A Horror Story Not Fit to Print

The Hazleton Standard-Speaker is one of the main reasons that there's an incredible number of cases of horrifying diseases in Greater Hazleton.

Over the years, it has kept its readers in the dark about the undeniable and obvious fact that Greater Hazleton has long been a breeding ground for agonizing death due to various forms of cancer, heart disease and Multiple Sclerosis, to mention just a few.

Has the newspaper ever reported that we have a very alarming rate of different types of cancer, heart disease, Multiple Sclerosis, asthma, Alzheimer's and other types of dementia? The answer, obviously, is NO!

The hard, cold fact is that we have many SERIOUS MONUMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS in the Hazleton area right now, most of it due to CAN-DO's importation of "dirty" industries over the years that no other area wanted.

We now live in a hellhole because of the air we breathe and the water we drink. Great pity on anyone who uses water drawn from a well, as they do in many locations downhill from the former McAdoo Associates site and in other areas as well..

No wonder there are 65 cases of cancer in the short stretch of 72 homes on Ben Titus Road in Rush Township, or why cancerous fish are being found dead in the Still Creek Reservoir.

The Standard-Speaker also had kept silent for decades while hazardous waste galore was being dumped in the old Hazleton City Landfill and its lips remain sealed about the latest version of Murder Inc.

This is the current importation of countless tons of hazardous waste -- toxic river dredge sludge, primarily -- being dumped atop the poisons that are buried deep inside our abandoned mines but reaching all the way to the surface.

The fact is, river dredge sludge contains countless poisons, including arsenic, from the numerous chemical and plastic plants along the Delaware River far north of Philadelphia.

That's why residents of South Jersey and Philadelphia-area counties want NO PART of the river dredge. They're aware of the serious consequences and are deathly afraid of the price that their citizens someday would have to pay.

Meanwhile, the Standard-Speaker, now owned by Times-Shamrock of Scranton, has NOT been a voice of the people, failing miserably to warn us that our lives are in great peril, as are the good folks in Schuylkill and Carbon counties. It has refused to publish the truth about the catastrophic situation that we're all facing, including a most serious health threat to our children and grandchildren.

By not informing its readers, the newspaper has protected the polluters, the conspirators, CAN-DO, the Chamber of Commerce and the corrupt politicians like Todd Eachus, Raphael Musto, James Rhoades, Keith McCall, David Argall and others who are profiting financially at your expense. No wonder they want the poisons buried here!

The Standard-Speaker's articles and editorials about river dredge sludge have all been one-sided, informing us there's absolutely nothing to fear. But they've been filled with deceit and deception, covering up the truth.

And state officials and agencies whose job is to protect the people have long been part of the cover-up.

Sadly, our cemeteries hold the corpses of good, decent people who have suffered agonizing deaths because of the hazardous waste buried right under our noses, and our good people continue to suffer and die every day. Is the Standard-Speaker that heartless? Doesn't it care about the lives of its readers?

Or perhaps it loves when the Obituary columns are filled to the rafters, since placing a Death Notice costs a helluva lot of money these days.

For example, the Standard-Speaker has yet to inform you that Luzerne is in the Top Ten counties in the NATION for cancer deaths and Hazleton is numbered within the country's Top Ten zip codes for cancer-causing air emissions. And every month the statistics get a whole lot worse.

After all, those huge dump trucks that already have hauled in river dredge sludge will be doing it for the next 10 to 20 years. They'll continue to dump the poisons to further pollute our air and our water, meanwhile causing great agony and then painful death.

Standard-Speaker readers, and ALL of our citizens, deserve the truth. But we have never gotten it from our hometown newspaper because it has never informed us about how terribly serious the situation is. We've never had an opportunity to read both sides of the story, only that told by the polluters, CAN-DO, the Chamber of Commerce and other great "Pillars of Society" like Mayor Barletta.

Despite the death trap to which they have doomed us, they continue to heap praise upon themselves for a job well done --- but they're nothing more than a despicable walking-talking exercise in self-gratification.

The Standard-Speaker, sadly, has been a disgrace to truth and integrity. It also has been an insult to its faithful readers whom it apparently doesn't give a damn about.

Thank goodness the newspaper's days are numbered. Enough is finally enough. It doesn't desreve to exist when it provides only one side of the story.

It has been proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the people who run the paper are violent creatures possessing venom without supplication for human compassion and decency.

Folks, it's time to STAND UP and be counted by cancelling your subscription to the sub-Standard-Speaker. If you won't, then don't beg for pity when you learn that you and/or your loved ones are doomed to an agonizing death.