The origins of activism, up close and personal.
“I no longer feel safe bathing, drinking, eating, cleaning, I am even leery of the hospital visit I know WILL occur in the next 6 weeks, and I am even more concerned about how I will wash my little one’s clothes, or give him/her a bath, or the dangers that could occur if I make one mistake while breastfeeding. I am worried for the health of my unborn baby, and I am worried that my life will never be the same.”
WEST VIRGINIA GIRL, ALL BOTTLED UP
“We are not going to change our life because of the Water Company”…
by Mrs Cheesehead
mrscheesehead, via Mike
This post is a little different than my usual, but then again, my life is a little different than usual.
As I walked into one of my favorite coffee shops in town today, I cautiously asked, “Are you still using bottled water?” The cashier politely responded, “No, sorry, we are not” So I longingly looked at the perfect slice of tiramisu behind the glass and replied, “Ok, that changes things then, I will just have a bottle of water”. I then took my water, reserved my usual seat, and jaunted to the restroom. As I left the restroom, I imeadiately realized that I needed to dig out my own personal stash of hand sanitizer before unscrewing the cap of my bottled water and pulling out my laptop to work.
As I settled in, I began to reflect on the past 2 weeks:
From the announcement that Freedom Industries had a chemical spill, to my church providing my husband and I with bottled water, to the national media seeming to ONLY report on Chris Christie while my home state was in a panic, to my ‘zone’ being cleared for the ‘big flush’, to the steam from my dish washer burning my nose, to my husband and basement being covered in contaminated water after a valve broke on our hot water tank during the ‘flush’, to only having 3 showers in 13 days, to seeing the flashing warning on national television for pregnant women to, once more, discontinue use of tap water, to the pile of dirty dishes in my sink, to the loads and loads of laundry that need done, to yesterday’s conversation with my OB, reminding me to stay away from the water at all costs until more information is released, I realized that this is A LOT BIGGER than my 34 week pregnant self having to turn down a tiramisu craving.
I no longer feel safe bathing, drinking, eating, cleaning, I am even leery of the hospital visit I know WILL occur in the next 6 weeks, and I am even more concerned about how I will wash my little one’s clothes, or give him/her a bath, or the dangers that could occur if I make one mistake while breastfeeding. I am worried for the health of my unborn baby, and I am worried that my life will never be the same.
As these thoughts flashed through my head at 100 miles per hour, I overheard the sweet cashier remind her boss that people were continuing to ask about the coffee shop’s water source. At first her boss explained their machinery to her. He described the filtration system and hot temperatures that the water was raised to before dispensing, but then he followed by saying this: “We are not going to change our life because of the Water Company”…
Well, I would agree that is this situation is much larger than West Virginia American Water, and believe it or not, it is even larger than Freedom Industries, although their name does imply that they would be much more concerned about my inability to consume water on their behalf.
I realize that there have been many, many oversights on local and national levels, and that I am nowhere near educated enough to point fingers at exactly who is responsible. But here is what I DO know:
I am 34 weeks pregnant, and as I approach delivery I am closer and closer to NEEDING a safe water source every day, and despite my favorite coffee shops’ “life not changing” I am scared in knowing that my life and ‘freedoms’ HAVE changed dramatically in the past 13 days, I am terrified that I do not see an end in sight, and I am even more terrified that local businesses, politicians, and the government as a whole seem far more concerned about getting back to ‘business as usual’, than they do for the health and safety of my community.
I am not sure exactly where to go from here, or what action this extremely pregnant and distraught girl can take to truly make a difference, but I would like to let everyone reading this know that life HAS CHANGED for me, and it may never be the same.
Please, get out there, share this news, and do what YOU can to help protect our country’s PRIORITIES and WATER SOURCES.
11 thoughts on “A pregnant West Virginia blogger contemplates CHANGES — to her past, her future, and her water”
Bless us all.
I was talking to a young neighbor with two little ones the other day.
He informed me as we were standing at the entry to his home – his sons, 4 & 1 were present – that the trash had hit the shores of the Pacific all the way to Alaska and that It Was Too Late. He hugged his littlest and said absent-mindedly, “Guess you guys are just gonna have to live on another planet, dude. We trashed this one.” I was so shocked by the whole scene that I didn’t have a positive response as I normally might have. I couldn’t even mutter something directed to his sons to “correct” Dad’s pessimism….The surreal experience has shaken me since.
***It did not help that I was strained and overtired. The reason I was at his door was to let him know we had found one of the beautiful hawks that visit our place by our gate with a hunting arrow through him. (We took him to our wildlife center, but really, thankfully he did not live). I was up most of the night. The next morning I was transversing the neighborhood. I wanted these people (many who love to kill things) to know that Fish & Game (as if they would do something about it) was alerted and that it was a felony. It had to have been someone on our road as Brother could not have flown with that evil tool in him.
What kind of person shot him with a bow and arrow? What kind of a person destroys their own planet?
I wish I could apologize for this rant. I’m not going to.
We need to stop apologizing for the deep feelings within us that are now moving us into action. Thanks so much, Pamela.
Ann, thanks for the post and the above commenter. When I heard on the news abt the West Virginia water supply contamination, my mind flew to Laura Bruno’s post last year about blessing our water and focusing on it. The shamanic healer Sandra Ingerman has also been asking for blessing of water for some time, and of course Dr Masaru Imoto affected many in the film What the Bleep. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ call reminded me of a poem I have loved for years from Muriel Rukeyser, which I discovered in the mid-2000’s when I thought we were in the proverbial handbasket as a country: “I lived in the first century of world wars. Most mornings I would be more or less insane, The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories, The news would pour out of various devices Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen. I would call my friends on other devices; They would be more or less mad for similar reasons. Slowly I would get to pen and paper, Make my poems for others unseen and unborn. In the day I would be reminded of those men and women, Brave, setting up signals across vast distances, Considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values. As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened, We would try to imagine them, try to find each other, To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other, Ourselves with ourselves. We would try by any means To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves, To let go the means, to wake.
I lived in the first century of these wars.”
What a glorious Rukeyser quote. Astonishing. Made me hunger for more. I have never read her. Now I will.
Totally agree. I will look for her as well.
Reblogged this on Laura Bruno's Blog and commented:
This is a thoughtful and poignant post by a woman whose life has dramatically changed due to the WV chemical spill poisoning the waters there. In light of some of my other posts about water as something sacred and worth protecting, I thought I’d share her story, since it puts some humanity into an otherwise abstract concept. Prayers for the safe delivery of her unborn child, as well as the safe delivery of her family into a healing, life-giving situation. Prayers for all of those affected in WV and elsewhere. I am concerned that this is just the beginning of the water wars. We best begin searching our hearts, minds and higher selves for protections and solutions. Unlike fresh water, this issue won’t just evaporate on its own.
Well-said, Laura.
Thanks!
For someone who is so worried about harmful chemicals and bacteria in her environment, almost to the point of hypochondria, she sure doesn’t seem that concerned about the Triclosan in her antibacterial hand sanitizer. It’s amazing to me how “health conscious” people display such ignorance when it comes to simple things like this gut-fauna destroying chemical.