“Land Divided, Coast United” is an award winning article by the author Josie Glausiusz. The article addresses the often neglected issue of pollution and brings attention to the mass sewage build within the Mediterranean sea. As many know, there is much conflict along the Mediterranean and these issues seemed to be pushed aside in an effort to clean the sea. Palestinians in Gaza do their best to attempt to clean the waters, however they are not given the proper resources. The Palestinians require massive amounts of electricity and water pumps in order to fix the problem, however Israelis deny them these resources because of mistrust due to conflict. Pollution is a problem on a global scale that is a greater threat than any rival nation or faction. This article proves that if humanity is to ever solve these major environmental problem, we must work together.
In her award winning article, “Land Divided, Coast United”, Josie Glausiusz opens the eyes of the public to the pollution “bomb” in the Gaza Strip. This small area of land is home to 1.8 million people and produces 150,000 cubic meters of sewage a day. Treatment plants like the Gaza City Wastewater treatment plant are at max capacity, causing floods that let polluted water enter the river banks and the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians in Gaza know this is a problem, but don’t have the resources and power source to update of create new treatment plants.
This is an area where the pollution is causing illness and deaths, and there are still people who don’t consider pollution to be a problem in the modern world. I’ve never encountered such levels of pollution, but living near Lake Ontario I can see a similar effect. The lake’s state has been deteriorating for the last century, and there are still people who don’t feel we need to be altering are live styles to reduce pollution.
In “The Clan of the One Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest Williams, she begins by telling her readers that she is a Mormon and belongs to the group known as One Breasted Women. She gives a background of her family and explains to the readers how she knew multiple people in her family who suffered from breast cancer. Her main point of her essay is how she blames the United States government for the harmful effect that nuclear testing has on the people, especially the ones in Utah. She states that she tried protesting against nuclear testing however, every time she attempted to protest against it she would fail.
When reading Williams piece it really opens your mind to the whole situation and it takes you back for a second while you think about the tragedies these people went through. Williams use of a personal story in her essay allows the reader to connect to it on a more emotional level rather than analytical. This technique allows her point to become more relatable because as the reader you put yourself in her situation as if you experienced the trauma as well.
Tempest’s piece is an explanation of how her family, and those around her were wronged by the United States government and how they received no compensation or were even recognized for it. From the start of the Cold War the focus of the government was the protection of the American people from the threat of nuclear war. In the early 1950’s through to the early 1960’s, areas of Utah and Nevada desert lands were used for testing. While the government claimed that no one lived near these areas, Tempest’s family and others were living there at the time. In the generations that followed, developing breast cancer became a near certainty for those in Tempest’s family. The US government however refused to recognize they were at fault and took no action towards her family. Her family’s pain reminds me of many wrongdoings of the government towards marginalized groups and how many times nothing is done because they are seen as insignificant.
“Clan of the One-Breasted Women,” by Terry Tempest Williams, is a short story about families falling victim of radiation given off by nuclear testing. The author recalls growing up, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and the family was forced to accept it and move on. The author described it as a blind patriotism, and was something that her and her family must follow, even it means disobeying her religion and beliefs. This begs the question, how much does our government care about it’s citizens. The government needed to test its new weapons for war and according to the short story, the government values its assets for war more than its citizens in the minority. Personally, my family has never been impacted by government intrusion of any sort, or of what I’m aware of. The small minority will find ways to make themselves heard, to reach out to others for sympathy.
Radioactive substances affect millions of people each year. In “The Clan of the One Breasted Women”, Terry Tempest writes about the nine generations in her family who have had breast cancer due to radioactive explosions that occurred near Utah. As a Mormon, Tempest was taught to not challenge government authority. She left this idea once she found out that she had witnessed a nuclear bomb. She supports her new viewpoint when she states, “Tolerating blind obedience in the name of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our lives” (Williams, 8).
Tempest turned to civil disobedience and blamed the government for deaths in her family due to the nuclear explosions causing breast cancer in nine of her family members. This is extremely powerful because though many members of her family lost their lives due to the government, Tempest chooses peaceful protest.
“The Clan of the One-Breasted Women” is relevant today especially during this time of police brutality. Many people who are outraged about the murder of people by police officers are fighting back violently. Tempest’s method of retaliation is more effective because it does not negatively affect other peoples’ lives while still getting her point across.
Terry Tempest Williams explains in her essay that the United States Government put its priorities in protecting the entire country by testing nuclear bombs. But the government did it on land that didn’t belong to them and the radiation that emanated from the test sites in Utah caused cancer in the author’s family. She received no recompense for the wrongful act when the U.S Government was exonerated under the “legal doctrine of sovereign immunity”, which is a practice from the English Monarchy and the King. This situation is similar to one near my hometown. The love canal was a site where a chemical plant dumped tons of toxic chemicals. Years later the plant went out of business and the canal was covered up with dirt. A school was built on the site along with a community and there were many cases of birth defect in the subsequent years. The government didn’t do anything to prevent the situation however the land as of recent has been evacuated. I don’t believe a situation like this would happen again because there are many proponents of preventing government negligence.
In the short essay “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Trumpest Williams, she tells the story of her experience living through the “The Years We Bombed Utah”. She starts off with background about her family of mormons and how her grandmothers, mom and 6 aunts and herself have all had mastectomies. They believed this was a result of bad genes, but made the connection that it was rare in mormon families. Then after she is told that her memories of a bright light when she was a child was really the result of a bomb testing she realized that this is where the cancer could have come from. Then she goes on to stand up for what the government is doing to the families around the bomb testings by protesting with other women. My family is not affected by anything like this or environmental concerns.
Juniper Tremper
Scientific Writing 105-19
Geneseo, NY
~165 words
Caaaaarl, Nuclear Bombs Kill People
Juniper Tremper
In the mid 1900’s, the government of the United States held the priority of developing technology for weapons to keep America safe. In their extensive efforts to test this technology, they illegally dropped nuclear substance on a desert in Utah, regardless of the people living near enough to suffer genetic abnormalities as a result. Terry Tempest Williams, author of the article “Clan of the One-Breasted Women,” tells a series of anecdotes reflecting on the seriousness of the government’s irresponsible actions, including the actions in court that exonerated the United States government on the grounds that it held sovereign immunity, and as a result, suffered no legal reprecussions for intentionally testing nuclear content in the vicinity of human life. Although this instance directly affects only the small number of locals, the article suggests people sympathize with the family of those breast-cancer stricken individuals and utilize those feelings to stand with the afflicted and persuade the government to take responsibility for this disaster and any in the future.
This article is about how there are many great scientific revolutions in the world, however sometimes its at the cost of innocent bystanders. The testing site for the nuclear bombs in Nevada which cause severe radiation levels to rise to a level in which the zones were classified as uninhabitable. This cause the women of the local Mormon clan to have severe side effects mostly in the form of breast cancer. Yet even after the harm that these testings have caused to these innocent people, the government refuse any wrong doing and therefore is not willing to give compensation for the harm done.
The article mentions only really mentions the effects caused to the women of the clan, so i was wondering what happened to the men? The radiation must have had an equally harmful effect to both sexes. I find that the governments actions to ignore the causes that the radiation caused to the people of the Mormon clan to be almost identical to what major chemical companies are doing to the environment.
