Starting in March of 2020, our government spent two years locking down the country, forcing us to wear masks, mandating experimental vaccines, closing businesses, canceling schools and locking down churches all in the name of public safety. They were terrified of a virus that was less harmful to most Americans than the seasonal flu. Their mantra was, if doing all this saved even one life, then it is worth doing it.
Our government is upending our entire energy sector because we are scared of a benign gas that without it, all life on the planet would cease to exist. They act as if carbon dioxide, which is every plant’s oxygen, is equivalent to a toxic poison. And these radical and costly changes are all done in the name of saving lives.
Yet, our government after authorizing the intentional burning of millions of gallons of deadly chemicals that had spilled in a train derailment right outside of Palestine, Ohio which created a mushroom cloud filled with the deadly toxins, such as Phosgene – a WWI German chemical weapon – told the people of Palestine, to return to their homes and drink the water, a mere 3 days later. The same people who locked down the country for fear of Covid, told American citizens to go back to a town whose air, ground and water is still poisoned with toxins.
Our government takes extreme caution with Covid-19 and carbon dioxide, shaming anyone who doesn’t act with the same extreme caution, but when confronted with deadly, carcinogen toxins in the air over Palestine, Ohio, our political leaders have taken the exact opposite approach. It is apparent, they do not care about the people of Palestine. Whether they live or die, contract cancer or not, means absolutely nothing to them. Their apathy to the lives of these citizens, is not solely a result of the town voting overwhelmingly for their opponent, it is more than that. This is a crisis that they cannot exploit to procure more power for themselves.
George Floyd’s death could be exploited to incite 500 riots which threw our country into total chaos months before a Presidential election in which they were trying to unseat the incumbent. Covid-19 was exploited to allow the government to control the population, businesses, schools and places of worship, showing them how much autonomy, the people would be willing to cede to protect their health. Climate change is a manufactured crisis that the powerful are actively exploiting to control the people and enrich themselves.
Attorney Michael Barasch, whose law firm represents over 25,000 members of the 9/11 community, said the EPA insisting the “air is safe” sent “shivers” up his spine, knowing that clients of his “are dying every single day from 9/11 toxic dust.” He went on to say, “in 10 or 20 years, you’re gonna see people [from Palestine] getting cancer” because of the toxins in their environment. And our government sends them back to their homes in just 72 hours. Cities around the country are housing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in luxury hotels, spending tens of millions of dollars, yet our government refuses house the people of Palestine, Ohio somewhere safe until the air, water and ground has been cleaned of toxins. They are not willing to do whatever it takes to save even one life of the people of Palestine, Ohio.
Instead of automatically taking action as the Secretary of Transportation to help these citizens deal with the toxic disaster in their town, Pete Buttigieg has spent his time recently telling crowds about how white construction workers are taking jobs from people of color. It’s not his fault. Pete Buttigieg wasn’t hired to be the Transportation Secretary. He was hired to be the first gay Cabinet Secretary. Qualifications and competence did not matter. What mattered was that he checked the right boxes and was committed to equity and not achievement.
As a result of being an equity hire, Buttigieg frames every situation through the eyes of equity. That is why he labels highways as racist and counts the number of white versus black construction workers. He cannot see beyond identity politics. And that is why he has completely ignored the people of Palestine. They do not check any of the right boxes. They are not people of color. They are not members of the LGBTQ community. They are not Muslims. They are straight white Christians which means they can be completely ignored and left to die. They don’t matter.
Joe Biden has yet to visit Palestine, Ohio, even though the disaster occurred almost 3 weeks ago. On Tuesday, after much backlash, Pete Buttigieg announced he did intend on visiting Palestine, but he never gave a set date for his visit, so it remains to be seen if he will actually show up. If he does visit Palestine, will he ride up on his bike because he doesn’t was the carbon dioxide from a gas-powered car to pollute the Phosgene-filled air of Palestine?
Last week, the Biden administration rejected federal disaster assistance for Palestine as they deal with the aftermath of this toxic disaster. And instead of visiting the people of Palestine, on Monday, Joe Biden made secret trip to Ukraine, and promised unending support to President Zelensky. After already giving Ukraine over $100 billion of war funding this past year, Biden promised another $500 million to Ukraine while at the same time, rejecting aid to the suffering people of Palestine.
Palestine, Ohio is 500 miles from Washington, DC. Ukraine is 5,680 miles from Washington, DC. A 500-mile flight takes about an hour. Biden could have done both. He could have taken the 1-hour flight to Palestine, met with the leaders, reassured the people, saw for himself what they need, and taken care of it. But Biden does not care about those people. He only cares about power.
Donald Trump visited Palestine, Ohio, earlier today with truckloads of bottled water for the people there. After spending billions on Ukraine, Joe Biden could not find it in himself to provide the most basic necessity of them all for these American citizens, clean water to drink. It took a private citizen, former President Donald Trump, to spend his own money so that the people in Palestine have clean drinking water.
East Palestine, Ohio Mayor Trent Conaway stated that President Joe Biden giving millions to Ukraine and nothing to the people of Palestine shows that he doesn’t care about us. He is right. Actions speak louder than words. Joe Biden’s action and inaction speak volumes. And not only doesn’t he care about the people of Palestine, he doesn’t care about you and I. 5 million illegal immigrants have flooded this country since he took office, many bringing deadly drugs which kill over 100,000 Americans each year, and he is more concerned about protecting Ukraine’s border than our own border.
Don’t ever listen when these people say that they care about the American people. The citizens of Palestine, Ohio are the American people. Their town is basically destroyed, the air, the water and the soil are toxic. Most of the people there will end up contracting some painful and even deadly disease. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, if they actually cared about people, would have visited there by now, would have done everything in their power to protect those people, but they chose not to. They have abandoned the people of Palestine. But what can we expect from a group of politicians who opened the southern border and defunded the police. They don’t care if American citizens die from fentanyl poisoning or if they are murdered by a violent criminal out on zero cash bail. All they care about is exploiting crises to procure more power themselves.
Former Obama Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel infamously said, “you never want a serious crisis go to waste.” But the people of Palestine have the wrong color skin for their crisis to be taken seriously enough to be exploited, so they will tragically never get the aid that they need.
Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.