I’ve always been disabled and sick. The effects have been amplified in recent years by adulting, largely without direct support. It worked for a while. In a “many things are on fire but the big fires are sort of put out” way. My chronic pain, fatigue, and brain fog increased; my mental health declined. I crashed in late 2016.
I have not recovered. I’m able to work much less, which means I earn less. I’ve been very financially unstable for over a year. I want to take care of my cat, who is my best friend, and pay my bills. I just don’t have much. I’m applying for benefits like SSDI, housing assistance, etc. I have relied on a few people for help so far.
Seriously though, the elementary school I went to was built on top of the “reclaimed” old town dump. Closed in IIRC the late ‘40s, so it’s not like there were any restrictions on what got put in there either.
Come back a few years later, and what a conveniently located big flattish piece of ground to put a new school on! 😵
That particular decision at least seemed to have less to do with any specific inequality factors locally, and more that it was the ’50s when dumb shit like that was pretty much normal. Still hard to believe that anyone ever thought that was a reasonable plan.
But, my mom was part of the first group to go there. They opened it when she was in like 3rd grade. At that point, teachers regularly had to chase kids off from messing with the weird pools of seepage around the playground and the remaining rats hanging around the place.
There was/still is also some nasty industrial pollution in the area, but several of the kids she was in elementary school with died from assorted cancers before they even got out of high school. Never mind later on. Even with the baby boom that prompted them to build a couple of new schools in the first place, it wasn’t a large school population. We’re talking about a relatively small town.
Thankfully the obvious ooze and the rats were long gone around 30 years later, when I ended up there too. Though grass still wasn’t growing right around the playground/field area. It’s probably not going to be a particularly healthy environment for a very long time still, of course.
And this shit still isn’t nearly as uncommon as it should be, without even having ignorance to fall back on as an excuse for decades.
p.s.a. post bc i don’t think it’s talked enough about
environmental racism is real and most city dumps, toxic waste, and pollution are located in poor and/or black neighborhoods
so if ur an environmentalist like me, add that to your agenda when promoting environmentalism, please!
I agree this is something people don’t talk about nearly enough, and animal agriculture is a particularly stark example of it. Animal farms have a devastating impact on their surrounding communities. Large farming facilities produce more than 400 different gases, all as a result of the amount of waste they produce, which pollutes local streams and waterways. The real concerns are hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide. Communities surrounding these facilities are constantly close to hydrogen sulfide, a gas that can cause flu-like symptoms, while high concentrations or exposure can lead to brain damage. Methane can lead to vision problems, heart palpitations, brain damage, trouble breathing, and, with enough exposure, death.
The amount of urban public schools that are build on or near remediation (dumping/toxic) sites is staggering, and has been linked to learning disabilities as well as reduced mental acuity for students. This shit is 100% institutional and intended.
Environmental Justice is Racial Justice. There is zero compromise.
this isn’t just a US problem
Very true. Environmental racism, also called environmental inequality, is a massive issue on a global scale. Every continent has its own environmental inequality issues to deal with, from Chinese environmental destruction in Africa, to the European tendency to use Rromani areas as garbage heaps and whatever the fuck they’re doing to the entirety of Eastern Europe which is on a scale beyond my comprehension honestly. This is to say nothing of the fact that global warming predominantly affects the global south and historically exploited regions.
All of these issues are interconnected.
However, for many Americans, it is easier to conceptualize the suffering o their own neighbours, than to try to take stock of complex global systems of exploitation. Given the huge amount of responsibility the US has for all of this environmental destruction on a global scale, changing the opinions of, and ultimately mobilizing, the US population is a laudable focus, in my opinion.
emotional abuse is when someone does something to hurt you, and when you express your feelings, that you’re upset, they turn it around to be something you did to hurt them and they force you to apologize for it, and your feelings, like always, are rendered invalid and silenced, forever damaging the ability to trust others with your feelings because they always are used against you.
this is important because so many people don’t know this
Also of note: it can be your significant other, it can be your father or your mother or anyone in your family, it can be your friend(s) or roommates or teachers.
Just because you don’t share a romantic/familial bond with someone doesn’t mean they are not abusive.
just, the fact that so many people, myself included, have to crowdfund to get like the bare minimum of what it takes to survive is so fucking terrible. and the guilt people are made to feel for asking for help is awful. people need help. why do people need to be ashamed of needing help. why is food stamp, food bank, and charity culture so fucking shamed. why do people act like it’s humiliating to ask for help. why can someone in need not ask for $20 for their sick mom, hungry siblings, or own personal emergency without being criticized and shamed for it.
After his release from prison, Wright obtained his undergraduate degree in 2002, entering law school in 2004 and graduating from St. Thomas University School of Law in 2007. Passing the New Jersey Bar in 2008, he spent the next nine years being investigated by the New Jersey Bar’s Committee on Character before being granted admission to the bar by the New Jersey Supreme Court on September 27, 2017.
On September 27, 2017, Wright became the only person in U.S. history to be condemned to life in prison, secure his own release and exoneration and then be granted a license to practice law by the very court that condemned him.
Wright got his 1991 conviction overturned by exposing the gross corruption and misconduct within the court that convicted him, the prosecutors office and the police force. This allowed Wright to successfully get rid of his life sentence but he remained in prison on numerous other convictions with sentences totaling over 70 years. Wright’s ultimate release came as a result of his cross-examination of veteran police detective, James Dugan. Dugan’s confession opened revelations of wide and systematic misconduct and cover-up in Wright’s case. Then Somerset County Prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell, Jr., who tried Wright’s case personally was fingered as being the orchestrator of that misconduct, directing police officers to falsify their police reports while he personally dictated the false testimony of witnesses against Wright and made secret deals with defense attorneys to have their clients lie to the jury that Wright was their drug boss and that they had plead guilty and were going to prison, when in-fact, they were never going to spend a day in jail.
Dugan pled guilty to official misconduct in order to escape prison. Wright’s trial judge, Michael Imbriani, was removed from the bench and sent to prison on theft charges and Bissell, after learning of Dugan’s confession on TV news, took flight with federal authorities in pursuit. As police were kicking in the door of his Las Vegas hotel room, Bissell put a revolver to his head and pulled the trigger, committing suicide. Wright’s remaining convictions were vacated and he was immediately released from prison. The charges were dropped and the case against him dismissed.
Wright now works at the Law Firm Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley located in Newark, New Jersey, and is to have said “I went to law school for one reason and one reason only, To slay giants for a price. And if the giant is big enough and the cause is important enough, I’ll do it for free, especially when it involves helping those who cannot help themselves.”
ultimate power move: law your way out of jail and convict the people who wrongly convicted you
Why is there not a movie about this fricking amazing man yet?
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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