The environmental movement

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The Environmental Movement
It was on Sunday morning, and people in western New York at an old town Rust Belt were heading to various churches to give thanks to their God and praise Him for the several events, both good and bad ones, that had happened during the week. As most of the staunch Christians within the community claimed, every bad and good activity in the community is included in God’s plan. A few decades ago as the world would remember Rust Belt was one of the highly industrialized towns in America and the rest of the world housing industries such as Steel manufacturing and coal firms (Neumann 45). The town had flooded with several natives in search of green pastures. According to Doussard, Jamie and Nik (184), Russ Belt had become a safe harbor for migrants from all over the world. The town was made up of people from all backgrounds and social classes with the rich being made up of managers and owners of business firms and industries in the city and throughout the country. On arrival in the Saint Peter Great Lake Church, the new topic in town spoken by most small business people and employees in the industries was the threat the rich man’s life possed on the lives of everyone living in the city.
During the onset of the construction process, the rumors had spread all over and those in support of the so-called “crazy Richman’s Plan” claimed the firm will offer employment opportunities to the daughters and sons of the middle and low-class people and will open the town to more investment opportunities.

However, to the contenders, the plan was a complete death threat to the rest of the town as the terrain, and the climatic conditions in the area and the surrounding regions will not support the survival of a rich man’s dam. In the era, just like the many events that were taking place in schools and every social gathering, the voices of the majority were music to the ears of the authority, and the rich remain with the absolute power to hang the poor and walk free (Traina 51). Alex Dahood’s Father then was a 10-year employer in the Steel mill plant belonging to Mr. Hudson, also rumored to be among the top ten wealthiest people in America. Dahood and his family had just migrated from Mexico twelve years ago after our parent decides to seek better schooling and a job with a healthy income to cater for the needs of all members including the extended family who regarded my father as the provider and the breadwinner. Dahood’s father, Patrick Willis, eldest brother was not lucky if not blessed by God, to have a well-stipulated life plan as his second youngest brother Willis. In almost all occasion, when not spending the night in the local bars, he resided in our small house together with the rest of his brothers and sisters.
Following the recent demonstrations by Dahood’s father workmates, protesting the low pay and poor working conditions they were subjected to while working in the industry, Dahood decided to pursue law so that one day he would save the rest of the poor and the suffering community from their miseries. Even though Dahood believed that the poverty status his parents and the rest of the poor people in Rust Belt lived in was God’s plan for a better future, there still existed part of him that felt the majority in the society had not put up enough and brave fight for better treatment and services from the superiors. The killings in the town had grown from being rampant too, and everyday burial ritual with most of those who had the problems of the employees and the rest of the town members at heart met their early death with those in charge of finding them justice being pocketed by the rich in the town. It was not a surprise too many to have their complaints, tying a wealthy man in the town to the scene or event, being thrown out by the sheriff’s office.
According to Traina (53), most small towns in America in the 1900s were being controlled by the rich people, and the poor were considered more like slaves to the rich. In an article by Younkins and Alexander, they state that the poor had to abide by the rules and desires of the rich as their opinion did not have a value same as that of the rich. Dahood, being driven by his interest in law and love for the suffering community in Rust Belt, worked hard in school and managed to secure a scholarship to one of the best law school institution in the country. Being an immigrant and from a low-income family, his time in university was close to hell as he was despising and discriminated in almost everything (Robinson). In one occasion, he got himself into a fight with one of the rich man’s sons from Chicago. Even though he was more innocent than the rich man’s son, he was eventually suspended while the counterpart in the fight got back to his studies. The hard-lonely life led to him being motivated even more. During his last year in school, he was ranked among the best law students in the school.
After graduating, Dahood had no idea that his life had just begun, and he was to come close to death in the same year he had finished his university education. He was just back from, what had now turned to weeks of searching for a job in law firms, to a mourning home. Willis eldest brother, John Eran had met his death while working together with Willis in Mr. Hudson steel mill plant. He had just secured promotion from being a volunteer at the firm to a fully employed worker, and it had seemed to have been a relief for his aging father, believing that the time the work at the mill demanded will keep his eldest son away from his alcohol addiction problem. The death had not met many by surprise as he was the fourth in the past three months to had died in the same spot within the mill. The claims of his death were poor working conditions that made him pass out and fall into a hot conveyor belt before having his head smashed beyond recognition. Dahood, took the death more emotionally than the rest of the family as he consistently blames himself for not being able to fight for the safety of his uncle.
Mr. Hudson’s lake was then complete a few months before the death, and as many people whispered in church, cracks were already forming at the walls of the dam. On his way home, Dahood had decided to pay the sheriff a visit and raise the claims that the rich man’s dam was on the verge of collapsing come to the prolonged rain in the two-months’ time. The next day, Dahood arrived very early in the morning at the sheriff’s office to report the rumors that had been spreading and the dangers that the dam was posing to the people living in the town. His words had no significant impact on the sheriff’s ideology that the dam was more beneficial than dangerous to the community in Rust Belt and so as usual, he promises to consider the matter before closing the file and locking it up in his drawer after Dahood left. A week later, Dahood decided to stand up to Mr. Hudson and condemn this act of building a deadly dam close to the homes of the people in Rust Belt. His attempt to rich Hudson, at what had not become “the rich man’s only recreational club” on the upper side of the dam, failed and he was locked in for a day for trespassing.
Willis heard the events that had taken place that led to his son being locked up in sheriff’s cells and went up in a fury. Together with some of his friends from the mill, they marched to the sheriff’s station and protested for the release of Dahood. After a whole day of the demonstration, Dahood was finally released on bail as the sheriff assured the protest to investigate their claims on the weakened walls of the dam. The protest at the sheriff’s offices marked the beginning of the series of protest demanding the dam to be closed if the owners were not ready to strengthen the walls of the dam. However, it took only two weeks before Mr. Hudson started firing workers who were part of the of the protest claiming they had their loyalty not to him but instead to his enemies who wanted to see his investments fall. The rest of the workers feared to lose their jobs, and on the third week, the population of protestors had halved with some of them appearing demotivated by the act of the some of the members throwing in the towel out of Hudson threat to suck them.
The turn of events and the consistency of the claims by the residents had the sheriff interested to know the state of the dam. Together with two members of his office, he went to assess the claims of the public, and upon arrival, he was shocked to find the cracks had widened and were visible from quite a distance. According to his assessment, the weight of the dam became more than what the walls were designed to handle, and upon collapsing, the dam would flood the entire city and destroy any living organism in its vicinity. The state of the cracks made the sheriff worried. He decided to book an appointment with Hudson the following day morning to request immediate repairs on walls of the dam. His attempts to rich Hudson failed after it was reported that Hudson was not unusual to have talked with anyone concerning his dam. On his way back to his office from the rich man’s club, he was lucky to run into Hudson in his caravan and took the opportunity to raise his concerns about the dam and the report Dahood had handed him when he first raised the issue in his office.
Being in a hurry to meet up with some of his business friends at the club, Hudson ignored the sheriff’s claims and stated that issues being brought up by the town people being out of superstition and envy for all that he had achieved in life. Feeling intimidated by Hudson, the sheriff made a step back to allow the Hudson caravan to leave as he contemplated on what a plan to save the town from the ticking death penalty they all faced. On his way back to his office, the Sheriff ran into the protestors who were agitated when they saw him approach. The sheriff tried to talk to them that everything will be fine, and the town will be protected from the aftermath of the dam walls were to collapse. From the crowd, Dahood shouted how much he was disappointed stating his early request for the dam to be closed was taken as a bluff in the sheriff’s office.
It was on Friday morning, 23rd of March 1912 when the first earthquake ever in the town was felt by everyone in the city. Most of them it felt like just an ordinary earthquake but for those who had seen the cracks knew it was almost the doomsday. Dahood came out of his home and went into town to start of what was is now known as the most significant Environmental Movement in the history of America. Every man and woman in the town came out to fight a war against the enemies to their environment and health. Earlier that week, there were two explosions in the factory that result in twelve people dead and survivor who was severely burnt. The smoke particles were still felt in the air, and there was dullness throughout the town.
Dahood led the rest of the crowd to protest everything that done by the factory that had left the rivers, atmosphere and the soil left to degrade because of the harmful effluent from the factory. Secondly, the whole town was agitated by the working condition in the steel mill and the fact that all the officials were corrupt and were used by the rich for their selfish needs. The main driving force of the protest was the threat the whole town faced come the fall of the rich man’s damn. According to Dahood’s claims, there will not be anything left at the downside region of the dam, in this case, the whole town. The mid-year long rains had already started, and it was about time before the water got loose. Dahood led the residents to the rich man’s club and in unison demand, the immediate shutdown of the club and the repairs to the cracked sections of the wall repaired. To their surprise, Hudson and the rest of the club members were not surprised of what was to be a surprise protest at their club entrance and immediately gunshots were fired by a hired military groups that seemed to have been waiting for the arrival of the protestors. Several people were shot with some barely making out alive. It was then that the rest of the town realized they had to act themselves or see the town fell.
Later that evening, Dahood gathered as many men as he could and proceeded to the lower side of the dam and using bags filled with sand, started blocking the possible path of the river into the town come to the collapse of the dam. The water had already started oozing from the cracks, and it appeared to increase with every raindrop. The level of the dam was already over its safety mark, and it was noted that most of the club members had already fled the town to their other homes away from Rust Belt. The hard work of Dahood and the rest of the men seemed to have bored fruit with the river water being redirected to flow farther away from the town. However, still the fury posed by the dam was a way to match for the sand wall, and so Dahood with the help of the sheriff went back to town to inform the rest of the city to flee the area. Few hours before they could make to the southern side of the town, a massive earthquake was felt, and an angry stream of water was seen from miles flowing down towards the town consuming anything that was on its path. Everyone was in a stampede to leave the city in all means possible as the sheriff and the rest of the police in the town tried to ferry as many as the can to the northern side of the town with higher ground. It was minutes away before the water destroyed the town and most of the houses and trees were already floating on the water. The arrival of the water, as one of the survivors described, was like the arrival of the angel of death carrying with him evidence of bodies that it had consumed life from.
Dahood’s family manage to escape the historical flood even though all their properties and farm products were destroyed. The events in the town were all over the media as most political activists came out demand for justice for the town people and the perpetrators to the incident arraigned in court and locked up for the rest of their life. The floods had taken more lives than any catastrophic events ever experienced in the American history.

Works Cited
Alexander, Douglas. “Responsibility to the poor: a matter of justice, not charity | Douglas Alexander.” The Guardian, Guardian News, and Media, 8 Oct. 2010, www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/oct/08/douglas-alexander-responsibility-poor-justice.
Doussard, Marc, Jamie Peck, and Nik Theodore. “After deindustrialization: Uneven growth and economic inequality in “postindustrial” Chicago.” Economic Geography 85.2 (2009): 183-207.
Neumann, Tracy. Remaking the Rust Belt: The Postindustrial Transformation of North America. University of Pennsylvania Press, (2016): 44-82.
Robinson, Jack. “Facts, information and articles about Jackie Robinson, first African-American to play MLB in Black History.” HistoryNet, www.historynet.com/jackie-robinson.
Traina, Cristina LH. “Fundamental Ethics: A Liberationist Approach, by Patricia McAuliffe.” Ethics 105.4 (1994): 51-53.
Younkins, Edward W. ROUSSEAU’S “GENERAL WILL” AND WELL-ORDERED SOCIETY, www.quebecoislibre.org/05/050715-16.htm.