Native American Texts

     For class, we read two texts written by Native Americans in the 1960s and 197-0s. I was most struck by the complete lack of anger in the readings. I would not find myself so calm if I were in their positions. After thousands of years of inhabiting this land, a foreign force with malicious hearts and more advanced weapons took everything from the Native American tribes. Suddenly, every subsequent generation had to learn, and learn quickly, to cope with the new land they were allotted. I’d be livid. I would be ranting and raving about this injustice to everyone who would listen to me. I would write every single day with scathing language in the futile hope that someone with power and authority would help. But there was mostly a resigned sadness in the tone of these two works. Leslie Marmon Silko writes of sneakily cutting wire fences built around miles of land that used to belong to the local tribes. He and his friends could have very easily stuck up their middle fingers and systematically hacked away at the fencing. But this does not happen. Instead, he is sneaky and snake-like in cutting the wire, waiting until nightfall to begin his work. “Their lies will destroy this world,” he say, the “they” being the white people. Personally, I did not feel any heat in this comment. There was no rage behind it, no anger with the destruction of the land or the natural order of life.

            I also noted the respect of the land I have never noticed in “white” writing. Native Americans have lived off the land in a more intimate way then I could ever experience in my lifetime. I love nature; I appreciate what it gives and the awe-inspiring aesthetics of it. But Native Americans lived and died by the land. They worked with it and alongside it. Nowadays, we work against it or merely exploit it. I can just see the intense reverence for the Earth no one can fake.

            It’s also a showcase of how our destruction hurts people. Some individuals, or a great many individuals, scoff at the destruction. They can try to claim we needed that exorbitant number of animals or that those forests are fine to just be felled. But what we’ve done and what our forefathers have done had disrupted and obliterated the lifestyle of an entire race. And that’s a fact you can’t brush off.

The Population, It is A-Poppin'

            Frankly, I was skeptical of the population ticker meter that Dr. Morris put up during Thursday’s class. In the span of our 80 minute class, several thousand people were born, adding to the nearly 7 billion humans already here. But not once did I see that number go down due to a death. You always hear these statistics that so many women an hour die from breast cancer or this many people will die from a drunk driving accident today. So how is that factoring into the population ticker meter? That’s not to say I disbelieve the alarming overpopulation problem. I’m well aware of that fact.

            As a bit if irony, my boyfriend and his cousin were just discussing the population not two days previous. The cousin claimed that Earth cannot support more than 20 billion people. I predict we will never reach that point. The closer proximity we’ll be forced to live, the more rapidly whole hosts of people will die, balancing out and reducing that number. Just because it was 1918 doesn’t mean that a new flu pandemic won’t occur again, soon, and wipe our more people than ever.

            Which got me discussing babies with my boyfriend. His older brother is adopted. His parents didn’t think they could have kids so they adopted. My boyfriend was a surprise accident baby. It frustrates me that it seems so many people adopt only because they can’t have kids. It seems so few adopt simply because they want to spread their love to a life already in existence. The older I get, the more I want to adopt kids. Three of my friends don’t want any kids of their own, and we’ve discussed adoption together. My boyfriend, oddly enough, seems opposed to solely adopting. He wants a child genetically belonging to him. He’s not opposed to adoption, so long as he has one of his “own” kids too. Which I told him we may do. I’m still shaky on the whole squeezing out kids topic. But I told him I want to adopt. This then begs the question if he and I will ever have enough money to adopt. It’s foolish that adoption is so expensive! With so many people already out there waiting for homes, why add in the hurdle of affordability? Why is so much of everything ruled by the dollar? All we want to do is do our part in this population crisis and give a child or two a good home.

I throw my hands up, this is all so ridiculous.

Hazard in My Bathroom

            I just had a very odd experience. I just arrived back at my apartment here on campus. It’s the middle of the day on Friday, so all my roommates are still in class. So I’m alone here in the apartment. There was a rapping at the door. I check the peephole and opened the door to two men. They greeted me saying they were the exterminators coming in for a bi-monthly spray. Hesitant, I still allowed them in. The one had a canister on his back with a wand. I waited in the living room for them to leave. They were only here for a short time, less than 60 seconds I’d guess. The one with the wand went into the bathrooms and shut the door behind him. The “front man” peeped under the sink. Then they left.

            Now I’m rethinking the logistics of this. First of all, bi-monthly means twice a month. It’s October and I’ve never seen these men before. Why is this toxic spray beginning now? I’m worried to go into my own bathroom now. The doors are shut, holding in this toxic spray. I’m not sure what they sprayed for or what required this.

            Currently, I’m berating myself over not asking more questions. Apparently, I’m not quick on my feet. I should have asked what they were spraying, who authorized the spray, their names, the ramifications of this spray, the possible side effects to this spray, etc. Since class yesterday and our extensive discussion of DDT, I’m uber aware of pesticides and other items we use daily that we have no clue what it might be doing to us.

            What about Off spray that we use when we camp? What about the gases we use to grill? My mind is reeling with the things we use on a daily basis and give no second thought to.

            Now to answer the question: What the hell is in my bathroom?

Birds and Breathing

            I’m combining my reactions to two separate pieces of literature for this blog.

            We read “The Fog” by Berton Roueche for class on Tuesday. I was struck by how intense the reading was. The story is about Donora, PA a town stuck in a toxic valley. Twenty people total die within an alarmingly short period of time due to the “fog” in the air. The fog itself is a combination of the temperature of the Earth near the surface mixed with the gases emitted from the trains, mills, and boats in the area. When I personally think of fog, I think of the romantic, Irish landscape fog: light and hazy but comforting rather than frightening. So to read this story where the idea of fog is so perverted had a very heavy impact on me. I could feel myself empathizing with the townspeople. I could feel their lack of ability to inhale, and instead choke and cough. I could sense their entrapment in this town with no breathable air. If I smell something bad, I light a candle or spray some room deodorizer. If I find myself walking behind a wall of smoking students as I often do, I simply walk around them or find a favorable direction of the wind. But these people didn’t have that option. The rapid-fire phone calls and deaths would have certainly had me in a panic. It’s reading like this that draws me towards environmental law, to prevent these sorts of things or punish those who caused it.

            We also read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” It was an eye-opening read for me. I literally made wide eyed gasps at the sheer enormity of the number of deaths of these birds. It was strange timing, as my brother and I were discussing DDT this past weekend. His roommate wrote a ten page paper on the positive aspects of DDT. My father was aghast at such a topic, but my brother explained exactly what the reading said: that that particular pesticide is fine in small quantities. It’s once we mass produce it to use it as a panacea for our bug problems that we destroy the integrity and intent of the chemical. Personally, I find comfort in birds. They remind me of spring and summer times, of being outside in the sunshine. I’m upset by the lack of birds here on campus. It is rare for me to hear one chirping a tune. I just presumed the squirrels, in their heavy abundance, have chased them away. But while I was reading, I took notice of the changing idea between bird deaths and human deaths. Sure, people notice when some birds go missing, when their fowl aren’t producing as much as before. But it seems that people really sit up and take notice when our own species is being harmed. We don’t notice the bees gone until there’s no more pollination of our flowers and fruits. We don’t notice the absence of fish in the streams until we go hungry. How is it our culture has roped us up in “me me me”? There is no more “us,” no more thought given to the species around us. We look at statistics like 65,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings died and revel in our success. Rather than take the hit and lose a few seeds or plants, we destroy entire species. And I appreciated the author’s style to end the piece. She approaches the story with a naturalist theory, facts and statistics. But she ends it with a scathing declaration that we are not the end all and be all of this world; we cannot simply do as we wish without consultation. Overall, both were great environmental pieces.

Legally and Environmentally Astounded

            I am approximately halfway through A Civil Action, a novel detailing an environmental case from the 1980s. I began reading it for my Torts and Personal Injury class. On a personal level, I would highly recommend this book. Its 500 pages are daunting when you’re already drowning in schoolwork, but it makes for a fascinating read should you find yourself with the time.

            The general plot line is this: a mother finds her young son suddenly stricken with leukemia. Upon further investigation, she notices that more young children in her very small town are getting diagnosed likewise. For a few years, there have been issues with the drinking water. It smells and tastes terrible, but the town authorities say that it is perfectly safe to drink. The mother gathers parents who have lost their children, adults with leukemia, and anyone stricken with illness to join into a lawsuit. Two large companies (W.R. Grace and Beatrice) are brought in as defendants to the trial as the ones to blame for contaminating the water with TCE, a carcinogenic solvent.

            Like I said, I’m only halfway through the book. But I am shocked at how the case is unfolding. Upon further investigation and prompting from the plaintiffs’ lawyer, workers for the company are coming forth with incriminating evidence. These workers, who work and live in this small town, who drink and shower and cook with this contaminated water, knew about the contamination! They watched coworkers dump 55-gallon drums of TCE into ditches behind the buildings or participated themselves. No one gave a second thought to the ramifications of such an environmentally disrespectful act. Some of them justified these acts by saying they were told that TCE was not toxic or hurtful to anyone. Yet, after the makers of TCE found out its harm, they sent notices to everyone that the solvent is dangerous and must be legally and properly disposed of. The higher-ups of these companies intentionally disregarded these warnings. They let thousands of gallons of carcinogenic solvents be poured into the ground. Moreover, they demanded it!

            I cannot conceive of such heartless people. I am truly astounded. Which, I recognize is a foolish thing to say. I am certainly not a naïve person by any means. But I find it intensely difficult to wrap my mind around such heartless and stupid people. Rather than bother to contact a disposal company to get rid of the TCE drums, these companies just dumped it. How was there no forethought into the damage it would cause to the environment, let alone the citizens of this small town?

            This goes back to what I said in a previous blog post: the complete lack of respect for nature. There was no respect in the acquisition of this dangerous chemical. There was no respect for the damaging potential of this chemical. There was no respect in the removal of this chemical. There was no respect for the ground water, for the wildlife, for the human lives this chemical would affect.

            Foolish. Truly foolish.