PATRICIA DEMARCO | Wednesday, March 16, 2022 11:00 a.m.
AP Framed by the Manhattan skyline, electricians install solar panels on top of a garage at LaGuardia Airport in New York Nov. 9.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has renewed calls for energy independence and increased domestic production of oil and gas. However, the call for “energy independence” is nothing more than a distraction, a disinformation campaign propagated by the fossil-fuel industry with the intentions of profiting off this crisis. Despite what they say, the answer isn’t at the bottom of a well. Drilling more oil and gas will only put more money in their pockets. Rather, the surest path to security is to fully ramp up our transition to clean energy.
Here in the U.S., domestic oil and gas production is already at record levels. Meanwhile, clean energy, like wind, solar and other renewable sources, creates good-paying jobs here in the U.S. and is homegrown — so we don’t need to import it and it’s not subject to the wild fluctuations of the global fossil-fuel markets and supply-chain disruptions. Clean energy is how we can achieve greater security, economic stability and a healthier future.
Of course, moving toward clean energy not only creates jobs and decouples the U.S. from its reliance on foreign oil, but also helps solve the climate crisis. There is no time to waste here. Just last month, another dire warning; the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that confirms that climate change is wreaking havoc on our communities and causing dangerous, widespread disruptions to life as we know it. Many ecosystems have already been irreversibly damaged.
Here in Pennsylvania, we have seen more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Just last month, floods in Western Pennsylvania forced many to evacuate their homes as others needed to be rescued. As flooding continues to worsen, the more damage there will be to our homes and businesses, and more lives will be put at risk.
As the IPCC report makes clear, delaying action will only make things worse. By 2050, the number of dangerous heat days Pennsylvanians experience per year is expected to triple. This is a major concern for all Pennsylvanians, but especially for the more than 310,000 people here who are especially vulnerable to extreme heat. To make matters worse, summer droughts are projected to increase in severity by 50% by 2050.
Tackling climate change in Pennsylvania must start with working to reduce our pollution. Pennsylvania is the 12th most polluted state in the nation. A study conducted in Allegheny County found that children who live near steel mills, power plants and other sources of pollution have three times the risk of developing asthma. In communities of color and low-wealth communities, which disproportionately live near these sources of pollution, over 22% of children suffer from asthma. To put that in perspective, the national average is 8%.
In 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives took bold action by passing $555 billion in investments in climate action, clean energy, justice and jobs. In his State of the Union address earlier this month, President Biden called for the Senate to push these investments through as well. If passed, these investments will be of great benefit to Pennsylvania. We can be a leader in driving the transformation to a low-carbon energy economy. With a strong manufacturing tradition, skilled workforce, and existing infrastructure, Pennsylvania is primed to lead in replacing fossil fuels with solar energy and wind systems made here as well as advanced battery technology, fuel cells and electric grid upgrades for load management through artificial intelligence technology.
The window for making the transformation to a low-carbon future is closing rapidly. This is the time for people of vision and courage to stand together and demand our leaders act on behalf of our children and their grandchildren to assure a sustainable future for our nation and our world. Congress and Biden must immediately work together to get these climate investments over the finish line so that Pennsylvania can thrive like never before.
Patricia DeMarco is a senior scholar at Chatham University and is vice president of Forest Hills Borough Council.
Facing a life-threatening illness forces focus on what is truly important. Every person faces such crisis-induced inflection points differently. As I have coped with four different challenges to my health over a span of twenty years, I have made decisions to live each day to the fullest, with purpose and intention. One day at a time, I rejoice in the wonder and beauty demonstrated everywhere through the gifts of the living Earth. I seek ways to use my voice and my personal power to move the world around me to a more sustainable and resilient place through local political action as an elected official, through regional collaborations with like-minded colleagues, and through writing and focused contributions to national and international efforts. But all of this fades away in the face of a truly life-threatening reality. When the diagnosis comes to a person close to my heart, the precious fragility of our existence surfaces.
When the days ahead are numbered to a few hundred at best, it is the relationships, the personal connections with a caring community of family and friends, that make the difference. All of the time spent on causes and external concerns disappears in significance compared to spending an hour in lucid conversation with a dear loved one. Memories of shared joys lift the pall of pain and fear. Simple pleasures enhance the sense of being connected and not alone in the darkest of times. Just holding hands and smiling through internal tears and broken-hearted grief gives comfort.
All together- May 2021
Interface with the institutionalized medical system makes personal connections absolutely essential. When you become a patient, with a chart and a Care Team, personal connections become critical. Who is the person who can understand the jargon and translate information into meaningful communication? Who can see through the doctor’s shield that comes down over demeanor when the diagnosis is a condition without cure, just a “management plan”? In this situation, it is the inner strength of each person that sustains life with dignity and quality as long as possible.
The ability to connect with the healing power of the living Earth makes an enormous difference in the experience of coping with a critical illness. Whether the condition will abate sufficiently to allow many years of living, or whether the condition is so acute that there are few options for prolonged life, living each day becomes either a gift or a burden, depending on the attitude and mental and spiritual support system of each person. I remember my grandfather Pop in his late years when he was living with my parents. His Parkinson’s disease had advanced too far for him to live alone, and he resented his loss of independence. He would sit on the bench in the patio under the pear tree and talk to my Nona who had died years before. He would say “Well, Pasqualine, the Lord forgot me again today. I am still here, and you are with Him. How long must I wait to be free of this world?” And yet, when I came to visit with my two small children, his great-grandchildren, he would smile and sing them the same little songs he sang to me as a child. He would give them a ride on his foot, holding their little hands and bouncing them up and down. For those moments, he was alive and sharing experiences with another generation. They have not forgotten him, and the memories have crossed through generations.
Pasqualina and Patty 1948 in the garden at 556 Southern Ave, Pittsburgh
We all live but a moment in the stream of time. It is our privilege and our duty to make the most of our time on this Earth. We cannot know how many hours we have to spend, but we can commit to celebrate every opportunity for joy. We can weave ourselves into the tapestry of our time and immerse ourselves into the life-giving force of the living Earth. We can stand in defiance of the sadness, pain and evil that rises around us. We can be a beacon for those who follow, triumphant in living in harmony with Nature.
Patricia M. DeMarcoWith Guest writers Leann Foster and Frank Snyder
The Battle of Homestead Foundation held a Centennial Commemoration of labor heroine Fannie Sellins on August 26, 2019. Many thanks to the efforts of Steffi Domike, Battle of Homestead foundation founding member and co-editor of “When River Ran Red”[2]for organizing this commemoration and for her enduring efforts to educate and organize workers for justice. Here are the dinner remarks of Leeann Foster, USW International Vice President and Frank Snyder, Secretary-Treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, given at the grave site of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzelski.
The Great Steel Strikes of 1919 came in the wake of victory in World War I, a war intended to establish the rights of democracy for the people and workers of Europe. The munitions and supplies used in that effort came from the ramping up of industrial production for the sake of the war effort. Workers felt valued, empowered and enjoyed some improvements in their working conditions during that time, but at the end of the war, conditions deteriorated. Workers endured twelve-hour days in the face of the horrific heat and danger of the steel mills. Even as the steel corporations’ earnings soared, the wages were lowered, and conditions deteriorated to their past levels of desperation. No benefits came to the widowed or maimed. In 1919, in Pittsburgh alone 195 men died in the steel mills. Discontent and worker organizing was met with brutality, oppression and terrorizing workers organizing for better wages, conditions and hours. The 1919 strike crumbled in the face of these tactics.
Fannie Sellins became a heroine to the cause of workers’ rights, and for the cause of compassion and social justice for the families of workers. She was brutally murdered on August 26, 1919 as she pleaded for the private Coal and Iron Police to stop beating Joseph Starzelski, a picketing miner. Mother Jones wrote of the 1919 strike in her autobiography:
Human flesh, warm and soft and capable of being wounded, went naked up against steel; steel that is cold as old stars, and harder than death and incapable of pain. Bayonets and guns and steel rails and battle ships, bombs and bullets are made of steel. And only babies are made of flesh. More babies to grow up and work in steel, to hurl themselves against the bayonets, to know the tempered resistance of steel. The strike was broken. Broken by the scabs brought in under the protection of the troops. Broken by breaking men’s belief in the outcome of their struggle. Broken by breaking men’s hearts. Broken by the press, by the government. In a little over a hundred days, the strike shivered to pieces. [1]
Remarks of Leeann Foster:
Introduction and Acknowledgments:
Fannie Sellins was a proud union woman. She fought for a better life for herself, her family, her sisters and brothers, all workers and union members. Our steelworker delegation here today honors the life and work of Fannie Sellins and today we declare her to be an honorary Woman of Steel. I’m proud to be here with other Women of Steel: Mariana Padias is a USW organizer, originally from Tucson, Arizona; Colleen Wooten is a USW district 10 staff representative who was unit president out of Express Strips in North Huntington; Keli Vereb works for USSteel at the Irvin Works and is the district 10 co-chair for Women of Steel; Steffi Domike is a labor educator who got her first union card at USSteel’s Clairton Plant. And we have sisters here from ATI. I look forward to meeting you this afternoon.
I am particularly proud of this local, USW local union 1196, which has honored Sellins’ memory for the past century. You represent the best of our union: honoring Fannie Sellins who was martyred for our cause, for the cause of all workers fighting for justice. You strengthen our union for the future by remembering the struggles it took for us to gain representation, learning from our past and fighting every day for a better life for our members. The displays in this union hall are a testament to your efforts to keep your history alive. I thank you and ask for a round of applause for our Brackenridge local.
It is also a distinct honor for me to be here with my brothers and sisters from the United Mine Workers of America. It is here, in UMWA District 5 that the United Steelworkers of America was dreamed of by our common union forefathers. Philip Murray (the man who would become the President of both the Steelworkers Organizing Committee and the first International President of the United Steelworkers of America) was President of UMWA District 5 in 1919, and it was he who hired Fannie Sellins. In 1918 the UMWA took the lead with the industry-wide organizing committee created by the American Federation of Labor to support steelworkers in their fight for a union, for better pay and shorter working hours. I thank you and ask for a round of applause for our brothers and sisters from the United Mineworkers.
Today I have three objectives:
One is to join with you, brothers and sisters, to remember our brave sister, Fannie Sellins, and to take inspiration from her strength, her integrity and her commitment to fighting for a better life for all working people.
A second is to renew our solidarity with all of you: union members and sons, daughters, parents and children of union members, coal miners and steelworkers.
My third objective is to look at our movement today through the lens of the fights in 1919 and the eyes of Fannie Sellins and to ask, “What are the parallels for today?” What can we learn from the past?
Commemorating Fannie Sellins
Fannie Sellins, was a seamstress who came into the labor movement in 1902 by organizing St. Louis’ Local 67 of the United Garment Workers (UGWA). By 1909, she was local union president. An inspirational and passionate speaker, Sellins spoke of the need for all workers to have representation and she knew that our strength comes from our solidarity.
In 1909, Sellins spoke to a group of coal miners in Illinois, “Help us fight.” She said, “We women work in factories on dangerous machinery, and many of us get horribly injured or killed. Many of your brothers die in the mines. There should be a bond of sympathy between us, for we both encounter danger in our daily work.”
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the UGWA both understood this “bond of sympathy” between all workers. A century ago, these unions practiced “pragmatic industrial unionism,” expanding their organizing to include all who worked. As we say in my union, “Everyone in, nobody out!”
In 1913, Sellins’ was hired by the UMWA as an organizer and sent to Colliers, WV, a company town. There she worked with families of striking miners. A federal judge (in the pocket of the coal operators) outlawed the UMWA. In defiance, Fannie Sellins walked the picket line with the strikers, was arrested and given a jail sentence of 6 months. She spent 3 months in jail until the UMWA raised her bail. As you heard up at the site of the murders earlier today and as you can see in this beautiful painting of Sellins as she sat in her jail cell, on December 3, 1913, Sellins declared her belief in her rights ad an American citizen:
“I am free and I have a right to walk or talk any place in this country as long as I obey the law. The only wrong I have done is to take shoes to the children in Colliers whose bare feet are blue from the cruel blasts of winter. If it’s wrong to put shoes on those little feet, then I will continue to do wrong as long as I have hands and feet to crawl to Colliers.”
Knowing that for the labor movement to succeed, the steel industry had to be organized, in 1917 the UMWA sent Sellins to coal and steel company towns in the Allegheny Valley, including Brackenridge and Natrona, to organize the families of steelworkers to withstand a strike. She spoke with the women of the community and told them that there was a path out of misery and that path was with the union.
Fannie Sellins knew that the companies would try to exploit differences among workers to divide their loyalties. Here is an example of how she confronted this problem: Louis Hicks’ mines in the Allegheny Valley went out on strike in 1917. Instead of negotiating with the UMWA, Hicks brought in Southern black workers to break the strike. The strikers heard about a train of black workers coming to town. Sellins waited at a railroad signal outside of town; as the train slowed down, she ran along the tracks shouting “Don’t break the strike, support the union!” 100 men from Alabama abandoned the train. After that, the Coal and Iron Police knew who she was and were gunning for her.
What are the parallels for today? What can we learn from the past?
The law was stacked against unions and union organizers in 1919 and, although we have made great strides to get the right to organize, our rights are constantly under attack now and we must fight to defend ourselves and to gain better legal protections for workers.
Law enforcement in 1919 was subject to being purchased by the powerful coal and steel operators. Today, corporate lobbyists have gained enormous power to influence legislators; the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United opened the doors for unlimited corporate donations to political campaigns. Big Money still can buy government and it’s as important as ever for us to work together to support candidates for office who support working people and who cannot and will not be bought.
Immigrants were discriminated against in employment and housing as well as being attacked physically as Joe Starzeleski was in Natrona on August 26, 1919. Even though most of us in this room are the children, grandchildren and great-grand-children of immigrants, today newcomers are demonized. We are seeing immigrants, both documented and undocumented, being reviled by the president of our country. Some of the recent mass shootings have targeted Mexicans and Spanish-speaking citizens. The United Steelworkers takes a strong stand against the current treatment of asylum seekers, particularly the cruel and inhuman family separations on our Southern border.
The coal and steel companies of 1919 fanned the flames of racism by sending labor agents to the South to recruit unemployed black share-croppers as strike-breakers at Northern mines and mills. This is a dangerous, divisive tactic that unfortunately is still employed today. During the recent lockout, ATI intentionally hired black mill guards and scabs, knowing full well that that would inflame old divisions among workers and in our communities.
Red-baiting was a company tactic in 1919 and is back in use today. Union organizers are called “communists” or “socialists” and when they speak of workers’ rights and workplace democracy, they are accused of introducing dangerous ideas to workers.
This prejudice strongly influenced the attitudes of the coroner’s jury to find the mine guards’ killing of Sellins’ as self-defense.
But we know that Sellins’ ideas were the furthest thing from dangerous. At the 1921 UMWA commemoration of her death, Robert R. Gibbons, President of UMWA District 5, said,
“Fannie Sellins gave her life in the attempt to put an end to the suffering of the miners and their families, to lead them out of wage slavery.
“Mrs. Sellins was a noble woman. She had taken part in the organization of many mines in the Pittsburgh district. For this work the women loved her, men revered her, children worshipped her and the enemy abused and murdered her. Her life was filled with ministrations of love, kindness and mercy.”
In thinking about the future of our important work to build and defend working people and build our movement, we can look at Fannie Sellins and take OUR cues from HER fights: Fannie Sellins was not a new immigrant, but she fought with and for new immigrants in the sweatshops of St. Louis. She fought for new immigrants on strike at mine portals and she urged new immigrant families of steelworkers in the Allegheny-Kiski Valley to join her in the fight for a better life. Fannie Sellins, the seamstress, fought for the nine-hour day a century ago so that we could enjoy an eight-hour day and the five-day work week today. We must defend corporate attacks on this right by resisting forced overtime. As the labor movement has fought for almost two centuries: “8 hours for work, 8 hours to sleep, and 8 hours for what we will!” Fannie’s leadership and bravery in the face of overwhelming corporate power and abuse inspires us to follow in her footsteps and tackle the problems in our communities and workplaces.
A woman of steel stands firm, does not back down.
Thank you, Fannie Sellins, for your courage, your commitment and compassion. And thank you for your leadership.
Remarks of Frank Snyder:
Good evening. My name is Frank Snyder, and I am the Secretary-Treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, and on behalf of our State Fed President, Rick Bloomingdale, and our 700,000 hardworking women and men who make up our organized labor Federation, I bring you greetings and all the appreciation I can muster, for you never forgetting the life of Fannie Sellens. While this day marks the 100th anniversary of her shocking death, a cowardly act of inhumane violence; it’s her life’s work that a century later serves as a profile in courage, perseverance, dignity and justice.
I digress. Two weeks ago, I came across what seemed to be endless stories marking the 100th anniversary of the death of another well-known name from that era – Andrew Carnegie. And the two could not have been more unlike one another. And in the articles I forced myself to read, they portrayed Carnegie with near religious exuberance. That twisted reality must come from when the richest man of his time, in the twilight of his life, tries to erase his guilt-ridden conscious for the pain he left on so many, with libraries, music halls, and colleges.
The 1892 Homestead strike in Pennsylvania and the ensuing bloody battle instigated by the steel plant’s management remain a transformational moment in U.S. history, leaving scars that have never fully healed after five generations. And no, there are no libraries or music halls or colleges that commemorate the senseless massacre of innocent steelworkers at Carnegie Steel, or the brutal murder of an “Angel of Mercy”. A period every bit as tumultuous as our own today, the 1890s saw sweeping changes in the economy, politics, and society, while giving birth to a technological revolution that would profoundly alter the lives of all Americans. Sound familiar?
Those few who knew how to exploit that new world, like Carnegieor Rockefeller, prospered handsomely; those who did not became icons of how the other half lives. A tale of two cities. The only thing – the only thing, that stood, and stands, in the way of those two cities of haves and have nots, are America’s unions. Men and women, assembled with one another in solidarity, for the purpose of social and economic security, protection, and advancement through collective bargaining.
Still, the war rages on. No, the battlefield is more subtle today than it was a century ago. A hundred years ago corporate America fought us with violence, imprisonment, exile, and in the case of Fannie Sellens, execution.
Today, they still fight us with tactics of fear, intimidation, harassment – all commonplace in today’s anti-union workplaces.
Our outdated labor laws are making us weaker at home and diminishing our standing in the world.
In more cases than not, a free and fair process for forming a union simply does not exist in America today. That must change.And it starts with the Unions of the AFL-CIO, fighting back with PRO Act, The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or H.R.2474, and its Senate companion Bill 1306. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act protects the right to join a union by:
Bolstering remedies and punishing violations of workers’ rights,
Strengthening workers’ right to stand together and negotiate for better working conditions, and
Restoring fairness to an economy that is rigged against workers.
Regardless of our profession, we submit to you all, that there is dignity in all work. And all need to be treated with respect, and a voice in the decisions that affect them. That’s what Fannie Sellens gave her life for. And rather than coming together to remember how she died, imagine when we gather in the future and remember how she lived throughout her short chapter in American history, that laid the foundation for meaningful labor law reform to enable all workers to share in social and economic justice and a voice at work through an organized labor union
Image Copyright to Bill Yund African Americans from the South were deployed as strike-breakers during the 1919 Steel Strike. They also hoped for a better life. When the strike was defeated, most were left jobless, although some were retained in the hottest and dirtiest jobs. This steel plate loader was one of the more fortunate.
As we enter another cycle of elections, it is critical to keep focus on the needs of working people, the source of our productivity, and the soul of our nation in America and around the world. Without justice, there will be no peace. Without fairness, there will be no progress. Without compassion, there will be no true stability in our civilization. Workers standing together for a healthy world will assure solutions to the existential crisis of climate change and global pollution. A just transition must take account of labor, environment and health all together, not just economic considerations of corporations.
[2]David A Demerest, Jr., General Editor, Fannia Weingartner, Coordinating editor. Co-Editors: Steffi R. Domike, Doris Dyen, Nicole Fauteux,Russel W. Gibbons, Randolph Harris, Eugene Levy, Charles J. McCollester, Rina Youngener. “The River Ran Red” Homestead 1892. Pittsburgh Series in Social and Labor History. University of Pittsburgh Press. 1992.
{Written on Saturday, October 27, 2018 after hearing of the tragic shooting of 11 people and wounding six others during a Shabbat service and Bris at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. I walked and drove past this Synagogue many times, over years. Squirrel Hill is the place of my childhood ballet lessons, my college gatherings, and my shopping and lunch hang-out with friends.My heart is heavy for my neighbors and friends in the midst of this tragedy.}
Violence and hatred once again rend the peace of a community as a lone bitter gunman fired upon a Tree of Life Synagogue in the middle of Shabbat service. As our entire civilization faces the existential challenges of climate change and global pollution, the stress on society increases. Fear and hatred spew from the cracks. When the President uses rhetoric of “Nationalism” and white supremacy to rally and focus fear and hatred, outbursts of malice are the consequence.
Our Constitution protects freedom of speech and of religion and protects the right to assemble in peace. When Daily vilification of the press becomes normal from the President, when those who disagree or criticize are demonized, when immigrants fleeing oppression are profiled as criminals, the very foundations of our civilization are shaken.
In the wake of this tragedy in Squirrel Hill we have the opportunity to show that solidarity overcomes hate. Just as standing for Antwon Rose led to serious debate and emerging solutions for guns in schools, this tragic event can build momentum for reasonable restraints on weapons. Racism, anti Semitic, gender based hatred, all the hatred born of fear have no place in a participatory democracy. Where hate lives freedom dies.
We must recognize that diversity is our strength. Restoring mutual respect as the primary driver in civil discourse allows open debate toward solutions. Acknowledging the basic dignity of every person recognizes that we are more alike as humans than different in philosophy, appearance, culture or even politics. We all depend on the Living Earth for our life support. We are all part of the interconnected web of Life. Our community will gather to grieve, to offer support and to heal. The response to hatred is resistance, firm rejection of violence as a solution, and a call for accountability to those who directly or indirectly foment a culture of fear.
We must give our children the example of teaching tolerance and practicing civility. We must make America polite, kind and respectful again.
International Women’s Day 2018 Today my thoughts are centered on my brave beautiful daughter who is just recovering from breast cancer surgery. She has excellent prospects for a full and happy life, but I think of the many women who do not have such excellent care. I also am so thankful that the understanding and treatment are so much more advanced than when Rachel Carson faced a tragic encounter with this disease. In only a few decades the diagnosis of cancer has gone from a stigma and certain death sentence to a treatable condition.
I think of Rachel Carson who wrote much of Silent Spring while in serious suffering from the advanced
stages of breast cancer. She faced not only the lack of technology for diagnosis and treatment but also the difficulties of dealing with a male oriented medical establishment. Her courage in the face of her private and ultimately losing battle with cancer qualifies her as a heroine not only for the environmental movement but also for the millions of women who suffer the affliction of breast cancer.
“FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, EVERY HUMAN BEING IS NOW SUBJECTED TO CONTACT WITH DANGEROUS CHEMICALS, FROM THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION UNTIL DEATH.”
RACHEL CARSON
So many people deal with cancer now. Many have multiple tumors over a lifetime. Some explain the higher incidence of cancer to the longer life span in modern times. Others draw a strong correlation with the chemical stew that penetrates our bodies from birth to death. The average newborn child in America has over 200 synthetic chemicals in his or her body at birth, 79 of which are known mutagens and carcinogens.(1) While scientists continue to explore the causes of cancers, and some are better understood than others, there is a sinister accumulation of man-made materials that play a role in our collective vulnerability.
To make cancer a less prominent feature of our health expectations, we need to reduce the flow of toxic synthetic materials. The entire regulatory system is designed to try to limit the amount of toxics that can be released into the air or water. However, the additive effect of even permitted levels yields millions of pounds of toxic releases a year. (2) A better approach would limit the hazard of products by design. This is the exciting field of Green Chemistry which can limit the amount of carcinogenic and mutagenic material in the air, water and land by designing materials that are benign and biodegradable by design. Prevention rather than dilution will produce better materials with less impact on the living Earth.
Terry Collins- Theresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University
If we are to take a serious effort to control cancer and endocrine disruption for the next generation, we must begin by redirecting our materials supply chain away from fossil based precursors and toward biologically benign materials. The process of converting fossil based raw material to products and then to trash as quickly as possible is killing the living Earth. And as part of the creatures of the living Earth we are killing ourselves too. Green chemistry and bio-based materials as well as processes to remove and destroy synthetic hydrocarbons from water supplies holds great promise for a much more healthy and sustainable world.(3) Technology will not save us unless we add the Ethical element of choosing to pursue technologies that support and preserve the life support system of the Earth.
As I am now facing my fourth tumor, all of independent origin over two decades, I wonder about the many exposures I have experienced in my life. The technician at the MRI lab sternly telling me to control my breathing said there are many people with multiple tumors as they reach advanced years. She seemed to think it was a normal thing to accumulate cancers with age. I do not accept that as normal! I think of the many years I spent as a child living in a community where every house burned
Pittsburgh 1952
coal for heat, and we played in the coal pile, looking for fossils, and finding many! Of course we were covered in coal dust. Then, the skies were full of smoke, with cinders actively falling to coat everything with a foul, oily and gritty blackness from the steel mills and coke operations that defined Pittsburgh. Beyond that, DDT was sprayed on everything from trucks that coursed through the neighborhoods, especially on the compound we lived in in Manilla, Philippines in the ’50s. And, I worked in a biology laboratory as an undergraduate, in times when scintillation fluid was washed down the sink, and I stood over the toluene fumes for hours at a time cleaning the vials. And what of the open air testing of nuclear weapons that filled the air with radioactivity around the globe? Or the teflon frying pans everybody thought was so wonderful? I have reverted to well-used cast iron but nobody alive is immune from the plastics and preservatives and additives in our food. It is a wonder we survive at all!
The worst horror of my nightmares is not my own saga of assault by out of control cells, but the thought that my children will suffer from something in my life of chemical exposure and environmental mutagens. This is the motive that propels my purpose and my advocacy for reform. I have such fears for the next generation as the evidence that the “Fable for Tomorrow” Rachel Carson described in Silent Spring is already upon us.
Patricia DeMarco Ph.D. 