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West Va. Mother: ‘We live in a human sacrifice zone’
by Rania Khalek on January 19, 2014
For our new weekly podcast, Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola and I interviewed a resident of West Virginia about the chemical spill that left 300,000 people without usable water for days after 7,500 gallons of a chemical used to clean coal leaked into the Elk River earlier this month.
West Va. officials insist that the water is now safe to drink but residents are highly skeptical especially since it’s unclear just how harmful the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) is. On top of that, emergency rooms in Charleston filled up with residents reporting exposure-related symptoms after the drinking advisory was lifted and many say they can still smell the chemical in the air while others report that their water is running brown.
Kevin and I spoke with West Virginia resident Paula Swearingen, a single mother who’s joined up with others in her community to get water to people affected by the spill. Paula, who comes from a family of coal miners, details the terror of not knowing whether the water is safe to bathe in, let alone drink and describes the helplessness that comes with living in a state dominated by the coal industry.
“We feel like we live in a human sacrifice zone,” she told us. “When you turn on your lights…that’s the blood of my people. That’s the blood of my children.”
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http://raniakhalek.com/2014/01/19/west-va-mother-we-live-in-a-human-sacrifice-zone/
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pscot
(21,024 posts)because of a minor incident. She needs to learn to ignore what's coming out of her faucet and focus on what's really important here; Koch Industries bottom line. It's all for the greater good of the Corporation.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)
stg81
(351 posts)We can't have that! They are our masters!
1000words
(7,051 posts)Wonder who she's been voting for ...
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)It really irks me to see so many posters implying WVa-ers brought this on themselves by voting for Republicans. They didn't. WVa has been essentially a plantation for capital for eons, & it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference that its traditionally Democratic.
The West Virginia Democratic Party controls all but one (Attorney General) statewide executive offices and holds a slim majority in the West Virginia House of Delegates and a supermajority in the West Virginia Senate. Democrats hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and one of the state's three U.S. House seats.
To measure success of a party, one looks at the extent and depth of the party's electoral success. Out of all the 121 terms of statewide office that have been regularly elected since 1932, only seven were lost by the Democrats. Three of those seven terms were won by the same person, Arch A. Moore Jr. Moore Jr. is the only Republican candidate from West Virginia to fare well in state and national office races. Since 1930, Democrats have held majorities in both chambers of the West Virginia Legislature.[4]
West Virginia voters almost always prefer the Democratic candidate for national offices. They have sent only two Republicans to the U.S. Senate, one in 1942 and the other in 1956. Out of the 168 contests for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1932 and 1994, Republicans have won just twenty-three times. Six of those victories were secured by Arch A. Moore Jr. The people have voted for a Democratic President in every election except 1956, 1972, and 1984.[5] Since the 2000 election however, Republican candidates for president have enjoyed electoral victories in the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Democratic_Party
1000words
(7,051 posts)Go team!
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)El_Johns
(1,805 posts)were solidly D) has more bearing on pollution regs in their state than their state & local choices?
WVa has been Dem forever. WVa has also been a colony of low-wage, polluting capital forever.
Voting D did not remedy the basic problem. This is not the first environmental disaster in WVa by a long shot. People who talk about their voting patterns appear to be blaming the victims, and in this case, without any merit whatsoever.
West Virginia voters almost always prefer the Democratic candidate for national offices. They have sent only two Republicans to the U.S. Senate, one in 1942 and the other in 1956. Out of the 168 contests for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1932 and 1994, Republicans have won just twenty-three times. Six of those victories were secured by Arch A. Moore Jr. The people have voted for a Democratic President in every election except 1956, 1972, and 1984. Since the 2000 election however, Republican candidates for president have enjoyed electoral victories in the state.
1000words
(7,051 posts)My earlier post was not referring to the Republican Party.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)1000words
(7,051 posts)and perhaps have a better understanding of why they are treated as expendable peons
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)El_Johns
(1,805 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)As I said in another post the other day, no one's hands are clean on this. No one's. All our hands are covered in coal dust. Just voting for the person with the (D) beside their name doesn't necessarily mean squat. They've all got their hands in the till and the people of Appalachia have paid for that.
I posted that thread (from my journal archives) some five years ago and you know how many responses it got? TWO. People hear what they want to hear, I guess. But there seems to be an unending supply of Dems who are waiting in the wings for incidents such as this, so they can toss in their derisive, snide and uninformed remarks. Back then I had a few things to say about that, too, and tucked them away in my journal. I've a good mind to drag some of those threads out again. I guess I can take blame here as well because I pretty much stopped posting about Appalachia. It didn't seem to be subject that interested many folks here. I shouldn't have let that stop me.
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)El_Johns
(1,805 posts)leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)and I do feel sympathy for the folks who are suffering this.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)(excerpts)
While the Tet Offensive raged in Vietnam in February 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was on the mountain roads of southeastern Kentucky, shaking hands and setting fire to hearts from Vortex to Prestonsburg. Conducted as part of a Senate Subcommittee on Manpower, Employment and Poverty examination of War on Poverty practices, RFK’s Appalachian tour occurred one week before he announced his candidacy for President. A few months later he would be dead. But his visit touched off what the mountain people still call “a ripple of hope” that empowered them to take their future into their own hands...
...The folks of southeastern Kentucky remember RFK with extraordinary fondness. His touching intimacy and directness had a lasting effect on them, says attorney Jim Pruitt, a local Democratic Party activist who was only six when RFK came through. Pruitt now works in an office in Pikeville with pictures of “Kennedys looking at me from every direction.” He says he is inspired every day by a Bobby Kennedy quote from a speech in South Africa in 1966:
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)and RFK continues to inspire me. I remember well his 'poverty' tour, shining some light in a very dark corner or at least an unknown one to most.
We cannot give up. We can envision that better world.
"Come my friends, 'tis not to late, to seek a newer world".
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)I also was fed up with a lot of assumptions here that have no basis in fact.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Will be saying the same thing.
My heart goes out to these people. But this is what happens when Big Corporations turn our nation into a land of de-regulated industry.
[h2][font color=red]THANKS, YOU BOUGHT AND SOLD OUT PIMPS IN CONGRESS!
[/h2][/font color=red]
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)we are all soon to be pawns if not already.
hog
(51 posts)
paleotn
(17,911 posts)....but that is a very good question. Just a guess on my part, when the coal is "dewatered", the mixture of water and chemicals is impounded in ponds, probably unlined or with compromised linings, thus the water and chemicals are slowly leaked into the environment.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)it lets those of us to the left of Francisco Franco have some appeal to rural zones without falling into the "we can't support gay marriage and fight guns CUZ THEY'LL CALL US ELITIST" trap
now if we only hadn't fallen into the "vote for Dems shilling clean coal and fracking" trap!
DirtyDawg
(802 posts)...get the damn money out of political campaigns, we'll always be sacrificed to the corporate monoliths. Do away with the legalized bribery of campaign contributions and we'll find out who the ones that just might be inclined to be honest, truly are.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... that is all it would take. Get the money out of politics and watch the fallout. The greedy in the House would be gone in two cycles (4 years) and the Senators would retire out before their next election (1-6 yrs). K Street would fold up.
stg81
(351 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Perhaps you might visit some other posts in this thread.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)weissmam
(905 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)If you had, you wouldn't have posted that.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)The West Virginia Democratic Party controls all but one (Attorney General) statewide executive offices and holds a slim majority in the West Virginia House of Delegates and a supermajority in the West Virginia Senate. Democrats hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and one of the state's three U.S. House seats.
To measure success of a party, one looks at the extent and depth of the party's electoral success. Out of all the 121 terms of statewide office that have been regularly elected since 1932, only seven were lost by the Democrats. Three of those seven terms were won by the same person, Arch A. Moore Jr. Moore Jr. is the only Republican candidate from West Virginia to fare well in state and national office races. Since 1930, Democrats have held majorities in both chambers of the West Virginia Legislature.
West Virginia voters almost always prefer the Democratic candidate for national offices. They have sent only two Republicans to the U.S. Senate, one in 1942 and the other in 1956. Out of the 168 contests for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1932 and 1994, Republicans have won just twenty-three times. Six of those victories were secured by Arch A. Moore Jr. The people have voted for a Democratic President in every election except 1956, 1972, and 1984. Since the 2000 election however, Republican candidates for president have enjoyed electoral victories in the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Democratic_Party
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)Almost all consumption depends on harming other people either in the supply line or in the disposal line. The processes that make so many of the things that we depend on create toxic waste. Those processes also use energy. Creating energy from coal creates toxic waste, as in this case. Burning fossil fuel creates carbon dioxide and contributes to climate change. Using nuclear power . . . don't get me started. Alternatives lessen the damage but do not eliminate it. Do you want to install solar panels or a windmill at your place? Those things come at the end of a manufacturing process. I don't know what chemicals may be involved, but I do know that first raw materials, and then the finished products, must be transported, and that takes energy. Bike instead of drive? Do it enough and you'll need to eat more, and that food needs to be transported to you.
What's the answer? I don't know. I think we need to be cognizant of the damage we do, and we need to limit ourselves to taking only what we need. This is a difficult thing to gauge. You could live without artificial lights, just an alarm clock to get you up in the morning so you could go to work. But you would be miserable, and that's not really a life. Where do you draw a line around "need"?
I don't know. But maybe this "human sacrifice zone" can be a wake-up call for the rest of us. The use of energy in our wires and in our cars, the consuming we do all the time, these things come with a hidden price tag, often a price paid by someone else.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)The problem is that focusing on 'consumption' tends to "disappear" the fact that a lot more could be done in the area of mitigation, and that a lot of the damage is done by simple reckless disregard of everything but the bottom line.
This kind of line tends to lead people to say, "Well, that's the price for our lifestyle, so what can you do if you don't want to live like a hermit?"
But it's not quite the case, and saying it is plays into the hands of big capital.
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)If I did not say that, it was only because that is obvious. They should not have done it in the first place, they should clean up the mess they have made, and they should compensate the victims. Better regulation is needed.
But it's awfully easy to pretend that that's where responsibility ends. Truly, by using the product we all take on some responsibility.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)largely because of decisions made by big power at a distance.
Such as the creation of the national highway system, phaseout & destruction of mass transit and suburbanization -- those were calculated decisions intended to make us "use the product".
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Transporting people and goods by rail is more environmentally friendly but the oil/gas lobby has been systematically roadblocking any efforts to bring America's rail system into the 21st century - a revitalization that would provide thousands of new jobs. Not to mention that at one time the railroads provided Americans with hundreds of thousands of well-paying, union jobs with benefits. A wage people could actually live on.
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)I don't know enough to agree or disagree with that.
But here is where we find ourselves. What's the best thing we can do given where we are? We can just be a part of the machine: Just fit in the way the system invites you to fit and; don't worry about the consequences of your actions. Take that to its logical extreme and you have no values, no goals. You may manage to feel good here and there but in the end you will not be happy that way. Or do consider the consequences of your actions. Take that to its logical extreme and you'll go insane in short order. If there is a God, this could not be what S/He intended in creating us. I guess that leaves the in-between: Consider the consequences of your actions as much as you can without threatening your sanity. When your light bulbs burn out, replace them with energy-efficient ones, and turn the lights out when you don't need them. Grow your own food if you can. (I have no outdoor space; tried doing it indoors and it didn't work.) When you change jobs or schools, or when you move, take the commuting distance into account not just for convenience but also for gasoline burned. If the only way to the office is to drive, work at home as much as your job allows. Bike if you can instead of driving (even if that does mean you have to eat more). I could go on. I do these things because I don't want to feel like a part of an amoral machine. But when I think about them too much I feel I just can't win.
Oh, and the big one: Raise awareness of the human footprint.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)feel like you can't win is because you are going against big capital, whch creates the "frame" in which we live our lives. Given that, you can't win. The majority of the population will never live like you do, or want to, until they are forced to -- either by economic collapse or a change in the "frame".
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)I strive to keep my life simple but with not much success. Sounds like you're doing much better.
A change in the frame will make an economic collapse easier to survive.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)will make economic collapse easier to bear, if by that you mean just not buying so many consumer goods. Economic collapse is much more than that -- like the decay of infrastructure, including the power grid, the water system, the food system, etc.
The only reason I can see to "live poor" is because you believe it's a better way to live, & I do --because it's freer, in many ways (though not so much in others). It depends on what you value.
I don't know why, but even as a child I was not so interested in consumer/status goods as my peers, & that grew over time.
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts). . . just out of not wanting an awful lot of things. At that time I had a good salary, so I saved a lot.
Then I got married had babies, who are now 17 and 20 years old. I quit the well-paid job to have more time with them. I never went back to it because working in pieces -- working a small part-time job and running my own micro-business -- feels more like living to me, rather than sitting in a cubicle trying to guess what moves to make next in a game that I need to play for a success that I needed only to distract myself from the ultimate meaninglessness of sitting in a cubicle. (Used to work at EPA. Didn't feel like I was protecting anyone's environment. Some of that was the system, but some of it could have been my own failure to understand my own part in the system.) I have managed to make enough to live on, but not to save anything nor to keep up with the expected rate of buying things for my kids in the affluent area in which we live. Now I am divorced, one kid is in college, and the other has been accepted at an expensive college whose reputation in her field (engineering) is so good that if I don't give her the money she needs to go there I'll have enough guilt to last a lifetime. Meanwhile I have got religion about the need to live closer to the land; when the younger one leaves I want to sell my house and build a house in the country and see if I can't really grow my own food. Thus I will have something of real value to leave to the kids. I am trying to figure out how to make it all work financially.
I misinterpreted what you meant by "frame." I thought you meant *mental* frame, a way of looking at things. That is what has to change.
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)is hysterical, you can take a hard look at the real estate market. If you live in WV you can probably afford a nice riverfront property on the Elk or Kanawha rivers right now for little down, that fits a $36K median household income. I'd hurry though, because incomes are sure to decline around there soon, but then so will real estate, so it's all upside for an investor no matter what. That's the beauty of capitalism. 
frwrfpos
(517 posts)Freedom Industries has committed economic terrorism against the people of WV
mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)For the corporations, that's the real beauty of deregulation, private profit, public risk and liability.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)and be assured that corporate profits would go up.
Jeeze ...I used to think corporations and government were corrupt back in the 70's. What we have now is a corporate global Death Star.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)These are the KKKoch constituents who regularly vote against their own interests because you know they hate that guy in the WH who wants them to have health insurance and regulations that protect their drinking water. How do you help these people get past their hate so they can stop voting for the people who are trying to kill them?
