What to say? So many thoughts, so few words....

I don't know about you, but what often amazes me it that there are so many thoughts in my head and so few words to express them.

Let me be clear: I have no words for Chris Christie and 'bridgegate' or whatever the talking heads on TV and radio are calling it at this hour.

I have next to no words about the House of Representatives who seem to 'represent' a minority of Americans since they have such a hard time backing health-care and extended unemployment benefits and immigration reform to give a path to citizenship for the productive illegal aliens already here--all of which are things a large majority of Americans support.

I have less to no words to waste on Duck Dynasty, whatever it is and however crazy and offensive it is. (Like I've never wasted words on "Jersey Shore"....)

Words are precious and need to be treated with great respect and admiration.

But I do have some words for the Chemical company that has caused 9 of the 52 counties of West Virginia to use their public water to do nothing except flush their toilets. They can't drink it, cook with it, bathe or shower in it or wash their clothes in it,.

When we lived in Charleston, WV for 5 years (1975-80) most of the industry was chemicals. The plants lined the Kanawaha River from South Charleston to Nitro--20 miles or so. One of the biggest portions of the chemical plants was a division to put scents into the smoke to make the pollution smell like chocolate cake or fresh baked bread or apples. The smell made you a tad nauseous every day, but at least it smelled tolerable.

And now, today, a chemical plant has dumped thousands of gallons of dangerous stuff into the Elk River and the water supply of 9 counties. Non-profits are trucking in enormous amounts of bottled water to be distributed and the Water Company isn't sure when the water will be safe again.

Both our children, who were born in Charleston, had severe Ear/Nose/Throat problems--because the 'Chemical Valley' as that area is known locally, has an ENT problem among children several hundred times greater than the national average. An ENT doctor could do worse than work in Charleston--except he/she and his/her family would have to breath in the chemicals every day.

OK, I'm a West Virginia native and I'm pissed off about a lot of things. The coal that was taken from our mines and is now being ripped out of mountain tops has spoiled one of the most pristine and beautiful places in the country. The chemical companies have poisoned generations of West Virginians and given nothing in return. Strip mining has made major floods a constant event in the southern part of the state, where I grew up.

The county where I grew up--McDowell County--has the highest average age of any county in the US and, get this, the youngest average age of death as well.

See, what that means is all the young people leave and though the old people drive up the average age, the not so old people die at a discouraging rate.

Now the water supply for 9 counties has been spoiled.

There's only so much I can tolerate.

I love the place I came from and the multi-national corporations that  have made many fortunes from the natural resources of West Virginia have gutted and polluted and poisoned the state. Enabled, needless to say, by the political leaders of the state.

I weep to myself. "Almost Heaven, West Virginia" has been turned into a living Hell....