Dirty Air, Tainted Fruit, Torture...

When I'm in the Four Corners area, I'm happy.  The rock formations are beautiful, the skies blue.

But an article in today's Los Angeles Times reports on changes to the air as a result of coal-burning power plants built in the area.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-mexico-coal-20141215-story.html#page=1

Particulates are affecting the skies and the health of people living in northwest New Mexico and eastern Arizona.  

With this new information, my sense of peace and well-being while visiting Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico will be diminished.  After all, the electricity generated is going to big cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix.  It's going to me. 

The load of guilt thickens.

I learned last week that the vegetables in my supermarkets are picked by children and their poor parents in Sinaloa, Mexico, who live in deplorable conditions, sometimes even captive to their employers.

Here's a link to the four-part story researched for months by Richard Marosi and Cecilia Sanchez with photos by Don Bartletti:

http://www.latimes.com/la-app-mexico-part-1-story.html#page=1


Then there was the release of information on US torture of detainees at Abu Graib and other once-secret detainment centers.  My government--through the CIA--tortured at least 39 captives over six years to try to get information on Al Qaeda after September 11, 2001.  The reports are gruesome reading.

http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-torture-psychologists-20141214-story.html#page=1

http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-torture-salt-pit-20141210-story.html

http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-torture-ksm-20141216-story.html#page=1

Now I learn that my electricity comes at the cost of others' health in the Four Corners area and elsewhere.  

I don't feel able to tackle all these problems...