|
ESTHER’S TRUMPET
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ALABAMA’S BLACKBELT
BY: Barbara Evans
editor@estherstrumpet.com
January 17, 2012
UNIONTOWN ON THE EDGE
Perry County, Alabama:
The little town of Uniontown is once more on edge, waiting for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to decide if more cells will be developed in the Perry County Landfill. Once owned by Arrowhead, the dumpers declared bankruptcy, and who the new folks are doesn’t seem to be public information.
We know this: the landfill is filled with toxic coal ash. We know that ALL landfills eventually leak, and we know that directly across a little county road, hundreds of African American families are worried. They view the mountain of garbage daily. They endure the ash flying around in the air and report that it takes the paint off their vehicles. They endure the smells, and they are sad at the decimation of family plots in the cemetery they used to visit. They face the fact that their land is now worthless and tainted. We also know that the coal and energy lobbyists are engaged in a full throttle attack to label coal ash non-toxic; and it’s a fight big coal seems to be winning. We know that last legislative session a law was passed regulating coal ash as household waste, allowing it to be placed in every household waste dump in Alabama, and recently Congress followed suit.
We know about the lawsuits. Just recently, citizens living by the landfill filed a race discrimination suit against ADEM.
We know that a majority Black Perry County Commission brought in the dump and the coal ash, and even when the people booted them out, those officials who were elected turned against their constituents and have gone along to get along. This gives rise to the energy lobbyists to deny that this is environmental racism.
Come on, people. We’ve always had the snitches, the turncoats, those who would be pawns of the power structure. This is not new. “I have seen the enemy and sometimes he looks just like me”. Malcolm X warned that the final struggle would be class- based, not race-based. And America is full of people who actually believe they are middle class, have aspirations to be in the ruling class, and don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of attaining their goal. But they think if they go along to get along the power structure will throw them a crumb. These folks spend their whole lives acquiescing, whittling away at their self-respect.
On December 16 2011, we had a public hearing in Uniontown before ADEM representatives. NOT ONE LOCAL PUBLIC OFFICIAL ATTENDED, INCLUDING THE MAYOR OF UNIONTOWN. Not one county commissioner. Nobody except a packed house full of people fighting for their very lives.
And the millions the Perry County collected from the landfill coal ash fees…..where did that go? Just months after the money rolled in, Uniontown had to vote to raise taxes to keep their school open. Meanwhile, ADEM also gets fees from the coal ash to the tune of $1 a ton. This comes in handy since the Alabama Legislature slashed their budget by one-third. And ADEM gets to make the decision on more coal ash and more cells in the dump? Seriously? ADEM staff lobbied the Alabama Legislature hard to get the household waste label on coal ash. They may not have enough staff to monitor existing landfills (at last count 2 per the whole state), but they sure have plenty of staff up at the Alabama Legislature.
As we wait for the decision, we worry. We’ve not been advised of any testing of air, water and earth. We don’t know for sure why people are getting sick. But we know that they are.
We’ve been to Washington and Atlanta. We’ve been before the EPA, and we’ve gone to our elected officials. We know that President Obama has run up against a lobbyist wall on the coal ash issue, and we know that he is trying to regulate the individual toxic components of coal ash. While we are not thrilled with EPA, we understand they are under attack by the ruling class. We believe they are trying.
If a person was caught dumping arsenic into somebody’s drinking water, they’d be arrested for attempted murder. But corporations can do so with impunity. When the coal ash spill happened in Tennessee, it was labeled a toxic spill and treated accordingly. Why does the same substance in the Perry County Landfill treated differently? It’s the same stuff. What’s toxic in the white community is still toxic in the black community.
It’s environmental racism.
There’s a wonderful group of people in Uniontown who are fighting back. Our name is Blackbelt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice. They meet the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. The President is William Gibbs, and other officers are Esther Calhoun and Mary Leila Schaeffer. They are fighters. They are courageous. And they can use your help in pushing for federal law ruling coal ash as toxic waste. They can also use donations for travel and other expenses. You can send them via snail mail to P.O. Box 523, Uniontown, Al. 36786. It’s not tax deductible.
Most of my readers know that I believe that our Alabama Blackbelt has been targeted for dirty industry because we are politically weak and unsophisticated and because we are uninformed. While I would love for folks to do more reading, particularly of alternative press, and stop watching mindless television, I have to admit that families struggling to survive don’t have a lot of time to do that. We must understand that the plantation mentality (big people vs. little people) has been in place for centuries and that our current leaders learned from past leaders. The treasure that we have allowed folks to steal from us is hope. Without hope, there is no change. And yet, that elusive hope dwells in all of our hearts and minds. It hides in the dark corners of our churches and schools, just waiting for us to call it forth. It lingers in the stories of the past, of the movements and change we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Call hope forth. Sound the trumpet! We cannot let those who would use us and destroy us do so without a fight.
“For if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” 1 Corinthians 14:6
|