Todd Brewster & Peter Jennings by The Century for Young People: 1961-1999: Changing America Read Free Book Online Page B
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I found out that other people were going through the same thing I was. One person had a thirteen-year-old daughter who had to have a hysterectomy due to cancer. There were eight other epileptics living in houses that practically encircled ours. And it wasnât just children who were sick; adults were getting sick as well. People would walk me down to their basement and show me orange goo coming up from their sump pumps. In some homes the chemical smell was so strong that it was like walking into a gas station.
In the spring of 1978 the state department of health came in and did some tests around Love Canal. And then they denied, denied, denied, and denied from that point on. They told the people living closest to the canal, âDonât go in your basement. Donât eat out of your garden. Donât do this, donât do that, but itâs perfectly safe to live at LoveCanal.â We did our own house survey. And we found that
56
percent of the children at Love Canal were born with birth defects. And that included three ears, double rows of teeth, extra fingers, extra toes, or mentally retarded.
Before Love Canal, I believed that if you had a problem, you could just go to your elected officials and they would fix it. I now know that thatâs not true. The state didnât do anything until we forced it to. Eventually nine hundred families were evacuated from Love Canal. But what outraged me the most was that a state health department knew people were sick, knew people were dying, and decided to do nothing about it.
There were many things that worried Americans in the 1970s: rising oil prices, high unemployment, toxic waste, untrustworthy government, a crumbling international reputation, and the breakdown of traditional gender roles. But in 1979 one unfolding drama in a Middle East nation closed out the decade with a new and ferocious attack on American pride.
Once again, Cold War fears had led America to become involved in the affairs of a Third World country. Iran, which was a southern neighbor of the Soviet Union, was considered strategically importantbecause it was so rich in the oil that America needed. For years the United States had supported the shah of Iran as a way of maintaining its influence there. But, as in South Vietnam, a government that was opposed to Communism proved to be anything but democratic.
Within Iran, anger at Americaâs interference had been growing steadily. As Muslims, its people resented the pressure to give up their traditions and embrace American materialism. They had been listening to the words of an exiled Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini taught the lessons of the Shariâa, the seventh-century Islamic law, and denounced the modernization forced on Iran by the shah. In early 1979 the shah was overthrown in an Islamic revolution that brought Khomeini to power.
The revolution in Iran was a rejection of much that the United States stood for. The Ayatollah Khomeini and the religious leaders now in power in Iran saw American culture as lacking moral fiber, a civilization that had grown fat and weak. And with Iranâs oil fields in the grip of a hostile power, prices rapidly rose, impressing upon people just how dependent the United States was on foreign oil. But it wasnât until later in the year that the Iranian revolution became a personal issue for most Americans.
On November 4, Iranian students loyal to Khomeini cut the chains on the gates of the American embassy in the capital city of Teheran. They stormed past marine guards and took sixty-sixmembers of the embassy staff hostage. They demanded the return to Iran of the shah, who was in New York City undergoing cancer treatment.
With mounting horror, Americans watched the evening news to see what would happen. American hostages were paraded blindfolded in front of television cameras by students who burned American flags and shouted âDeath to America!â Calling the United States
I found out that other people were going through the same thing I was. One person had a thirteen-year-old daughter who had to have a hysterectomy due to cancer. There were eight other epileptics living in houses that practically encircled ours. And it wasnât just children who were sick; adults were getting sick as well. People would walk me down to their basement and show me orange goo coming up from their sump pumps. In some homes the chemical smell was so strong that it was like walking into a gas station.
In the spring of 1978 the state department of health came in and did some tests around Love Canal. And then they denied, denied, denied, and denied from that point on. They told the people living closest to the canal, âDonât go in your basement. Donât eat out of your garden. Donât do this, donât do that, but itâs perfectly safe to live at LoveCanal.â We did our own house survey. And we found that
56
percent of the children at Love Canal were born with birth defects. And that included three ears, double rows of teeth, extra fingers, extra toes, or mentally retarded.
Before Love Canal, I believed that if you had a problem, you could just go to your elected officials and they would fix it. I now know that thatâs not true. The state didnât do anything until we forced it to. Eventually nine hundred families were evacuated from Love Canal. But what outraged me the most was that a state health department knew people were sick, knew people were dying, and decided to do nothing about it.
There were many things that worried Americans in the 1970s: rising oil prices, high unemployment, toxic waste, untrustworthy government, a crumbling international reputation, and the breakdown of traditional gender roles. But in 1979 one unfolding drama in a Middle East nation closed out the decade with a new and ferocious attack on American pride.
Once again, Cold War fears had led America to become involved in the affairs of a Third World country. Iran, which was a southern neighbor of the Soviet Union, was considered strategically importantbecause it was so rich in the oil that America needed. For years the United States had supported the shah of Iran as a way of maintaining its influence there. But, as in South Vietnam, a government that was opposed to Communism proved to be anything but democratic.
Within Iran, anger at Americaâs interference had been growing steadily. As Muslims, its people resented the pressure to give up their traditions and embrace American materialism. They had been listening to the words of an exiled Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini taught the lessons of the Shariâa, the seventh-century Islamic law, and denounced the modernization forced on Iran by the shah. In early 1979 the shah was overthrown in an Islamic revolution that brought Khomeini to power.
The revolution in Iran was a rejection of much that the United States stood for. The Ayatollah Khomeini and the religious leaders now in power in Iran saw American culture as lacking moral fiber, a civilization that had grown fat and weak. And with Iranâs oil fields in the grip of a hostile power, prices rapidly rose, impressing upon people just how dependent the United States was on foreign oil. But it wasnât until later in the year that the Iranian revolution became a personal issue for most Americans.
On November 4, Iranian students loyal to Khomeini cut the chains on the gates of the American embassy in the capital city of Teheran. They stormed past marine guards and took sixty-sixmembers of the embassy staff hostage. They demanded the return to Iran of the shah, who was in New York City undergoing cancer treatment.
With mounting horror, Americans watched the evening news to see what would happen. American hostages were paraded blindfolded in front of television cameras by students who burned American flags and shouted âDeath to America!â Calling the United States
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