Ban Ohio SB-33

On October 27, 1948 a deadly toxic fog of Hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant blanketed the Monongahela River Valley and killed fifty people and infected thousands of people with longlasting respiratory problems.

According to Wikipedia two of the heroes to emerge during the four-day smog were Chief John Volk of the Donora Fire Department and his assistant Russell Davis. Volk and Davis responded to calls from Friday night, the 29th until Sunday night, the 31st, depleting their supply of 800 cubic feet (23 m3) of oxygen, borrowing more from all nearby municipalities, including McKeesport, Monessen, and Charleroi. "I didn’t take any myself. What I did every time I came back to the station was have a little shot of whiskey."

Another murderous coal smog struck London hard in 1952. Thousands died without any repercussions to the coal industry.

Coal killed and no one said how many.

In the autumn of 1995 I lived in the Far West of Ireland. The beaches were glorious and the westbound wind drifted over the primodial bogs carring the whispers of every conversation of Europe. The waves from the North Atlantic blessed my surfer skin with purity.

Ty Spaulding and I had rented a house from Lord Robert Guinnness. His coastal haunt was perfect, however we were exiled to a haunted schoolhouse.

Thick walls emanated the damp and cold of the Connemara Peninsula.

Ty and I burned everything after seeing the rapidly spinning electric heat meter drained our wallets dry.

Neolithic peat heated a three-foot circle around the fireplace.

We bought a fifty-pound bag of Texas Coal # 4.

The embers generated heat

The wandering horses loved to stand by the open door.

I entered the cottage after a long walk through the bogs and found Ty in a near-coma from breathing coal fumes.

Coal was not safe.

Sweaters helped, but one night was so cold that my computer screen screen frozen into the Ice Age.

!995.

The advent of the Internet.

The web helped neither of us get warm, but electric blankets accomplished confort.

Forward tenty-five years and Ohio State Senate Frank Hoagland had forwarded a Senate Bill condemning any and all protests against the fossil fuel industry. Ohio SB-33 languished like a zombie awaiting darness and lastd wek Ohio's GOP house passed the law to beneifit the remaining three thousand coal workers and the coal elite living in Palm Beach.

Frank Hoagland, the GOP sponsor of the bill, had been a US Navy Seal. The man's history seemed much more honorable than this sneak attack on the lungs of a nation.He was betraying his people for the wealth of others i hopes that one day he mght be rich in my eyes. He seemed a better man that that, but my wckedness alllows me vision.

Once more according to Wikipedia under Ohio’s legislation, anyone convicted of stepping foot on critical infrastructure property and “causing another person to believe that the offender will cause physical harm” would be guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor, a class of crime that includes domestic violence and drunk driving and is punishable with up to six months in jail and $1,000 in fines. Those who trespass “with purpose to destroy or tamper with the facility” face third-degree felony charges, which in Ohio can result in up to five years in jail and $10,000 in fines.

Last week I wrote Ohio Senator Hoagland an appeal to his sense of justice, especially as Ohio SB-33 is an affront to the First Amendment.Ohio SB-33. The Freedom of Speech is the Ace in the Hole. It overrules the Right the Bear Arms

Not for the Deplorables.

As A New Englander I believe in a world other than this.