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Our delicacies include corruption, poverty, unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, radical Christians, white supremacists, police brutality, and ecological catastrophes

As if the Householder - FirstEnergy corruption case weren’t enough, the fine folks over at Norfolk Southern have decided to graciously extend their salutations to the people of East Palestine, a small city south of Youngstown on the PA border.

Reinventing hospitality norms, in lieu of flowers, a card, and some chocolates, Norfolk Southern sent an under-maintenanced train carrying highly volatile and toxic chemicals right into the heart of the city. To be expected, the train derailed, the chemicals were released, the city was evacuated, and all that’s left is an absolute ecological clusterfuck.

East Palestine: The Place You No Longer Want to Be

East Palestine, prior to this past week’s event, was a small city of less than 5,000 sitting in an otherwise quiet part of OH along the PA border. In many ways, East Palestine is a shining example of a Rust Belt city, though manufacturing continues there to this day. What allows East Palestine to survive as a Rust Belt manufacturing hub is that it serves as a connecting juncture between railroad lines that move freight across the Midwest, Great Lakes, and east coast.¹ This is no small feat for such a small city.

In the evening of Friday Feb. 3, at 8:55 pm, 50 of a 150-car Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed and caught fire. As temperatures increased heading into the new week, OH Governor Mike DeWine and PA Governor Josh Shapiro ordered residents within a mile of East Palestine to evacuate in fear that the cars, still containing hazardous materials, might explode.²

On Monday Feb. 6, a controlled burn was conducted to prevent this catastrophe from accruing immediate casualties. At the time, officials reported that the air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink. Residents are obviously dubious.³

And there’s good reason for them to be. You see, those hazardous materials being transported—well those included vinyl chloride, which is a man-made colorless chemical used in PVC pipes. When burned, vinyl chloride releases hydrogen chloride which turns into phosgene, which was used as a weapon in WW1.⁴

While officials might claim (and even believe) that East Palestine is safe to live in, the reality is that these chemicals are highly toxic and highly volatile. And if science isn’t enough for you, residents just outside of the evacuation zone have reported that their animals turned up sick or dead after the controlled burn.⁵ Now that’s of course understandable since the animals didn’t listen to the PA Governor’s advisory to shelter indoors for the duration of the controlled burn.

How dare they.

Rest assured, though, as Norfolk Southern has contributed a $25,000 donation to the Red Cross. A whole $25,000.⁶ That they donated anything isn’t nothing, but $25,000 is insulting given they netted $790 million in Q4 of 2022 alone.⁷

And herein lies the rub.

Derailments are a necessary risk if we have trains at all—whether we take steps to prevent them is one issue, but the risk is always there, however prudent we are.

Not only did Norfolk Southern not take steps to prevent a derailment like this, but they actively undermined any steps towards closely regulating trains carrying highly toxic freight. By any account, they’re fully culpable for this catastrophe, and steps could’ve been taken to prevent this from ever occurring.⁸ What caused this catastrophe was not the cruel hand of fate, but a malfunctioning axle that went undetected for 20 miles⁹ and antiquated brakes in need of an upgrade.¹⁰

Why the axle went undetected for so long is an issue that the National Rail Safety Board (NRSB) will suss out in their investigation. Why the brakes were never upgraded is directly tied to Norfolk Southern’s lobbying of federal politicians against mandating the upgrade, way back under the Obama Administration. This wasn't the first time that a derailment with this freight occurred, and while the Obama Administration sought to prevent future catastrophes through leveled and reasonable regulations,¹¹ Norfolk Southern had other priorities.

Joe Hill’s body lies a-moldering in the grave.

What’s additionally troubling about this catastrophe is its connection to the national workers’ crisis, especially for the railroading industry.

Part and parcel with the capitalist modus operandi, these centuries-old rail barons, with centuries-old manufacturing barons by their side, have systematically attacked everyday railroaders in spite of a strong union presence. And because the US has exploitative and oppressive laws on the books that put organized labor in a vice grip if theirs and the “national interest” aren’t aligned, these capitalist dogs have been able to rip the rail unions apart limb by limb and defang a once proud and vicious beast.

Put aside the ecological devastation Norfolk Southern has caused in East Palestine, and what’s left is an age-old tale of the landed gentry exploiting the working class to bolster profits and put more money into the hands of shareholders at the expense of everyday folks and the soul of our nation. Just over a year ago, Norfolk Southern was locked in a battle with the unions for “‘willfully’ depleting its workforce” and shifting responsibilities onto the remaining crew, which is illegal.¹²

And these allegations seem especially prudent today when Norfolk Southern announced in late January that it failed to meet its quarterly profit estimates specifically because of higher operating costs related to railroaders’ bargaining power.¹³ But this didn't stop them from netting $3.27 billion in 2022.¹⁴ And the market doesn't seem to be to flustered by Norfolk Southern's underperformance, with Bank of America Securities doubling down on their Buy rating for the stock.¹⁵ This suggests that analysts think the stock is undervalued and prime for pumping.

But the buck just don’t stop.

Let’s bring back that ecological catastrophe bit. This is just that—an unequivocal ecological catastrophe with local, regional, and national consequences. But this isn’t the first time Norfolk Southern has been caught up in catastrophe.

On Oct. 30, 2020, a Norfolk Southern trail derailed and dumped more than a thousand tons of coal into the Roanoke River, just west of Salem, VA. The river was found to be polluted by iron and thallium, but officials a year later claimed that there were no long-term effects on the river. For that equally unequivocal ecological catastrophe, Norfolk Southern was fined just $27,300.¹⁶

More recently, while the carnage in East Palestine continued to smolder, a Norfolk Southern trail struck and killed an innocent person in Hagerstown, MD. The train was traveling faster than the speed limit for that area,¹⁷ and the consequence was the life of an innocent bystander living life.

As if all of this weren’t enough, a reporter for NewsNation was brought to the ground, cuffed, and arrested for “being loud” while live-reporting a press conference in a gym at the East Palestine School District. The reporter was first confronted by State Highway Patrol officers and the Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard and was eventually arrested by East Palestine police for "criminal trespass and disorderly conduct." Governor Mike Dewine condemned this arrest,¹⁸ but questions must be raised as to who these officers of the law serve—the public or private interest?

What’s to be done?

A federal class action lawsuit has been filed by residents of East Palestine for damages relating to exposure to fumes and carcinogens resulting from Norfolk Southern’s alleged negligence in operating a train with malfunctioning cars or faulty tracks.¹⁹ We can only hope that this suit brings justice to the victims today and in the future.

But we shouldn’t have to worry about whether the blind hand of justice comes knocking at the railroad barons’ door. A private rail infrastructure and private operators to make use of it are a legacy of the United States’ genocide against indigenous North American peoples and the racist, supremacist, xenophobic, and bellicose underpinnings of Manifest Destiny.

This is 2023. While the rest of the world has adopted sophisticated rail infrastructure for both pedestrian and freight use, the United States lags centuries behind, with a crumbling freight infrastructure, no national high-speed rail, and a state-owned rail operator that must bow to the beck and call of the barons that own the rails. We can and should do better, and we certainly have the money.

As for preventable and predictable rail catastrophes, adequate regulations for private operators and internal standards by public ones would bring the United States on pace with our Western allies. To achieve the sorts of sophisticated high-speed rail widespread in the East, we need a radical restructuring of all facets of rail and a movement towards worker-led rail cooperatives.

And finally, for the ecological catastrophes big business time and time again are permitted to commit and run away from scot-free, we need a strong and empowered EPA with broad regulatory power and sizable discretion to ensure moral and ethical culpability for pollution and disasters translates into legal liability. The loss of life today and into the future rest solely in the hands of the companies that cause it and the politicians and public officials who accept bribes to maintain corporate control.

The freedom of the press is an American constitutional right, reaffirmed in the Ohio Constitution. On its own, the state and East Palestine officers should be reprimanded and relieved of their duties for failing to uphold even the most basic of constitutional rights. Given that this occurred in relation to what was already an ecological catastrophe, the future of free speech in OH is uncertain and at-risk.

We must act now to secure our most basic freedoms before they’re taken from us.

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1. This info was gathered from the Wikipedia article for East Palestine, OH, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Palestine,_Ohio

2. This info was gathered from an NBC News article by Dennis Romero and Marlene Lenthang (2023), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/explosion-possible-wake-ohio-train-derailment-involving-hazardous-mate-rcna69243

3. This info was gathered from a News Nation article by Natasha Zouves and Cassie Buchman (2023), https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/midwest/ohio-train-derailment-water-quality/

4. This info was gathered from a The News & Observer article by Don Sweeney (2023), https://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article272191258.html

5. This info was gathered from a New York Post article by Selim Algar (2023), https://nypost.com/2023/02/10/animals-sick-dying-near-east-palestine-ohio-train-crash/

6. This info was gathered from a press release by Norfolk Southern on the matter, https://nscorp.mediaroom.com/news-releases?item=123032

7. This info was gathered from Norfolk Southern’s quarterly financial data for Q4 2022, http://nscorp.com/content/dam/QuarterlyEventFiles/4q-2022/4q2022_financial_data.pdf

8. This opinion is based on info gathered from novel reporting for The Lever by David Sirota, Julia Rock, Rebecca Burns, and Matthew Cunningham-Cook (2023), https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/

9. This info was gathered from a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article by Anya Litvak (2023), https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2023/02/10/east-palestine-train-derailment-video-fire-axle-alert/stories/202302100070

10. See Footnote 8.

11. See Footnote 8.

12. This info was gathered from a Freight Waves article by Joanna Marsh (2021), https://www.freightwaves.com/news/unions-allege-norfolk-southern-job-cuts-saddled-engineers-with-other-duties

13. This info was gathered from a Reuters article (2023), https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/norfolk-southern-misses-quarterly-profit-estimates-higher-operating-expenses-2023-01-25/

14. See Footnote 7.

15. This info was gathered from a Business Insider article by Tipranks (2023), https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bank-of-america-securities-reaffirms-their-buy-rating-on-norfolk-southern-nsc-1032050681

16. This info was gathered from a The Roanoke Times article by Laurence Hammack (2023), https://roanoke.com/news/local/norfolk-southern-fined-27-300-for-coal-spill-in-the-roanoke-river/article_8d8cce24-a8c9-11ed-8208-6307a079c8d8.html

17. This info was gathered from a The Herald-Mail article published on Yahoo! Entertainment and written by Julie E. Greene and Dave McMillion (2023), https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/hagerstown-man-dies-norfolk-southern-164520877.html

18. This info was gathered from a Fox News article by Joseph A. Wulfsohn (2023), https://www.foxnews.com/media/east-palestine-police-defend-arrest-newsnation-correspondent-covering-ohio-train-derailment-presser

19. This info was gathered from a The Vindicator article by Ed Runyan (2023), https://www.vindy.com/news/local-news/2023/02/federal-lawsuit-filed-against-norfolk-southern-railway-co/