Details:
It appears that there was a fire at the West Texas Fertilizer
Plant, which exploded. It rocked the community and several surrounding
communities 5 miles around. The explosion registered at a 2.1 magnitude
earthquake. This started several hours ago as I type this, so the reports are fast
and furious.
West, a farming community with around 2,600 hundred
residents, dealing with a tragedy of this size taps all of their resources.
They have had to send most of the injured to other communities. The number of
people injured or deceased is still unknown. What we do know is that areas
directly across from the plant have been leveled and it has damage other homes,
a nearby apartment complex, and worse of all, a nursing home.
Other news stations, and blogs will continue to keep you
updated on the actual events of this tragedy, but as you have already seen,
Lala doesn’t see things the way the rest of the media does.
A recurring message on the news stations, only MSNBC &
CNN (Fox didn’t think it was important enough) said that these explosions, have
happened in other locations in the country. The fire, and resulting explosion
is not the end. As the fire continues to move, it could explode other tanks.
The more lasting issue is the
amount of chemicals that will be in the air for miles and miles. It
makes me think about the air quality following 9/11, and how disastrous it was
to the first responders and those who did the cleanup. There are people paid to
go into the fire, rescue as many people as possible, and then cleanup the area.
What about them?
We use fertilizer for one of our basic staples corn. We eat
corn, feed it to the animals we consume, we use it in our packaged foods, etc.
etc. It is big business. What do we know about big business in America? We know
that corners will be cut to increase profits. Now
I am in no way saying that this is what happened in this case. But how many times do we need to see these
tragedies before we realize that the devastation of one of these explosions and
air pollution is not worth it?
Check out:
Every time I go into Lowes or Home Depot, I am not going to
be able to look at fertilizer the same way. Do I need my grass as green, or my
flowers to bloom like I am going to a show; Do I need my chickens to look as
large as cows, or my cows to produce so much meat that I can live for 6 months
on one?
I think we have to rethink this thing.
Lala
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