The Star's editorial board is examining an interesting new initiative to help heal wounds created by the long-running issues of environmental racism in Anniston:
Environmental racism’s harm in Anniston is not easily traced to a date on the calendar. PCB and other toxic contamination seeped into West Anniston’s water, earth and eventually its people over decades. Its dangers and toll slowly dawned on an unsuspecting public. Justice has been slow. Some are left unsatisfied. To this day, bitterness over who knew the dangers and when echoes through the victims’ minds. To this day, mistrust in the legal system exists. To this day, rumor has tremendous currency among some victims.
The Star also is weighing in on Wednesday's vote in D.C. that allowed the suspension of habeas corpus to continue:
It’s true that Guantanamo Bay houses many bad people who want all of us dead. There are perhaps hundreds more, however, who are there for unknown reasons. Will they remain there forever without knowing why they were imprisoned in the first place?
And on the op-ed page, contributor Stephen Black of the Alabama Poverty Project is offering an essay on poverty in our state:
This new era will be stamped in history as the point at which our institutions of higher education reasserted their commitment to assist students in developing a distinctive definition of moral and civic maturity, making the values and skills of citizenship a hallmark of a college education received in Alabama — and in the process, helping to create a better world for our children.
