rural health – Page 2 – Rural Tompkins County

“Rise of the Evil Ones” – Equitable War of the Two-Headed Gargantuas

“Equitable” is a bureaucratic term for “We’ll decide who is worthy of being helped.” If more than four-fifths of the state’s COVID deaths were among its vulnerable elderly; how can it “equitable” to deliberately reroute the vaccine to a much younger and healthier population?

Cuomo claims that this decision is guided by the historical plight of “underserved” communities in New York City: but ignores the needs of the state’s historically even more underserved rural communities. Would anyone allow an Urban Community to be told by municipal planners that they “don’t deserve to live there,” and to be excluded from any participation or importance in their own future?

This is the sort of policy making that happens routinely, unchecked and unreported, in rural New York State.

“Equitable” and “underserved” are part of a future that appears more like “Lord of the Flies” than a Peaceable Kingdom.

They are terms that define a government that searches; not for a greater compassion — but for a greater control.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Case Closed!” and Bookmarks

Corporate farms and corporate universities have a lot in common: They both hide their money-making agenda behind a façade of selfless good for the people.

There are no closer ties than our country’s “Land Grant” agricultural colleges and their multi-national Agribusiness contributors; and there is no partnership more dismissive of the health of environment and of our rural communities.

The “Case Closed!” speaks to the skewed “investigation” and blatant disregard for regulations of “Deadly Drift”; but there are many example of regulations enacted with legal loopholes already written in.

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit: “limiting the ability of ‘private attorneys general’ to bring suit until after compliance deadlines may be inadequate for ensuring the safety of our environment and for protecting citizens from serious injury. But that is the remedy that Congress has provided and to which we are bound.”

Congress is in no hurry to change that. We don’t matter.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “I Can Open My Window”

Rural opinions are not based on perceptions or media slants, but on actual incidents. So when the rural community calls the DEC the Department of Environmental Corruption and ridicules public health officials; there’s more than just resentment behind it. Here is just one incident:

A teacher at a school for disadvantaged children noticed that herbicide being sprayed on a nearby field was drifting across the children’s playground and over the recreational equipment. When she complained to the school administration, they refused to do anything; so she notified OSHA: the only result was that she nearly lost her job.

“None are so deaf as those who would not hear.”

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Writer’s Choice”

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are just words to those who live under the boot of industrial farming. Corporate Agribusinesses fund and bully the politicians, control the agricultural colleges and the regulators, and through a combination of advertising dollars, threats, and litigation control the media as well.

As the upcoming Part 2 will show: even the law is no protection against these powerful interests. They have the power to make the law go away.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Anonymous Victim Survey”

“You know you live in Cornithaca County, when the only rights left are the right to be a victim and the right to be poor.” This statement sums up what it’s like to be a rural resident in Cornithaca County. Rural people are considered so unimportant that they don’t even get a minimal share out of the wealth that its autocratic leaders gather from each new policy decision. Unfortunately; this survey can’t even be classed as satirical.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “The New Food Pyramid”

Today’s Food Pyramid is celebrated as a monument to modern science; and a symbol of the enduring worth of its Pharos of Agriculture.

Turn the monument over and you’ll see the rural communities that have suffered under the hubris and greed of Big Ag and their scurrilous scriveners.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Origami Fly”

As a kid; I looked through a book of sketches made by an army soldier in the South Pacific during WWII. Many of the drawings featured dead bodies; and the air around them was always filled with flies.

In rural Cornithaca County; flies, factory farms and death are certainties, but factory farms and death are never linked together. The high rural cancer rate is counted as a “lifestyle” issue.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “How Many Toxic Gas Plumes?”

A respirator that would once have been worn in a joke about barn odors; is now a life-saving protection from liquid manure off-gassing.

I remember an incident where a home exploded due to a natural gas leak. The leak was in a neighboring house; but the heavier-than-air gas flowed down into a lower level where it collected and ignited.

Factory Farms occupy a high ground of money, influence, and legal cronyism — so you know what flows downhill to their rural neighbors.

While I’m writing this; I keep hearing in the back of my mind: Jumping Jack Crack it’s a gas, gas, gas . . .

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Farm-cheesi Board Game”

Farm-cheesi – The “Game of Flies” is adapted from the Indian cross and circle game Pachisi, and its many variations. The goal of the game is to move the maggots from the player’s carcass home to the center space where they become flies.

The 17” x 17” game board [pictured] is in four parts to be copied or scanned and printed – or cut out by utilizing two books.

You can also cut out maggots and attach them to the “Cornithacan” tokens from the book; achieving a sort of “African Queen” leach effect.

Living around a factory farm; you have to do something with them — if only we could train them to synchronize in their swarming and blow back the toxic fumes.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Pandemic Sing-a-long”

After all; an open air cesspit of fermenting cow manure, urine, antibiotics, hormones, and anything else they sluice off of the floors of their sheds is a perfect breeding ground for super pathogens. A concoction that is then sprayed, or even injected, all over the rural landscape.

The World Health Organization and the CDC have both expressed concerns about a pandemic caused by modern industrial farming methods; but have always been ignored.

The best part about passing ineffectual regulations is that you can always hide behind the legality of your actions.