Submitted by Shirley Christmas
Assessment of the Environment
Since my trip to Fort Valley, Georgia with six other people from the Sydney area, I've written several reports on this trip we made. However, after reading them over and over again, it wasn't what I wanted to say. It wasn't what I felt. The trip was good, mind you, both educationally and emotionally.
Speaking as a Native American, I could only say what is in my heart and soul, of what I think is the true form of what I felt. With deep regrets I can't speak to you about the others, for I find it is not important to me. Only they, themselves, can tell you of their experience about the trip.
I truly must commend the people of Fort Valley, Georgia on their efforts to accomplish what they had set out to do. To create awareness to the community of the environmental hazard that lives among them. I can't say surround because they actually live right on the contaminated area.
This plant is a chemical time bomb, owned and run by a large Corporation - believe it or not, from Canada!
The plant still runs, continuing to poison the lives of these people today.
It is through the efforts of one man's voice that was heard in the community, the majority of these people now stand strong beside him, in announcing to the world and the US Government "The politically forgotten will not be silent anymore - enough is enough."
Their battle has begun and spread to other neighboring states as well.
In my findings, I've uncovered a few essential ingredients. Ingredients that these people learned to use as barriers to hold them firm against giant corporate companies and meddling government officials that have consorted to bribery and threats. These are the few essential ingredients:
(1) Support: They gained support from each other as a community.
(2) Education: By knocking on doors and speaking at community meetings, by whatever means, the media, letters, they grabbed it and used it.
(3) Trust: This was the aorta of the community and without it they would have surely failed. For the heart of the group could not function if the trust wasn't there.
(4) Honesty: Without honesty, they wouldn't be able to depend on the trust to educate and gain support of the people.
Shortly before my departure to the States, I made a solemn vow. I will begin to educate my community and inform them of the dangers of chemical waste which inflicts our lives either directly or indirectly.
And yet even as we seek ways to rid us of our pollution problems, there is another ready to destroy our environment. These are the incinerators that big companies and some government officials regard highly as safe. Nuisance! There is nothing safe, if it is man-made.
The time has come for me to speak out and take my place in this society to help clean up our environment for the sake of my children and their children to follow in generations to come.
The following is my initial report of the environmental catastrophe throughout the world.
In the past few years I've learned a great deal about the environment and the impact it has on me. Also, I've come to know that the clouds which once surrounded our city weren't natural, although as a child, this was part of our lives. These orange clouds played havoc on many, many lives without our knowledge of their capabilities to destroy. I do remember each time the clouds did cover the sky and blocked out the sun, I always felt fear, fear that I could never explain at the time. Now, when I think about it, I believe it had something to do with my Native instincts.
When finally I came to realize that the earth was in grave danger, I looked back to all the many years of hidden tears, pain and anger. For example, whenever I heard of oil spills, I would cry silent tears for the creatures of the seas. As I looked at pictures of long ago, I cringed at what is left today. Where once beautiful, landscapes have been turned into such ugliness as dump sites and factories. I felt great pain and anger. Yet also helpless because I could do nothing. There just was no explanation until I found the Native side of me.
It wasn't until I became a write of Native poetry that I realized just how much of an impact this destruction of our homeland had on me as a Native, as a person and an individual.
Today the onslaught of destruction continues in every part of the globe. This angers me the most because when you come down to today's problems of pollution, we as the more intelligent of all species are still ignorant to the treatment of this planet.
It is the destruction of the environment that will be the end of mankind. Take the oceans, filled with many, many different species of fish. Today, however, many of those are extinct. Still, many more face extinction. Yet we continue to pollute the oceans. What are we going to do when the fish and other sea life are all gone. We can't turn to the land, because that also has been contaminated with toxic waste which is slowly destroying us through illnesses connected to the chemicals that lay in the ground.
We cannot eat the food given by the Creator because that, too, has been tampered with by man. How? When the land was cleared to build bigger cities, the animals suffered the most. Some sought shelter on higher grounds, others stayed and died either by starvation or were poisoned.
Now look at us, we are not as superior or intelligent as we thought. Isn't that just pitiful; we are the underdogs of our own demise. We have no one to blame for our mistakes but ourselves.
In this day and age, we have the technology to clean up the earth, but do we? No we're much to busy being afraid. Afraid of what?
(1) We're afraid of losing jobs
(2) We're afraid of losing tourism
(3) We're afraid to eat the food coming from the ocean, seas, lakes, rivers & streams
(4) We're afraid to eat food that grows from the ground and trees because of chemicals
(5) We're afraid to drink the water
(6) We are even afraid to breath in the air
We SHOULD be afraid for all the above. Did you know the time is here where Mother Earth has begun to fight back? Did you also know we should be afraid because she not only gives life, she can also take it? If you take a good long look, you will know that she can do a lot more damage than we can imagine.
Wake up before it's too late to decide where you are going to stand. Clean up our mess or continue to self-destruct.
Like I said, I speak only what I feel in my heart as a Native. I could only ask the Creator to give me strength to battle the beast we had created either directly or indirectly. This closes my report on the Assessment of the Environment her in Sydney and Fort Valley, Georgia.
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