[In
mid-October the U.S. Army canceled a
contract to process deadly VX chemical weapons agents in
a Dayton, Ohio neighborhood. Maddi Breslin is one of the
people who made it happen. Her friends know her as Maddi
Bee.]
We
the People stopped the Army more effectively than a hundred
thousand Chinese in Tianamen Square. The We the People I’m
referring to are the folks of the Citizens for the Responsible
Destruction of Chemical Weapons.
The
chemical weapon we stopped from coming to Dayton, Ohio was
the extremely virulent
VX Nerve Agent derivative. The neighborhood to which this stuff
was coming was a low-income black and white area in the western
quadrant of Montgomery County. This was Environmental Racism
at its nasty best, targeting a quadrant that has been selected
time and time again for hazardous waste and landfills. Citizens
have complained for years – to no avail. The poisons kept on
coming.
Our
citizens group, started by two astute black women, grew to
be a fabulous model
of grass-roots people-power. The group expanded – people joined
in, bringing specific talents like organizing, writing, video-taping,
speaking, as needed. The group was diverse. We were female,
male, workers, retired, low-income, not-so-low income, African
American, European-American, Native American. Fabulous Folks! We
were a potpourri of strong, unified, free and fearless human
beings. All hardworking, no-showboating, glorious people. We
felt spiritually bound to each other and the cause. There was
no hierarchy, no order-givers and order-followers. Somehow we
all knew what needed to be done and did it. Many of us hadn’t
met prior to this undertaking. We were thrown together by luck
and the grace of a power bigger than all of us.
People
told us: “You
can’t beat the Army. They have their ways. They’ll brush you
aside. We don’t think you can win against them. They have the
power.” We didn’t believe that for a hot second. Once we educated
ourselves and knew about the destructive nature and history of
this VX
substance and the unsuccessful experiments to get rid of
it, we knew in our hearts we’d never quit. We were determined
and we worked daily, weekly, monthly for 11 months. Among other
things we demonstrated, petitioned, educated, leafleted, orated,
conducted large community meetings with almost no money.
The
Legal Aid Society of Dayton and a prestigious law firm in the
city filed two lawsuits
on behalf of the Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of
Chemical Weapons and residents of the affected community. The
County Commissioners hired a renowned expert on destruction of
chemical weapons from Northwestern University who basically validated
all of the points made by our Citizens Group. The County refused
to award a permit to Perma-Fix, Inc. based on that expert report.
Each community and township governmental body in the County,
and other civic groups were contacted. We secured resolutions
against VX from 37 of these entities, including the County Commissioners. We
asked for and received the aid of our U.S. Representative, Michael
Turner, who also served on a sub-committee of the Armed Services
Committee. The Dayton Daily News ran countless articles and
many editorials supporting the People’s Cause. And we won!
We
beat the Army! They
tried to shuck and jive, push us aside, give non-answers to our
many questions. Yet and still, their best was not good enough.
Let’s
look at how this all happened:
You
might have seen in the movies stories about VX Gas developed
during World War
II by Nazis in black capes and jackboots with SS insignias on
their armbands. Not much was said about the Brits and the US
who also stockpiled VX. During this past year you might also
have heard our appointed president Bush and the laborers in his vineyard,
Rummy and Condi and Colin and big Dick Cheney speak of VX as
one of the many, many, many chemical, biological, and nukular
(oops, nuclear) Weapons of Mass Destruction supposedly held in
absolute readiness by Sadaam Hussein of Iraq to be used against
us on a moment’s notice. On their words, the good people of
our great country sent our sons and daughters to Mesopotamia,
the Cradle of Civilization, to shock and awe innocent people
there with our bombs and baby nukes and landmines, all weapons
of mass destruction. Hello!
(Sidebar: It is interesting
to note that if one or two bombs hit any stockpile of VX nerve
gas in Iraq like the thousands of tons we have here in the United
States, in less than 15 minutes all people weighing under 150
pounds would be dead. All other heavyweights would die, too. It
would just take a short time longer. Soldiers on the ground
would be dead. All administrators waiting to take over in nearby
cities would be dead because of wind drift. Yes, if that had
happened in Iraq there would be no more Iraq as we “thought” we
knew it.)
No
VX was found in Iraq. We do have
it here in the U.S. One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty Tons of
it is stored in Newport, Indiana at an Army
Depot. It has been there and at quite a few other sites
in the U.S. for decades! Are you worried yet? Maybe you should worry. Any “accidents” with
this stuff will be deadly almost instantly.
After
the Chemical Weapons Treaty of 1997 in which the U.S. joined
other nations to ban
the use of chemical weapons, a deadline of April 2007 was agreed
upon to destroy all such weapons. After the horror of 9/11,
our Congress told the Army to get rid of all this stuff we had
made – and fast! It’s one treaty Bush hasn’t abdicated from.
The
Army selected a private national/international corporation,
Parsons Engineering, to
do the job. Parsons hired Perma-Fix, a U.S. Hazardous Waste
Removal firm with one of its numerous plants in a low income,
racially mixed (predominately black) area in Dayton, Ohio to
get rid of the tons of VX stored for over 40 years in Newport,
Indiana where it was originally manufactured. The plan was to
transport this chemical stew over 200 miles through many villages
and towns, past schools and shopping centers and farms and town
halls to the Perma-Fix site in Dayton. Are you with me? Does
this make any sense whatsoever? Duh!
This “Perma-Phew” outfit
is situated in the midst of a residential neighborhood. Any
good amateur ballplayer worth his or her salt could hit a home
run ball from one of the nearby homes and hit a bullseye on the
side of the Perma-Phew factory-factotum in one try! Now, why
do I call this place Perma-Phew? It’s simple. The place stinks! It
has been grossing out neighbors for years. Individual complaint
after individual complaint was sent to the corporation and to
the so-called Watch Dogs, the Environmental Protection Agency
and the Regional Air Pollution Authority. These regulatory agencies
appeared to be toothless and ball-less. Nothing ever seemed
to be done because the smells continued to be spewed forth from
Perma-Phew.
We
the People found out that Perma-Fix “won” the contract to deal with this ghastly
weapon of mass destruction after it was turned into something
called hydrolysate, which you wouldn’t want to drink with dinner
or bathe in. They were to get many millions of Uncle Sam’s
greenbacks to bio-remediate this VX hydrolysate, send it to the
County Wastewater facility where it would be further treated
and dumped into the Great Miami River which flows on down to
the Ohio River which flows to the Mississippi which flows to
the Gulf of Mexico, dropping its surprise greetings from Uncle
Sam along the way.
Almost
every authority, including the so-called “watchdog agencies” persisted in labeling
VX Hydrolysate harmless, even though the bio-remediation was
experimental with no long-term testing done. But we knew it
was not harmless. We called a lie a lie and pushed on the powers-that-be
to take responsibility and do the right thing, over and over
and over again. We were not timid. After all, we were the employers
of all of our governmental representatives, of our regulatory
bodies and of the United States Army! They were, and are, our
employees!
We
the People said NO to VX and that’s the way it came down!