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A Courageous Lady Cleans up Texas Town
Something phenomenal happened almost twenty years ago, but in light of Al Gore's Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, I wanted to shed more light on someone who was a pioneer in cleaning up the environment before the likes of Gore and other"greening the planet" types came to the forefront of consciousness.
I have known Phyllis Glazer more than 25 years. Bright, loving and charismatic, when I met Phyllis she was a daughter, a wife and mother who was full of spunk and I always detected a no-nonsense woman buried beneath her easy laugh and caring nature.
On April 30, 1988, the third anniversary of her father's death, Phyllis and her mother and husband bought a beautiful ranch in Winona, the piney woods of East Texas. What was to have been a pristine and peaceful getaway on weekends, holidays and vacations instead, through an"accidental discovery" on October 18, 1991, became overlaid in a cloud of chemical smoke coming from a nearby toxic waste dump.
Within days of her finding out about these toxic fumes, her mouth and throat irritated her so badly that she took a mirror and looked at the source of irritation. Phyllis said the roof of her mouth had melted with skin hanging down like stalactites from the ceiling of a cave. Her doctor found ulcers down her throat, nose and mouth. She also had a hole in her nasal septum.
The outcome of this environmental disaster was that Phyllis Glazer found out that the Winona community had experienced similar adverse health effects for years. She responded to pleas for help by founding Mothers Organized to Stop Environmental Sins (MOSES), a grassroots nonprofit organization using education, litigation and service to preserve and protect rural, low income, and minority communities from exposure to toxic substances by hazardous waste. Phyllis used her sizeable trust fund to accomplish an end to toxicity in Winona.
With help from broadcast and print media in Texas and national coverage by the likes of Sixty Minutes and Dateline, on March 20, 1997-after having been sued herself by the hazardous waste facility under the civil RICO (Racketeering Influenced Criminal Organization), and countersuing-Phyllis and her posse succeeded in seeing the toxic waste dump closed. MOSES continued to be the public"watchdog" over the closure activities until the property had been cleaned up as much as possible.
I saw Phyllis in Dallas, Texas in early October and asked her permission to retell her story, and then asked her to write me what support readers could lend to her efforts to clean up toxic waste. Her response is printed below.
Dear Albert,
We have always had a mutual admiration society of one another. In the book Tammy Cromer-Campbell wrote, Fruit of the Orchard-Environmental Justice in East Texas, my essay tells the story of what I and many other concerned residents of Winona, were able to do to stop one operating toxic waster dump from further contamination. The real story was extremely complex. Some press, wanting to make me into something I never was, wrote that I have been a socialite. I never was nor did I ever run in those circles. I wouldn't know a socialite if one jumped up and bit me.
My immediate family was supportive. (Her husband) R.L.'s family literally shunned me as did almost all of our Dallas friends and acquaintances. I have kept my distance as best I can from them since. I must say, however, that there were also those, even some in R.L.'s industry, that consider me a hero. I've been introduced to children and grandchildren by people who know the story, as a living hero-this included a judge in Tyler. I've always had my own, literary friends, those I write with.
Nothing has changed in the government's involvement in assisting industry site in poor areas where people simply do not have a chance in hell of fighting the inevitable pollution and illness it brings. Government officials have become salesmen of deception, telling these poor communities that these toxic dumps are safe.
People can no longer support M.O.S.E.S. I closed it down one year ago September. People can always send me an e-mail or letter or call me. I can tell them what communities need their donations-literally for their very lives.
Love you,
Phyllis
Phyllis recently said that she and I had always been in a mutual admiration society. In my world, men and women and young people like Phyllis Glazer will not only be admired by me but I will open my big mouth and tell the world about them. I say time to time, 'what you do speaks so loud I can't hear what you say.'
Phyllis, what a great woman you are! God bless you for what you have done to make one place on God's earth cleaner, safer and more awakened to the alternative to lies and deceptive malfeasance by the government.
 A lot of you have written and called to ask: What's up economically in 2008? Will the stock market continue to yo-yo or will it begin to post more steady positive gains? When will the subprime debacle be over and the housing market thrive again?
Astrology provides a lot of answers but if you were in my shoes you would answer a question with a question. And the question I pose to you is:"Are you ready to change the things you can-yourself?" None of the downslides happened because we were victims of a cabal that made us do the things we've done. So much of what has happened can be traced to 'if it's too good to be true…' and those who have been foolish enough to play Russian roulette with their finances are paying the piper.
The most amazing celestial phenomena happen from the first month on for awhile. Not only will Saturn be in the earth sign, Virgo for two more plus years, but Jupiter will
co-join Pluto in the sign of Capricorn, another earth sign. Saturn restricts; Jupiter expands. And Pluto is known to destroy and take out what has run its course. All of this makes for a very strange trio of planets to rearrange how we think and invest and what we believe, and the worldview. The operative overview to consider is that all of these celestial movements are earth signs-practical and feet-on-the-ground sensibility. Could we not say that we must become more conservative, financially and spiritually?
Pluto is moving into Capricorn January 27th and will remain there until 2024. Although Pluto was declassified as a planet (more poppycock and smoke and mirrors), there is no question that Pluto does what it has been famous for longer than it has been discovered-1930. Pluto represents the urge to change-transform and regenerate-bringing rebirth and a second chance at living more authentically. But it is a symbol of contamination, infection, destruction, rot and decay-the need to eliminate and start over.
We can expect that since Pluto represents a generational influence, our children and their children will hopefully begin to rebuild what greed, narcissism, selfishness and"it's all about me and my needs and comfort" has destroyed. Biblically, I feel that oftentimes we have built our house on sand and what we held so dear is about to be blown away. That's enough preaching from me, though. Let's see what late December and January hold for each of us.
The Winter Solstice begins and the Sun goes into Capricorn on December 22nd. Among other things, the Winter Solstice is when the day is the shortest and there is more darkness-but from there forward days get longer.
There is a Full Moon at 1 degree of Cancer on December 23rd, and because of so much activity planetarily, this will be as very active day. Remember, full moons are about things coming to fruition and then all energies go into the new moon in 14 days.
There is a New Moon at 17 degrees of Capricorn on January 8th-Sun and Moon will be in the sign of the Goat and Jupiter will have moved into Capricorn as well. This will be one of the most powerful lunations for Capricorn specifically all year, and will benefit all earth and water signs. |
