HIGHTOWER: The Grandparents Of East Harris County
Some days, instead of reading the paper, I think it'd be less painful if I just whapped myself in the face with it.This little item got almost no national coverage, but it sure packed a wallop with me: Dateline, San Diego -- the US Navy has awarded a $10 million contract to Battelle corporation to ship the nation's entire supply of Napalm from a navy station near San Diego halfway across the country to a suburb of Houston, Texas. There, the explosive, deadly Napalm will be mixed with other hazardous chemical wastes and used as a fuel that will be burned to make cement.Good Lord. Having Napalmed men, women and children in Vietnam 25 years ago, they're now going to Napalm the people of Houston! The plan to burn this jellied gasoline means toxic dioxins can be expected to drift across the fourth largest city in America ... and beyond. We're talking about all the Napalm left over from the Vietnam war being shipped there for burning -- 12,000 gallons a day, five days a week, for the next two years.Why move the stuff from the San Diego naval station? Because the canisters are leaking after 25 years, and upscale civilians in ritzy neighborhoods nearby don't want nasty Napalm near them. OK, but why Houston -- do they want Napalm? No, but this is a low-income area that's heavily Hispanic and African-American -- so high officials in California, Texas and Washington assume these folks don't have any clout to keep it out, and that maybe they'll just meekly accept it.But hold your horses -- here comes a grassroots group called The Grandparents of East Harris County. They're Mad-as-Hell and not going to take it, not going to take the nation's Napalm and let it be dumped on their grandbabies.This is Jim Hightower saying ... Politicians might be gutless, but don't mess with grandmas and grandpas! To help them fight back, call 713-797-8867.
