Toxic Waste & New Schools

A long time ago when I was around nine years old my mother and I would get together with a group of people who were fighting a toxic incinerator.  It was to go on the Davie/Iredell line and it was bad news.

People were coming together from all backgrounds:  redneck, roughneck, white collar, blue collar, tree hugger, land lover, cancer survivors, moms, dads, grandparents, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, etc...etc.  They didn't want a toxic waste incinerator anywhere near them.

They didn't want what it would put into the air, drinking water, and our bodies anywhere.  Ya'll it was bad, bad news.

We made signs (handmade and professional).

We had t-shirts.

We had bumper stickers,

There were letters to the editor.

There were debates.

There were meetings.  {In public and private.}

There was a huge stand against it.

It was bad news.

Now I am 32 years old.

Back in the 80's/90's we battled against a cancer steam engine that was coming to our community.

Today in 2014 there is a war being waged {out of Iredell, strictly Davie County...I doubt Iredell is as backwards as this stupid little map dot} just to have a school built.

A school.

Hmmm....

Once upon a time we took a stand against a public health threat and today people are taking a stand to not build a new...school?

I am a bit baffled.

Don't you fight against what is bad and fight for what is good?

Some where a long the way did something change and no one made me aware that we are pro bad and anti good?

I can understand fighting against the burning of toxic waste but I cannot, for the life of me, understand fighting a school.

Is updating your education system bad?  Should we not look at curriculum, teachers, the four walls the classroom learning is conducted in?  Should we still be teaching with the abacus and letting out come planting season?  Perhaps we should put wood burning stoves in a centrally located area of the school for heat and just open the windows for cool air.  Hmm....

You would think that by 2014 people would have a better moral compass and sense of the appropriate direction for the future.

Unless your brain is fried by toxic waste.

There's a thought.