Critical Voices
The arch of the universe bent a little closer to justice this week. The massive, toxic trash incinerator that has been poisoning Detroit for more than 3 decades announced it is closing down. This marks a victory for one of the most sustained, imaginative, and persistent campaigns for environmental justice anywhere.
Across Detroit, people who pulled babies in carts to protest pollution can now share the good news with their grandchildren. All of us will be able to breathe more freely and can look forward to summer days, no longer assaulted with air that suffocates us and infuses our bodies with noxious poisons.
I vividly remember going to one of the first hearings held by the Environmental Protection Agency with James and Grace Lee Boggs more than 30 years ago. James had agreed to give testimony against the incinerator on behalf of the Detroit Greens. He argued that the incinerator was taking us in the wrong direction. Its need for trash to burn to produce electricity depended on increasing consumption and waste. Instead, he argued, we should be developing policies to decrease our consumption and encourage recycling and reuse. He also talked about the finances of the project, predicting that Wall Street banks would become an increasing burden on city finances. He concluded his remarks reminding people that our major hospitals, meat packing, and fresh food centers all were in the path of daily cancer producing pollutants. People were being placed at risk every time they ate something or went to the hospital to be cured of the asthma or cancer caused by that very air.
Jimmy was followed by Harold Stokes, a life-long environmental activist and champion of justice. Harold had on a tee shirt from the Evergreen Alliance saying “Stop the Incinerator.” I remember him pointing to his chest and reading the slogan, explaining that was why he was offering testimony. Then, with a dramatic gesture, he ripped the shirt off, revealing another. Then another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another. Each one had a strong message, all from different groups, all saying “stop.” The last one was a beautiful stencil of a single blue bird. Harold walked up to the panel and asked them to look closely at the bird. He wanted his grand-children to be able to see such beauty, to hear its song. He warned that if the incinerator continued, it would be a death sentence to such fragile life.
The final testimony I remember from that day was from the Gross Pointe Junior League. Dressed for tea, a young mother read her remarks. I was not prepared for the depth of her testimony. She explained her group started talking about the smell of the incinerator at social gatherings. They had seen some of the protests and had started to wonder if the air carrying the smell was carrying other things into their community. They developed a process to test air quality systematically and had found alarming levels of pollutants, well above the levels allowed by the EPA. They had also found that in the first three months of the year, the air contained especially high levels of lead, cambium, and mercury as well as toxins related to the burning of plastics. The three months after Christmas, she said, were the worst, because toys and batteries were tossed away.
All of the concerns voiced that day proved to be true. For years these arguments have been repeated, deepened, and become more insightful. But their basic truth continues. Now at long last, after causing countless debilitating conditions and deaths, after extracting more than $1.2 billion from the city, this week it will end.
There are many lessons to learn from this long struggle. Those charged with the responsibilities of protecting people and our planet would do well to consider the critical role community members play in assessing public policies. Learning to listen to voices motivated by care and compassion, rather than corporate greed, protects life.