My Thoughts on 5th & Hill

    Ms. Lennhoff's presentation the other day was the first I had heard about this issue, and even hearing the words "toxic waste site" about a place so close to home was insane. I looked up the location on google maps, and the thought of something that dangerous being so close to home is scary, but the idea of living across the street from it is much, much worse. 

Looking at this image, I grew concerned for the people living so close to this health hazard, I think seeing how close it really is to people left more of an impact on me than just hearing about it. Thinking about how the people and families living in those homes must have suffered is awful, and as someone who has seen a family member go through (and thankfully beat) cancer, I hate the thought of people having to go through the same experience as a result of the laziness and greed of someone else. It really is a shame nowadays that people are willing to lie and sacrifice other humans lives to save money, and as we have said in class, if this ordeal had occurred in a different, more wealthy neighborhood, the fight to clean the contaminants up would not still be happening, nor would it have needed to happen at all in my opinion. To me, this situation is another example of how little people care about the lives of colored and lower class people. I don't know too many other examples of this, but regarding institutionalized racism in general, there are injustices being carried out every single day without being stopped. Disparities in college admissions and in the workplace, over-policing in low-income black neighborhoods, underfunded education, and more. People's lives are being lost in the aftermath of these things, and they are not being dealt with nearly as quickly as they should be. This company knowingly subjected people to illnesses and death due to their missteps, and tried their hardest to avoid dealing with the situation at all. I'm sure there are similar problems occurring across America and the rest of the world, but I am deeply saddened and disappointed that something like this could be happening a mere 30 minutes away.