NEGLIGENT

When I found out that there was a toxic moat next to my home because of the waste leaking from a clogged and overflowing sewage drain; with the industrial park being the probable cause, I freaked.

As an Army Veteran, I had been 'schooled' on how sneaky our government could be.  There were the covert Agent Orange sprays our Vietnam War soldiers endured senselessly;  Not to mention the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments.... I thought about Erin Brockovich, and John Travolta in 'A Civil Action'.  By the end of my first week of knowledge, I had convinced myself that the disgusting living conditions here had to have been intentional.  During my aggressive letter-writing campaign last September (in an attempt to rectify the situation), I'm pretty sure I called my landlord (as well as the Mayor) "evil".  Do I regret that?  NO; Because it was apparent that the standard of living here had sunk to such an all-time low that apathy, complacency, disrespect and laziness had become 'the norm'. 

My son and I have been struggling to understand it.... But, I reminded him where I grew-up (Westchester, N.Y.);  And the fact that my Dad would IMMEDIATELY clean-up our basement after rainstorms.... There was simply no question or doubt about that..... So, for my landlord (and Rockville City) to be so negligent as to allow a sewage drain to pollute this property for over two years was - and still is - incomprehensible to me (us).