Show Page 2 October 13 1994 I VIEWPOINT Environmental racism: is your water colored because you are? of Texas in the city of Brownsville a couple rushes to the local hospital Though the pains of labor Chavis Jr as “racial discrimination in environmental policymaking It is racial discrimination in the enforcement make the task difficult a woman and her husband stumble towards emergency The hospital workers take over Twelve hours later the exhausted couple’s work is complete and their regulations and laws It is racial discrimination in the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries It is racial discrimination in the baby girl is born Only moments after her birth both the doctors and her parents sense there is something very wrong She dies in official sanctioning of the presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color And it is racial discrimination in the history of excluding people from the Along the border the doctor's arms A week later family gathers in the rain to celebrate and mourn her short life The doctor called it “anen-cephala condition which caused their precious baby mainstream environmental groups to be born without a brain Though the details of their story arc fictional the occurrence of ancnccphaly in Brownsville is not case in which race not just class determines exposure It affects between three and four million children in the United States—most of whom are African Americans and Latinos living in urban areas Among children and younger the percentage of African Americans who have excessive levels of lead in their blood far exceeds the percentage of whites at all income Heidi Anderson viewpoint writer of such facilities and unusual health occurrences like ancnccphaly But what makes Brownsville and other areas like it targets of such unwarranted health risks? It is what Bullard and many authors call "environmental racism" Racial discrimination Environmental racism is defined by the Rev Benjamin F Jamie MeCandless As a result minority groups and their children arc exposed to unusually high amounts of hazardous substances particularly lead In 1988 the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found that “lead poisoning is a classic & What makes Brownsville different? Brownsville Texas is home to numerous toxic waste incinerators According to Parents magazine lead poisoning is the country's number one environmental threat to children The harmful effects of lead as reported by the New York Tunes include mental retardation learning disabilities stunted growth Angeles are largely populated by minorities and thus targeted by corporations for environmental exploitation In defense of their actions it has been argued by advocates of industry that these hearing loss and behavior problems in children But lead poisoning is not just one of those “poor things" An affluent African-Americafamily (with an income of $50 000 or more) areas are targeted lot other reasons such as low property value viewpoint writer to solve it will be held against our own hides by our children And they will be as angry with us for not solving problems as we You've heard all the rhetoric You've seen the commercials and MTV specials You can recite by heart the great slogans made up by people you don't know And still you see no reason to worry about voting Well don't wony or panic Sit back relax I have the solution Chickens You read it right chickens are with our leaders now Voting is not some terribly boring useless activity Everyone likes to complain about how bad the government is or how crooked politicians arc how stupid laws arc This is your think about it! Chickens feed directly off the ground and so would have little problems wanting to save the environment Chickens all live together in coups and already know each other This would insure that chance! If you don't like something vote and change it No it isn't the most exiling thing to do Maybe staying home and on TV would be a better way to spend IS watching minutes but think about it Voting is where power is distributed re-ru- It is where problems are started or finished If you don't know what issues arc up in government or which candidates arc trying to squeeze blood from a suinc then buy The Salt Lake Trihune this Sunday (think of it this way you at least get the comics) and look inside The Tribune they knew any candidates and all lists bills that arc to be voted on both publicly and in the Senate and House the issues and would not vote blindly As an udded bonus chickens all look the same so that there would be little prejudice There would be no need to hype oneself up for the voting masses Of course we could always try pigs? Or any other barnyard animal who have been kept out of the voting populace for so long So this November if you can find time away from all the partying just simply mark "yes" to question 22 and let the chickens take over that stupid action of voting Why should we care about our country our homes our schooling or even our lives? Surely the chickens can do a better job of it7 This satire has been bought to you by the fact that “we are the future" does not last forever In a short while instead of holding all the problems of this world to the throat of our elders levels" commissions and regulatory bodies" Across the nation areas like Freedmen's Town in Houston along the Rio Grande Chicago South Central and East Los goes to the chickens Why not? After talking with several prominent members of the poultry world the feathered brothers and sisters arc quite ready to take over the boring and useless responsibility of voting Just the race correlation High amounts of hazaardous substances viewpoint editor aly in Brownsville is four times greater than the national average My vote boards g exposure by income and by race Moreover is even stronger than the class correlation" Ryan Hoglund Robert Bullard in his May of 1994 article in Environment magazine reports that the condition of ancnccph- and other dangerous waste facilities A direct correla- U lion has been made between disproportionately high number decision-makin- of and living standards Though economic conditions may make an area more vulnerable to environmental disparity Bullard continues in noting that “virtually all studies of exposure to outdoor air pollution have found significant differences in Look and sec who is running for what office and on what issues they stand Please vote but don't vote blindly Voting blindly is a good way to end up in a few months asking yourself “why did I vote for this moron?" If your not registered to vote go to the post office and say "hey I want to take the power back" And they will set you up Five minutes is all it takes Voting isn't difficult and it is a privilege that many people in other countries die for Don't waste the privilege take the power back and make government officials really scared that this generation will be heard Don't let chickens and pigs take over lake responsibility and help run this country as it should be not by the rich and powerful but by usl Scare the government vote n See Environment page 3 Does everyone miss their moms or is it just me? Brittni Coe viewpoint writer used to wake up every morning and smell breakfast cooking I’d come upstairs to find my mother making me I pancakes and eggs before she went to work She always made sure I would wake up happy and leave for work or school with a full stomach Now I wake up to the loud noises of my roommates broken hair dryer along with the smell of a lot of hair spray and mousse Oh and some crappic was meant that country twang (yes offensively) And no one really cares if I go to class with a full stomach or if I’m happy It's mornings like these (every morning actually) that I stop and pout "I miss my Mom" I thought the wild town of Price would keep me busy enough to forget all about my mother Unfortunately Price isn’t the wild town as I had heard I was coaxed into here by my coming family and friends but it makes me happy to know my mom misses me and I miss her too And those wild parties I was looking forward to at the end of the week have so far been pretty lame They have given me more to look important things forward to like a phone call from my mom because she likes me and I miss her Unfortunately I realized me missing my mom might not be all that cool (being cool is top priority on my list) I talked to some other nice kids in my dorm and they all agree they miss their moms too In fact Jesse Roberts says “missing your mom is sissy" Good thing Jesse is a sissy or else I would think he was making fun of us A few scoldings form a resident adviser is nothing compared to what a good mom can dish out Speaking of the devil Sara Herman told me that last week when she went home her mom said "Sara I thought you went away to school" Only a mother could make you feel so good Nothing can beat a good mom If my mom was here she would clean Rachel's and my room and we wouldn't get written See Mom page 3 |