America, Land of the Free?

 Beware of  Looking too Closely at Her Shadows

America, home of the brave and land of the free, but as you wander across this land of wide expanse and equal opportunity, don't go poking around too much or you might find some skeletons hiding behind her shadows.

And yes, Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is getting all the attention and almost every day I see more warnings about eating pacific seafood or even surfing off the shore of California.   But what about the third largest nuclear disaster in world history that occurred in New Mexico?  Just less than 4 months after the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown in 1979, a spill at a uranium mill at Church Rock, New Mexico released 3 times as much radiation that eventually flowed in to the Puerco River. 

So I'm pondering how many U.S. citizens are aware of Church Rock as they are Chernobyl and Fukushima?  Maybe because it was located in the Navajo Nation where there are over 500 abandoned uranium mines with in their reservation? 

But travel a little further south to the great state of Texas, between Poth and Falls City and you will find miles and miles of drilling rigs, crude oil storage tanks and flares burning with trails of black smoke hazing the deep blue sky.   This area is the Eagle Ford Shale, 400 miles long, 50 miles wide, where gas and oil is extracted all the way to the Mexican border. 

Well, America must have her gasoline and as state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, a Republican from Central Texas, so proudly proclaims: "I believe if you're anti-oil and gas, you're anti-Texas.”  

However like with Church Rock's uranium mill we citizens are desensitized to the health issues on humans and the environment.  I also ponder if we Americans are being molded into a bunch zombies who are no longer free thinkers.

I’m really pondering why we continue to pay out over $3.00 a gallon for gasoline and around the same amount for propane when we have so many resources?  Well, it's better to just go along, eat more Hot Pockets and listen to the latest breaking news, because zombies are immune to any pain or emotional discomfort.