Who's the real radical?

"To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice."
-- Confucius

"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him."
-- John Morley

"I support the bigot's right to speak out,
as if I start limiting them, they may start limiting me.
I also support my right to ignore them."
-- Laura Packer

"The question is not whether we will be extremists,
but what kind of extremists we will be.
The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."
-- Rev. Martin Luther King

The mainstream media often calls the efforts of those who oppose the threats of seemingly endless consumerism and industrial expansion as "radical" and "extremist." They attempt to portray those who want to stop some defenseless animal from being killed or who want to end the destruction of the Earth's forests and oceans as weak minded, ignorant obstructionists who are anti-technology.

This rhetoric only serves to cloud and confuse the issues, making it appear to those who are against such destruction that they are in the minority and, in these days and times, even unpatriotic.

Plane sprays to control western corn rootworms feeding on and laying eggs in these soybeans. (Photo courtesy USDA)

Call me weak and ignorant if you must, but to my way of thinking, the systematic destruction of the Earth's oceans, forests, and atmosphere, the killing of animals to obtain furs for the rich, the attempts to sneak genetically engineered foods into the marketplace without labels identifying them, the claims that it is OK to douse our food supply with billions of tons of deadly pesticides, and the sanctioning of the deaths of children who starve in the midst of vast abundance because profit for few is the top priority are the radical and extreme behaviors.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language defines the word radical to mean, "departing markedly from the usual or customary" and "favoring or effecting fundamental or revolutionary changes in current practices, conditions, or institutions."

It is tragic that toxic pollution, the suffering of children, the poisoning of hundreds of thousands of people world wide by pesticides, and wonton cruelty are defined by so many as being "the usual and customary."

Believing in the health of the Earth’s life support systems and the importance of every life, human or animal, cannot be considered the views of a special interest group. Those beliefs must be the ONLY interest.

One of the most repulsive examples of the acceptance of suffering as mainstream may be in the area of workplace safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that more than 32 million workers are exposed to harmful substances from more than 3.5 million workplaces. But over the last 30 years, OSHA has issued only 170 citations to employers for not having proper procedures to protect against toxic substances leaving the workplace.

Unfortunately, businesses with fewer than 10 employees are exempt from OSHA inspections, even though it is believed that these small companies may be the source of many of the problems.

Auto shop with paint spray booth (Photo credit unknown)

Solvents such as benzene, carbon disulfide, methylene chloride, and ketone are a few of the names of the 49 million tons of solvents that are produced annually in the U.S. and 9.8 million workers are exposed to them daily. They are in nail polish, paint, plastics, rubber cement, furniture and thousands of other products. They are absorbed through the skin or ingested. This is not a new problem. People have been suffering from working in toxic industries for a long time.

Hundreds of years ago, madness spread among the mirror makers of Venice, Italy and the hat makers of London. Eventually, the disease was linked to inhaling mercury vapors. The phrase "mad as a hatter" comes from these troubled times, since mercury was used in the manufacture of felt for hats, and many of the workers eventually went mad from mercury poisoning.

Yet industries continue to deny their impact, both on the Earth and on their workers. It is much cheaper for them to pay out the few wrongful death lawsuits that are brought against them than to clean up their acts and treat their workers with dignity and respect.

Ever wonder about that phony butter used on popcorn in theaters and in those microwaveable packets? Its strange smell and aftertaste have made many of us wonder what it is. It has been recently revealed that this chemical is quite dangerous and has already killed.

In 2002, the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" newspaper reported that over the last few decades, more than 30 workers have contracted the fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, at the Glister-Mary Lee Popcorn plant in St. Louis, Missouri. This disease destroys the lungs and all these people will suffocate without complete lung transplants. Investigators found workers at the plant had 3.3 times the rate of lung obstruction in the general population.

Federal officials believe the workers contracted the disease by breathing the fumes of the chemical that makes that fake butter flavor in popcorn and other foods! The flavoring contains the chemical diacetyl.

The company claims that it has begun taking precautions by having employees in some areas of the plant wear respirators. One has to wonder why they weren’t doing this all along.

On the chemical’s "Material Safety Data Sheet," required by law and readily available on the Internet, inhalation hazards are clearly listed as being very serious. The data sheet says, "If inhaled, remove person to fresh air. If not breathing give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen ... Do not breathe vapors. Mechanical exhaust required. In confined or poorly ventilated areas, the use of an appropriate respiratory protection may be required."

Unfortunately, it is usual and customary to cut corners wherever possible in protecting one’s workers. It is considered radical to suggest that everyone deserves protection from the start.

Protest rally of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), August 24, 2001 while the Taliban were still in power. (Photo courtesy RAWA)

Tens of thousands of people every day protest the ideals portrayed as normal by the mainstream media and by our political and business leaders. Across the nation and across the globe, thousands more are living in intentional communities, farming sustainably, boycotting products of companies that generate toxic waste or sell poisons to children, and many thousands more make their views known to their elected representatives.

All together, these numbers add up to unreported millions. It is no surprise that you will rarely hear about these people in the corporate controlled media. You won't see these activist leaders chronicled on network or even public television talk shows. But you will see them in the supermarket, on the playground with their children and at many jobs across the land.

Don’t believe the rhetoric, don’t accept that it is unpatriotic to want peace, and don’t succumb to the constant insults and demeaning comments that suggest those who care for the future and for the Earth rather than for shareholder profit are somehow weak and misguided.

The earth, the air, and the water are the values that matter, not the stock market index. If that idea is considered radical, then so be it.

RESOURCES

1. "Radical." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

2. See a comprehensive reporting of toxic substances in the workplace by "USA Today."

3. For a list of problem industries with cancer risks, visit Toxic Torts.

4. Take action with the help of CoOp America.

5. See all the risks of diacetyl at the US Department of Labor.