Western Front - 1996 November 15

              Burrito
BONANZA
Page 6-7
Dashing through
the dairy state
Page 9
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Volume 98
Issue 14
Western Washington University
Time ticks slowly by
FRONT Bellingham, Washington
Panel scolds crowd,
energizes students
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October 1995 arrest for possession of heroin and methamphetamines.
By Gene Metrick
The Western Front
More than 200 Western students attending
an Environmental Justice Panel Discussion
were implored to be more involved with
environmental issues Wednesday night in
the Viking Union Main Lounge.
"People of color are disproportionately
impacted by pollution through negligence,
opportunism and through intentional efforts
by industry, the military and the govern­ment,"
said Nina La Boy of the Community
Coalition for Environmental Justice.
"We're really pissed off, and you should
be pissed off," Jewell James, of the Lummi
Nation, told the crowd.
"If you're not, I don't know what's wrong
with you," he said.
"I don't see any of you out there marching
in the streets and demanding changes right
now, because it'*.,yo.ui^f€Kuidr>y©ui*£birld£:eiir^
who are going to die," he said. "You don't
even realize it."
Panel moderator Debra Salazar, associate
professor in the political science depart­ment,
began the discussion by defining envi­ronmental
justice as an equal distribution of
environmental goods and bads and a fair and
democratic process to decide how those
goods and bads are shared.
Guadalupe Gamboa, campaign director
for the United Farm Workers' drive to win
union contracts for apple orchard workers,
said the state's $1 billion apple industry
employs more than 50,000 workers, each
earning an average of less than $6,000 per
year working in an environment saturated
with health-damaging pesticides.
"It's pretty much a pesticide-free fire zone
in the orchards," he said, explaining that the
pesticides used on apples are organophos-phates,
which are derived from nerve gas.
Gamboa thanked students who participat-.
ed in the wine boycott that helped the UFW
win its first union contract after an eight-year
struggle against Chateau Ste. Michelle
wineries.
"We have had some little victories, but the
major problem is still there; these pesticides
are used with little control or concern for the
workers," he said.
La Boy described the South Bronx neigh­borhood
of New York, where she grew up,
as "the poorest congressional district in the
United States" with health statistics that "are
among the worst in the country."
"The South Bronx area is a 2.5-square-
-«aile*a*e^wkh)=,evej^3fi0,Q00--ipeople living
there ... and there are three (toxic waste)
incinerators, a sewage treatment plant, a
sewage sludge-processing plant... and more
than 80 waste-transfer facilities that transfer
all kinds of toxic waste from lead to
asbestos," she said.
"We people of color bear the brunt of
environmental degradation," she said.
All of the speakers were given a very sup­portive
reception by the students, but James
received the most vocal response as he loud­ly
chastised the audience, calling on them to
See Justice, page 3
Speaker works audience
By Arlene Frazier
The Western Front
Linda Wertheimer, a political
commentator or a stand-up come­dian?
Gauged by people's reac­tions,
which ranged from raised
eyebrows to raucous laughter, to
the 1,100-plus, Thursday night
crowd in the Performing Arts
Center, Wertheimer is both.
Light-hearted characterization
of those in America's power posi­tions
punctuated Wertheimer's
serious assessment of this year's
national election results and the
challenges yet to be overcome.
Wertheimer, host of National
Public Radio's "All Things
Considered," playfully described
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich
as evenly-matched because they
are fatherless, Southern boys who
are clever, but not wise.
Linda Wertheimer
"And of course, each thinks he
is the smartest man he ever met,"
Wertheimer joked.
She credited the mothers of
Clinton and Gingrich for having
much to do with the shaping of
each man's temperament.
"Any mother who names her
son Newton Leroy — you've got
to expect that kid to stay mad for
a while," she said to the audi­ence's
delight.
On a more sober note,
Wertheimer voiced concern with
the way money is raised and
spent on election campaigns.
She pointed out the $2 billion
spent in the 18-month presiden­tial
campaign produced enough
television ads, if lined up end-to-end,
to constitute 58 continuous
days of solid commercials.
"Sounds like something you
would sentence someone to,"
Wertheimer said wryly.
Wertheimer noted some elec­tion
firsts, which included a 17-
point gender gap, brought about
by 58 percent of women voting
for Clinton, and a nation no
See Wertheimer, page 4
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