11.28.97

November 28th, 1997

NOT JUST ANOTHER DAY
By Jackie Giuliano

Today, November 23, 1997, 675,000 people with guns are tramping throughout the state of Wisconsin as the deer hunting season begins. That's more gun-toting people than the 540,000 troops that were fighting in Vietnam during the height of the war in 1969. During this part of the season where only hunters with guns are allowed, over 300,000 of the estimated 1.4 million deer in the state will be slaughtered. Other kinds of weapons will be allowed later in the month.

The Hunters Against Hunger members in eight Wisconsin counties will donate 4,000 pounds of deer meet to feed the needy this season. "We feel so blessed that we're able to participate," said Judy Fajnor of the Mainstreet Food Pantry in Marshfield, Wisconsin. "Every little bit helps. It's a real good substitute for hamburger. It's healthy." (From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11/18/97)

I am writing this in an airplane, traveling at nearly 250 miles per hour 28,000 feet above the surface of our fragile mother Earth. At this speed and at this altitude, it is easy to feel disconnected from the horror of the headlines. After all, each is just another story, just another set of facts, figures, and confusing, conflicting, and fear-generating information bits.

I am returning home after a death vigil in Wisconsin for Florence, my wife Bonnie's beloved grandmother. I think it is important for those of us so concerned with our Earth to reflect upon death. In fact, our fear of death may be at the heart of so many of our environmental and social dilemmas. How might our world be different if we embraced all the cycles of life for all species? How might our world be different if our fear of not doing enough during our lives did not constantly drive us to build bigger, faster, more capable machines? What changes might we all insist upon making if we lived only in the present moment and not later today, this afternoon, or tomorrow? A death helps us reflect upon these ideas.

I dreaded another death vigil. My dad had died in June, and my family waited by his bed for nearly four days until he passed on. I prayed that Bonnie's grandma would pass more quickly and with less pain. I guess I am not surprised that death would come up again for me. Just the night before, I had heard anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott speak on the radio of the escalating nuclear bomb building going on worldwide. The United States has 10,000 nuclear bombs still, Russia just as many, and many middle eastern countries have them as well. Israel has 200 nuclear warheads. So much for the end of the Cold War. If that war was "cold," then we are surely headed for a hot one. It seems that a piece of each part of my day is spent in a death vigil because each day so much horror is intermingled with the awesome beauty of our world.

Another "Healing Our World" article presented more grim awareness for a daily vigil ("No One Is Untouched" see the Archive).

Each day, people in the United States alone:

Throw out 200,000 tons of edible food
use 313 million gallons of fuel - enough to drain 26 tractor-trailer trucks every minute
take 18 million tons of raw materials from the Earth
Use 6.8 billion gallons of drinking water to flush toilets
Throw 1 million bushels of litter out of car windows
Add 10,000 minks to their closets and coat racks
Spend $200 million on advertising
Saw up 100 million board feet of wood
use 250,000 tons of steel
use 187,000 tons of paper, and
1,233 people in the U.S. die from smoking related illnesses

On this planet:

1 out of every 4 adults cannot read or write
1 out of 5 is hungry and malnourished and does not have housing
1 out of 5 lacks clean drinking water
1 out of 3 lacks adequate health care
over one-half lack sanitary toilets

And each day, worldwide:

238,000 people are added to the world
120,000 children world-wide die from diarrhea
180 square miles of tropical forests are cleared
73 tons of topsoil are eroded
10 to 100 species are eliminated
78 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere
1,800 tons of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons are added to the atmosphere

We waste huge amounts of energy and human resources in the arms race. There is one soldier for every 43 people in the world and only one doctor for every 1,030. Forty percent of our research and development expenditures and 60 percent of our physical scientists and engineers are devoted to developing weapons to kill everyone on Earth 67 times. Sounds like a daily death vigil is in order.

You shall ask
What good are dead leaves
And I will tell you
They nourish the sore earth.
You shall ask
What reason is there for winter
And I will tell you
To bring about new leaves.
You shall ask
Why are the leaves so green
And I will tell you
Because they are rich with life
You shall ask
Why must summer end
And I will tell you
So that the leaves can die
-- Nancy Wood

Ruth Florence Gottlieb (everyone called her Florence so that's what she changed her name to) was a woman who knew nothing about the details of nuclear bombs or toxic waste. Yet she was a woman who gave joy to others throughout her life. She lived every moment fully and created a loving space all around her. Two years ago, she entered a nursing home in Milwaukee. After winning a battle with depression (thanks to loving and professional help from her psychologist granddaughter, my wife Bonnie), breathed life into the desolation and desperation of so many who lived around her.

I met Florence only once a few months ago and was amazed by her ability to be cheerful and to care so much for those around her in the face of her medical problems. She never lived in the past or longed for "the good old days." It was like she made each day a "good old day" to be lived and cherished now. She would cut the food in the plate of a nursing home resident who couldn't do it for himself or tend to the needs of a demented patient down the hall. She was a center for life in that home.

Yet the home itself, as good as Florence made it, is a shining example of our culture's fear of death and of being around those who are courting it. Florence was one of the lucky ones with a family who continued to care for her. And she was most likely the only one who had a granddaughter as caring and loving as Bonnie. Most of the home's residents are the forgotten elders of our society, abandoned by families and resigned to hour after hour of a lonely existence. They watch as their only friends die, one by one, their belongings boxed up by staff (who often steal what they want) and moved to the basement room under the air vents.

Florence died last week, surrounded by her loving family. While I was watching her take her last breath - and since her dying was very much like my father's a few months ago, I knew exactly when it was happening - I couldn't stop thinking about how our fear of death keeps us from embracing the ending of a life. The official diagnosis is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Yet I could also not ignore the fact that environmental degradation and corporate greed had contributed to the death of this sweet, loving woman. I could not stop thinking that artificial toxins are killing people every day, putting yet another layer between us and an appreciation of the cycles of life. And it made me angry.

Florence had breathing problems from a lifetime of smoking. Even though she quit nearly 30 years ago, irreparable damage was done to her lungs, her larynx and probably her heart. Cancers had begun to grow some months ago and her health deteriorated quite rapidly after chemotherapy began. She and her husband Joe owned a tavern, and for years she breathed not only her own cigarette smoke, but the deadly smoke of others as well. She didn't know there was danger. Doctors paid by tobacco companies did commercials on TV saying how good smoking was. As Florence was smoking, corporate profits soared.

Just blocks from the hospital where she died, large billboards proclaim that Marlboro cigarettes are "100 percent tobacco." Five hundred thousand deaths every year, billion dollar lawsuits pending, and these obscene corporate giants simply change their advertising campaign.

The Toxic Release Inventory of Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources shows that 857 companies reported that they discharged 29.4 million pounds of toxic compounds into the earth, air, and water in 1996. This doesn't count the millions of pounds of pesticides entering the ecosystem, the unreported releases, and the daily pollutant load from the millions of small business in the state. And this has been going on worldwide year after year after year for two, maybe three generations.

The U.S. government, the tobacco industry, and those who invest in those companies profited on Florence's suffering. If any of you are investing your money in mutual funds or other retirement accounts, you are probably investing in tobacco and chemical companies. Almost without exception, the highest yielding funds include toxic stocks. In one popular retirement account offered to teachers around the country, over $54 million are invested in 37 chemical companies. The portfolios also include stock from 23 tobacco manufacturers with investments from teachers totaling nearly $1.5 billion! Of course, most investors don't look beyond the glossy brochures to find out what stocks are being purchased - they just look at the interest accruing. But aren't we all implicated when we invest in toxic stocks?

As I saw the life leaving dear Florence, I thought of the incredible Lake Michigan just blocks from the hospital. The Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the fresh water on Earth and about 10 percent of the population of the U.S. and 25% of the Canadian population live within their watershed. Florence was born in Milwaukee in 1912 and lived most of her life there. How much did toxic exposure to contaminants in the lake contribute to her premature ending?

The lakes have been used by our industrial culture since the invasion of North America over 200 years ago (some would say "discovery" of North America). By the 1960s, with the nation's environmental awareness growing, it was realized that the health of the Great Lakes had deteriorated severely due to overfishing, eutrophication (increase in nutrients in the water from sewage, detergents, etc. which causes overgrowth of microorganisms), and the widespread presence of toxic substances. The use of the lakes as sewers for agricultural, industrial, and domestic wastes has resulted in grave consequences for human and animal health.

Concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the lakes have been significant enough to warrant advisories to restrict consumption of contaminated fish, particularly by children and women of childbearing age. Huge amounts of DDT were dumped into the lakes as well. Of the 362 toxic contaminants identified in the Great Lakes system, only one-third have been evaluated for their affects on animal and human health. There are over 30,000 chemicals produced in the Great Lakes region - 43% of all the chemicals used in the U.S. Eleven extremely harmful chemicals have been identified: PCBs, DDT, benzoapyrene, hexachorobenzene, alkylated lead, methylmercury, toxaphene, mirex, furans, dieldrin, and dioxins. All of these substances accumulate in living tissue and magnify in food webs.

How much Great Lakes fish did Florence eat in her lifetime?

During the years of 1994 and 1995, 385,000 people in 1,186 communities in Wisconsin drank water that failed to meet federal health standards. Fifty schools, hospitals, and daycare centers with privately owned drinking water supplies also had contaminated water that affected another 8,014 people - the most vulnerable people in society at that. Wisconsin drinking water has been plagued by bacterial and chemical contamination for years. Water suppliers continue to be fined, and warnings are issued to boil drinking water or drink bottled water, but the problem continues. Thousands of people get sick because of the Cryptosporidium parasite in the water and many more with compromised immune systems are more insidiously affected. In 1994-1995, 5,233 people in 51 communities drank water that contained unsafe levels of toxic chemicals or radioactivity. In the same reporting period, 831,746 people drank water from 3,010 water systems that either failed basic health requirements or did not even adequately test their tap water.

How much water did Florence drink in her lifetime?

Coal-fired power plants are still common in the Midwest. These plants are the primary source of airborne mercury that has affected the health of humans, fish and wildlife for years. Releases from the many mines in the state have polluted the air and sent acidic contaminants into streams, lakes, and reservoirs.

How much air did Florence breathe in her lifetime?

We have been lulled into complacency about the illnesses in our culture. We have been taught to believe that we get sick because of the luck of the draw or because it was meant to be. We have been distracted so that we do not see the connection between reckless consumption and the production of life threatening toxic substances. We have been taught to believe that the government will take care of us and set standards that protect our health. Yet time and time again, it has been proven that government-set standards for toxic substances are designed to protect the free flow of commerce. Even the four food groups that the government promotes are really an advertisement for the dairy and meat industries that ignore the overwhelming evidence of the dangers of consuming large amounts of animal protein.

How many times must a man look up,
before he can see the sky?
Yes'n how many ears must one man have,
before he can hear people cry?
Yes'n how many deaths will it take till he knows
that too many people have died?

How many years can a mountain exist,
before it is washed to the sea?
Yes'n how many years can some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
Yes'n how many times can a man turn his head,
and pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer my friend,
is blowin in the wind,
the answer is blowing in the wind.
-- Bob Dylan

The cycles of life are powerful grounding forces for us. We buried Florence on her birthday, November 21, a wonderful example of the cycles of life. Death is as much a part of life as is birth. But death due to corporate greed should not be part of life. And the passing of this wonderful woman should not be just another death on just another day. We should notice and learn.

I am sorry, dear Florence. You lived a full life, but it could have been less painful and longer. You did your best. The world didn't. Rest in peace, dear sweet lady. I am sure you are passing out candy now wherever you have gone.

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
we remember them.
In the glowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
we remember them.
In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring,
we remember them.
In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,
we remember them.
In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
we remember them.
In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
we remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,
we remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart,
we remember them.
So long as we live, they too shall live,
for they are now a part of us, as
we remember them.
-- Jewish Prayer from Rabbi's Manual

RESOURCES

1. To learn about how to protect yourself in Wisconsin from suspected toxic exposures, visit the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services at http://sadr.biostat.wisc.edu/clearinghouse/clear/orgs/159.html

2. To see a report from the EPA on the effects of contamination in the Great Lakes on humans, visit http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/health/atsdr.htm

3. Learn about the activist efforts underway to stop the indiscriminant mining of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region at http://www.earthwins.com/rescamp2.html

4. Learn more about the work of Dr. Helen Caldicott and her organization, Physicans for Social Responsibility at http://www.psr.org/

{Jackie Giuliano can be found grieving in Venice, California. He is a Professor of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los Angeles, and the University of Phoenix Southern California Campuses. He is also the Educational Outreach Manager for the Ice and Fire Preprojects, a NASA program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to send space probes to Jupiter's moon Europa, the planet Pluto, and the Sun. Please send your thoughts and comments to him at at jackieg@jps.net}