The Brockovich Report

As familiar to us as the backs of our own hands, the little main street square lives in our minds as concretely as if we walked those streets, and jumped over the actual cracks not to break our mother's backs; you know, that cozy town square and all the homey penny candy dispensing shopkeepers who know our names--straight out of the collective unconscious--or some James Stewart/Frank Capra common mythos. But that's not really main street these days. Main street has gone the way of wall street--lost to power mongers who follow the path of corruption, otherwise know as corporate sleight of hand. All around us, the big packagers, the huge corporations are shutting down branches, laying off people, and the empty buildings stare at us through their empty-window eyes, making a mockery of yesterday's affluence. In many areas of the country, formerly thriving economic retail centers are starting to look like the abandoned tenements of Urban blight. And it is spreading.

How many power brokers are like Fred Smith of Federal Express, taking a personal 20 percent pay cut and freezing wages rather than putting hundreds--perhaps thousands--out of jobs?

No, it looks like most power brokers these days take multi-million dollar bonuses seconds before their corporations are liquidated, tossing millions of people out of work, out of savings, out of pensions.

What is happening to wall street and main street is happening to the environment.

Abandoned by the corporations who caused them, abandoned environmental hot spots are collected under the Superfundumbrella, with the optimistic mission "to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. . . . ensuring that remaining National Priorities list of hazardous waste sites are cleaned up to protect the environment and the health of all Americans."

It looks like Obama has plans to make a few changes. Obama named Harvard physicist John Holden as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology policy, and Marine Biologist Jane Lubchenco as National Oceanic Atmospheric Administrator. And also he's engaged other scientific leaders like Nobel Prize-winning scientist Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Eric Lander. These are leading thinkers of the green movement. Let's hope they can live up to their reputations.

It's a start.

I hope when Obama met with Al Gore and talked about global warming that they talked about how to clean up all the contamination. We are committing our own genocide and don't even seem to care. Does anyone care? How do I get someone's attention here? How do we get these sites cleaned up?

I don't really mind that the old town square is fondly remembered anachronism. There's a long history: the Roman Forum; the Italian Piazza; the French Grand-Place. Somewhere, sometime, towns and their squares will be rebuilt and be vital and live again. And if not, well, town gathering places are bound to grow and evolve just as people grow and evolve. I only hope that other things that we hold dear--like clean water, clean air, unimproved land in its natural state--will not become fondly remembered relics of the past.

When it comes to politics, I'm not about attacking someone because they are on a Republican ticket or a Democratic ticket. Let’s look at the person, their ideas and what they might represent for us humans. After seeing Sarah Palin's acceptance speech, I came away with several thoughts, one of them that it looks like Palin-speak is going to mean plain-speaking.

Plain speaking is a good thing.

What am I leading up to?

Sarah Palin is being compared to me. I've got four of the quotes right here:

Like this quote:

"Palin is a cross between two archetypes, frontier woman Annie Oakley and muckraker Erin Brockovich. A reformer in a state of cunning politicians, she made her name quitting the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission in outrage over backroom deals and parlayed that into running against a hugely unpopular governor, Frank Murkowski."
Read the complete Bloomberg News article...

and this:

SARAH PALIN IS THE ERIN BROCKOVICH OF ALASKA
Read the complete The Astute Bloggers post...

and this:

Awesome: one part Reagan, one part Erin Brockovich, one part Annie Oakley, one part hockey mom. One part mother of a child with special needs-and soon to be a grandma.
Read the complete The Astute Bloggers post...

Of course, not all of the comparisons are so flattering. This last one one equates Sarah with me (in a negative way) and all the Democrats as Stepford Wives.
Read the complete Abbey-Roads post...

Okay, I know she sniped at Obama a little bit, but she did it with an admirable, graceful semi-scary pit-bull/hockey-mom tenacity that is as natural as breathing; and she stood up to all the media pressure without a semi-casual hair out of place. It doesn't matter whether you are Republican or Democrat, or Independent... (which is about the way I am ready to turn because both parties are acting foolish and judgmental and attacking.) Some of the comments about Sarah Palin have been unfair and I don’t say that because blogs say she is “Sarah Brockovich” or "half Ronald Reagan half Erin Brockovich” or “The Erin Brockovich of Alaska.”

More importantly, beaming with pride, she unapologetically brought out her entire family, including her expecting teenage daughter. (And in the history of the presidency, Republican OR Democrat, I don't think there's been a candidate who had the gonads to do that. ) She was so proud of them it was coming off of her in waves--and rightly so. Frankly, I didn't see a waiver or a weak spine in the whole crew. That's an impressive show of family solidarity. I feel certain the best candidates for office never ran because they kept their secrets in their closets. Sarah Palin seems like her closets are all opened up, and she's right out there saying "Here I am. Let's get to work."

How can you not admire what she has done, and appreciate the position she is in? Sure, she may be loud. So am I. Sometimes you've got to scream to get anyone to hear you. So what if her 17 year old is pregnant? Even though I'm proud she didn't stick her in a closet to hide her away, I realize that girl has got to have true grit to be standing out in front of the spiteful media like that. It’s no one’s business. It happens to young girls all over the WORLD. In history, girls use to have babies much earlier.

None of us should judge Sarah Palin for anything but her own actions. We do our best to raise our kids and when they grow up they develop their OWN minds and their own life and their own way of thinking and I am certainly in favor of that.

Sarah Palin is running a State--and mighty well I should add. She has a successful marriage, 5 kids, which HELLO, is a BIG, BIG, JOB! She takes care of herself, she speaks her mind and her heart. Her son is in the War. I would be scared to death if my son were over there.

I think it is a simple thing really. The fact is that Sarah Palin positively emanates strength. Whether or not we stand on the same side of the fence, she gives off the aura of being a strong woman who doesn't back down, and she does it sporting heels and wearing her family like a badge of well-deserved honor. I am sure there are a million other women out there who are doing the same thing.

And the truth is I am proud to be a member of the same Strong Woman's Club that Sarah Palin is in.

May 29, 2007

How many times are we going to turn on the news and have to listen to the Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton train wreck stories? Hollywood and our media have a lot more important things to say and do and tell than to cover such paparazzi-pandering voyeurism.

Being a parent of three children I am very aware that teenagers run into drug and alcohol problems. I have had to put my foot down with all three of my kids who had to experience outdoor programs, boarding schools and inpatient programs so that they could learn how to be strong in themselves and not follow the pack or the so called “crowd.” It was my job, (and a not so popular campaign in my home) to yank on the kid’s strings when they started making poor choices.

Is it any wonder why it is really difficult for this generation to make good choices when their role models are the likes of the two mentioned above? We sit back and do nothing while the media publicizes and idolizes bad behavior. All of the other kids in America are expected to play by the rules and make good choices in life. But you tell me where is the media coverage on the kids who stand out because of their admirable accomplishments?

Lindsay, Paris or anyone else who thinks they are above the law because they are famous or because their parents are rich should not get any favors. I hope they do the time, get the help that they need and start making better choices!

The media needs to take a good look at some of the stories they are covering and consider why so much attention is paid to them.

The issues that surround us are critical to the future of our country. Our educational system is terrible. Forget no child left behind. They are all getting left behind. Our health care system is laughable. Our environment has gone to the toilet. Jobs are in short supply. There is an epidemic drug problem in this country.

And what are we going to do about the WAR?

All of these issues affect the health and safety of all Americans.

This is important. Not the minutia of Paris and Lindsey's foolish life choices.

If the media showed us just how bad things are and did not sugar coat it, then people– parents, students and government–could focusing on how to change these things. It's certainly a better use of time than watching what the hell Lindsay and Paris are doing. Then maybe we could affect some change.

I congratulate media when they step up to the plate and tell the unpopular stories.

For example, CBS2 news in Sayreville, New Jersey just ran a story about a site that we have been looking at regarding the air pollution and the numerous cancers and issues in this community living close to a DuPont and Hercules chemical plant. Because of this story, the community has become aware and is now banning together, talking and wanting to do something about the problem.

And it's a big problem. For the past fourteen years, this community has had over THREE MILLION pounds of carcinogenic chemicals released into the air of which over 500,000 LBS. are actual fugitive emissions.

How many of these types of facilities are there throughout the US? What if only a few have same problem? What if there are thousands of these businesses–large and small–spewing out various degrees of fugitive emissions under the radar?

You do the math.

Tell me you don’t believe in Global Warming.
Tell me why we see so many cancers.

What is bothersome is that these statistics were taken from the US EPA website. The figures from these facilities are not available for 2006 and 2007 Industry is two years behind in reporting.

What is going on? Why do we set all the rules and regulations and then do nothing to enforce them? Is it because no one is talking about them? How about we start covering human issues and stories that AFFECT us.

If the tide doesn't turn, then we have to turn it ourselves.

Let’s get people involved again and not sweep things under the rug. Let's not pay so much attention to things that don’t really matter and certainly don’t help others. Let’s get back to the news, back to the people and back to America.