Monday, July 17, 2006
Happy Anniversary/Happy Birthday
Yesterday, July 16, was the 28 anniversary of the largest nuclear accident in the U.S.
No, it isn't Three Mile Island. It happened on the Navajo Indian Reservation on July 16, 1978.
"The biggest expulsion of radioactive material in the United States occurred on July 16, 1978, at 5 a.m. on the Navajo Reservation, less than twelve hours after President Carter had proposed plans to use more nuclear power and fossil fuels. On that morning, more that 1,100 tons of uranium mining wastes--tailings--gushed through a mud-packed dam near Church Rock, New Mexico. With the tailings, 100 million gallons of radioactive water gushed through the dam before the crack was repaired."
(from "Ecocide of Native America," by Donald A Grinde and Bruce E. Johansen, pg. 211)
The main reason this is not as well known as Three Mile Island is that it mostly effected Indians and a few poor whites, and the U.S. government just doesn't give a shit about Indians or poor whites. And the ecocide continues to this day. However, since it helps cut down on the overhead to many major corporations in the U.S. you will hardly ever see that in the news, either. Murder and mass slaughter by environmental devastation is heavily overlooked by this nation as Rhonda and I have learned at the Protecting Mother Earth Conference. Yeah...Well....
My father would have been 73 today. He only made it to 48. Louis Johnson, my father, drank his liver down to 5% functional and passed away on December 31, 1981. He would have Loved Rhonda and all of my friends. He probably would have become active because of my actions. All of this is speculation. I knew my father well enough, however, to make these assumptions should he have chosen to quit drinking before it destroyed his body beyond repair. He lived his last two years without alcohol or cigarettes, though too late. He was in and out of the hospital, though out most of the time. He really Loved kids and was always generous. Miss you dad! Wish you were here. It would be good to face this struggle with you, but it is always easy to remember and think of you as I do what I do.
P.S. thanks for not letting me come home early.
No, it isn't Three Mile Island. It happened on the Navajo Indian Reservation on July 16, 1978.
"The biggest expulsion of radioactive material in the United States occurred on July 16, 1978, at 5 a.m. on the Navajo Reservation, less than twelve hours after President Carter had proposed plans to use more nuclear power and fossil fuels. On that morning, more that 1,100 tons of uranium mining wastes--tailings--gushed through a mud-packed dam near Church Rock, New Mexico. With the tailings, 100 million gallons of radioactive water gushed through the dam before the crack was repaired."
(from "Ecocide of Native America," by Donald A Grinde and Bruce E. Johansen, pg. 211)
The main reason this is not as well known as Three Mile Island is that it mostly effected Indians and a few poor whites, and the U.S. government just doesn't give a shit about Indians or poor whites. And the ecocide continues to this day. However, since it helps cut down on the overhead to many major corporations in the U.S. you will hardly ever see that in the news, either. Murder and mass slaughter by environmental devastation is heavily overlooked by this nation as Rhonda and I have learned at the Protecting Mother Earth Conference. Yeah...Well....
My father would have been 73 today. He only made it to 48. Louis Johnson, my father, drank his liver down to 5% functional and passed away on December 31, 1981. He would have Loved Rhonda and all of my friends. He probably would have become active because of my actions. All of this is speculation. I knew my father well enough, however, to make these assumptions should he have chosen to quit drinking before it destroyed his body beyond repair. He lived his last two years without alcohol or cigarettes, though too late. He was in and out of the hospital, though out most of the time. He really Loved kids and was always generous. Miss you dad! Wish you were here. It would be good to face this struggle with you, but it is always easy to remember and think of you as I do what I do.
P.S. thanks for not letting me come home early.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]