Who's Ethical?

            After reading the two articles, they can easily be compared to the situation happening in Friendswood. The first article, “East Chicago Lead Contamination Galvanizes Residents”, is about a neighborhood in East Chicago where there are high levels of lead and arsenic around the homes. The residents are actively attempting to work with the city and the EPA to fix the problem and offer solutions. The second article, “Drinking Water in Newark Schools Known to Have Lead Problem at Least 6 Years Ago” is about the public schools in Newark that have high levels of lead in the drinking water. Although there is a large number of people questioning the safety of the water and the effects it will have on their children, the governor of the state and other officials are not worried at all. There is a question of ethics and morals in both of these articles, and in Friendswood. Who is in the right, and who is in the wrong.

            In the article about the lead and arsenic in the neighborhood in East Chicago, the residents are working to better the living situation with the government officials. Likewise in Friendswood, a member of the community, Lee, is actively trying to understand the problem in Rosemont. She is collecting soil samples and observing the environment; things the EPA and other officials should be doing instead. In the West Calumet Housing Complex the residents were asked to vacate their homes due to a contamination problem. The residents, “banded together and put pressure on government officials to meet the needs of those affected by the lead and arsenic contamination” (2). They successfully set up meetings with these officials and are compromising a solution to their housing fluke. The difference between their situation and Lee’s, is that the government officials and the HUD are supporting the residents in Chicago and are actively working with them to better the situation. With Lee, the government and the community think she is crazy and are not in support of her efforts to discover the problem in Rosemont. These Chicago residents put matter into their own hands, and even called the senator and scheduled meetings and hearings on their current situation. First and foremost the government officials and the EPA should have handled the situation properly from the beginning, by organizing housing alternatives and plans for improvement, they are being ethical in the sense that they are complying with the residents. The residents are also being ethical by caring about their environment around seeking help when they knew they could not do it themselves.

            In the second article, Newark public schools are having lead problems in the drinking water, but government officials and the EPA do not seem to care about the negative effects. They first started seeing high levels of lead in the water 6 years ago, but are only now releasing the information to the public. This makes it seem like they are not actively trying to fix the problem, instead they are taking their own, sweet time by not taking quicker actions. This is very similar to the situation with Lee, because she is trying to convince the mayor and the EPA that there is a problem in Friendswood, but they keep pushing her concerns aside and tell her everything is fine. The city officials in Friendswood are being unethical, just like the government officials in Newark are being unethical by pushing the problem aside. A quote from the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, said, “there is no danger in Newark at the moment”, even though there was lead found in the water 6 years ago by the EPA and they have done nothing about it (2). It is not the job of the city officials to push aside problems effecting public schools, they are suppose to fix the problem. They are being unethical by ignoring their situation and putting it on hold.  

Works Cited

Lyons, Craig. "East Chicago Lead Contamination Galvanizes Residents." Post-Tribune. N.p., 30 Dec. 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-east-chicago-awakening-st-0101-20161230-story.html>.

McGheehan, Patrick. "Drinking Water in Newark Schools Known to Have Lead Problem at Least 6 Years Ago." The New York Times. N.p., 8 Apr. 2016. Web. 5 Feb. 2017. <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/nyregion/drinking-water-in-newark-schools-known-to-have-lead-problem-at-least-6-years-ago.html?_r=0>.

Steinke, Rene. Friendswood. New York: Riverhead , a Member of Penguin Group (USA), 2014. Print.