Started by Daren Gamble & Toxic-Free Future

Started by Daren Gamble & Toxic-Free Future

Vinyl chloride is a cancer-causing chemical used to make building materials that’s devastating communities across the country. As the largest home improvement retailer in the world, The Home Depot must be a leader in transitioning away from building products made with vinyl chloride.

My name is Daren Gamble and I’m a lifetime resident of East Palestine, OH. On February 3, 2023, a train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and caught fire less than two miles from my home, leading to an environmental disaster and health crisis for our community and the surrounding area that we are still suffering from today.

I live in my grandfather’s house about a mile from the derailment, a house that has been in our family for generations. After the derailment we were evacuated and still worry whether or not it is safe to live in our home, and whether it’s safe to breathe the air. My neighbors and I are concerned about the long-term health effects from being exposed to this cancer-causing chemical. Family members and neighbors of mine have suffered from nose bleeds and other health problems that only started after the toxic disaster. 

Vinyl chloride is the basic building block for making polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a widely-used plastic that harms health and the environment during production, use, and disposal. Vinyl chloride is also a known human carcinogen associated with liver cancer, brain and lung cancers, and cancers of the blood. 

It’s a nightmare that never ends. As we fight for justice for our community, we want to work to make sure that no other family has to go through what we went through. 

Despite the well-documented harms from vinyl chloride, companies continue to produce the chemical and use it to make PVC pipes, packaging materials, cars, children’s toys, and building materials like wall and floor coverings. 

In fact, more than ten billion pounds of this dangerous chemical are produced in the U.S. every year by giant chemical corporations.

The largest use of PVC is in building materials and the largest retailer of PVC building materials is The Home Depot. PVC has become pervasive in our homes and in packaging. People use products made of or packed in PVC everyday, and what happened in East Palestine is evidence about why we need to take action now. 

In fact, before vinyl chloride derailed near our home, it was on its way to a PVC plastics factory in New Jersey, which turns vinyl chloride into PVC plastic for building materials like flooring that is sold at The Home Depot. Make no mistake: retailers like The Home Depot are profiting off the sale of a plastic that is poisoning communities like mine. Enough is enough!

I have worked in the construction industry for more than 35 years, and I know that there are plenty of alternatives out there to this poison plastic. The Home Depot needs to help lead by both banning the sale of PVC from their shelves and by investing in and transitioning to safer materials, like linoleum flooring.

But I need your help. The Home Depot can take action but they need to hear from all of us. We need to raise our voices together to ensure that what happened in East Palestine, OH doesn’t happen again. 

Will you join me in calling on the Home Depot to lead the industry away from using this dangerous chemical and plastic?

We know change is possible because in recent years, The Home Depot has taken action on other toxic chemicals such as PFAS. In fact, the company has recently made progress in reducing PVC in the packaging it sells. But much more action is needed.

Tell The Home Depot: Build a Safer Future, Ban this Poison Plastic!

Source: change.org

 

939 Battle at Andernach: King Otto & Hermann of Zwaben beat Eberhard of France & Giselbert of Lutherans

• 976 Hisham II appointed kalief of Cordoba
• 1134 Storm flood ravages Zeeland county
• 1187 Sultan Saladin captures Jerusalem from Crusaders
• 1263 The battle of Largs fought between Norwegians and Scots.
• 1492 – King Henry VII of England invaded France.1780 – British army major John Andre was hanged as a spy. He was carrying information about the actions of Benedict Arnold.1835 – The first battle of the Texas Revolution took place near the Guadalupe River when American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry unit.

  1836 – Charles Darwin returned to England after 5 years of acquiring knowledge around the world about fauna, flora, wildlife and geology. He used the information to develop his “theory of evolution” which he unveiled in his 1859 book entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

  1869 – Mahatma (Mohandas) K Gandhi was born. He was known for his advocacy of non-violent resistance to fight tyranny.

  1870 – Rome was made the capital of Italy.

  1876 – The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opened. It was the state’s first venture into public higher education. The school was formally dedicated 2 days later by Texas Gov. Richard Coke.

  1889 – The first international Conference of American States began in Washington, DC.

  1908 – Addie Joss of Cleveland pitched the fourth perfect game in major league baseball history.

  1919 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

  1920 – The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates played the only triple-header in baseball history. The Reds won 2 of the 3 games.

  1924 – The Geneva Protocol adopted the League of Nations.

  1925 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird completed the first transmission of moving images.

  1929 – “The National Farm and Home Hour” debuted on NBC radio.

  1933 – “Red Adams” debuted on NBC radio.

  1937 – Warner Bros. released “Love Is on the Air.” Ronald Reagan made his acting debut in the motion picture. He was 26 years old.

  1941 – Operation Typhoon was launched by Nazi Germany. The plan was an all-out offensive against Moscow.

  1944 – The Nazis crushed the Warsaw Uprising.

  1947 – The Federatino Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) formally established Formula One racing in Grand Prix competition.

  1948 – The first automobile race to use asphalt, cement and dirt roads took place in Watkins Glen in New York. It was the first road race in the U.S. following World War II.

  1949 – “The Aldrich Family” debuted on NBC-TV.

  1950 – “Peanuts,” the comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz, was published for the first time in seven newspapers.

  1953 – “Person to Person” debuted on CBS-TV.

  1955 – “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” debuted on CBS-TV.

  1958 – Guinea, the French colony in West Africa, proclaimed its independence. Sekou Toure was the first president of the Republic of Guinea.

  1959 – “The Twilight Zone” debuted on CBS-TV. The show ran for 5 years for a total of 154 episodes.

  1962 – U.S. ports were closed to nations that allowed their ships to carry arms to Cuba, ships that had docked in a socialist country were prohibited from docking in the United States during that voyage, and the transport of U.S. goods was banned on ships owned by companies that traded with Cuba.

  1967 – Thurgood Marshall was sworn in. He was the first African-American member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

  1988 – Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered free elections.

  1989 – In Leipzig, East Germany a protest took place demanding the legalization of opposition groups and the adoption of democratic reforms.

  1990 – The Allies ceded their rights to areas they occupied in Germany.

  1993 – Opponents of Russian President Boris Yeltsin fought police and set up burning barricades.

  1998 – Hawaii sued petroleum companies, claiming state drivers were overcharged by about $73 million a year in price-fixing.

  1998 – About 10,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq and attacked Kurdish rebels.

  2001 – The U.S. Postmaster unveiled the “Tribute to America” stamp. The stamp was planned for release the next month.

  2001 – NATO, for the first time, invoked a treaty clause that stated that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. The act was in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Korla Pandit believed he had it all. A beautiful home, white wife, two children, and a successful career. However, Pandit had a deep dark secret which he was keeping from everyone.

Pandit was known as the pianist “Godfather of Exotica.” Also with his style and flair for clothing, he was considered the ‘Indian Liberace’ of his time. During the 1950s, he had his own show, “Korla Pandit’s Adventures in Music.” On television, he appeared wearing bedazzling jewelry, a silk jacket, and turban. His appearance caught the eye of people of all races and ages.

Unknown to everyone during Pandit’s time, the ‘Indian Liberace’ was putting on one of the greatest performances of his life. One that would not be discovered until after his death, 10/2/1998

Legend has it, Korla was born in New Delhi, India. He was a child prodigy born to a father who was a Brahmin priest and French opera singer mother. He arrived in the United States to receive training at the University of Chicago after spending time in England.

In actuality, Redd was born a light-skinned black man from St. Louis, Missouri.  He was one of seven children born to a father who was a Baptist minister, and mother who was of Creole ancestry. However, his musical capabilities were all true, he was indeed a muscial child prodigy. At another time in Redd’s life, he played Latin tunes under the name “Juan Rolando,” which during this time he passed as being Mexican.

Korla’s career calmed in the 1960s, he began playing at supermarkets and pizza palaces, teaching piano, and speaking as a spiritualist. Redd died on October 2, 1998.

sources:

https://newrepublic.com/article/122797/how-black-man-missouri-transformed-indian-liberace

Korla Pandit (1921-1998) (aka Redd, John Roland, aka Rolando, Juan)

Source: blackthen.com

How a Black Man From Missouri Transformed Himself Into the Indian Liberace

Korla Pandit
Background information
Birth name	John Roland Redd
Also known as	Juan Rolando
Born	September 16, 1921 St. Louis, Missouri
Died	October 2, 1998 (aged 77)[a] Petaluma, California
Genres	Exotica
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Piano and organ
Years active	1940–1998

Korla Pandit (September 16, 1921 – October 2, 1998),^[1][2][a] born John Roland Redd, was an American musician, composer, pianist, and organist. After moving to California in the late 1940s and getting involved in show business, Redd became known as “Korla Pandit”, a French-Indian musician from New Delhi, India. However, Redd was actually a light-skinned African-American man from Missouri who passed as Indian. A pathbreaking musical performer in the early days of television, Redd is known for Korla Pandit’s Adventures In Music; the show was the first all-music program on television. He also performed live and on radio and made various film appearances, becoming known as the “Godfather of Exotica“. Redd maintained the Korla Pandit persona—both in public and in private—until the end of his life.

Source: wiki