tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821243838031243709.post8581513645359586007..comments2023-11-05T04:15:44.564-08:00Comments on Robert Frost's Banjo: Adams County Makes the News - Council Leader #22Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15687192784861682991noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821243838031243709.post-27026189969520790472010-10-20T07:42:10.449-07:002010-10-20T07:42:10.449-07:00Hi Roy,
well, it's not a pretty story, but her...Hi Roy,<br />well, it's not a pretty story, but here it is: fruit pits contain cyanide and can be used to make cyanide gas - which kills a human being fairly quickly when inhaled (by blocking the absorption of oxygen by blood cells.) The gas was used in Germany for mass-murder of Jews in concentration camps. Apparently the U.S. government was producing cyanide as well as mustard gas during WWII. <br /><br />(When the John Harvey,a U.S. ship carrying a secret cargo of mustard gas was bombed, many sailors died who could have been easily saved if rescue workers had been made aware that mustard gas was involved - a previous oil spill intensified the effects of the chemical. A cloud of the gas from the ship's explosion also killed hundreds of Italian civilians on the coast because they went untreated. By the end of that month, at least 1,000 had died. That would have been 1/3 of the population of Adams County at that time.) <br /><br />Cyanide gas is believed to have been used in the genocide of Kurds in the 80s, as well as mustard gas - the key ingredient was produced by the chemical company Alcolac in Baltimore, Maryland, who supplied both Iran and Iraq. <br /><br />Cyanide is one of the lethal substances the U.S. provides to underdeveloped countries in order to increase various kinds of production - in this case, gold mining - in spite of knowing that workers, unaware of the dangers, will die from using it in the conditions allowed by the (U.S.-owned) mine labor managers - as well as causing wide-spread destruction, like the Omai gold-mine disaster in Guyana.<br /><br />I won't get started with other examples, lest I ruin anyone's day, including my own. <br /><br />BUT - I do think making these connections is worthwhile. The fact that the U.S. government was asking people in Adams County to use the produce of their own land, their own fruit trees, to help produce weapons for chemical warfare is a parable worth pondering in our present day, when we are so often unwitting collaborators in the suffering caused by U.S. military and economic policies.<br /><br />I'll try to end on a more positive note (shouldn't be too hard!) We have several "escapees" from the old Mesa orchards on our land - three of these are apple trees, two we can pick from, and one that is way too tall to reach - but the apples fall into the spring that runs through the draw and in late summer smells intoxicatingly of fermented cider when you stand in the circle of flattened grass where a deer has made her bed.Eberlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06523773865788173026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821243838031243709.post-86507928585756520942010-10-20T05:31:52.160-07:002010-10-20T05:31:52.160-07:00Okay, I have to ask. Why were they saving fruit pi...Okay, I have to ask. Why were they saving fruit pits?Royhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01648670975466222140noreply@blogger.com