Olivia Sutton's Fanfic Journal

So yesterday [that is - 1/15/2014], instead of reading before bed, like I should have, I was reading Facebook, and saw posts about West Virginia.  So I googled it and was absolutely appalled.  And I was still so upset when I finally went to bed last night I couldn’t sleep.  My mind was filled with nightmarish visions of what had happened.

And even though I was sad, and upset, and felt bad about the people — they had voted in Republicans that banned the EPA from the state and prevented OSHA from examining what was happening at “Freedom” Industries.  (Freedom, hah!  It’s anything but Freedom for nine counties that now have no potable water!)  So the company decided it was cheaper to dump their poisonous chemicals into the river instead of treating them as they should have — and they’ve destroyed West Virginia as a result.  The environment, the people, the animals - poisoned, by an uncaring company that figured they could save a few bucks.  Sure - they claim it was an “accident” - the only accident they saw was that they got caught, because people and pets started dying.

I couldn’t get the images out of my head, I kept waking, and hugging my cat, too upset to even cry.  Imagine if you will, a little boy, just five years old.  He wakes, and goes to feed his beloved dog.  He dumps out the dog’s water bowl, just like he does every morning, rinses it, then fills the bowl from the tap.  The dog drinks the water, then howls in pain, convulses, and dies - all in front of the little boy.  The boy is devastated. He loved his dog.  He whispered his confidences to his dog, they walked and played in the woods, he threw sticks to the dog. And now the poor dog is dead, poisoned with chemicals in the water — chemicals the boy had no way of knowing were there.  And for the rest of his life the boy has to live with that, remembering that his dog died by his own hand.  He has to remember seeing it, and hearing the dog scream as caustic acids ripped him apart from the inside.

Or imagine a woman waking, and washing her hands after her morning ablutions - screams, as instead of clean, fresh water, chemically contaminated acidic, caustic water burns her hands.

A man starts his morning shower - and the room fills with deadly steam.

A person steps in the shower and instead of clean water, is doused with chemicals and is burned.

A man grabs his morning coffee, takes a swig - and discovers a new meaning to a burned mouth.

These are just some of the things that happen - when the water is poisoned with chemicals and no one even knows about it.  Freedom Industries denied the “spill” happened for hours, perhaps days.  When it was discovered, they refused to tell rescuers what type of chemical had been dumped in the river.  To paraphrase, Jaws, this was no accident.

The CEOs and managers deserve to be charged with murder, attempted murder, spoiling the environment, and animal cruelty.  They should serve jail time.  How many people died or suffered incredible burns?  And the entire animal population, wild and domestic — how can they survive without water?  How long before people are killing their own pets to save them from a long, drawn-out death due to dehydration?  Or farmers killing their cattle, sheep, and horses?

What happened in West Virginia was horrific - but maybe it can be a wake-up call, that something has to change.  Something must change. West Virginia wasn’t an isolated incident.  In Texas, a fertilizer plant blew-up due to corporation negligence - and a Republican Texas governor who refused to allow OSHA to make employee safety inspections of the plant just months before.  In Pennsylvania, the groundwater of an entire neighborhood was destroyed when Fracking poisoned the aquafer - then the corporation behind it claimed people were making it up.  Sludge pouring out of taps instead of water, houses filled with methane gas, and people were making it up?  Sure.  Then there was the XL Keystone pipeline that burst — spilling crude oil all over a Western town.  Rent-a-Cops, employed by the oil industry didn’t allow reporters to take photos or shoot video of the devastation.  Reporters and ordinary people had cameras and phones smashed, and were beaten with clubs if they refused to leave.

I was heartsick last night, thinking about the people of West Virginia, and all the dead and dying pets and wildlife.  A once beautiful area, destroyed, so Freedom Industries could save a few bucks by dumping their chemicals in a river instead of treating them and storing them as they should have.  It’s horrific.