well for them. But the people living in the refugee camp on the Astroturf are not underprivileged, they are destitute. The good news is that most Americans did not respond like the overprivileged former first lady. Near and far, they saw race and class and they rushed to help--thereby shaming their government, which is one of the duties of civil society. Now American government will no doubt demonstrate its capacity for good, but it is not American government, with its briefings and its drop-bys, that will have preserved American solidarity. There were no heroes in office, but there will have been heroes. Perhaps this really is America. http://tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050919amp;s=editorial091905 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/LRMolB/TM
[scifinoir2] Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
New Orleans - Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been deputized by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte. This is a totally new thing to have guys like us working CONUS (Continental United States), a heavily armed Blackwater mercenary told us as we stood on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. We're much better equipped to deal with the situation in Iraq. Blackwater mercenaries are some of the most feared professional killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without worry of legal consequences. Their presence on the streets of New Orleans should be a cause for serious concern for the remaining residents of the city and raises alarming questions about why the government would allow men trained to kill with impunity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to operate here. Some of the men now patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as recently as 2 weeks ago. What is most disturbing is the claim of several Blackwater mercenaries we spoke with that they are here under contract from the federal and Louisiana state governments. Blackwater is one of the leading private security firms servicing the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It has several US government contracts and has provided security for many senior US diplomats, foreign dignitaries and corporations. The company rose to international prominence after 4 of its men were killed in Fallujah and two of their charred bodies were hung from a bridge in March 2004. Those killings sparked the massive US retaliation against the civilian population of Fallujah that resulted in scores of deaths and tens of thousands of refugees. As the threat of forced evictions now looms in New Orleans and the city confiscates even legally registered weapons from civilians, the private mercenaries of Blackwater patrol the streets openly wielding M-16s and other assault weapons. This despite Police Commissioner Eddie Compass' claim that Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons. Officially, Blackwater says it forces are in New Orleans to join the Hurricane Relief Effort. A statement on the company's website, dated September 1, advertises airlift services, security services and crowd control. The company, according to news reports, has since begun taking private contracts to guard hotels, businesses and other properties. But what has not been publicly acknowledged is the claim, made to us by 2 Blackwater mercenaries, that they are actually engaged in general law enforcement activities including securing neighborhoods and confronting criminals. That raises a key question: under what authority are Blackwater's men operating? A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department, Russ Knocke, told the Washington Post he knows of no federal plans to hire Blackwater or other private security. We believe we've got the right mix of personnel in law enforcement for the federal government to meet the demands of public safety. he said. But in an hour-long conversation with several Blackwater mercenaries, we heard a different story. The men we spoke with said they are indeed on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Louisiana governor's office and that some of them are sleeping in camps organized by Homeland Security in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. One of them wore a gold Louisiana state law enforcement badge and said he had been deputized by the governor. They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force. We encountered the Blackwater forces as we walked through the streets of the largely deserted French Quarter. We were talking with 2 New York Police officers when an unmarked car without license plates sped up next to us and stopped. Inside were 3 men, dressed in khaki uniforms, flak jackets and wielding automatic weapons. Y'all know where the Blackwater guys are? they asked. One of the police officers responded, There are a bunch of them around here, and pointed down the road. Blackwater? we asked. The guys who are in Iraq? Yeah, said the officer. They're all over the place. A short while later, as we continued down Bourbon Street, we ran into the men from the car. They wore Blackwater ID badges on their arms. When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?,' said one of the Blackwater men. He was wearing
[scifinoir2] New Orleans becomes a war zone - A dress rehearsal for martial law?
The disaster that struck New Orleans and the southern Gulf Coast has given rise to the largest military mobilization in modern history on US soil. Nearly 65,000 US military personnel are now deployed in the disaster area, transforming the devastated port city into a war zone. Squads of combat-equipped troops toting assault rifles and columns of humvees with gunners at the ready crisscross its flooded streets. Soldiers with bayonets mounted have begun house-to-house canvassing of the city to enforce the complete removal of its civilian population. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the disastrous delay in providing aid to the city's beleaguered citizens was in large part a matter of waiting until this massive military force was ready to deploy. With New Orleans under de facto martial law, its mayor, Ray Nagin, issued an order Tuesday for the forced evacuation of its remaining residents, estimated at anywhere between a few thousand and tens of thousands. New Orleans police officials indicated that they were prepared to forcibly drag people from their homes. US military spokesmen initially said that they would support the operation, but claimed that uniformed soldiers would not participate directly in these evictions. But Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Inge, deputy commander of US Northern Command, told Pentagon reporters Wednesday that national guard units, which are formally under state control, could be used to compel people to leave. Nagin's proclamation asserted that the presence of civilians in the city would impede and distract from the recovery operation. Some officials have cited a potential public health disaster resulting from the city's inundation by waters polluted by toxic chemicals and decaying corpses. Whatever the validity of these motives, the proposed forced evacuation will constitute the most massive military operation mounted against the people of an American city since the Civil War. While the US military deployment includes medical teams, search-and-rescue helicopters and other forms of relief, the largest troop contingents have been deployed as a military occupation force, to protect private property and suppress civil disturbances. The Pentagon has issued continuous press releases touting how many millions of meals, gallons of water and pounds of ice it has delivered to the city in the last few days. These reports, however, beg the question of why such supplies were not made available during the first four days after the hurricane hit, when impoverished residents of the city were literally dying in the streets. With the bulk of the population having left the city, the greatest supply operations now will involve not the relief of hurricane victims but logistical support for the tens of thousands of troops themselves. The Bush administration's defenders have made demonstrably false claims that no one could have expected a disaster on this scale, while attempting to shift blame onto state and local officials. The deadly delay in the relief effort has been attributed by the administration's opponents to the government's criminal incompetence and seeming indifference to the plight of New Orleans' largely poor and black population. While no doubt incompetence and indifference played a major role, there is also strong evidence that aid was deliberately withheld by the White House and the Pentagon as part of a strategy for asserting unfettered military control over the city. Both hurricane victims and public officials have given multiple accounts of US authorities actively turning back aid and blocking rescue attempts in the days that followed the breaching of the city's levees. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, for example, broke down in tears Sunday during an appearance on the NBC television program Meet the Press, declaring, It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area. He cited repeated actions by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) that involved the deliberate sabotage of relief efforts. He reported that FEMA turned back trailer truckloads of water sent by Wal-Mart, claiming the city didn't need them. He also said that the Coast Guard's offer of fuel urgently needed to power generators was countermanded by FEMA. Finally, he said that just a day earlier FEMA agents had come in and cut all of our emergency communication lines without any warning. The local sheriff, he added, had the lines reconnected and then posted armed guards to see that they were not cut again. This last, and most sinister, example is in keeping with the Pentagon's information war doctrine, which demands the complete control of communications in an area targeted for invasion and occupation. Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Governor Blanco, also charged that FEMA deliberately blocked offers of aid from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and others.
[scifinoir2] Weather as a Force Multiplier - Owning the Weather in 2025
Very obviously less relevant to Katrina than Global Warming, https://research.maxwell.af.mil/papers/ay1996/spacecast/vol3ch15.pdf Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [scifinoir2] [OT] 25 Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina
Wow, wow, wow! You know, a friend of mine called me last week extremely upset that Dick Cheney hadn't (at that time) visited the hurricane ravaged area. She kept saying Why don't the Republicans get up in arms about this? How can the VP NOT show up immediately? I think she wondered why I--known as a very vocal critic of all things Bush--wasn't equally upset. My response? Because these people are all fools and self-righteous, self-serving idiots. I don't expect anything from them, and thus don't get disappointed as easily. Was I pissed at Cheney? Sure. Upset that his idiot boss once again shows how stupid and out of touch he is, with slow response time (took a couple of days to cut short his vacation), canned we shall overcome speeches, and a complete lack of the guts to take responsibility for the mess he's helped create? Of course. But I cried my tears when Bush won the Presidency once, then twice. I raged and cursed and stormed when he wasted resources and lives on the Iraq invasion. I've yelled myself hoarse at a populace so criminally retarded that they could vote for a man who dodged duty in 'Nam, yet who makes the guy who *did* serve out to be a coward. I've been living in a nightmare I hadn't experienced since the horrible days of Reagan. And everytime I hear Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton or John Edwards or John Kerry speak, I get depressed over the leadership we *used* to have, the leadership we *might* have had, and the disaster we *do* have. So I try to maintain balance and sanity by realizing it can't last forever. I try to avoid losing my mind with anger and disappointment by reminding myself that the leadership we have now is too stupid to ever do anything worthwhile, and thus no boneheaded move or comment of theirs should surprise me. The great quotes you posted here do nothing to change my attitude. Someone please wake me up when this is over... -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brent Wodehouse Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 17:04 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] [OT] 25 Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/currentevents/a/katrinaquotes.htm?nl= 1 25 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina And Its Aftermath From Daniel Kurtzman 1) I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. -President Bush, on Good Morning America, Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina (Source - http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJsdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fmediam atters.org%2Fitems%2F200509020001) sdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fmediamatters.org%2Fitems%2F200509020 001) 2) What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) - this is working very well for them. -Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005 (Source - http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJsdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ed itorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2Fnews%2Farticle_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_ id%3D1001054719) sdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2 Fnews%2Farticle_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1001054719) 3) It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea levelIt looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed. -House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Aug. 31, 2005 (Source - http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJsdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.su ntimes.com%2Foutput%2Fhurricane%2F) sdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suntimes.com%2Foutput%2Fhurrican e%2F) 4) We've got a lot of rebuilding to do ... The good news is - and it's hard for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house - he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter) -President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005 (Source - http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJsdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hu ffingtonpost.com%2Farianna-huffington%2Fpresident-bush-hits-the-s_b_6670 .html) sdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Farianna-huf fington%2Fpresident-bush-hits-the-s_b_6670.html) 5) Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well. -FEMA Director Michael Brown, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source - http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJsdn=politicalhumorzu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cn
RE: [scifinoir2] The entire community is now a toxic waste dump
The truth of this is that we're seeing problems in New Orleans, sure, but they're not unique.. Many--most of these problems--aren't unique to this city, or only a result of the hurricance. When you start talking about poverty, intentional (or casually ignorant) racism, politcal ineffectiveness, government apathy, lack of services, lack of jobs, lack of affordable housing, the rich and powerful getting the best places to live and the best treatment, environmental racism--you're talking about many, many cities in America. The neighborhood in which I was raised in Fort Worth was flooded out way back in '49 when my parents had just moved there. Their new home took on seven feet of water. Many white areas weren't affected. Why? Because the city had started building levees to manage the Trinity River, and of course the white areas were done first. I recall as a child--too ignorant of the ways of the world--spending hours staring in fascination at the constant stream of dump trucks dropping loads of the city's garbage in the giant dumping ground that lay less than 100 yards from my back porch. Too young to understand environmental racism, I never asked why huge piles of trash were dumped in my neighborhood, but not those of my white schoolmates. Nor, as I was being entertained by the possibly dangerous wastes being buried in the local soil, did my young mind know to ask why my neighborhood was bordered on one side by the dump, another by the railroad, a third by a major freeway, and a fourth by a giant truck repair facility and dogfood manufacturing plant. Later the city closed the all-Black elementary school less than a mile away, turning it into a low-security prison for deadbeat dads and drunks. Everytime I go home for a visit I get to pass that school turned prison, turn under the railroad trestle onto my mom's street, and see the vast expanse of grass that grows over the (thankfully) now defunct dumping ground. As an adult, I get it in ways I never could as a child. The hurricane is forcing a renewed focus of the poor and helpless and Black in New Orleans, but let's hope it doesn't stop there. Let's hope the politicans and cops and everyday citizens all remember that, if they want to see people to help, to aid there desperately poor brothers, and to find places to right the wrongs of the world, they don't have to go all the way to New Orleans. Like the young child I was, all they have to do is look in their own backyards. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Xavier Moon Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 10:04 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] The entire community is now a toxic waste dum This article is chilling: The rich will not suffer from any of this. Only the poor. It is a taste of things to come. Really makes a person want to slap a few rich people. Fitness first, ecosystem after, if at all. How could it be otherwise? Indeed. XM What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are. - Epictitus The Gulf Coast is drowning in a poisonous stew, people are dying from waterborne bacteria, and federal funds have been drained by years of pro-industry policies. Katrina is one of the worst environmental catastrophes in U.S. history. Sept. 9, 2005 | From 500 feet in the air, Chris Wells, a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey, looked with dismay on the landscape pounded and then abandoned by Hurricane Katrina. As Wells flew on Wednesday above the Louisiana coastline, across New Orleans, the marshlands south of the city, and over Mississippi, nearly every tree was snapped, their limbs twisted around in a braid, the bark shredded right off the trunk. The marshland below looked as though somebody had taken a spatula and scraped away the marsh grasses, leaving a sea of mud. Aside from a number of shorebirds, and one 8-foot alligator swimming about 20 miles offshore, Wells saw no wildlife. What he did see were streaks of oil, some miles long and 200 yards wide. It was on any body of water of any significance, he says. Hundreds of thousands of inland acres are covered with a spotty sheen of oil. The landscape right now is absolutely bizarre and unreal, Wells says, from his home in Lafayette, La. It's emotionally draining. Even if nobody was hurt, it's heartbreaking to see what has happened to the environment. ... (Remainder removed) http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/09/wasteland/ - - - - - - - - - - - - By Rebecca Clarren [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on
RE: [scifinoir2] The entire community is now a toxic waste dump
Dude, I hope all is well with you and your family... Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:The truth of this is that we're seeing problems in New Orleans, sure, but they're not unique.. Many--most of these problems--aren't unique to this city, or only a result of the hurricance. When you start talking about poverty, intentional (or casually ignorant) racism, politcal ineffectiveness, government apathy, lack of services, lack of jobs, lack of affordable housing, the rich and powerful getting the best places to live and the best treatment, environmental racism--you're talking about many, many cities in America. The neighborhood in which I was raised in Fort Worth was flooded out way back in '49 when my parents had just moved there. Their new home took on seven feet of water. Many white areas weren't affected. Why? Because the city had started building levees to manage the Trinity River, and of course the white areas were done first. I recall as a child--too ignorant of the ways of the world--spending hours staring in fascination at the constant stream of dump trucks dropping loads of the city's garbage in the giant dumping ground that lay less than 100 yards from my back porch. Too young to understand environmental racism, I never asked why huge piles of trash were dumped in my neighborhood, but not those of my white schoolmates. Nor, as I was being entertained by the possibly dangerous wastes being buried in the local soil, did my young mind know to ask why my neighborhood was bordered on one side by the dump, another by the railroad, a third by a major freeway, and a fourth by a giant truck repair facility and dogfood manufacturing plant. Later the city closed the all-Black elementary school less than a mile away, turning it into a low-security prison for deadbeat dads and drunks. Everytime I go home for a visit I get to pass that school turned prison, turn under the railroad trestle onto my mom's street, and see the vast expanse of grass that grows over the (thankfully) now defunct dumping ground. As an adult, I get it in ways I never could as a child. The hurricane is forcing a renewed focus of the poor and helpless and Black in New Orleans, but let's hope it doesn't stop there. Let's hope the politicans and cops and everyday citizens all remember that, if they want to see people to help, to aid there desperately poor brothers, and to find places to right the wrongs of the world, they don't have to go all the way to New Orleans. Like the young child I was, all they have to do is look in their own backyards. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Xavier Moon Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 10:04 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] The entire community is now a toxic waste dum This article is chilling: The rich will not suffer from any of this. Only the poor. It is a taste of things to come. Really makes a person want to slap a few rich people. Fitness first, ecosystem after, if at all. How could it be otherwise? Indeed. XM What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are. - Epictitus The Gulf Coast is drowning in a poisonous stew, people are dying from waterborne bacteria, and federal funds have been drained by years of pro-industry policies. Katrina is one of the worst environmental catastrophes in U.S. history. Sept. 9, 2005 | From 500 feet in the air, Chris Wells, a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey, looked with dismay on the landscape pounded and then abandoned by Hurricane Katrina. As Wells flew on Wednesday above the Louisiana coastline, across New Orleans, the marshlands south of the city, and over Mississippi, nearly every tree was snapped, their limbs twisted around in a braid, the bark shredded right off the trunk. The marshland below looked as though somebody had taken a spatula and scraped away the marsh grasses, leaving a sea of mud. Aside from a number of shorebirds, and one 8-foot alligator swimming about 20 miles offshore, Wells saw no wildlife. What he did see were streaks of oil, some miles long and 200 yards wide. It was on any body of water of any significance, he says. Hundreds of thousands of inland acres are covered with a spotty sheen of oil. The landscape right now is absolutely bizarre and unreal, Wells says, from his home in Lafayette, La. It's emotionally draining. Even if nobody was hurt, it's heartbreaking to see what has happened to the environment. ... (Remainder removed) http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/09/wasteland/ - - - - - - - - - - - - By Rebecca Clarren [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] SPONSORED LINKS Genre magazine - YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group scifinoir2 on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of
