One question you’ll have to ask yourself after reading this piece is: How long activists will keep on the same old track before changing lines? I mean, if Swaziland’s life expectancy went all the way down to 22.62 and Andorra’s soared to 90.48…would tactics then be altered, strategies reconsidered? What if asthma rates in your community went from 25% to 50%? For children? It’ll be clearer, I believe, if you go further.

A local San Jose, California newspaper published an article with the same title as what I have here (the first four words)…without the question mark. In fact, there is no secret. The secret has been discussed openly for quite some time.

High Tech’s dirty laundry –environmental racism of the worst sort– has been plaguing East Palo Alto residents (located not very far from pristine Stanford) in the form of Romic Environmental Technologies’ hazardous waste recycling facility… for sixteen years, the last eleven with only a provisional permit…in spite of OSHA violations plus. Extreme varieties of PLUS; if an outfielder dropped the ball as often as OSHA –at such critical moments– the powers that be wouldn’t even allow him to sit on the bench.

We all know the relationship between U.S. foreign adventures and domestic “prosperity” for The Few. And the role that OSHA-like agencies and Oprah-like foundations play in that game. Or do we?

Romic’s Director of Community Education and Government Relations has made it clear that “industry giants” (Hewlett Packard and Intel were previous clients) rule their roost. And, therefore, activists have dug in to do exhausting battle with the biggies over the long haul. Nobly, admirably, etc., etc. etc.

But not smartly enough, perhaps. They’re typical in the sense that they seem to think they can afford to breathe the local air…one more minute. Predictable, though brave and self-sacrificing. Communities like it nationwide don’t have a clue how bad the local air would be even without the local Bad Guy Source. (1)

Hardly any activists anywhere are getting the longstanding lesson: Good community education AND good government relations between a mean-spirited business (with deep pockets) and elected officials/official agencies is an impossibility. Romic’s Director is merely one of the usual suspects.

Guilty as suspected. Not about to admit the truth. Not about to be punished with colleagues.

I left messages for the East Palo Alto youngsters* who have been refusing to let Romic have its way with their community unimpeded. I do hope they’ll get back. Soon. Maybe new paradigms for “protest” can be born in time. (2)

That’s what’s needed –been needed– all across the country. All across the world.

*Youth United for Community Action is exclusively people of color, as I understand it. By virtue of that, they have a connection to the citizens of Somalia who were blown to smithereens by U.S. air power the other day. To all the casualties in Somalia, in Africa (and elsewhere)…who have fallen because of some form of environmental racism forever. And for related reasons.

Oh, it’s not a coincidence that the life expectancy in East Palo Alto is much lower than national average, and much much below that of Oprah’s well-placed fans in nearby (Stanford’s) Palo Alto. Nor that it’s guaranteed to fall further. And that thirty-seven of the world’s thirty-nine lowest life expectancy figures (the two exceptions = Haiti and Afghanistan) are derived from Africa. Those are 2006 CIA computations, by the way.

Few people seem to know that Swaziland, at the bottom of the barrel, bottoms out at 32.62, that there are seven nations in Africa which don’t hit 40.0. That the lowest forty in the world don’t reach 50.0. That Andorra –high in the Pyrennes between France (79.3) and Spain (79.65)– heads the list with 83.51, thirteen non-black populations/locations all cited above 80.0.

I gave you specs here for average length of life, but not the great gory details germane to the Romic story. Off-putting figures in lieu of a good story (in the Metro Silicon Valley, January 3-9, 2007 edition). It begs the question: Why?

It’s ‘cause the specifics of the agony of East Palo Alto have been played out in one form or another ad infinitum. ‘Cause the legitimate cause of the EPAlto citizens (EPAgency casualties!) cannot be addressed sufficiently by informing more readers…of what’s obvious. That being the fundamental disconnect between Reformers and Royalists. Especially those in power and their most well-ensconced supporters. Which begs the question –for me– of whether or not the likes of Oprah have quantum leaps more in common with the very white police chiefs who protect Stanford’s campus than they do with the commoners ‘cross the tracks or the blacks of Bloemfontein.

One has to be stupid to not see the momentum worldwide vis-à-vis environmental racism. Not ignorant, stupid. Willingly oblivious to the obvious upcoming oblivion…demographics. Which is the same as not caring in many cases.

All of Africa –let alone the little, litigous few on the wrong side of the tracks near Stanford– will go down the toxic tubes long before the powers that be budge on the issue of Black Health vs. …you fill in the rhyme.

The other day Counterpunch featured Sunsara Taylor taking on Bill O’Reilly in their Website of the Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCbROIyY10w). At one point, O’Reilly tried to pin down Sunsara (The Debate Winner!) with a question about why more U.S. citizens didn’t get behind her position on the street, why her group had to shout down a particular politician in a public forum, preventing free speech. Host Bill –underscoring that Sunsara had stressed that a majority of the public supported her views– asked something to the effect, “Are they stupid?”

Sunsara kept reminding those tuned in that polls made it clear that the majority were with her, whilst Billy Boy kept wanting her to address the question of why (if that was so) she couldn’t muster more than fifty or so shouters among her ranks. The main issue was Withdrawal from Iraq.

Well, the answer is that the U.S. public is indeed STUPID. In caps. In spades.

Not in the sense that they support Bush. But in the sense that they don’t see AND don’t want to see what must be done to turn the powers that be…around.

Bulldog/birddog, well-intentioned, hardworking, experienced, intelligent debater (Winner) Sunsara is in denial. So is Counterpunch for posting the victory over O’Reilly as if it has any more impact than a favorable policy statement from your favorite political party. She won a debate on tv; so what?

We bombed Somalia. Again. 48.47 Somalia. From the air, not just with bad air. From the air, not with CARE (3).

We’ve been poisoning another community as we position yet another. On our regular roundtrips with Round-Up and its Deadlier First Cousins. Whites have pretty much rounded up The Others. Silicon Valley is slated to handle the remaining Opposition vis-à-vis the militarization of space. Or by other means, highly-touted movements notwithstanding.

I do pray that I’m wrong. But I wouldn’t be going through all this blah blah at three in the morning if I thought so.

For one Caucasian country to approach a life expectancy that’s almost three times that of three others in Africa (whilst “twice as long” dominates the contrasts without a double-take) is not a function of anything healthy or necessary. Exactly why does Oprah’s South Africa clock in at 42.73? With Nelson M having had a shot. Is it really ’cause it lacks a proper school for leadership training? We actually rationalize the stats, don’t we? (4)

The question should never be these days: What’s new?

It should only be: What’s new that you’re willing to do?

Before all dark people who are a problem disappear, and all troubled white people die of a broken heart or loneliness.

Footnotes:
(1) U.S. citizens don’t have any more of a clue about their local stats than Iranians have about the fact that 3,600 die in a given month from time to time from Tehran’s abominable air. See http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070109/hl_afp/iranhealthpollution_070109 155637. I realize that it’s oh-so-easy for me to suggest that citizens can’t afford to tolerate toxics “one more minute.” Nevertheless, it’s true…as per EPA’s own figures…reflected at www.environmentaldefense.org (Plug in your own zip code in the Air Quality section!). And it should impact on our sense of urgency, the hours and ways in which we meet the horror head-on.
(2) I trust that its representatives will get back to me in a timely fashion. Respond at all. One of the most consistent patterns I’ve come across is a lack of “customer service” when taking activist groups up on their invitations respecting contact. It’s the greatest unacknowledged disease among The Left. It’s so strange too that even when a writer chooses to spotlight a group like YUCA, often a given article does not make the possibility of contact easy; I had to do a lot of unnecessary leg work to have a shot at making inroads in and around EPAlto. That betrays an attitude quite devoid of a sense of urgency. And no one connected with YUCA –to date– has observed that. It’s very important to note that the powers that be benefit hugely by activists proceeding at the usual arthiritic snail’s pace with attempts at reform.
(3) Michael Maren’s THE ROAD TO HELL: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity is a must-read for anyone who thinks the U.S. and/or its well-intentioned citizens and/or its most respected institutions/charities are doing more good than harm. To put it all very mildly.
(4) The mantra about Black Leaders being complicit in the storage of hazardous waste on their shores, etc. actually overwhelms analysis of any import these days. But yet understandable reasons do abound in civilized circles.

Richard Oxman, rmoxman@yahoo.com, welcomes feedback. As soon as possible. His most updated versions of articles appear at www.oxtogrind.org.